Marta Hobbs is a success story of courage and resilience. Born in Szczecin, Poland, she immigrated to the United States at the age of 13 as a political refugee. After a successful career in television production in New York City, Marta co-founded a multi-billion dollar business, CheapCaribbean.com, with her husband Jim. But the true success of her life came after a personal crisis that led her to embark on a journey of healing and self-discovery. Marta’s new memoir ‘Unraveling’ details her riveting life’s journey, from overcoming hardships as a refugee to paving her new life in the United States where she ultimately finds her spiritual path and freedom. Today, Marta's mission is to help others on their own journey of healing and self-discovery. Through her spiritual practice, SoulCare, she leads people to practice self-love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Marta's story is an example of how we can all overcome our obstacles and find fulfillment in life. Continue reading to learn more about Marta and her journey to finding lasting happiness, love, health, fulfillment, and purpose in life.

Where are you based?
I am based in Paris, but I split time between France and the US – mainly New York and Florida.

Can you tell us about the challenges you faced coming to the United States as a Polish refugee at the young age of 13?
I think the biggest challenge was coming to a place I was completely unfamiliar with while I was so young. It was a complete unknown, as this was a time before the internet (not to date myself!). I knew nothing about the USA. Not speaking any English and not understanding the massive cultural differences between America and Poland, was also incredibly challenging. The age at which I immigrated was such a sensitive time in my life (leaving Poland at 12 and arriving in the States at 13) — as a young teenager, where all we really want is to be accepted by peers, to belong, to explore and experience life together with friends — I was unable to communicate or connect with young people my age. It was completely isolating. The other side of the challenges was the unwelcome reception I received after arriving. I think this was the most crushing and heart-breaking part of the journey. Young girls my age bullied me and beat me up. I was ridiculed and picked on. I think I was hoping for a guide to help and protect me, but instead I had to navigate a lot of challenges on my own. My parents were also unfamiliar with the language and culture so the absence of an adult presence who could lead me was something I felt profoundly. It was very lonely. Lastly, the way we left Poland – we fled for safety without our family knowing, without goodbyes or closure – it was so traumatic. In one day, I lost all reference to life as I knew it, how it functioned, who I was in it. It was lostness, confusion, identity loss as well as fear and a longing for home – all at once. Of course, bravery and courage and a deep belief that something better was out there for our family – that was very much present as well. It is why and how we survived.

You have done a lot in the time since you landed in the US and now, working in TV production, co-founding CheapCaribbean.com, founder and teacher of SoulCare, and now you are putting out a book! What keeps you inspired? What are you most proud of?
What keeps me inspired is a desire to make my life an amazing adventure. I want to live an extraordinary life. I want to experience as much of life as I possibly can. I want to live fully! I love creating new things, I love getting involved in new projects, I love bringing new ideas to life – and I am always filled with ideas! I also love meeting people, connecting and collaborating. I love that I have friends all over the world. Life to me is so much about the relationships I make along the way on my journey. It is the experiences and the people that matter most to me. And desiring more of that is what keeps me motivated. It’s so exciting to me to do new things, try new things, travel to new places, to see the world – I think I love living and I love loving. I also love learning and growing. It is kind of magical to watch myself expand, evolve and become more of myself. My hunger for discovering who I really am deep down and expressing that through what I do, is a huge drive. It all starts with knowing myself at the soul-level and then the passion to express that outwardly. So, I guess I just have a strong belief that I am worthy, valuable, and authentic and that I am here for a reason. What I have to share with the world - what I have learned in life and the wisdom I have gained after being through so much - can make an impactful contribution to the world. So I try to speak it. I am most proud of my family. My relationship with my husband and the marriage we have built over our 25 years together and how that too is evolving, growing and maturing. It is beautiful (but hard work!). I am extremely proud of the two babies we brought into this world and the kind, loving, authentic human beings they both are. It has been such a gift and joy to get to watch them grow and become who they are today. I am most proud of all the love in my life.

You co-founded a multi-billion dollar business, CheapCaribbean.com. What circumstances led you to sell the company?
It was unplanned, but certainly something I had been wishing for towards my final couple of years with CheapCaribbean. We started with just two of us – my husband Jim and I – working off our cellphones and dial-up internet while holding onto our full-time jobs. We worked for over a decade to build something we loved employing over 500 people all over the country (and some out of the country too). We had survived going out of business twice. We got through 9/11 while being based in New York City. We had gone through massive growth and expansion. It was a hectic roller coaster ride which, while incredibly fun and exciting, was also exhausting and stressful. At one point, while I was no longer running operations, an offer came for a full buy out. By then the company had morphed into a large corporation and most of the decisions of how things functioned were made by a group of investors (who thankfully saved us from going under). The focus was financial success, profits and performance, which wasn’t why Jim and I started the company. We wanted to continue as a not-for-profit giving away earnings to charity and our employees. We wanted to keep building schools in the Caribbean to support the local people – as well as supporting charities in Bucks County, PA where our headquarters were located. We wanted to have fun and love on people – those who worked for us or with us; those who purchased from us; those who partnered-up with us. The vision of the company was no longer in alignment with who we were, and what we were looking to create. But its financial success ensured jobs and security for so many. While that made it a bit easier to walk away and let CheapCaribbean continue on its own, it was a massive internal conflict. I always think of it as our third kid out there, doing its own thing. Today the company is owned by Hyatt hotels, after being sold a few more times along the way since our exit.

Can you tell us a bit about your new memoir “Unraveling”?

“Unraveling” is the story of me. It starts with the point in my life, in my late 30’s after the sale of CheapCaribbean, where I had finally achieved everything I had ever wanted – more actually! I even achieved things I hadn’t dreamed of as a kid! And it was in that place, in that pivotal moment in my life, that everything fell apart for me. And I started asking deep questions like “what am I doing here? What’s the point of all this” and “who am I?”

This led me to really dive into my childhood, my upbringing, my past and how it all affected me; how it shaped me as a person. I learned about the trauma I carried in my body from my very early years – how it held me captive, despite my desperate search for freedom and everything I had achieved and overcome. I take my readers into what it was like growing up in a communist-controlled country; what it was like to escape; what it was like to arrive in America as a refugee and to feel so unwanted as a kid. I talk about building a new life, becoming successful and the ride to the place of “wow, I made it!’ Then I describe the breaking point – the terror that it was for me – and the healing journey and the spiritual path it provided. I share about this new way of living I have come to - the soul-led way – a life with deep purpose and an open heart.

What inspired you to share your journey and experiences with readers?
I wanted to use my life as an example. I wanted to tell the story of someone who looks so successful on the outside and to share what is happening inside of that person. I wanted to share my hard childhood, my traumatic immigration experience, my difficult arrival in America, the challenging journey of entrepreneurship and being married to someone in addiction for two decades all while being a mother and wanting safety for my own children – all of the painful things I have gone through. Because I feel like we focus on the opposite – we come perfected, polished, rehearsed and wearing masks. We project an image to the outside world – this is what we are taught. To put your best foot forth, to be “presentable” and to shape-shift into what we think is loveable enough. This leads us to never showing up in life as the real, true ourselves. We hide our very hearts this way! And I think this is a huge disservice to humanity and a big cause for the disconnection we all feel. I wanted to present an alternative – what if we came with our pain, suffering and our wounds – for all to see? Wouldn’t we love each other more if we got to share in each other’s pain? Wouldn’t it teach compassion instead of competition? Wouldn’t we connect so much more deeply when understanding what each of us is going through on the inside? It is our suffering that is universal – yes, the circumstances may vary – but we all hurt in the same way. This has the potential to unite and heal. I wanted to start having this conversation – to show what’s underneath a perfectly polished façade – and how that is so much more loveable than the outside when you take the time to see it and know it. It is risky – showing my most vulnerable parts – but that’s how much I believe it can heal, mend broken hearts, and bring us back to how we were meant to live. Life is so sacred and what I see happening is people caught up in a race to something, to somewhere, completely missing the point – which is to BE and to LOVE; to stop DOING. So, I wrote about what happened when I got there (the somewhere, the something, we all seem to chase) – to remind people that there’s more to life.

Can you describe why your healing journey was so meaningful to you during your difficult time?
I knew that this was where my freedom would be found. The way to heal and free of everything that was keeping me stuck, limited, oppressed, unwell and unhappy was through the pain. The healing journey was meaningful because it held the answers and the keys to getting out of the self-imposed jailcell I had built for myself in survival mode. I needed to let go of the coping mechanisms I had put in place, which required letting go of so many old ways of being; of who I was. The healing WAS the most difficult time – I was reliving all of my trauma, which was completely counter-intuitive. I had spent most of my life trying to hide it; trying to run away from it. And so, I went back into all the pain and suffering in order to release it all, to unchain myself. We either transmute our wounds or transmit them - onto our children and our loved ones. This kept me going – I did not want to hand the baggage down to the generations that would come after me. This was incredibly meaningful and the idea of relieving my kids off this pain gave me motivation to go on during the most challenging times. Healing work is hard work. But it leads to the ultimate freedom and the deepest ways of loving. -It seems like the world is full of refugees these days. What advice do you have for all the refugees out there right now? This is a really hard question. It’s a hard question because when you are the refugee, you are living in survival. So, there is no advice, no “how to,” no feel-good way of simplifying how hard and painful that is. You are trying not to die, and you feel like you just might – in many moments. Many immigrants never get out of this survival way of living – they become eternal outsiders, forever non-belongers, constantly the strangers and it shapes them for the rest of their lives. It’s a very natural thing to do. And then we are forever running – away from the trauma, away from the pain, towards something else, something better… something somewhat unattainable. We are forever longing for home – but we have no home to come back to. There is no luxury to pause and think about “what kind of a life do I desire to build for myself.” You don’t think in those terms when you are trying to stay alive. You are just running to the next thing that will keep you safe. Always on guard. Always fighting. Forever a warrior. I guess I would want the refugees and immigrants to know that I see them. That I know how hard it is. That I know how lonely it is. I know how scary and isolating. That I see their pain and that it is valid. That it might feel like nobody understands and sees it – but I see it. This is why I shared my version of this difficult journey – so others who have run for safety and freedom – can see themselves in my story. And that there will come a time when the running away and the running toward can stop. There will come a time where the shelter and belonging they are seeking will present itself. But it won’t be in a place or a relationship or a career or successful job or “having made it” in some new foreign land. It will come from turning towards the heart, feeling the pain of the pilgrimage we have taken, and through that – coming home to ourselves, coming home to our souls. Ultimately that is the only safety, freedom, belonging that lasts. But this is not a message for someone who is packing up their entire life into one suitcase or backpack and fleeing – honoring their pain is the most important. Seeing their suffering and validating it – that is what I wish those around me had done when I escaped and arrived. I hope by sharing what was going on inside of my broken heart during my own immigration I can touch the hearts of those lucky enough not to have to go through that process. And that those people can then become the welcoming open arms I was hoping for – this is what I wish people would do for those immigrating and seeking asylum. To hold them in their grief, lostness, confusion, fear, homelessness, terror, agony and to love them. I think that is the bigger message.

Can you tell us a bit about SoulCare, and the biggest reason you made the move to Paris, France, to start SoulCare and help others that faced similar challenges like you?
SoulCare is a spiritual practice I have developed to teach others how to go on an inward journey, to begin their spiritual walk in life. It is my effort at helping people connect to their hearts and live out of that place and tenderness and love – towards themselves and towards others. It is taking the time to honor our feelings and slow down the mind, get into the body and feel what is going on internally. This practice is especially for those who don’t know how to pray, how to meditate, how to slow down but feeling a nudge and a desire to connect spiritually. I wanted to give simple tools for this and so I created SoulCare after my decade of healing trauma and walking the spiritual path.

At SoulCare, you work with men and women in top leadership positions all over the world. Can you tell us more about how you approach the process?
It is through being fully present to my clients and whatever their experience of life is. It is through deep listening and companionship – holding their pain and suffering, their challenges in life and being a safe space for them to share. So many successful leaders do not have a place to come to with all the complexities of their life – the entirety of it – their whole selves. As leaders we often feel like we have to be “on” and this results in repressing parts of ourselves, which can come back to bite us in undesirable ways like anxiety, panic attacks, depression and even sickness. A big part of my process is a return to wholeness, which requires acceptance and self-love for all parts of who we are. While SoulLeadership is my mentorship program, SoulCare is the spiritual practice that connects leaders to their hearts. I want to see all of my clients leading from a healed, centered, balanced, whole and aligned place of who they are at the soul-level. I simply guide them in their own journey back home – to their true essence, their true selves. It is quite a remarkable thing to witness.

You help raise money for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Can you tell us more about this organization and why it is so important?
The International Rescue Committee is the organization which sponsored my family as political refugees from Poland to the United States. They are the ones who provided help on the journey of fleeing our homeland. From the refugee camp we entered in Germany after leaving our country, to the situation we were placed in once arriving in the USA (jobs for my parents, schools for my sister and I, an apartment to live in). They were our saving grace. We had to take the scary plunge of running away but the IRC provided structure around it, assistance financially, steps to follow and an organized process for a new start - a rebirth - for our whole family. The IRC helps people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. The organization was actually founded at the call of Albert Einstein in 1933 and is now at work in over 40 crisis affected countries throughout Europe and the Americas. Most recently I have supported the organization in their efforts to help the woman and children fleeing Ukraine. While my journey was traumatic, hard and painful, I am so thankful for the opportunity it provided. And at the helm of the chance for a new life was the courage of my parents and the support of the IRC.

It has been a rough few years, how have you been staying positive?
My spiritual practice, no doubt. It is so easy to get lost in the fear narrative. It is normal to worry, stress and to be afraid. But when we lose ourselves in it, that’s when we start living from survival, scarcity and fear. I know what that’s like. I come from that kind of background. But I have learned that I have a choice – I get to decide if I will participate in this or not. My spiritual practice is what brings me to the point where I can see that I have this choice – it gives me the separation and distance and a wider lens to see that the choice is there. I stop living on auto pilot. I stop getting dragged into drama. I stop looking for answers outside of myself. Life becomes less of a roller coaster. I stay centered, rooted and grounded. I breathe, I come into my body and out of the mind, and I remember that I am sacred, that I am whole, that I am connected to something much greater than me – God, Source, Universe (whatever your word is). And it is that remembering that helps me live inspired, calm, filled with love and – most importantly – with a trust that everything is working out FOR me and not AGAINST me. I am not a victim of my circumstances but one who co-creates her life experience. That is a powerful place to live from at all times, but especially during rough and challenging periods in life. Writing is part of my spiritual practice and SoulCare is how I stay connected. This is what I want to teach others – to give people the tools to stay at peace internally and connected to their hearts, living from their souls. There is no fear there, regardless of what is happening in the external world. Our internal experience is the anchor.

To learn more about Marta Hobbs and “Unraveling” please check out the links below:
Website: www.MartaHobbs.com
Memoir: “Unraveling”
Instagram: @martahobbs
Facebook: Marta Hobbs
Twitter: @martahobbs

Photo Credit: Rachel Calvo

Marta Hobbs’ Journey to Healing and Self-Discovery