After seventeen years as an international model, Pia Isabel walked away from the world’s gaze to build something far less visible and far more enduring: a life of her own design.
As a business psychologist and psychedelic coach to entrepreneurs and public figures worldwide, she is redefining what transformation actually looks like at the top.
For seventeen years, Pia Isabel’s life was shaped by the gaze of others. She modeled internationally across Europe, building a career in an industry where cameras, agencies, and appearances often define how a person is seen. But somewhere along the way, she stopped performing the life others expected of her and began designing her own. She describes that transformation not as a single dramatic break, but as a lifelong practice of letting go of whatever has stopped serving her, even when it once offered comfort or security. The two companies she eventually walked away from became early proof of a pattern that would define everything that followed: release the attachment, and something larger can arrive in its place.
That pattern built an entire career. In 2014, Isabel founded Chez ZeN in southern France, running it until 2021 before launching Mexico-Retreats.com. She later returned to Europe to found Reality Upgrade Retreats, a venture she left behind this year to focus fully on her own brand, a retreat sanctuary in Mallorca, alongside The-Wild-Wisdom.com, which she founded in 2025. Each closed chapter, she says, taught her more about courage than the one before it, a lesson she now carries directly into the psychedelic coaching and consciousness work she offers entrepreneurs and public figures around the world.
Isabel’s clients rarely arrive lacking success. Most have already built the companies, the wealth, and the recognition they once believed would bring fulfillment. Yet for many, they discover that achievement is not the entire formula. Once basic needs are met, deeper questions can emerge, questions of self-fulfillment, purpose, identity, and ultimately self-transcendence. Her work begins at that intersection, moving beyond questions such as “How can I achieve more?” toward the more personal question, “Who am I beyond my achievements?” Blending behavioral therapy, depth psychology, body therapy, and spiritual practice, she describes her method as creating space for transformation at a pace conventional therapy rarely reaches, sometimes compressing years of gradual progress into a single, deeply felt experience.
Her own understanding of leadership deepened through several encounters with Richard Branson. Isabel has met Branson several times, interviewed him extensively, and co-organized a Leadership Summit on Necker Island. What stayed with her most was not simply his success, but his presence, a rare combination of confidence and humility that reinforced her understanding of leadership as something beyond a title or position. For Isabel, true leadership is an energetic quality. People are drawn to follow when they feel seen, valued, and connected, not simply because someone holds authority. This philosophy has long been part of how she leads and treats the people around her, including her team members, and it continues to shape the retreats she facilitates, where she emphasizes that human connection matters just as much as performance.
Today, Isabel’s life spans Dubai, Mallorca, and Mexico, raising her daughter across a borderless existence she has come to understand differently than most. Home, for her, is not a fixed address but a feeling she carries within herself first, then extends outward into places she deliberately shapes into an extension of her inner world. Dubai has become that anchor for her daughter, a place she describes as rooted in genuine community and mutual respect. After seventeen years spent inside the limits of the external world, Pia Isabel has spent every year since dedicating herself to the infinite depth of the internal one.
The Iconic Origin — Life, Identity & the Path She Chose
- You grew up between Germany and Chile, modeled internationally for 17 years, then built retreat centers across France, the Netherlands, Mallorca and Mexico. What was the moment you stopped performing a life and started designing one?
I have always felt called to consciously shape my own life rather than perform for others. The defining moments of my journey have always been those in which I was asked to let go of something that had created attachment or provided a sense of security but didn’t serve me anymore.
My longing was instead to choose deeper, more enduring values of my inner life instead. Two examples were two companies I chose to leave behind. Every time I released an attachment, the universe responded by blessing me with something far greater than I could have imagined, strengthening my fundamental trust in life even more.
- You founded Chez ZeN in southern France in 2014, ran it until 2021, then launched Mexico-Retreats.com. A few years later you moved back to Europe and founded Reality Upgrade Retreats, which you left this year to focus on your own brand, a retreat sanctuary in Mallorca, and The-Wild-Wisdom.com, which you founded in 2025. What did closing one chapter teach you about the courage it takes to begin the next?
Letting go of compromises leads to expansion. The universe rewards clarity, courage, and the willingness to move toward your true essence. I have learned that whenever life becomes uncomfortable or demanding, life, and or your subconscious, narrows the birth canal once again, gently but inevitably pushing you into your next stage of growth. Everyone who played a part in that journey served a purpose. To see them only as villains is to overlook the deeper wisdom behind the experience.
- Your clients are predominantly entrepreneurs and public figures seeking life-changing, existential experiences. What are they almost always searching for beneath the surface that they cannot name themselves?
Deep down, every human being longs for the same thing: to be in a loving, trusting, and effortless relationship with themselves, with others, and with life itself. From that inner alignment arise the behaviors, decisions, and external realities that bring us fulfillment and meaning. The outer world is always an expression of our inner principles. What I hear time and again is, I want to know who I truly am, and I want to unleash my full potential.
Psychedelic Coaching & Consciousness Work
- Psychedelic coaching remains widely misunderstood. How do you describe what you do to someone encountering it for the very first time?
Psychedelic coaching is often misunderstood because people tend to focus on the substance rather than the process. My work is about helping people turn moments of expanded awareness into embodied wisdom, healthier relationships, clearer decisions, and a life that feels more aligned with who they truly are.
- You describe your work as initiating transformation at quantum speed. What does that mean for a client who has spent years in conventional therapy making slow progress?
I mean that profound inner shifts can sometimes happen in a single experience, shifts that might otherwise take years to access through conventional approaches alone. Psychedelics have the potential to temporarily loosen deeply ingrained patterns of perception, emotion, and identity. This can allow people to experience themselves from an entirely new perspective. In just a few hours, they may gain insights that years of intellectual understanding alone have not made emotionally accessible.
- Since 2014, high-achieving entrepreneurs and public figures have sought you out specifically. What is the burden of success that brings someone to this work rather than conventional coaching?
From my experience, success is rarely the real problem. In fact, many of my clients have already achieved what they once believed would make them happy. They have built successful companies, accumulated wealth, or gained public recognition. Yet they eventually realize that external success does not automatically create inner fulfillment.
At that stage, the questions change. It is no longer how can I achieve more, but rather, who am I beyond my achievements, what truly fulfills me, and how can I live in alignment with my deepest values rather than the expectations of others. Conventional coaching is often designed to optimize performance. My work begins where optimization reaches its limits. It is about identity rather than strategy, consciousness rather than productivity, and transformation rather than self-improvement. Ironically, when people reconnect with themselves, they often become even more effective leaders, not because they strive harder, but because they act from a place of clarity, authenticity, and inner freedom.
- You combine behavioral therapy, depth psychology, body therapy, and spiritual elements. What guides your intuition about which combination a specific client needs in the moment?
When I enter a state of consciousness work with a client, I consciously step beyond the analytical mind. I surrender to a deeper level of awareness and allow my Higher Self to guide the process. At the same time, my inner observer remains fully present, watching both myself and the client. I pay close attention to subtle cues, especially body language, which often communicates far more than words about what the person is experiencing and what they need in that moment.
- You run retreats globally alongside your husband Stefan. What does working together in a practice this intimate demand of a relationship that ordinary business partnerships never face?
In fact, we have not worked together for the past six months because I chose to end our relationship and consciously step away from our shared venture. Our visions and entrepreneurial ways of operating were not aligned.
Fundamentally, I would say that the greatest challenge in combining a romantic relationship with a shared business is learning to make the best use of each partner’s unique strengths. Sometimes this means that the roles you naturally assume in your relationship are not the same as the roles you take on in the business, and vice versa. This requires a great deal of flexibility from both partners and a constant commitment to never losing sight of what matters most: love and the shared vision.
I believe women should be free to rely on their heightened intuitive awareness without feeling obliged to justify everything through facts or numbers. Their intuition about people deserves to guide leadership. Many men find it difficult to fully trust these more intuitive qualities. Power struggles can easily destroy both relationships and businesses. Another major risk is the influence of third parties. If a couple fails to present a united front, they become vulnerable. Opportunists will quickly exploit any cracks in the relationship and use manipulation to serve their own interests.
Business Psychology & the Entrepreneur’s Mind
- As a business psychologist and psychedelic coach, what is the mindset pattern that most consistently limits the entrepreneurs you work with?
When entrepreneurs are driven by the need to please others instead of finding joy in creating and playing the entrepreneurial game, frustration and destructive patterns inevitably emerge.
Was the business founded out of genuine inner calling and a deep sense of purpose, or was it an attempt to gain approval from parents or society? Was it driven by a need for security? Am I willing to be disliked in order to live according to my convictions? Am I afraid of losing clients and therefore compromising my values? Can my company truly grow if I am not growing myself? These are the tensions that deserve to be explored.
- You have met Richard Branson several times, interviewed him extensively, and organized a Leadership Summit on Necker Island together. What insight from that experience has most profoundly changed your understanding of leadership, and why?
One insight has stayed with me more than any other: truly great leadership is not about being the most important person in the room, it is about creating the conditions for others to flourish.
What impressed me most about Richard wasn’t his success or the scale of what he has built. It was the genuine curiosity, warmth, and presence he brought to every conversation. Despite everything he has accomplished, he remained remarkably approachable and deeply interested in people. That combination of confidence and humility is incredibly rare.
The experience reinforced something I had already begun to sense: leadership is not a position or a title, it is an energetic quality. People don’t follow you because of your authority, they follow you because they feel seen, inspired, and safe in your presence. One value Richard and I deeply share is the belief that extraordinary achievements don’t have to come at the expense of joy. Richard leads with vision, playfulness, courage, and trust, and that has always resonated deeply with my own approach. I have always created organizations and retreats where human connection matters just as much as performance.
- What is the quality in you that allows a client to trust you with their deepest inner world within hours of meeting you?
I think people sense that I genuinely have no agenda for who they should become. I am not trying to fix them or shape them into my idea of success. My only intention is to help them reconnect with who they already are beneath their conditioning. That creates a level of safety that allows extraordinary honesty to emerge.
Global Life & the Woman Behind the Work
- You live across Mallorca, Dubai and Mexico while raising your daughter and running a global practice. What has that borderless life taught you about what it truly means to be at home?
First and foremost, I feel at home within myself, and ultimately anywhere in the world. At the same time, I deeply appreciate having places I can truly call home: places that I shape in a way that reflects who I am and that become an extension of my inner world.
Especially for my daughter, it is important to have a place that feels like a true home base. That place is now Dubai. We feel deeply at home here. People treat one another with remarkable respect. I feel most at home wherever people create a genuine sense of community and togetherness. I tend to find that in more collective cultures. In highly individualistic societies, I have never felt quite as at home.
- Seventeen years of international modeling gave you a deep relationship with identity and the world’s gaze. How did that experience ultimately deepen the inner work you now guide others through?
I had the privilege of experiencing the limits of the external world before dedicating my life to exploring the infinite depth of the inner one.
