➡ A woman left her high-paying tech job at Google to pursue her passion for baking in France, earning $30,000 a year. She found joy in creating with her hands and decided to follow her dream despite the financial implications. She managed to live comfortably in France with her salary, covering her expenses and even saving some money. The story emphasizes the importance of mental health and personal fulfillment over financial gain.
➡ The text talks about a woman who moved to France for school and is enjoying her life there. She manages her expenses well, including rent for a one-bedroom apartment, food, and transportation. She works in a kitchen, where she gets most of her meals, and is learning French. The speaker admires her for following her dreams and living a fulfilling life without negatively impacting others.

Last but not least, we are going to deep dive into a woman that said that she quit her tech job, quit her tech job in order to bake pastries for $30,000 a year over in France. So this conversation, ladies and gentlemen, is based off of purpose and desire versus practicality. Make sure you hit a like for the algorithm. Subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications. Let’s get to it. Just for creating in general, I really, really enjoy working with my hands. The joy of baking came actually when I was in high school in Home X and I had wanted to go to culinary school then, but it was just something at the time, you know, my family was just like, no.

Hey, how many of y’all had Home X in high school? Because I know that by the time I hit high school, they had started eliminating Home X where they teach these women how to go out there and cook, cook. They used to have cooking classes. They need to bring that back. Y’all, if I am the mayor or if I’m the governor of a state or if I’m the mayor of a city and we got our district and I’m in control of the schools, we bring it back. All of the things that we did awesome inside of school, including Home X, Woodshop, Carpentry classes.

We’re doing all of that. We’re going to get y’all some practical skills and I’m going to eliminate your kids from being able to bring their phones inside of the school. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We’re going to bring back what was the class where they teach you about sex education. We’re going to bring back sex ed. We’re bringing back everything. The fact that she was out there able to go to Home X classes in this day and time is amazing. Let me give her a round of applause. Because most of these women do not know how to cook.

They don’t know how to knead. They don’t know how to sew. They don’t know how to hoe. They don’t know how to do nothing right. The only thing they know how to do is put a tattoo on their face and put a ball ring in their nose. So that idea has really been with me for a really long time of just wanting to create for a living. My name is Valerie Balcourt. I am 34 years old. I make $30,000 per year and I live in Tournon Serum, which is a village in eastern France. I’m a pastry assistant at a restaurant called Maison Chambon.

I am happier in France than I was in the U.S. I love being able to travel the accessibility to nature, discovering new parts of the country. It’s been so much fun. And of course, all the pastries. I could do without all of the music and stuff, but we’re going to continue. She worked as an executive assistant in the tech industry in Seattle, Washington. All right, I got you. When I first decided to move to France, I was an administrative business partner at Google, and that was fall of 2020. Working in tech, I was making… She was an administrative business partner at Google.

Six figures, but the paycheck wasn’t worth the detriment to my mental health. So basically, what this woman right here, with the overall zone, she’s… Listen, this woman is 34, going on 77. With the glasses and the hookup and the thing that’s going over her head, this woman reminds me of them old school women. You know, my family is from Dawson, Georgia. Dawson, Georgia. I went and visited my family in Dawson, Georgia, back from where my father eventually migrated up to the north. Well, actually, my father’s father came up to the north in order to get a job in auto industry, and that’s how we ended up in Detroit.

Well, that was before I was born. That’s how my father ended up in Detroit. And then eventually, what they wound up doing was, you know, securing jobs in the auto industry and everything like that, and then I was born, and then ultimately, you know, that’s how things played out. But my family, the Daniels family, what Aurelius… That’s my father’s father’s name. A lot of people may not know that. That’s an old school, hardened, Georgia man’s name. My father’s name was Aurelius. Aurelius Daniels. That’s my father’s name. My dad’s name was Thaddeus Daniels. His father’s name was Aurelius Daniels, and he was a hole out in these streets, man.

They say that my father’s father… That’s what my dad was telling me. He said, man, my daddy… He said, man, he had women all over the town. Part of the reason why we had to move from Dawson, Georgia up to Detroit, Michigan, was because he had to get away because he was sleeping with everybody’s wives. I said, no, dad, don’t tell me that I got it honestly. Not the sleeping with the wives part, but the weakness in the women. They said he was out there with all of the women, and one of the reasons was not just for the job, but that they had to get him up to Detroit so that a man wouldn’t try to kill him down there in Dawson, Georgia.

I said, no way. No way. No way was you in Dawson, Georgia hoeing it out in the early 1900s. You know what I’m saying? They said Papa was a rolling stone. I said, okay, well, okay, all right. Well, we gonna get it. We gonna get to it. But Aurelius Daniels was out here trying to make it shake out here in the streets of Dawson, Georgia. This woman looks just like she’s from Dawson, Georgia. They had the houses that was elevated and it had the sticks on it. They said, you can stay overnight if you want to.

I said, hey, nah, we going to Atlanta. We gonna be staying in a hotel tonight, big dog. Let’s continue. I quit my job because I was like, okay, we’re gonna do this. I found a school. I got in. It was a Scoffier in Paris and I had gotten in and I was like, okay, we’re gonna start January of 2021. I didn’t have all the tuition, but I was just like, I’m gonna make it work. What I didn’t take into account, though, was, again, at what level my mental health was and what would happen to like my psyche upon quitting.

How many of y’all will leave a six-figure job at Google, a six-figure job at Google? Ladies, ladies, my Mercedes. How many of y’all would actually leave a six-figure job at Google to go work as a pastry assistant over in France? Just curious. Just curious. Think about it. Think about it. Let the people tell it, though, Anton is a teller. He got to be from another country. Boy, you just the beggar. You just keep on asking for something and begging for the people in order to come and get it for you. Boy, ain’t nobody from nowhere except for this good old United States of America with a good old fatherly name named Aurelius down here in Georgia.

I found this school called Gastronomicon. It was a fraction of the price of like other schools in France. $25,000 in order to pay for tuition costs as well as move to France. I already had 10K in my savings, and so I had about eight months to save up the rest. How you been making six figures but you only got $10,000 in your savings account? Let’s continue. I originally expected to be in France for seven months, three months of school plus my four-month internship, but I’ve been here for about a year and a half now. Read that supercharge for us.

What’s the only part that I want to see? I can absolutely live comfortably on my salary and still paying my rent and my expenses. Is that how cheap it is in France? Why is France so cheap? So wait, wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me that housing is only $670. Housing and utilities is $672 a month. Debt repayment is $450. Discretionary is a huge part of the budget. That’s at $430. What is discretionary? What the heck is discretionary? Transportation 284. Food 219. No, that’s BS. No, see, I call cap. I call 100% cap.

No way that you’re… No way that you’re going to sit here and tell me that you’re only spending 219 on food. Either you’re eating all of the pastries, all of the hog maul. Either she’s eating all of the pastries. She’s slipping them in. But if you’re telling me that she’s only spending $219 on food, then she makes them cheap. Now, I’m not going to shame. I don’t believe in shaming because I know we’re talking about the money right now. However, you’re not going to lie to me either. I’m not going to be lied to because I know what I know when I know it.

And I seen it, and it did not look like you only spent $219 a month on food. Subscriptions and memberships, 103, insurance, 77, phone, $33. So, the housing and utilities, I did not know that it was that cheap. She must be standing in the hood. Debt repayment, $449. That is a personal loan that she took out, I guess, for school over there. Discretionary, I guess, that’s when she out there having fun and buying whatever it is that she wants to buy. Transportation, I get it. The food and the housing and utilities, those are throwing me for a loop.

All right, let’s continue. I’m really getting my bang for my buck because I don’t know many places in the U.S. where you can get a one-bedroom apartment for less than $600. That’s in a great neighborhood that’s close to many amenities. Three tarot cards. That’s a lot. I get most of my meals from work, but I’m getting more— I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Listen. You can’t fool me. You can’t fool me. I know it. I get most of my meals from work. That means eating on the job. Into cooking again, now that I have a kitchen.

Literally a sack of potatoes. It’s only $0.99. That is so cheap. Another thing here is the wine. This is a Cote du Ronde, and it’s like a local wine, $3.45. Is it that cheap over there? Is wine that cheap? Well, I guess it is wine, right? Wine is cheap like that over there. It’s a good wine, too. It’s not super cheap. Cheap in cost, but not cheap in flavor or value or quality. A lot of beers. That’s smart. There were no apartments near where I worked. I really needed that mobility and freedom to be able to travel.

When I get to work, the first thing I do is check to see how many clients we have. Then from there, I start looking at what items we need for our mise en place. From there, I’m baking. I’m whipping things. I’m just kind of running around the kitchen getting myself ready. And so our tickets start coming in, and then we can see kind of like the layout of the land of what’s in front of us. While French is spoken in the kitchen, we also do speak English, but outside of work, I’m still using French.

I’m not fluent yet, but I can still have a conversation with people and have them understand me, which is nice. French kitchens definitely like have a reputation, but I would say the differences are it didn’t feel like the times when I was an administrative business partner or an executive assistant that I could necessarily be off. Whereas here, I’m the one who’s sometimes staying later and doing stuff, and people are like, why are you here? Go home. The French culture is like when it’s time to rest, it’s time to rest. So I guess that everything is different for different people.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with it. Would I do it? Absolutely not, because I’m a man. You know what I’m saying? So it’s a little bit different for men, I think, but I don’t necessarily have a problem with her going over to France and living a different lifestyle, following her dream as long as she’s not affecting anybody in a negative way. And apparently, her cost of living is cheaper. And so you have to do, I think, what’s best for you. Just don’t complain about it. As long as you’re not complaining about it, as long as you’re not depending on other people and taxpayers in order to be able to supplement your lifestyle, and as long as you’re happy and you feel fulfilled and you feel like you add value and you’re leaving this earth as a better place, then I don’t have any problem with it.

So shout out to her. Congratulations. I’m not quitting no job at Google for no reason other than to go and get another bag and make more money. [tr:trw].

See more of The Millionaire Morning Show w/ Anton Daniels on their Public Channel and the MPN The Millionaire Morning Show w/ Anton Daniels channel.