Meet Brittney
Brittney De Paola is the Founder and Creative Director behind Inspire DS Inc., Team Retreats Canada, and Team Retreats International. Based in Toronto, she creates experience driven events and retreats rooted in connection, creativity, and thoughtful hospitality. Her work spans corporate retreats, leadership experiences, floral artistry, and women centered events, all shaped by a belief that meaningful experiences can leave a lasting emotional impact.
Learning to Pay Attention to How Things Feel
For Brittney De Paola, creativity was never just about aesthetics. Long before she became known for elevated retreats and immersive events, she was paying attention to how environments made people feel. She noticed the energy in a room, the small details that shifted someone’s mood, and the quiet power of thoughtful hospitality.
When she first enrolled at Niagara College to study Event Management, weddings were nowhere near her future plans. At that stage in her life, she imagined herself working in corporate events and experiential spaces. Weddings felt distant from the kind of work she thought she wanted to pursue. Everything changed during an internship with a luxury wedding planning company in Toronto.
The experience introduced her to a completely different side of the industry. She became drawn to the precision behind premium service and the emotional depth that existed beneath beautifully designed spaces. What surprised her most was not the scale of the events themselves but the care behind them. The atmosphere, timing, and emotional flow all mattered just as much as the visual details.
She quickly realized she was not simply interested in planning events. She was interested in creating experiences that people would carry with them long after the day ended.
“What inspired me to choose this career path was realizing how much I loved creating experiences that genuinely surprised and impacted people.”
That realization became the foundation for everything that followed.
Creating a Career Through Curiosity and Reinvention
What began as a single internship gradually evolved into more than a decade of entrepreneurship. Over the years, Brittney expanded far beyond traditional event planning, building businesses that combined hospitality, design, storytelling, and creative direction in a way that felt deeply personal to her.
Through Inspire DS Inc., she developed a reputation for creating immersive experiences that balanced elegance with emotional connection. Her work expanded into corporate retreats, leadership gatherings, floral artistry, and destination experiences designed to bring people together in meaningful ways.
At the same time, her role within her companies continued to evolve. She moved from managing individual projects to leading creative strategy, partnerships, operations, and long term growth across multiple brands. Today, she oversees Inspire DS Inc., Team Retreats Canada, and Team Retreats International, guiding creative teams while continuing to shape the vision behind each experience.
Even as her career grew, Brittney remained grounded in the emotional side of the work. She became increasingly interested in how experiences could create space for people to feel connected, understood, and inspired. Whether she was planning an intimate retreat or leading a large scale corporate experience, her focus stayed the same. She wanted people to walk away feeling something real.
That emotional awareness also shaped the way she approached leadership. Instead of measuring success only through expansion or recognition, she became more intentional about the culture she created within her businesses. Honesty, accountability, and trust became non negotiable values for her. She believed people deserved transparency and consistency, especially in industries where pressure and unpredictability could easily create instability.
Over time, she also learned that leadership required difficult decisions. Protecting creative standards, setting boundaries, and being clear about expectations became part of building a sustainable business and a healthy personal life.
Motherhood Changed the Way She Defined Success
One of the most significant turning points in Brittney’s life came outside of business entirely. Becoming a mother reshaped the way she viewed ambition, balance, and personal fulfillment.
After navigating the postpartum period, she began to reassess what success actually meant to her. The experience brought clarity to areas of her life that had once been driven by constant momentum and external expectations. She no longer wanted to build a business at the expense of being present for the people she loved most.
Instead, she began thinking about how to create a life that allowed space for both creativity and family.
Her perspective shifted from chasing endless growth to building something more intentional. She wanted to continue traveling, creating, and leading meaningful projects while also showing her children that ambition and family life could coexist. That balance became central to the decisions she made moving forward.
The shift was not always easy. Entrepreneurship often rewards overworking, constant availability, and relentless expansion. In creative industries especially, passion can quietly blur the line between commitment and burnout. Brittney experienced that reality firsthand.
Early in her career, she often undervalued herself and accepted far more than she could sustainably manage. She believed saying yes to every opportunity was necessary in order to grow. Over time, that mindset left her exhausted and disconnected from the very work she once loved.
Learning to step away from that cycle required a significant internal shift. She had to become more confident in the value of her expertise and more selective about the projects she accepted. Instead of measuring success through volume, she started focusing on alignment, quality, and sustainability.
That transition changed the structure of her businesses as well as her relationship with work itself. She became more intentional with her energy and more protective of her creativity. Rather than constantly proving herself through overextension, she focused on building experiences that reflected her standards and values.
The lessons from that period continue to shape the way she leads today. She understands that growth often requires discomfort, but she also recognizes the importance of balance, rest, and boundaries in maintaining long term creativity.
Expanding Into Larger Spaces With Confidence
As her confidence grew, Brittney found herself drawn toward larger and more ambitious projects. One of the defining moments in her professional journey came when she decided to move into large scale corporate retreats.
The idea initially pushed her far outside of her comfort zone. Organizing experiences for hundreds of people required a completely different level of coordination, leadership, and strategic thinking. Still, she felt compelled to explore the challenge rather than avoid it.
Her first retreat involving a group of 200 participants became a transformative experience. Managing the logistics, atmosphere, and emotional flow of such a large gathering tested her abilities in ways she had never experienced before. Yet seeing the event come together successfully gave her a deeper sense of confidence in her leadership and creative direction.
It also expanded her understanding of what was possible.
Instead of staying within familiar territory, she began embracing projects that challenged her assumptions about her own capabilities. That mindset now drives much of her work and leadership philosophy. She believes growth rarely happens in comfortable environments and often encourages both herself and her team to lean into unfamiliar spaces.
“I’ve learned that growth rarely happens when things feel easy or familiar.”
That perspective influences not only her professional decisions but also the example she hopes to set for her children and the women around her. She wants people to understand that confidence is not something people are simply born with. It is developed through repetition, resilience, and the willingness to continue despite uncertainty.
Designing Experiences That Carry Meaning
Today, Brittney’s work exists at the intersection of hospitality, design, wellness, and emotional connection. Through Inspire DS Inc. and her retreat companies, she creates experiences that are meant to feel intentional rather than performative.
Her events are not simply designed to impress attendees visually. They are structured to create emotional resonance and meaningful interaction. Whether she is curating leadership retreats, women centered gatherings, or immersive corporate experiences, her focus remains on how people feel within the environment she creates.
This philosophy has become especially important in her work supporting women and mothers in business. As someone who personally experienced the identity shifts that often accompany motherhood, Brittney understands how easy it can be for women to lose connection with themselves while caring for others.
That understanding has inspired her to create spaces where women feel supported, empowered, and genuinely understood. Through collaborations and retreats, she hopes to encourage women to rebuild confidence and reconnect with their ambitions without feeling forced to choose between family life and personal growth.
Her long term vision is deeply connected to this mission. Alongside her business partner Laura from This Mother Means Business, she plans to continue developing impactful events specifically for mothers in business. These gatherings are intended to create real conversations, emotional support, and opportunities for personal and professional development.
At the same time, Brittney remains passionate about continuing to push creative boundaries within the event industry itself. She wants to build more global experiences that blend design, wellness, education, and hospitality in ways that feel immersive and emotionally grounded.
For her, creativity is not about excess or spectacle. It is about intention.
A Different Definition of Success
Brittney’s definition of success looks very different from the one she may have pursued earlier in her career. Today, success is less about recognition and more about presence.
It means creating a life where she can enjoy her family without constantly carrying the weight of stress and overextension. It means building businesses that allow room for creativity without sacrificing personal wellbeing. Most importantly, it means waking up excited about the work she is doing while still having the ability to step away from it when necessary.
That perspective reflects a deeper maturity in the way she approaches ambition. She no longer sees balance as something separate from achievement. To her, balance is part of achievement.
Her ability to maintain that mindset is supported by practices that keep her grounded outside of work. Physical movement has become one of the most important tools she uses to manage stress and maintain clarity. Exercise and time outdoors help her reset mentally, allowing her to return to challenges with greater focus and energy.
She also continues to draw inspiration from mentors who shaped her understanding of leadership and accountability. One of the people who influenced her most was her former boss Melissa Andre, whose consistency and follow through left a lasting impression on her. Watching someone commit fully to their vision taught Brittney the importance of reliability and personal integrity within leadership.
Those values now sit at the center of how she operates both personally and professionally.
Continuing to Grow Through Discomfort
At the heart of Brittney De Paola’s story is a willingness to continue growing even when growth feels uncomfortable. Throughout every stage of her career, from early entrepreneurship to motherhood to large scale leadership, she has consistently chosen expansion over fear.
She understands that discomfort often arrives before transformation. Rather than interpreting uncertainty as failure, she has learned to see it as evidence that something meaningful is shifting.
That mindset continues to shape the way she approaches her future. She is still building, still learning, and still challenging herself creatively. Yet beneath all the evolution, the core of her work remains remarkably consistent. She wants people to feel connected, supported, and inspired through the experiences she creates.
In many ways, that intention reflects the person she has become herself. Someone who understands that the most meaningful work is rarely about performance alone. It is about creating spaces where people can feel present enough to reconnect with themselves and with each other.
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