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Marie Burrell

@maluburrell

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Traded my NYC VP career for Nairobi
👩🏻‍💻 Hospitality Founder · Business & Brand Strategist
🗣️ Building a Life, Business, and Home in Africa
❤️ Mom of 2

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Leaving isn’t the radical part.
Never questioning staying is.

#FromNYtoNairobi #exitthinking #systemsnotvibes #questionthedefault #womenwholeave by @maluburrell

I didn’t move to Kenya because I wanted a simpler life.

I moved because I realized something that should wake up any ambitious woman: Success means nothing if you don’t belong to yourself.

These are my regrets after 13 years in NYC corporate.
1️⃣ I regret treating the 401(k) as unquestionable common sense.
Yes, it reduces your taxable income. But I didn’t question whether locking capital away until my 60s was the best move for the life I wanted to build. What if investing that money differently could outperform the tax savings and give me flexibility earlier? The system rewards predictability. It’s not optimized for you.

2️⃣ I regret letting my identity get swallowed by being “impressive”.
I was accomplished, respected, high-performing. But I didn’t protect enough who I was outside of output. My value became completely tied to performance, not aliveness.

3️⃣ I regret assuming I was free because I had multiple income streams.
I had a salary, consulting income, investments.
What I regret is not seeing sooner how much of it still depended on my constant presence.

4️⃣ I regret allowing a system to train me out of trusting myself.
I learned to override my body, my intuition and my sense of timing in the name of being reliable and professional. I regret how long I mistook exhaustion for commitment and discomfort for weakness and how much self-trust I had to rebuild.

5️⃣ I regret not comparing countries earlier.
I analyzed jobs, titles, and compensation obsessively, but stayed in one country by default.
I should have looked at tax structures, healthcare, education, immigration rules, and daily quality of life sooner to understand the real trade-offs.

6️⃣ I regret assuming the system I lived in would somehow take care of me.
The US was never “my country”, but I still lived inside its assumptions. What I regret is how long I planned my life as if governments, employers, and financial systems were aligned with my long-term wellbeing.

I don’t regret leaving the US.
I don’t regret Kenya.
And I don’t regret my ambition. I regret how long I treated the default as destiny.

#FromNYtoNairobi #CorporateRebellion #QuestiontheDefault #LeavingAmerica #AmbitiousWomen by @maluburrell

Everyone says raising kids in New York is a privilege. For us, it started to feel like performance.

We’re grateful for what NY gave us and to be transparent, we didn’t struggle financially, but once we had kids, these things were impossible to justify:

- It hit me hardest as a mom. Before we left, 2 sh00tings close to us claimed 4 lifes. And our neighborhood was considered family friendly. You can tell yourself it will never affect you - until it’s not far from your children…

- Health care is insane.
Our family plan for 4 cost $1,600/month, and giving birth to our second son cost us over $13,000, with insurance.
That doesn’t include the thousands we paid for recovery for things every woman is told are “normal” postpartum.
Not to mention the mental toll of constantly calling, chasing etc. to heal.

- We started realizing that NYC’s version of “making it” was mostly about surviving it.
My 4 months of paid maternity leave was considered generous and then it was straight back to 50+ hours/week.
And nobody prepares you for filling out MOUNTAINS of paperwork after you’ve just given birth.

- A 3-year-old’s gymnastics class? $675/quarter.
Music class? $450/ 2.5 months.
Someone told me they’d never move to Kenya because of the gap between rich and poor.
But the truth is, NY has its own not-so-invisible system. When our kids’ classes cost that much, we’re already living in a bubble of families who can afford these things.

- And housing? Don’t ask.
When we looked at upgrading to a 3BR not far from us, one of the listings was $14k/month.
At some point, you stop blaming yourself for not “trying harder” and start asking who the city is actually built for.

- We eventually realized how little space there was - physically, emotionally, mentally - to breathe or just be.
Being in corporate America meant you were “on” 24/7.

We didn’t leave because we hated New York.
We loved it. But loving it didn’t mean we had to stay.

At some point, you stop asking “Can we make this work?” and start asking “Why are we forcing it?”

#fromNYtoNairobi #leavingtheUS #familyabroad #movingabroad #expatlife #expatmom #redefinefreedom #lifebydesign #freedomoverfear #newchapterahead by @maluburrell

And he’s actually CRACKING UP laughing listening back to this video 😂 Second-born energy + a character and a half 🙈

#fromNYtoNairobi #nairobilife #NairobiMums #nanny #familyabroad by @maluburrell

A day full of creative work, meetings, kids, and coffee dates with new and decade old friends. That calls for a dress that can do it all ✨

If you know me, you know I love @thediarrablu and I am happy to say I’ve been a fan for so long now that this print of the Lala dress could be considered “vintage” 😍

And no, I didn’t pick Romeo’s fit, apparently my love for dressing up is spilling over. He picked this himself 😂

Happy Tuesday everyone! May you always find a reason to dress up and celebrate life 🫶🏼

#fromNYtoNairobi #ootd #AfricanDesigners #NairobiLife #printdress by @maluburrell

A conversation with these incredible people @bangbangburrell @maluburrell.

The full video is available on YouTube channel (SOBA Agency).

#kenya #nairobi
moving to kenya
Nairobi city by @maluburrell

No you can’t rely on your previous experience coming from an American city, trying to build your home in Nairobi. Don’t attempt it it’ll cost you a lot of money. Make friends and listen to them 😁

The game is different here and no matter who you’ve been in your life before, welcome to humbly learning the rules 😅

It can be amazing to integrate into a new culture - you’ll learn so much about yourself and the world around you. But what is not fun is to not feel comfortable in your own four walls while you’re going through culture shock & the integration process. And it’s not fun losing a bunch of money time and nerves because you can’t figure out who to work with or order from!

So I’m building a guide that includes all the wonderful people, places, businesses, and communities we have purchased from, personally experienced, and worked with. A win-win for you and the people here that deliver exceptional services.

Stay tuned - I’m launching it this month! In the meantime, comment, if you have any questions ☺️✨🙏🏼

#fromNYtoNairobi #nairobiinteriors #nairobilife #interiordesign #leavingtheUS by @maluburrell

Kenya you beauty✨🌊

Your nature is abundant, your people are kind, your weather is a blessing, your energy is magical.

Diani is a dream, we feel so blessed 🥹✨🙏🏼

#fromNYtoNairobi #Kenyalife #KenyanCoast #DianiKenya #MamaOcean by @maluburrell

Since 2018, @buildher_org has been training 1,200+ women through an apprenticeship-based workforce model across five trades.

They also have a Fundi Desk, connecting trained tradeswomen to clients and employers for construction, finishing, and maintenance work.

Now they have a new scholarship opportunity! Link is in my bio if you’re interested ☺️

#fromNYtoNairobi #NairobiFundis #scholarshipskenya #womeninconstruction #constructionkenya by @maluburrell

Mzungu (also spelled muzungu) is a Bantu term used to refer to a white person, a foreigner, or someone of European descent. The literal meaning is “to spin around, go in circles, or wander.”

Anyway - Josephine is my Kenyan fairy 🧚‍♀️ who has almost anything and almost always got a better price than the supermarket.

Could you go to China Square instead? Sure! But even China Square doesn’t have everything and most importantly you can’t order online and if you don’t live close by one, it’s always a trip.

I’ll add her to my Nairobi recommendations guide (which yes I’m still working on 🫠) but in the meantime here is her number: +254 723 005988 and tell her I said Hi 👋🏼

#fromNYtoNairobi #nairobilife #nairobireality #lifeinkenya #leavingtheus by @maluburrell

You know those (stunning!) Lulu and Georgia pieces you’ve been screenshotting for three years? The ones that cost as much as a car payment and never quite fit your space anyway?

Déo makes them to your exact measurements, in the fabric you actually want.

And every single time I go to his workshop in Nairobi I leave with fifteen things on my list that I now really want. His workshop is a problem for my wallet but it makes my heart flutter 🙈

That’s what nobody tells you about building a life here in Kenya. The things you put in the “maybe one day” folder in New York are actually on the table - literally 😁- if you know the right people.

Follow to see what we’re actually making together.

Déo has an Instagram account @nbi_fundiwayoflife but the best way to contact him is on WhatsApp: +254 701 979351

#FromNYtoNairobi #NairobiKenya #NairobiLife #CustomFurniture #Nairobicarpenter by @maluburrell

What’s your traditional clothes like? Now that I had a glimpse 👀 of how beautiful the Kenyan traditional clothes are I can’t wait to see more!!

Also - do your traditional clothes come with little messages? Like whether you’re looking for love or not? 😂

We should organize a heritage day for adults here in Nairobi where everyone comes dressed up and we just party like that!! If you’re in let me know!

#fromNYtoNairobi #cultureabroad #heritage #traditionalclothes #dirndl by @maluburrell