Field Notes · Brand Storytelling

What I Learned Traveling Through Provence With a Client

By Paola, Co-founder of OverCoffee Consulting

I’ve written about a lot of clients over the years. I’ve researched their competitors, studied their menus, and sat in more strategy meetings than I can count. This fall I did something different. I traveled through the French Riviera and Provence with Erika Garcia-Traverso, owner of Continental Caterers, an OverCoffee client.

I came home with a full camera roll and a better understanding of her business than I’d gotten from any meeting. Watching Erika work through a new place showed me a layer of passion and inspiration I had sensed before but couldn’t put into words. Now I can.

Watching how she sees things

In an office, you see the finished product: the menu, the event, the proposal. On the road, I got to see where those ideas start.

Erika doesn’t travel like a tourist. She travels like a caterer. We were sitting in Saint-Paul-de-Vence with Aperol Spritzes at golden hour, and she started talking about how the first ten minutes of an event set the tone for the whole night. In Aix-en-Provence, we stopped at a shop window full of madeleines, and before we’d walked away she had sketched out a madeleine bar for her clients. At a small lunch spot in Sanremo, a plate of handmade tortellini turned into a conversation about a pasta station where guests could watch the craft happen.

After a few days, I noticed the pattern. Everything she experienced went through the same question: how would this feel for a guest at one of our events? I had seen the results of that question for years. This was the first time I watched her ask it.

Finding the value proposition in the moments

“Luxury catering” is a crowded phrase. Plenty of companies use it, and it’s hard to make it mean something specific. Part of my job is to find the proof behind a client’s claim.

On this trip, the proof kept showing up. At Château de la Gardine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Erika was visibly moved by a family that still harvests its grapes by hand, in small crates, with no machines in the vineyard. In Beaulieu-sur-Mer, a fresh baguette and a few local cheeses led to a long talk about how good ingredients don’t need much help. Those weren’t new ideas for her. They’re how Continental already works. I just hadn’t seen them so clearly before.

I didn’t need to invent a value proposition for Continental. I needed to be close enough to see the one Erika already lives.

Why a different setting matters

Time with a client away from the usual routine changes the conversation. There’s no agenda and no list of deliverables to get through. There’s room to wander, to talk about what excites them, and to notice things together.

That room is where some of the best ideas came from. It’s also where the partnership got stronger. When you’ve walked through a market in Sanremo together, or stood at the edge of Èze looking at the water, you understand each other differently. I know what she’s reaching for now, and she knows I see it.

Turning inspiration into the work

When I sat down to help write Continental’s blog post about the trip, I wasn’t working from notes someone sent me. I was working from memory and from conversations we had along the way. That made the writing easier and more accurate.

It also changed how I think about the rest of what we support for Continental. The Monte-Carlo evening we talked about is a natural fit for their corporate events page. The madeleine bar and pasta station give their social channels something new and visual to share. The French soirée Erika imagined after a stop at a charcuterie shop in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue could become a seasonal campaign. Each piece connects to the others because they all come from the same place.

What I’d tell other business owners

Bring your marketing partner closer to your creative process. That doesn’t have to mean a trip to France. It can be a tasting, a site visit, or an afternoon at your shop. The more we see how you think, the better we can tell your story.

Erika has been raising the standard for Bay Area events for more than 30 years. Traveling with her reminded me why I love this work. The best marketing comes from understanding what drives a business owner, and sometimes you have to leave the office to see it.