The Day I Realised I Was Watching Emily in Paris for the Marketing

I used to think I was watching Emily in Paris for the romance.

The will-they-won’t-they tension.
The chaos.
The impossible decisions wrapped in couture.

Seasons one to three, I was there on release day. Fully invested. Completely absorbed in the love stories.

Season four, I was a few days late.
Season five, I got to it eventually.

And halfway through episode two, I had a strange realisation.

I wasn’t watching it for the romance anymore.

I was watching it for the marketing.

When Your Brain Changes Channels

Somewhere along the way, my lens shifted.

Instead of wondering who she’d end up with, I found myself noticing:

The brand positioning.
The personal branding arcs.
The crisis management.
The campaign strategies.
The narrative tension in product launches.
The way reputation is built and rebuilt in public.

I was watching the mechanics.

The systems underneath the glamour.

And it hit me that this is what growth does to you.

When you spend years building businesses, you start seeing structure everywhere.

You stop consuming things at surface level.
You start analysing what holds them together.

The Shift From Romance to Structure

There’s something interesting about that shift.

In the early stages of business, you’re often drawn to the excitement.

The launch.
The buzz.
The big ideas.
The visibility.

It feels glamorous.

But as you mature as a founder or Fractional Director, your attention moves.

You start caring less about the surface and more about:

How was that campaign structured?
What systems are supporting that consistency?
How are they maintaining that brand narrative?
What infrastructure is holding that together behind the scenes?

You stop being distracted by the romance of business.

You start being fascinated by the operations.

Success Stops Being About Drama

This is something I see often with experienced consultants and Fractional leaders.

In the beginning, growth feels dramatic.

Big wins.
Big pushes.
Big energy.

But over time, the most powerful growth becomes quiet.

It becomes:

Refinement.
Systematisation.
Standardisation.
Coherence.
Infrastructure.

You realise that sustainable success is not built on adrenaline.

It’s built on structure.

That shift can feel subtle.

But it changes everything.

What This Has To Do With You

If you’re a Fractional Director who has built something solid, you might recognise this shift in yourself.

You’re less interested in flashy tactics.

You’re more interested in foundations.

You’re not chasing visibility for the sake of it.

You’re asking whether your systems can actually support the growth you want.

You’re noticing the operational friction more than the surface wins.

And sometimes, that friction starts to feel heavier than it should.

Not because the work is wrong.

But because the infrastructure hasn’t evolved at the same pace as your capability.

That’s when growth stops feeling romantic.

And starts feeling operational.

The Moment You Outgrow Doing It Alone

Watching Emily in Paris for the marketing instead of the romance was a small thing.

But it was a reminder of something bigger.

Your lens changes as you grow.

You start to see:

The scaffolding.
The design.
The systems underneath success.

And when you can see it, you cannot unsee it.

The same is true in business.

Once you recognise that what feels like overwhelm is often structural, not personal, the conversation changes.

It stops being about working harder.

It becomes about building better.

Growth Without the Drama

There’s a version of success that looks chaotic and glamorous from the outside.

And there’s a version that feels calm, supported and deliberate from the inside.

The second one is rarely as loud.

But it lasts longer.

Sometimes growth is not about finding the next big idea.

Sometimes it’s about strengthening the foundations underneath the one you already have.

Apparently, I now watch Netflix for operational insight.

And honestly, that feels about right.