Maria Winters

I work across three industries that I'm passionate about: travel, food, and real estate. I moved to LA from Helsinki, Finland, though I was born in Congo and raised in France and Finland. As a travel advisor with Fora, I've been doing this work for my own family for over 10 years before taking it to the next level professionally. I specialize in luxury travel, including safaris, cruises, and hotel accommodations, and I'm particularly passionate about being an advocate for affordable African safaris for families because I believe people overprice them and I want to show that you can experience Africa without breaking the bank. In food, I started with a hot sauce when I moved to LA because there was a lack of my cultural food, and though it took over 7 years to navigate LA's food regulations, I'm finally getting there. Meanwhile, I've been doing events to expose Congolese food and now have an Airbnb experience coming up for FIFA World Cup featuring Congolese, French, and Finnish dishes. I also work as a private chef for clients. I got into real estate about a year and a half ago with Keller Williams because my husband and I were adventurers who never wanted to buy anything except our sailboats, but with four growing kids, we realized we needed to buy our own place. I'm now launching a travel website called Hazy Travel that will work like Booking.com, and I plan to take a percentage of every booking to fund a non-profit supporting youth in Congo with learning centers, especially given the difficult situation there with women being harmed and mining companies exploiting the region. Throughout all of this, I homeschool my four children, which I consider my proudest accomplishment alongside building my businesses.