The Time Is Now

Developing a sustainable, successful portable business as an artist brings some unique challenges. While many solopreneurs start with identifying a need and providing a solution, an artist’s business begins with a focus on themselves and their own self-expression. And for many people, art is a luxury, rather than an essential need.

Despite these challenges, it is possible to build a successful online and portable business as an artist, and by using the same approaches to marketing as more traditional businesses!

"As hard as it is to put myself out there consistently, I keep doing it because it simply brings results. "

In this episode, artist Cath Brew explains how she found clarity of purpose and started her business, Drawn to a Story. As an illustrator and author, Cath brings to life what people feel but can't find the words to express. With a focus on Identity, Belonging and Expat Life, her work navigates around redressing the imbalance that 'otherness' creates.

Cath is the author of the book,’ Living Elsewhere’, where she illustrates in impactful images and short stories the highs and lows of life abroad.

Cath shares how thinking strategically about her purpose as an artist, being consistent in her marketing and listening to her clients has helped her grow her business, and how she has addressed the unique challenges facing artists in business.

What You Will Learn

What makes art a different type of business

How to get more confident and comfortable with promoting your art and business

What consistent marketing strategies work for artists

Resources And Inspiration:

The Artist's Journey: The Wake of the Hero's Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning

Are you Triangle? A new way to define and feel home. Naomi Hattaway – Virginia

How to build a powerful community and lead it to the next level – Naomi Hattaway

Taking a stand and Leading your community through change

Living Elsewhere: Because a life overseas can be tough and, well, sometimes you just have to laugh

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Being consistent in your marketing is critical to winning clients and building a successful portable business. Despite this, so many entrepreneurs struggle to develop and deliver consistent marketing strategies. It is easy to talk about but so much harder to do, particularly alongside family and relocation challenges!

If you have been trying multiple marketing strategies and nothing is working, or if you just can’t seem to get your marketing activity onto a regular schedule, then this is for you!

"The difference between businesses that succeed and those thatdo not is consistency."

In this week’s episode, I am breaking down the steps you need to take to show up consistently for your customers and to grow your business. From where to start to how to keep going when you’re short on time and energy, these tips are designed to make achieving consistency as simple and easy as possible.

What You Will Learn

What it means to be consistent

What the four steps to achieving consistency are

What mindset challenge you need to overcome

This episode is also available in a blog format:

Click here to find the article

Resources And Inspiration:

How to get clarity on your business idea and bring it to reality

How to create free content that will grow your portable business

10 ways to get things done and control your time

How overwhelmed parents & moms can get work done – With Kelly Nolan

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Tandem Nomads is all about building a business that is truly portable so that you can have consistent revenue while living on the move.

But there are some businesses that we might think of as being hard to deliver virtually. Interior design is typically one of those businesses that depend on a geographical location and physical transaction.

In this episode, we have an interior designer who managed to crack the code of portability and deliver her interior design services virtually, allowing her to serve clients no matter where they are, or where she is.

"As hard as it is to put myself out there consistently, I keep doing it because it simply brings results. "

Renata Carvalho will share how through thinking creatively and working consistently and with focus on her niche, she has been able to build a uniquely portable business, serving local and international clients from her current base in New York.

Renata is a Brazilian interior designer and owner of RGC Projects. She lived in 4 different countries and 6 different cities.

After receiving her marketing degree in Brazil and enjoying 25 years of a very rewarding and truly global career in advertising, she decided it was time to transform her lifelong hobby of interior design into her new profession and get her degree in interior design in New York.

With her expertise in interior design and skills to enhance temporary housing, she helps expats feel home away from home.

What You Will Learn

How to turn a physical business such asinterior design into a virtual business

How Covid-19 democratized interior design and solve a real problem during lockdown

How to deal with the challenges of marketing and promoting a business when you are not comfortable with it

Resources And Inspiration:

7 Power thoughts to upgrade your home office

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Maybe you have an idea for a portable business, but you do not know how or where to start to make it happen? Or perhaps you have lots of ideas, but you do not know which one to really pursue?

You need to first start with getting clarity about what you are trying to achieve, and whether it is aligned to your life! It is so easy to rush into marketing plans for what seems to be a great idea without taking the time to work through the essential first steps to success.

"A problem well defined is a problem half solved"

In this week’s episode, I am sharing the big questions you need to ask yourself to find clarity on your business idea and to work out whether or not it is truly viable and profitable for you. Find out whether your business idea falls within your ‘zone of genius’ and why skipping these important initial steps can be so tempting, but such a mistake!

What You Will Learn

Where confusion usually comes from

What the three steps to getting clarity are

What the key mindset to getting unstuck is

This episode is also available in a blog format:

Click here to find the article

Resources And Inspiration:

3 steps to career and life reinvention with Sundae Bean

Is your business aligned with what you really want to achieve?

How to find your niche & become the go-to-expert – Marielle Evertsz

Run a survey with these simple questions to discover why your clients will buy from you

3 reasons that can stop you from bringing your business idea to life

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I am excited to bring to you the inspiring story of an expat partner who only managed to continue his career in journalism while moving aboard for his wife’s job opportunity, but also started an impressive entrepreneurial journey.

After trying various different business ideas, Emmanuel Saint-Martin found a problem and a niche that he truly wanted to serve and grow.

"It is important to have clear goals but stay open to new opportunities"

Emmanuel Saint-Martin is an author, French journalist, New York correspondent for the news channel France 24 and founder of the first medium for French expats in the US. In 2007, shortly after he moved to New York for his wife’s career opportunity at the United Nations headquarters, Emmanuel founded French Morning, a web-magazine for the French American community. Since then French Morning magazine has become French Morning Media Group with several brands under its belt and 6 magazine editions in the US (New York, Washington DC, Miami, Texas, Los Angeles), one edition in London (UK), in Montreal (Canada) and more soon to come!

French Morning has passed the 6 million unique visitors, attracting over 500, 000 readers per month, of which 65% are return visitors.

In this episode, Emmanuel will share with you how he managed to grow this media group and the engaged community behind it.

What You Will Learn

How this major media group got started

What challenges needed to be addressed along the way

What helped grow this great audience and community

Resources And Inspiration:

Dual career couples & putting the business at the same level as the partner’s job – With Jennifer Petriglieri

MicroVentures

How to self-publish and crowdfund your book with Lisa Ferland

Websites (French Morning, Frenchly, Maudits Francais)

Youtube

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This episode is recorded shortly after the murder of George Floyd, by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. I felt deeply troubled to my core and had to ask myself how I wanted to show up. I realize that while I do not have all the answers, I can still use my voice to speak up.

"Empathy is not enough"

In this episode, I also wanted to discuss with you the inevitable question: where is the fine line between business and politics?

But, this has nothing to do with politics. This is about human lives that are at stake.

As a business owner, you are an important part of the society and you make the society what it is.

So instead, I just decided to show up and simply share how I feel, even if I do not have all the answers yet.

Resources And Inspiration:

Unlocking us - Brené Brown and Dr. Ibrahim Kendi

How to be an Anti-racist

George Floyd: Why are there huge protests in the US and around the world?

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Do the work: an anti-racist reading list

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If you are starting your business, or trying to grow it, there are some things that can really hold you back. And if you don’t address them, they can stop your business from ever succeeding.

This week I am taking you behind the scenes at Tandem Nomads and sharing how some of these things nearly stopped it from ever becoming a business. It is never easy to admit our mistakes, but I am going to tell you three things that I wish I had done very differently!

"To succeed in business, you need to be hungry"

I’m sharing these because I want you to avoid making the same errors - I talk to so many people who are still experiencing the challenges that I faced when I was starting out almost five years ago.

I will explain what I did to overcome the challenges I faced and address the limiting beliefs that were holding me and Tandem Nomads back from success.

What You Will Learn

What the 3 classic mistakes that you can avoid are

What the limiting beliefs behind them are

What can be done to overcome those beliefs

This episode is also available in a blog format:

Click here to find the article

Resources And Inspiration:

Time to think & make an unusual decision

Behind the scenes of a relaunch strategy and business assessment

4th anniversary, celebrating the good and the ugly!

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We often hear that being in a relationship requires tradeoffs and compromises.

One of the most challenging compromises nowadays for most working couples around the world, and especially expat couples, is one partner giving up a successful career so that the other partner’s career can thrive.

But does it really have to be this way?

We know that in the long run this often leads to tensions in the relationship, causing resentment and loss of identity as well as financial vulnerability.

Starting a portable business to allow the accompanying partner to also build a source of fulfillment and revenue on the move has been the foundation behind Tandem Nomads’ existence.

However, for a business to succeed it needs real commitment. It often happens that expat partners cannot give their full attention to their business, especially when they have children, for the simple reason that they don’t have the right support system, but also because they do not feel supported by their own partner in this venture.

In order to discuss these topics and bring you some guidance of how to deal with these dual career challenges, I invited Jennifer Petriglieri, the author of the book “Couples that Work”, a book on how dual-career couples can thrive in love and in work.

She will share with you what she learned from interviewing more than 100 couples and her big tip on how to make your business a priority, even if you are not the main bread winner.

"An expat job is not secure, your business is the backup plan of your family."

Jennifer is the Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD where she directs the Management Acceleration Program and the Women Leaders Program. She has been shortlisted for the Thinkers50 New Thinker and Talent Awards and named one of the world’s best 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets & Quants.

Jennifer is British, married to an Italian husband - they met in Switzerland, lived in Boston and now in France. Therefore, Jennifer knows a lot about duals career couples that live the global nomadic lifestyle.

What You Will Learn

How dual career couples can thrive in love and work

What differentrelationship models exist and their pros vs cons

How to make your business as important as your partner’s job

Resources And Inspiration:

Jennifer’s website

Couples That Work @ Home: The Survival Series

Buy “Couples that Work”

How to make yourself a priority

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In challenging times, showing up for your clients is even more critical than usual. It is not the time to go ‘missing in action’. Even if you cannot do business with them, your relationship with them is still crucial to your business. In fact, when times are tough, you need to really step up how you support and care for your community - you need to super serve to maintain and build your business!

In this final episode of this three-part series on recession-proofing your business, we are focusing on the questions you need to ask to figure out the best way to show up for your clients, and how you can super-serve in effective ways to generate leads to grow your business too.

"Know the difference between super-serving your clients vs selling yourself short!"

In this episode, you will learn how to determine how you can show up not just for your clients but also your community, and how to offer them value and support, without giving away your products/services. You will also learn how to secure leads for new business through super-serving!

If you missed the first two episodes, then be sure to check out the links in the Resources section.

What You Will Learn

What critical questions you need to answer to know how you can show up for your clients

What you can do to serve your community even if you can’t do business with them right now

How you can super-serve while attracting new clients

This episode is also available in a blog format:

Click here to find the article

Resources And Inspiration:

How to create your recession proof business now! – Part 1: Assess

Create a recession-proof business – Part 2: Pivot

How to create free content that will grow your portable business

GDPR post 2018: What you need to know and do – With Bobby Klinck

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Being featured as a contributor to major media outlets is a great way to get more visibility, it can lead to interesting new opportunities and you can actually get paid for it, as well.

Olga Mecking’s writing has featured in multiple media, including The New York Times, which led to her being offered a book deal. In this episode, she shares with you what has worked for her and her tips to effectively pitch the media.

Four years prior to this interview, Olga was interviewed on the podcast show when she was just starting to write as a blogger. To get the full picture of her inspiring journey, you can listen to her first interview here.

"Big media are always looking for writers, don’t hesitate to simply reach out!"

Olga Mecking comes from Poland, the first time she moved abroad was to Canada where she joined her German boyfriend at the time. They then moved together to Germany. A marriage and three kids later, she now lives with her family in The Netherlands.

Her journey started when she decided to write and blog to share her journey in parenting abroad. She shared the first part of her journey in episode 45.

Olga Mecking is a writer and journalist. Her articles were published on BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Pacific Standard, The Atlantic’s CityLab, Quartz, Yes! Magazine, and many others. She is also the author of Niksen, the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing.

What You Will Learn

How to find editors to pitch your articles to

How to pitch your story to editors

How to write compelling articles

Resources And Inspiration:

Listen to Olga’s first interview on Tandem Nomads

3 pitches that worked

Read Olga’s book ‘Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing’. It is also available for pre-order for readers in the US on Amazon.com and in Dutch, via bol.com.

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Linkedin

Join Olga’s facebook group here: The Kikseneers – People who love doing noting

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