The Time Is Now

To work or not to work… A question that can become an existential question for expat partners.

Have you noticed how often people tend to ask the question “what do you do?” when they meet somebody for the first time?

Isn’t it amazing how our professional lives seem to identify us as individuals, especially in the Western world?

I have heard a lot of expat partners say how much they struggle when they are asked this question, even when they are stay-at-home mums (or dads), the most important job in the world!

We can all agree that our professional lives should not define us as individuals, however, asking ourselves the question: Do we want to work or do we need to work in our journey as expat partners can turn into a very interesting self-exploration journey!

In this episode, I will share with you why it is important to define what you really want and how to define clearly what you want.

Also, if it turns out that it is important for you to work while being an expat partner, I will take you through three major steps to help you take the right direction and decision regarding the work opportunities your are looking for.

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities.

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Laura Moreno Cabanillas is originally from Spain, she lived in Turkey where she started her entrepreneurial journey and met her husband. With him, she moved to the US.

She is the host of the Growth Hacking podcast and she advises companies in business development and sales.  She also teaches the principals of growth hacking.

Her mission in life is to help 300 million people be happier! In this episode she will tell you how

In episode 2, I brought to you “6 tips to leave the home you loved and embrace the new one”. By home, I meant the household where you lived, the apartment or the house. In this episode, we will focus on the broader definition of “home”.

Defining “home” can be a real issue for those who relocate regularly from a country to another, but also for those who come back home after many years of expatriation. This feeling of being totally disconnected from the people in its own home country can actually be quite challenging.

For many people, being able to define what “home” means could be a first step of dealing with this challenge.

With our guest in this episode, Naomi Hattaway, I would like to share with you one particular and original way to define “home”, to connect with like-minded people or with people who also struggle with the same issues related to looking for a sense of home.

Naomi is married and has three kids. After having lived in various states in the United States, she moved with her family to India and then Singapore. Now she is back in the United States, she lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, where she enjoys making an impact.

Indeed, her personal experience as a nomad led her to became the founder of 8th and Home, an international real estate agency, and the founder of a fascinating movement called “I am a Triangle”.

“I am a Triangle” started one day with a very innovative article that Naomi wrote on her blog where she shares great insights for those who travel the world and struggle defining home or struggle feeling home when they come back to their countries. The article turned into an incredible online community of people who resonate with being “triangles”. The community of triangles counts today over 3200 people who share together inspiration and meet-ups across the world.

More about "I am Triangle"

Join the Triangle community

Find Naomi:

Personal blog: www.naomihattaway.com

8th and home Website: www.8thandhome.com

Email: [email protected]

 

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities.

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Yvonne comes from Australia. She lived in the US, in China and now lives in Singapore with her “mini UN family”. After a career in the military, Yvonne quit her job 16 years ago and has been an expat partner ever since. The journey started in Chicago where she discovered for the first time the challenges of being an expat partner. That is when decided to go back to her studies and dedicate her new career path to understanding and improving the challenges of relocation.

Today she is an award-winning international business scholar specializing in expatriation and global mobility research. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, on BBC and many other major international media.

She published several books and her next book the Research Handbook of Expatriates will be published in 2016.

I found Yvonne when I was myself trying to understand this phenomenon of “trailing spouse”. I dedicated a whole blog post to share with you very interesting findings on expat partners challenges in relocation. You can find this article and her research by clicking here.

Participate to a study!

If companies can understand better the needs of expats in relocation with professional research, they might be able to provide better support. Make your story count and participate to one of Yvonne's surveys! 

Click Here

Glimpse on Yvonne’s great insights:

* Don’t feel guilty of taking care of yourself sometimes, of working on your own success, of needing sometimes to leave the kids with your partner for you own business travels...etc. You can’t be perfect and do it all by yourself: “cut yourself some slack” and learn to delegate, outsource and get your partner and kids to participate to the relocation process.

* Set your professional priorities and focus on what you know best, focus on your core skills and don’t disperse yourself. Establish yourself in a niche and don’t accept every opportunity. Ask yourself “To whom does this opportunity really benefits?”.

Yvonne’s recommended online resources:

Facebook groups.

Yvonne’s recommended books:

* Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

* The Bitch in Your Head: How to Finally Squash Your Inner Critic  by Jacqueline Hornor Dr. Plumez

Find Yvonne McNulty:

* Website: expatresearch.com

* LinkedIn:

When the idea of addressing expat partners’ challenges through a podcast show started growing in my head, I needed to find some validation that I was on the right track and that there was a real demand for this topic. Therefore, the first think I did was to check the topic on Google!

When I put my fingers on top of they keyboard, I immediately stumbled with this question: what keywords should I write to mention women and men who follow their partners for job assignments abroad?

I then decided to keep it simple, I typed "follow husband abroad".  I was far from imagining that this was going to be the start of a real journey!

The first term that seems so obvious to me now but wasn't at that time was the term "expat". I share with you in this episode the definition that I decided to settle on after giving it some real thoughts.

Then, came up all types of terminology to particularly designate women and men who follow their partner in expatriation.

In this episode, I will share with the most most common terms and share my opinion on each of them.

I would be curious to know what would be your take on the matter. Feel free to give your opinion in the comments section below!

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities for them.

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Olivier Caudron comes from Belgium, with his partner he lived in Portugal, Italy, Spain and now in New York. After graduating from drama school, Olivier worked for a number of years as a theater actor and director, specializing in movement and improvisational theatre. During these years of relocation, he progressively made some very interesting changes in his life and his career. He moved from directing to coaching, from guiding actors on the stage to supporting individuals’ development.

Olivier is a personal coach, he helps expat partners cope with the challenges of relocation, perfect their skills, reveal their inner strengths and achieve their professional but also their personal goals. For 2 years, he was also the elected chairman of the New York Expatriate Spouses Association. Which among diverse missions helps the spouses of UN expat employees find a job.

I found Olivier on LinkedIn as I was looking for a personal coach. In fact, as soon as I arrived in New York I decided to invest in my own personal development. I would definitely recommend his services if you need a little push to take your life to the next level.

Glimpse on Olivers’s insights:

* Take the time to understand what you profoundly need or want, do not rush into quick decisions; they might get you to more frustrations!

* Use the skills of a coach or any kind of support that could help you overcome the challenges of relocation by discovering all your assets and opportunities that you might not see.

* Do not remain alone, spend the time to network, join associations or communities with like-minded people.

Olivier’s habits in relocation:

* Walking in the streets of the new city

* Reading about the city and discovering its history

Olivier’s recommended online resources:

* Whatsapp.

* FaceTime.

* Expat.com

* LinkedIn

Olivier’s recommended books:

* First things first by Stephan R. Covey

* What color is your Parachute? By Richard N. Bolles

* The art of work by Jeff Goins

 Find Olivier Caudron:

* Email: [email protected]

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviercaudron1/en

* Website: olicaudron.com

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities for them.

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In this episode, I brought to you a special guest to share with you some great tips on how to deal with culture shock. Her name is Clara Wiggins.

 

Clara is born in Cuba to British diplomats and traveled her whole life, she lived in 11 countries and 5 continents! She has been living abroad as a child, as a single adult and as an expat partner. Clara and her husband have two daughters and they just moved very recently to South Africa. After a career in journalism and diplomacy, Clara manages today a journal called the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, she is also the author of a great book that I highly recommend to you: the Expat Partner Survival Guide.

Experiencing culture shock as an expat in a host country can be a huge challenge. If we don’t learn how to manage it and to overcome this culture shock it can have quite a negative impact on our experience abroad. We definitely don’t want to end up leaving with a feeling of frustration, disappointment and sometimes hate towards the host country. That is why it was important for me to bring to you some guidance if you are going through a culture shock, some insights on how to detect that you are going through it and how to adapt to a new country and a new culture.

In this episode, Clara shares her definition of culture shock and the 4 stages that she found out most people go through. Some go through all of them, some go through only few of them and others go through these stages in different orders:

* The wonder and honey moon phase.

* The negotiation phase.

* The adjustment phase.

* The acceptance phase.

Clara also shares some great tips to deal with these different phases and with culture shock in general:

* Be aware of the culture shock and in particular on the "cycle" that you are likely to experience before you arrive in your new location. It is a lot easier to deal with if you recognize it for what it is and what the symptoms are.

* Realize that things very likely will be difficult (possibly very difficult) at the start, but that they will almost certainly get better, usually between 3-6 months of arrival

* It is very normal to get angry with your host nation and their way of doing things, especially in the early days. You will find fault with even the most easy-going of nationalities because they don't do things the same way as you are used to back home. Gradually this will lessen as you start to get used to the way things are done.

* Find a way to let off steam. For some, the best way of doing this is with other expats who understand what you are going through. For others, they prefer to stay away from negativity, so would prefer to let off steam in other ways (perhaps by talking to family back home).

* If you can't find real life people to talk to, don't forget there are plenty of online places to meet others.

* Look after yourself. Try to stay healthy, eat regularly and exercise regularly. If you are working long hours try and do something totally different at the weekend. If you are the stay-at-home or non-working partner, look for ways to meet other people. For example at the gym, in book groups, through voluntary work, photography or cookery classes... etc. If you can find a hobby where you "do" something with the locals you m...

In this episode, I will share with you 6 tips to help you leave the home you loved and embrace the new one!

By home, I mean the household (apartment or house) that we can consider as a symbol of stability, day to day routine and confort zone. A symbol that is often challenged when relocating. In fact, when moving abroad, the new apartment or house can become the catalyzer of all the mixed feelings that come when having to adapt to a new country, a new culture and a new life environment.

That is why, during a transition period, the natural reaction of many expats would be to regret the old home or have a hard time warming up to the new one, no matter how great it is. In fact, in many cases, moving abroad can be an important source of stress and frustrations. Depending on personalities, these difficulties can affect expats for just few month or a year or two after relocation. But then, things do get better!

However, in certain cases, this transition period can be a critical period that would determine the success of the whole experience abroad and the whole time spent in the new home. That is why it is important to prepare for it and learn how to manage the emotional (and sometimes physical) responses we might experience when expatriating.

Among these 6 tips, we will for instance discuss the importance of building short terms solutions during a transition period, give some examples and explain how to manage strong negative emotions towards a new apartment or house, even when they seem uncontrollable, to make sure to build the right foundations for the long term and fully enjoy the experience in this new home (but also new country).

If you have additional tips to offer or other input and feedback, please feel free to share in the comment section below. All ideas are welcome!

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities.

Share this episode with your friends! 

Nicholla is originally from the UK, she is a Third Culture Child (TCK) raised in the UAE. She lived all her life in expatriation. As an expat partner she moved to Oman and currently lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband and her daughter.

Her keen interest in business start-up, social media, business support and podcasting has been brought together under ‘The Learning Curve Podcast’ so she can connect with and share the stories of women entrepreneurs from the region with those around the globe.

After a career in marketing and franchising, Nicholla started her podcast career in radio back in 2011.  She hosted a radio show in Muscat, Oman on Merge 104.8 called ‘Mums on Monday’ which was a weekly morning show covering mother and child related topics for Muscat.  Nicholla left the show in the summer 2013 because she was moving back to the United Arab Emirates with her husband’s job.

Nicholla is also the found and the main administrator of several Facebook groups designed to provide all sorts of information to expats living in:

* Muscat,

* Salalah,

* Shohar,

* and Abu Dhabi.

 * Click on each city to find the Facebook group. 

Glimpse on some of Nicholla’s great insights:

* How to create your own path as an expat partner.

* How to build the right mindset for change.

* How to prepare for a relocation and find information.

How to connect with people in an unknown country.

Nicholla’s habits in relocation:

* Exercising!

Nicholla’s recommended online ressources:

* Facebook groups to connect with local people and expats.

* The expat woman forum.

Find Nicholla Henderson Hall:

* Website: www.thelearningcurvepodcast.com

* Facebook: Nicholla Henderson Hall

Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities for them.

Share this episode with your friends! 

Hello Nomad Nation! Welcome to Tandem Nomads!

In this preview episode I will introduce to you all what you need to know about Tandem Nomads. What it is about,  what inspired me to create it and a little bit about my story and my background.

You can also find information about Tandem Nomads and myself in the “About” section of this website.

Stayed tuned and be part of the expat partners that turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities!