The Time Is Now

One year after joining the Tandem Nomads team, Lillian Small tells us about her reinvention journey from chemical engineer to expat partner and now, a digital marketer. In pure authenticity, she generously shares how she is experiencing this journey while still on it and the obstacles she sometimes faces as she is in the early stages of launching her portable business. “It’s when time flew by quic...

If you’re growing a portable business and practicing it around the world, you will no doubt come across intercultural misunderstandings and situations where the local culture has an impact on you and your business. “Cultural communication is about how to align expectations” Sundae Schneider-Bean an  intercultural specialist and a solution-oriented coach , and host of the podcast show Expat Happy h...

What a special honor it is to be able to celebrate the second anniversary of Tandem Nomads with you! I am so grateful to all of you who have been here since the start and those who have just joined our community.  In this episode, I share my journey of the past two years in the most transparent and authentic way I can. It’s also important to me that I also bring you as many insights as possible so...

Have you ever heard of a virtual PR agency?  With the right tools and technology, you can almost any career with you.  Our guest today explains exactly how she did it. “ Make sure to understand your needs, express them to your partner and find the right compromise” Melissa Mathews is American and currently lives with her family in Saudi Arabia.  After a career in journalism and working for the NAS...

Part of our Tandem Nomad community includes military spouses who share the same challenges and ambitious as all other expat partners.  Today we hear about one particular military spouse, Erica McMannes, who shares how she started her portable startup and began generating revenue in under a year. “Give up perfectionism, when you start a business you cannot know everything.” Erica McMannes started o...

Many expats start blogs to share their global experience with friends and family back home.  But our guest today started her blog with the goal of growing an audience and being paid for her writing.  Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore is from Karachi, Pakistan. As an expat child, she grew up in Bahrain, New York City and Pakistan. After her studies in the US and the UK, she launched her career as an econom...

Do you have an idea for a product and service and don’t know what to do next?  Listen to this episode where you’ll hear tips and inspiration on how to build a product, get it to the market and grow your portable business. Ebere Akadiri comes from Nigeria where she founded two businesses, a retail clothing shop and two restaurants with large catering operations employing over 56 employees.  She  ho...

As seen in past episodes with our guests  Claudia Landini (#77) and Sonia Balcazar (#79) , running a charity or an NGO can be a great way to complement or build a portable career. But not only that, it can be a source of fulfillment and purpose that a lot of expat partners look for. In this episode, you will find great advice on how to run a non-profit in a professional and sustainable way. Derry...

One of the many ways of creating a business is to start consulting. In this episode, our guest Sonia Balcazar Meza-Cuadra shares her story and advice of starting and growing her portable consulting business. “If you know you will be back home, build your expertise abroad for it” Sonia comes from Peru and met her husband when she was studying economy. After they got married, they started traveling...

How can you go from being an ex-government employee and expat partner to become a serial entrepreneur and founding 3 start-ups? Listen to the inspiring interview with Andrea Martins that we wanted to bring back to you.  This episode was recorded at the very start of Tandem Nomads podcast show but is still so valuable and worth listening to again! Andrea is a self-professed ‘start-up addict’ and fo...

Building a powerful community and tribe around your cause or business can be a great way to grow rapidly, find people to support you, generate revenue while serving the needs of the community. This episode will be a true inspiration if you are looking to build or grow your own community! Naomi Hattaway, a great tribe leader who shares with us all her secrets. Naomi Hattaway is the founder of the I...

One of the toughest question for expat spouses to answer: "What do you do?" However, whether you have a job, a business or are still looking for your way, this is a crucial question to learn how to answer. In order to bring you some excellent advice, I brought you one of the best marketer and networker I know, Stephanie Ward! I recorded this interview with her when I had just started the podcast s...

This episode will provide you inspiration on how to turn your purpose into a portable non-profit that serves your community.  And it can be done while moving from one country to another while growing your portable career. “No matter what there must always be a meaning to your mobile life” Claudia Landini comes from Italy where she was an interpreter and developed her career in humanitarian mission...

A challenge that all women face whether they are expats or not and whether they have a business or work for a company, is balancing their career and motherhood. Dana Bachar comes from Israel where she started her formal mediation career. She facilitated and resolved disputes across a wide range of corporate, civil and domestic court cases. When Dana needed to relocate to Singapore with her family...

Thinking of starting a portable business while living abroad and want to know more about the legal implications?  Don’t even know what kind of questions to ask?  Listen now to understand what you need to consider and research when launching your portable career as an expat spouse. Our guest today is Rosiane Houngbo-Monteverde, a French corporate Lawyer who built her career working for major compan...

This is a very special episode designed for expat spouses who want to reinvent their career and build a great business on the move! I prepared for you a free mini course where I list all the things you have to think about to grow a successful portable business. As an extra bonus, to keep some notes and have these tips handy at any time, download this free cheatsheet below. Also, in this document y...

Are you an expat spouse who gave up your professional success to be with your partner and support his or her career abroad? Do you feel stuck, confused or tired of living in constant transitions while searching for a source of stability and fulfillment for yourself? You are not alone! This week is a special episode recorded from above the clouds on my way from Hong Kong to Tokyo, Japan. My trip to...

Marcelle Yeager is American she recently moved from Chile to DC. Prior to Chile, she and her husband also lived in Uzbekistan and Russia.  It was in Uzbekistan, despite being in a remote, unknown location, that she started a successful business.  In this episode, she shares some of her advice as an entrepreneur and how she managed to grow her business. To know more about Marcelle, check out Episod...

In this episode, we hear from Ritu Banga.  She shares her life story, how she dealt with the challenges of giving up a successful career and how to learn and embrace technology for your business.  Ritu grew up and studied in India where she launched her career in marketing and her consulting business before moving abroad. She and her family lived in UK, Belgium, Hong Kong and now the US. While wai...

In this episode, Ruth Van Reken shares her life story, how to leave a legacy and be a great leader.  Ruth is an American citizen and was raised in Nigeria. She is the co-author of the famous book among global families called Third Culture Kids: Growing up among Worlds .  A book designed to help TCKs, expat children and their parents with personal development and the identity issues that can arise...

Lisa Ferland is American living in Sweden where she moved with her husband and started her family.  She is a public health consultant but along her journey in Sweden she developed her expertise in writing and publishing books.  She is the co-author and publisher of her first book Knocked Up Abroad , an anthology about the experiences of global moms and dads with birth and parenting across the worl...

Sundae Schneider-Bean is on a mission to help you make the most of your life abroad. She has so much experience and advice to share that we invited her back on the podcast for another episode. In this episode, she shares her three steps to career and life reinvention. Sundae is an intercultural specialist and a solution-oriented coach . She’s a mother to third-culture kids and has lived overseas s...

Carol Rattray is originally from Japan but was raised in New York.  She studied and launched her career as an investment banker in the US before she and her husband started traveling in Asia for his job.  They lived in Tokyo where she continued to work in the finance industry.  Then, when they moved to Hong Kong, Carol decided to take a short break to spend more time with her two young children.  ...

This is the second part of Melissa Dalton-Bradford’s interview. In the first episode, she tells us about her journey as a global mom and how she build a strong identity and portable career while moving 20 times from one continent to another. In this second part, Melissa gives us the precious gift of sharing one of the most intimate and sacred events of her and her family’s life: the sad loss of he...

In this episode, Melissa shares her inspiring story of how she turned her doubts into confidence to grow a career in global transition and reinvent herself while moving across the world twenty times with her husband and kids! Melissa Dalton-Bradford was raised in Utah before becoming a true global citizen and a mother of 4 children.  She is a writer, holds a Bachelor in German and a Master in Lite...