Podcast

The logistics involved in expat life become even more complex when your partner is also a working expat. How do you successfully fuel each other’s professional ambitions, as well as personal? Is it inevitable that one half will need to sacrifice their career, or take a backseat in the relationship to support the other?

INSEAD Associate Professor Jennifer Petriglieri has researched hundreds of couples juggling two careers. She’s just released a book about the challenges that face working couples, and in this chat, Jennifer shares her thoughts on how you can successfully combine love and work, with life abroad.

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One of the fastest-growing EU economies, Poland is also rising in the rankings of popular destinations for expats. The country moved from 23rd to 13th in this year’s HSBC Expat League Table, and it’s among the five best countries in Europe for digital nomads, according to the Remote Workers Index by Plusnet.

But before you pack your bags for Poland, there are some key things you should know. Our guest, American blogger and teacher Leah Morawiec, has lived in the country for almost a decade, and she’s going to share her top five tips.

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Entrepreneur Alan La Rue is our guest in this episode of the Expat Focus podcast. A language school owner, he’s been living in the country for a long time, and is going to talk through the essentials: from where to live to what to bring with you; job opportunities in Peru; how to approach learning Spanish; and the Peruvian cultural norms that may take some getting used to.

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If you’re planning to move to France and become a homeowner, you’re going to love today’s guest. Mark Sayers is the Head of the Pyrénées-Orientales team at Artaxa - a real estate agency in Perpignan. Buying property in a foreign country can be a pretty daunting task, with lots of unfamiliar processes. I know because, funnily enough, I’ve just been through it - and here in France. And I really wish I’d had this chat with Mark before we bought our home, because I would have had a much better understanding of what we were about to go through. From the best approach to house hunting in France, to making an offer - and knowing if there’s room to negotiate... what agency and notary fees to expect, and how long it typically takes before you get the keys. Mark is going to cover it all in this episode.

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After her first child was born, and she decided she didn’t want to go back to full time work, British expat Melitta Campbell dived head-first into entrepreneurship. She set herself up as a freelancer in Montreux - a French-speaking part of Switzerland. She quickly picked up work, and then more work... and then, running a successful business and being a stay-at-home mum became a bigger challenge.

Years later, Melitta is on to her third business and she passes on her lessons learnt about focus and balance and asking for help, as a coach to other women who are working for themselves.

If you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur in Switzerland or elsewhere in the world, Melitta has some sage advice.

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Do you dream of moving to LA to chase your Hollywood ambitions? Today’s guest has done exactly that: Mia Stewart and her husband Dave packed up their life in Australia, including their pets, and moved to the USA on O-1 visas. These visas are for “Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement.”

So what qualifies as ‘extraordinary ability’? What does this visa allow you to do, and how difficult is it to get? How did Mia and Dave successfully set themselves up in Los Angeles in just two weeks? How have they got on with landing jobs? What about healthcare? And what culture shocks have they experienced?

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Welcome to another episode of the Expat Focus Podcast. I’m your host Carlie, and on today’s show we’re shining the spotlight on expat family life in Finland.

Paola is our guest, an Italian mum of two through birth and international adoption, who has lived in Finland for nine years. She blogs about multicultural family life at TheElephantMum.com, and she's going to share her insights on raising a family in Finland. We’ll talk through some of the country’s very family-friendly policies; Paola’s experience in fostering multilingualism in her kids; the international adoption process in Finland; community integration; and how she and her husband go about blending three cultures into their everyday lives.

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Today on the show, we’re talking about raising children abroad, specifically as Third Culture Kids.

'TCKs' are people raised in a culture different to that of their parents, and the country named on their passport.

My guest, American Rachel Jones, is a mum of three TCKS. She left the USA with her husband and their young twins to work in northern Somaliland, and later Djibouti, where she still lives.

So what’s it like raising your kids in a country that’s so different to your own? How does the experience influence their development, and shape them as adults? And what challenges are you likely to encounter along the way? Rachel’s going to share her insights, which she hopes will help other parents create a thriving family culture while living internationally.

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On today’s show we’re going to be talking to a virtual midwife.

It’s information overload when you’re pregnant, and if you’re having a baby while living in another country, there can be even more layers of complexity - not just potentially in language, but in birth practices too. Your expectations versus the local reality might be quite different. Of course, you can find out almost anything online these days, but Googling stuff about pregnancy and childbirth... well, it’s a bit of a minefield. And that's where midwife Karen Wilmot comes in.

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If you could start your life abroad all over again, what would you do differently? What would you prepare better for, and what mistakes would you avoid making? Trainer and Stand-up comedian Carmine Rodi moved from a small town in southern Italy to Prague in the Czech Republic four years ago, for love. And about one year in to his expat life, he published a blog post that went viral, entitled ‘10 things I wish someone told me before I moved to Prague.’

Carmine joins me on the show to talk through his very popular - and slightly controversial - list, which he hopes has helped others to more easily navigate the cultural nuances in the country he calls home.

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