E15 Live from a Lemon Farm: Making Your Living Abroad Dreams a Reality 🍋✈️🌊

Pollen: For Creative Entrepreneurs with Diana Davis

Do you ever daydream about living abroad? Once the reality of paying the bills hits, most of us let that dream die. But that dream can happen — it's possible if you want it badly enough and you work for it. If you're committed to this dream, work towards it — and eventually, you'll find yourself in a new adventure!

In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Diana joins two of her closest friends, Emily and Mike, in Italy and talks about their journey to living abroad in the Czech Republic. But it's not all fun and romance though! Emily and Mike share their struggles and some of the cultural barriers they’ve experienced living abroad. Remember: we won't get everything we dream of at first, but the more we work at it, the closer we'll get.

Listen to this episode to gain the insight and courage to live abroad!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.

🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Learn how my friends Emily and Mike found a way to live abroad and what they had to walk through to make it happen.
2. Who you become on the journey to making your dreams come true.
3. Discover the different perks and challenges of living abroad.

📘Resources

• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Sign up for Diana’s Camp Clarity Course now!
• Take a week off and join the first Diana Davis Creative Retreat in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from August 29 to September 1! 🎁 There will be tons of activities, plus you'll get a bonus one-on-one coaching session with Diana after the retreat.
• Learn to embrace change by listening to Episode 8: Heartbreak and Expansion 💔🕊️✨
• G-Uld
• Chef's Table: Season 2, Episode 5, Ana Roš
• Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
• Emily’s knitting Instagram

🎧Episode Highlights

[01:16] Pollen Goes Rogue

• Diana recorded this episode from a lemon farm in Sorrento, Italy.
• She was there with Mike and Emily - the three of them have been friends since college and travel buddies for several years.

[06:47] Introducing Mike and Emily

• Mike lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He has been a biology teacher at an international school for the past 6 years.
• He chose his profession because he wanted to live abroad and travel a lot.
• Emily, Mike’s wife, works remotely for an American company. She also likes to craft, knit, and sew her own clothes.

[08:55] How Mike and Emily Made Living Abroad a Reality

• Both Emily and Mike used to live in Red Lodge, Montana. They thought that living abroad was going to be a retirement goal.
• However, when Mike saw a teaching opportunity in Prague, they decided to take it.
• For Mike, the scary part of the journey was more about the process of getting to Prague than about Emily's reaction.
• When people make big decisions like these, it's easy to be anxious. It's not easy to know the small steps to reach the goal, and it's a steep learning curve.

[12:19] The Challenges of Living Abroad

• Emily shares that simple things, like furnishing their apartment, were challenging.
• They couldn’t find where pillows were sold and couldn’t even ask people because of the language barrier.
• It took a lot of effort to overcome the culture shock and language barriers.

[15:33] Mike: “It's not going to be romantic, it's not going to be easy, it's not going to be great at the beginning. It takes a lot of work, a lot of effort, lots of communication, lots of trial and error, and just keep on pushing until you get to where you want to go.”

[15:46] How Mike Plans for the Future

• People who work in international schools typically have a lot of mobility.
• Mike shares they usually plan in 3 to 5-year increments.
• He also shares the importance of being open to new opportunities.
• Diana shares that planning for the future required setting deadlines for herself.
• Give yourself that space to revisit your plans.

[18:30] What Emily’s Remote Work is Like

• Emily's work usually starts at noon, while her meetings are between 5 to 10 pm.
• She shares how she’s grown to love and embrace this schedule as it gives her time to herself in the morning.
• Her job allows her to work anywhere she wants.

[20:36] Lessons from Remote Work and Living Abroad

• When the pandemic began, Emily was already well-versed with remote work and noticed how Mike and his colleagues discussed experiences she already knew of.
• Mike and Emily recommend setting boundaries if you’re doing remote work.
• Living abroad helped them gain a brand new perspective: there are more cultural opportunities and they realized that other countries have things America does not.

[26:33] The Perks and Challenges of Living in Europe

• For Emily, the best thing about Europe is how easy it is to travel because flights are cheap.
• However, the language barrier can make you feel isolated.
• For Mike, he appreciates how healthcare is so much cheaper in Europe.
• His challenge living in Europe was meeting and socializing with people outside his work circle.

[29:08] 🔥 Rapid Fire Question with Emily and Mike

• Emily is an Aquarius and Mike is an Aries. Creativity for Emily means connecting with your true self. For Mike, it's being able to do whatever you want.
• Emily’s entrepreneur crush is Andrea Maori, a knitting pattern designer. Emily also shares her wool dyeing workshop experience in the full episode.
• While Mike doesn’t have a specific entrepreneur crush, he looks up to people who are not afraid of failure and keep bouncing back.
• In the full episode, they talk about Ana Roš’s restaurant and her journey to reach where she is.
• If Emily didn’t have to think about money, time, and resources, she would spend her time knitting. For Mike, it would be traveling and giving back to the community.

[37:39] Mike: “No one just wakes up one morning [and] becomes a Michelin star chef, that doesn't happen. I think everyone probably listening right now knows the struggle and the energy that goes into it. But just because you're not the two-star Michelin chef doesn't mean you've also failed either if you've met your goals or a goal that you've set, and you just might not be there yet.”

[40:39] Enjoy Life!

• Emily and Mike pair their hobbies and take advantage of their situation. For example, since they like running and traveling, they do marathons in different places.
• Living abroad is not an escape from your current life. You will still have the same habits and interests no matter where you live.
• If you want to enjoy life more abroad, take advantage of the new opportunities and get out of your comfort zone.

[41:30] Mike: "Your life just doesn't magically change because you live in a new place. You still keep the same habits, you still have the same interests…it doesn't really ever change because you live in a new place. You're still you; your place and your surroundings just changed. So I think that's also really important, to identify and come to grips with every day is not going to be a fairy tale."

About Mike and Emily

Mike and Emily are living the life of their dreams in Prague, Czech Republic. Mike is a biology teacher at an international school, while Emily works remotely for an American company. They used to live in Montana, but they finally took the opportunity to live abroad!

Unlike many of Pollen’s guests, Mike and Emily choose to be difficult to find on social media. However, you can check out Emily’s knitting Instagram account here. (Go support her designs!)

Enjoyed this Podcast on Making Living Abroad a Reality?

If you're pushing aside your dreams because you think it's impossible, stop and check this limiting mindset! You may be closing yourself off to opportunities before they even come. If it’s something that you want, like living abroad, you can do it!

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