194: Just Visiting?

Hello. It is 10:00 am in New York, 4:00 pm in Johannesburg, and 9:00 pm in Bangkok. Welcome to the Expat Happy Hour. This is Sundae Schneider-Bean from www.sundaebean.com. I am a solution-orientated coach and intercultural strategist for individuals and organizations. I am on a mission to help you adapt and succeed when living abroad and get you through any life transition. 

 

Joseph Campbell says, “We must let go of the life we planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” Now part of me really jives with that. There’s something about surrender and especially this idea of what’s waiting for us, what’s possible and there’s this other part of me that completely resists it because it’s like, “no way am I going give up on what I’m trying to create.” 

 

So my special guest today is Stephanie from Transcontinental Overload, and this woman has been delivered the fair share of her surprises in her life and has had to juggle this idea of planning and accepting what’s waiting for us. So it is my heartfelt pleasure to welcome Stephanie to expat happy hour today. 

 

Stephanie: Hi Sundae. Thank you for having me.

 

Sundae: So let me tell you a little bit more about Stephanie before we dive in. She is from Germany, has lived in the UK and the USA, who’s also in a bi-national marriage, married to a Brit for almost 20 years, and is the mama of two teenage TCKs (third culture kid.) Well, if I don’t know what a hero that is already. Oh my God, Stephanie. You deserve like a badge for that. 

 

Stephanie: Yeah I could tell you this, it’s nine o’clock in the morning for me and a teenage morning. So I’m sitting here with my tea and trying to get subs in. 

 

Sundae: You’re so sweet. So I’m curious, I read this quote from Joseph Campbell, I’ll say it one more time: “We must let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” What do you think about that? 

 

Stephanie: I’m still trying to come to grips with that. I love it. It’s absolutely I mean, yeah, I feel like it, I should read this quote every morning.

 

Sundae: You know life has thrown you as you say in your blog. It’s thrown you some surprises. 

 

Stephanie: Absolutely. I am currently living in Austin, Texas. Which, had someone said that to me ten years ago, even five years ago, I guess I would have said are you insane? I mean, that’s not on my agenda, ever! And yet here I am. And in fact, we moved to Austin and I left Austin and I came back to Austin.

 

Sundae: You’ve expatriated, repatriated, expatriated again. So tell us a little bit more about you. You have been the blogger behind Transcontinental Overload for over a decade. You’ve launched your podcast this year. Tell us more about you and why you do what you do? 

 

Stephanie: So I left my home country of Germany in my 20s. I always had that idea I needed to get away and live somewhere else, but I never really fully thought that through. And I always expected that I would do that and go live somewhere else and then go back. So yeah, so that was surprise number one. That my year in the UK and possibly maybe some work there would turn into 12 years in the UK. 

 

So I didn’t go back to Germany. I left in my 20s and I never went back. Yeah, that wasn’t on my plan. I want to say I didn’t really have a big life plan. But you know, when you’re in your mind you know certain things are just the way they are and so I kind of veered off course then. Stayed in the UK, I met my husband and then decided to just go for it and live there and then I was quite happy with that and all my growing up, becoming an adult, I think it happened there really and I loved it and then he got a job offer in the States.

 

And yes that was over 10 years ago and we went for it and I had very mixed feelings. But again, I was like, “okay, let’s do this for a couple of years and then go back to the UK” because that’s where I’m at home. That’s where I feel I belong and then ten years later.

 

Sundae: So you left Germany, and then you actually felt home in the UK. Then you go to the US, right? When did it get hard? 

 

Stephanie: The whole time I have to admit and again the US was never on my plan. We went to California to start with and it was one of those when someone says, “hey do you want to live in San Francisco?” And yeah, of course, you say “yes,” because who doesn’t want to live in California? But for me, that was very much like yeah, we’re kind of the Europeans and we’re going to go back to Europe. And it was hard for me once the three years had passed and I realized that we were not going back in that time frame that we thought. 

 

We always had it at the back of our minds but life was pretty good in California and I felt like I’d completely had to change my mindset for that because I was no longer the temporary expat, it was actually that my life was happening. 

 

Sundae: How? What does that mean? “My life was happening versus the temporary expat.”

 

Stephanie: Because it was when I started writing the blog when we moved to the States because I thought, “oh, I’m going to just jot down all the crazy things that are happening.” And now, you know the kind of Brit or German living in the State’s going, “Oh my God, these Americans are crazy” and I’m going to write this blog and then two years later that’s it, we’re going to go back and I’ll resume my life in the UK. 

 

So it was almost like this is just an exception and then that change from know we actually here this is I’m my life is happening. I’m not watching from the outside someone who’s living in the US for you know, just a limited period of time. I am actually this person and I’m actually living this is my life and decisions are made, so that’s a very drastic change of mindset that happens. 

 

Sundae: If you had a picture of me right now, you would see me looking up into the right like kind of with a furrowed brow like, what does that really mean? I know you’re articulating something many people can relate to, it’s almost as if real life is somewhere else and then you’re having this exceptional experience. But you’re waiting to put the play button back on your real life.

 

Stephanie: Exactly. It’s that play button that’s so hard to find because in all that time where you’re thinking, “I’m only visiting really, I’m just kind of sticking my nose in and watching what’s going on,” but I don’t really have to invest much of myself. I’m just enjoying it, I want to see all the sites. You know that lifestyle without really committing to it.

 

I think that a lot of people who move go through that where it’s also being very focused on keeping all the connections with home as if we hadn’t even moved away. So I was very focused on that, making sure that I kept in touch with everyone. Making sure that the kids don’t lose their friends and making sure that we’ve booked our flights back and make sure I have time for my parents, my in-laws, everyone on Skype. 

 

You can imagine with the 9-hour time difference. It was all that kind of logistical stuff. So I was very focused on that because I wasn’t so sure that we would return and I just wanted to make sure that it would be easy.

 

Sundae: So what I’m writing down as you’re talking about this I’m processing this and so I’ve got on one side the pause button, is watching enjoying the lifestyle and connections are far. The play button is investing, committing and the ties are close. What about you and your purpose and what you’re doing, what goes under the pause versus play button there. 

 

Stephanie: So I guess I was to start with I mean, yes the kids were at school so making friends and all that was obviously, I had to do that too and wanted to do that too. But I think I just really overburdened myself with trying to do the pause and the play at the same time if you want. And basically living two lives. And then obviously when it was obvious that we weren’t going to move back within the two to three years, then I had to kind of really switch gears and focus more on my new life.

 

I had to press the play button in the US. And really think about what I wanted to do and kind of less with a plan of,  “this is going to be 2 years 3 years” whatever but this is life and before that, I was still working a little bit remotely for a UK company, but my focus was on enjoying the two years in California. So I didn’t really pay much attention to that and then all of a sudden it was like really I need to get a job. 

 

I need to do all the things that I would do back home and I tried to do that, but it’s hard. I was kind of lost for a while. I feel I was kind of going through the motions and yeah still living the two lives in my head, I think.

 

Sundae: Yeah, there are so many people who are going to be listening to this and going, “Oh my God, been there.” I know people are just nodding their heads in the cars right now. They’re like fist pumping in the kitchen, they’ve been there. 

 

Stephanie: It does take a toll because I made such an effort and still kept making that effort with people back home. I keep saying back home, even though it was starting to feel like less of one home. I was starting to realize that I probably have more than one home and have to make that work and I put so much effort in and contacting people and making sure, and I think the people in California didn’t realize how invested I was in life back in the UK and the people in the UK didn’t realize how much effort it took to do both. 

 

And then I honestly, at the time, you don’t think about it that much but now with hindsight, I realize how stressed I was trying to keep it all you know, that picture of the duck that looks all serene on the surface that is paddling like crazy underneath there that was me. 

 

Sundae: So when did you say enough? 

 

Stephanie: I don’t think I ever said enough because I’m kind of that sort of person who just wants to do it all. I just felt like I needed to just sit down and have a stern talk with myself and just kind see where I could loosen my grip in some ways. But then what happened was we moved within the states so that really threw me leaving California and all their friends and the network that we had established there.

Moving to Austin and having to start from scratch and I completely underestimated how depleted I was energywise with having put all that effort in all those years and then leaving that behind and moving. People back in Europe had no idea. For them nothing had changed because I was still in the States so they couldn’t see. And I really had a complete breakdown when we moved to Austin because I felt like I had no support network and all.

 

That all the contacts were there but no one really knew what I was going through. No one really could empathize and at the time I hadn’t reached out to the expat community. So I was just paddling but yeah drowning really.

 

Sundae: So obviously something has changed since you broke down. How did you get yourself out of that? 

 

Stephanie: I think that was the point. Actually, the real point of “enough is enough” was when it’s a backtrack a little bit after being in Austin for about 8 months 9 months I decided I can’t do this. I need to move back to the UK and just go back to the life I knew and I remember sitting in my kitchen in England and feeling as lonely as I’ve never felt before.

 

Thinking why am I feeling like this lonely? Why am I struggling with this so much? This is what I was aiming for. This is what I wanted and I remember sitting, I was working as a translator at the time, was a very lonely profession. It works with everything because you can fit it in around the kids and family life, and I was sitting in my kitchen and I remember this so clearly because my kitchen table was looking out onto a pathway in front of my house. 

 

People walked past that on the way to school, on the way to work and I sat there looking at all those people walking past. And a friend of mine walked past and I sat there looking and kind of willing her to turn her head and look at me and smile or something and she didn’t. And it’s like, “I’m right here, can’t you see me ?” And she just walked past and this is a very cultural thing.

 

English people are very polite and make sure that you don’t invade anyone’s privacy, you don’t want to and so she was just doing what English people do. Just like all she might be there it’s her house, but if I’ll look nosy, like the nosy neighbor or whatever and I can’t do that. So I literally saw her walking past me without looking at me and at that point, I thought this is enough. 

 

This is enough. This is not what I want. I don’t want people to do this and look past me and I’m like, “I’m sitting here on my own.” And then I thought, “you know what this would have never happened in the US.” Someone would have walked past my house. They would have definitely looked inside. Is she there? Can I wave can I be like, “hey” 

 

I’ve learned some things and one of them is I need people and I need to reach out and not think I can do this on my own anymore. And that really was one of the turning points or the big turning point was like, “okay, I’m ready to really tackle this. I can’t expect people to understand what I’m going through without telling them. I’m paddling furiously, but no one sees it and so I’m going to reach out and tell people and ask for help. 

 

Sundae: Wow, that’s amazing. I admire you so much for you know, you’ve shared about how you were there and then you left and then you came back. It takes so much. 

 

Stephanie: Yeah, it’s huge, on every single level. And as you said before, how are you in this and try to just work out in all this, what you want. “What do I want? What do I want from life?” And you know, I’ve always been really good at saying what I didn’t want, but to really focus on my needs.

 

Sundae: It’s the most basic thing, but I can’t tell you how many people I work with and that’s exactly what we work on is learning how to know what you want. Because there are so many things that we feel like we should want or people tell us that we should want. 

Stephanie: Yes, and when you have kids and family and then all that juggling of family life across time zones and continents and all that and I was so focused on all that, that I completely lost sight of myself in it. I kind of feel like I’m the one keeping it all together, which I guess I was, and if I hadn’t put in all this effort would have been maybe would have been different but maybe not.

 

But I was in there somewhere but I didn’t even know. So by the time we came back to Austin I was really such a mess. And then I was upset and I was sad to leave England again but then people said “but that’s what you wanted, you’re going to be so much happier now” and then I just realized moving takes it out of you, but you can’t let it defeat you.

 

Sundae: It’s amazing. There’s so much courage that you demonstrate I think and all of that and this struggle of feeling lonely. I don’t know, I’ve felt a lot of emotions in my life, but loneliness is probably one of the worst. Especially when you’ve got people right in front of you.

 

Stephanie: Yes, when you have people right in front of you and also when you are someone like myself who likes to be independent and I do not find it easy to divulge my emotions and to kind of say, “Hey, I’m lonely, and I’m really struggling.” I don’t find that easy. I’m always like, “Yeah, It’s fine, I can take care of myself.” And so that was really the biggest thing I’ve learned over this last year is the reaching out and an opening up.

 

Sundae: It’s amazing. and now you’re like opening up to thousands of people. 

 

Stephanie: Oh, yes. It’s so good, and I’m still an introvert and I’m still very happy with my own company. But I really need people and I need people’s input. So yeah.

 

 Sundae: Well, I just want to say thank you because it’s such validation to hear someone tell their story and see yourself in their story. Right? So when you share that I’m even getting a little emotional, there’s someone there listening going, “Hey, I’ve been there.” 

 

I know myself 20 years ago, living in Switzerland, my husband would go out with his buddies on a Friday night and be like, “hey come with us” and I’m like, “no-no, I’m cool. Go out have fun, don’t worry.” and I would literally be like in the fetal position on the floor bawling my eyes out. Because I was like “did I make a huge mistake? What if my dad dies and I have all these regrets?” 

 

We’ve all been there. And then feeling lonely in a group of people. Even though people that have come to become family there were moments when they were speaking Swiss German, I didn’t understand it. It was all men. I was like the only woman in the room like, “where’s the Yin energy.”

 

Just feeling isolated, you know among people and no one was doing anything wrong. It was just part of the journey. So you have come so far. Do you mind if we talk a little bit about where you were when you and I first met?

 

Stephanie: Not at all. 

 

Sundae: So I’m curious you are part of this amazing Year of Transformation family and you hopped on a phone call with me a year ago because there was something about the program that appealed to you. Tell me what was going on with you right before you reached out. 

 

Stephanie: So since I started the blog over 10 years ago, I always had the idea that I wanted to do something with my writing. I had all sorts of ideas and then more recently, a sense of actually, I love my writing. But I also want to have an exchange with people and it’s too introspective to be writing about myself all the time. I need to hear what other people have to say. And I listen to podcasts all sorts of podcasts and I thought, “hey wouldn’t that be fun? Wouldn’t that be amazing to talk to people and have a podcast.” And then I found you. I found your podcast because I was researching expat podcasts just for a little market research, I wanted to see what’s out there and then thinking, “Oh, there’s so much out there, no one needs to hear me as well.”

 

But I found yours and listened and then there I was thinking it was one in your series on purpose. I remember I was walking a dog and I was listening to this podcast and I stopped in my tracks. I literally just stopped and I was like, “oh my God, this is the question of purpose” and I have completely lost sense of what purpose I have. 

 

“What is my goal? I had all this jumbled in my head. There’s just all these ideas and people had said, ”yeah, you should do this, you should do that” and I couldn’t focus on anything. I just felt like a giant mess in my head and then I listened to this episode and I was like, “yeah, I need to do something” and it’s a podcast. Oh my God. This is the sign. 

 

So I contacted you and then we set up a Skype talk and I remember this moment of you coming on Skype and I’m seeing you and you’re talking to me. And I’m thinking, “that’s the person who was on the podcast? She’s actually real. Oh my God, you know, this is someone who does this and this is not an abstract idea in my head.”

 

This is actually something that’s you know, someone is doing this, people are doing this and I guess that’s what I remember. Being “this is real, oh my God.”  

 

Sundae: That’s so funny, you’ve never told me that story before. 

 

Stephanie: I was like a little star-struck.

 

Sundae: It’s cute, because when I talk to people sometimes and they’ve been listening to me for like a year and a half, two years. I’ve been doing this podcast for three years and then they tell me they’ve been listening to me for years. I’m like “why didn’t you say hello” Your energy was so different than it is now. 

Stephanie: Yes. Honestly, like I said, it was just this big jumble in my head. I had spent all these years trying to figure out my life and not getting anywhere. And looking after my family in the process and their issues and their ups and downs and relocation and repatriation issues.

 

And, yeah, it’s like I will never get through this big jumble in my head. And so I think energetically I was just exhausted from what had been going on. And then that sense of, I have this idea that it would be great to do this, but I’m too exhausted to do it, I can’t focus. What is it I really want to do? How that has changed!

 

Sundae: Yeah, do you mind sharing a little bit about what was the journey like for you? Then you were looking for purpose and now you’re like kicking ass with your podcast and you’re blogging. How did you get there? How does that work? 

 

Stephanie: Having someone – in this case it was you. It’s the accountability and the “hey, I’m not letting you off the hook” aspect of it that really helped me because I had ideas and I knew I was capable of doing something. 

 

I just hadn’t ever been able to follow through with any of those plans. And that’s a pattern that had been going on for a long long time. I felt like I could never have followed through with this having the idea for the podcast. 

 

And then how do I go about it and having someone by your side who breaks it down and says, “this is what we do now and in two weeks, you’re going to be doing this.” Just having someone to guide me and they’re not letting me kind of go, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do this.”

 

It has been amazing and once I just cracked that pattern and kind of given myself over to “okay, I’m going to be led” I can’t do this on my own, the realization. I can do the work, but I need someone to kick my butt and keep me on track.

 

Sundae: I wish everybody wouldn’t say “kicking butt” when they come to me. I’m really sweet and nice too. 

 

Stephanie: Yeah, you are all that but I’m sure you hear this a lot. I think I really managed to follow through and every time we met I had done what I was what I had been asked to do and I was just so scared of what would happen if I hadn’t so that the and I remember saying to my husband. “Oh my God, I’m meeting with Sundae tomorrow. I haven’t done this, she’s gonna be so mad at me.” And he would look at me like, “you’ll be fine.” And I would think no-no, you don’t understand and so I did it.

 

And there was your sweet face the next morning and I could say “yeah, I did it, I did it” and so I never had to have that. I’m sure it would have been absolutely fine. And if I hadn’t completed something it would have been fine. But it was that inner voice, “You’ve got this, you can do this” and I did and really for the first time, I followed through every step and I got where I wanted to be.

 

Sundae: You’re cracking me up because it makes it sound like I’m mean and I know I’m absolutely not mean. When I hear, “Sundae is going to kick my butt” these are my words and you tell me where I’m wrong, what I hear from that is, “Sundae believes in me so much, she’s not going to let me disappoint myself.” 

 

Stephanie: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s not that you would have been like “why didn’t you do this?” I mean of course not and I knew that you wouldn’t do that. But yeah, absolutely. It’s that you were cheering on my inner voice, my inner strength and that’s what I was hearing. 

 

it had nothing to do with you or your reaction to anything but just the fact that you were there and I mean, I’ve never in my life missed a deadline. So I can do this. 

 

Sundae: You’re like a lot of my clients who are really good students. And this is why they say “yes” to something like Year of Transformation because they know that they’re going to be the “good student.” I’m doing the little air quotes with my fingers right now.

 

It’s like this beginning process of, “I won’t do it for me, but I’ll do it for my teacher” type of thing. Like I have other clients who are like, “I can’t show up to class without my homework done.” So it’s tricking yourself into accountability. And it’s really why I always say to my clients you’re not accountable to me at all, you’re accountable for yourself. 

 

Stephanie: And of course we know I knew that but just having you alongside and the follow-through. It’s something I knew for myself that I would not be able to achieve. Having watched myself start things and stop and not follow through over the years. Yeah. I knew I had to do it.

 

Sundae: So, you’re kind of giving me a lot of credit here, but I want you to start giving yourself some credit. Of course, we build in accountability. I understand the process till you through it, but tell me about the work that you did that made this successful. 

 

Stephanie: The main thing was really to take myself, put me first. With everything that had been going on, I had the realization that I needed to carve out time for this, for the project and myself and make sure that I wasn’t over-committing and because we had issues at the beginning. 

 

I remember trying to do everything again because that’s what I’d been doing all that time, trying to juggle all these balls and I decided to not do that and really carve out time for doing the work and then not stressing. That was a big one to make sure that I had time for exercise and just time to maybe read a book or knit, and not feel guilty. And just kind of get to a point where I was slowly building up my energy levels again.

 

Then I could really tackle the work and yeah, that’s how it all came about and then I think once you’re in that and once you have that work mode and you know how long things take and getting over all the technology side of it. I mean for a technophobe like myself to actually be able to now advise people on how to do a podcast is just crazy. 

 

I’ve had people say, “Hey, can you help me?” “Yes, I can because I know.” I mean that was getting the hang of the editing and all that but the main thing was really to realize I had to make time for myself and look after my energy levels and then throw myself into it and I felt that I managed to do that. But they did that 

 

Sundae: You totally did that. For me, what I love is, I have to remind people during the year, this is not the Year of Tweak. This is Year of Transformation. What I love watching is your energy is completely transformed like it is so different every time we meet than before.

 

Stephanie: I get so much energy from what I do now as well and that is talking to people, interviewing people for the podcast and reaching out to them beforehand and having the conversations and all the connections I’ve made and that I get so much energy from that.

 

I never thought that would be possible and one other thing I have to say because it’s funny and this is very girly, I had been trying to, this is so silly, I’m trying to grow out my hair for I would say probably the last 10-15 years. And I never followed through and I always got bored or I just couldn’t handle it and always chop my hair off again.

 

I had a pixie cut at some point and you can’t see me now, but my hair’s below the shoulders and I have never ever been able to do this. Even though I’ve been wanting to do it for ages and I think it’s no coincidence that I have managed to do that this last year.

 

Sundae: I want before and after pictures!

 

Stephanie: I thought that the other day, it’s no coincidence that I managed to do it alongside everything else this year.

 

Sundae: It’s so wonderful, I love it. This is why I tried to communicate with people when I did this before and after pictures on Facebook. It’s not about how someone physically looks, it’s something inside that is shifting and you start to see it on the outside. 

 

So what do you most proud of when you think about all that you’ve done in the last year? 

 

Stephanie: That I let you help me, that I didn’t kind of chicken out and say, “oh no, I can actually do that, I can totally do this by myself.” That I actually say, “no, I really need the help and I will share this journey with you” and didn’t shut myself off. 

 

Yeah, that’s what I’m most proud of, and people who know me know that about me that I’m not someone to reach out easily. 

 

Sundae: You know what it took me in iron deficiency after the birth of my first son to finally realize that it wasn’t like a sign of weakness to ask for help. 

 

Stephanie: Yeah, and now I see it and I can do it. I can reach out and let someone help me and just open up to the wider community as well. Anyone who struggles, it’s the reaching out and asking for help, it requires so much strength, but it absolutely is not a sign of weakness. 

 

Sundae: Oh my God, I think it’s super courageous. I mean when I have had to reach out to people and say I don’t want to carry this by myself anymore. That is that is a moment where I had to muster every ounce of courage. Yeah. Every ounce of courage so I totally get that and sharing your story is courageous and I know that’s what you do on Transcontinental Overload. 

 

I know that you invite people to share their stories, if people want to listen and read more they can go to Transcontinental Overload, but do want to tell us more about the why behind your podcast?

 

Stephanie: Yeah. I kind of hinted at that earlier, I was writing the blog and sharing and I got a lot of positive feedback on that but mainly from friends and I just got to the point where I thought I love doing this but I am not exactly bored. But it’s not healthy for me to just constantly be in my head and write about myself and my story and my issues. 

 

And I really feel like there are so many people with stories to tell and by listening to other people’s stories, it helped me so much. And I thought if I could create something where people talk about how hard this expat living is and there’s something for everyone in there not even just for expats. 

 

I know that there are people that are not expats and never have lived anywhere, never will be. But there is so much in those stories and sharing them and people showing their vulnerability and it wasn’t just about myself and my own vulnerability, but it’s in other people’s and to share that. I’ve learned so much from every single episode I’ve done and I’m up to 14 now. 

 

So I just released the 14th episode on Tuesday and it’s honestly given me, just for my own life and attitude and outlook on things, it’s given me so much. And so yeah, that was my that’s also what kept me going just realizing that I was creating something that was useful and valuable for a lot of people. 

 

Sundae: So I’m just celebrating where you’ve started from the walk with your dog. Thinking you had no purpose to clarity on the impact you want to make in the expat community and belonging through sharing of stories and courage and vulnerability. So I’m just celebrating you and the impact that you’re having for your health, for your happiness, for your life, for your family, and for the community that you care about.

 

So this is your “why I do what I do.” Yeah, you are because what’s meaningful for me, my purpose is that I can make an impact and especially when I work with people who have dreams or hopes or ideas that have a ripple effect on others. So thank you so much and thank you for coming on today and sharing your story and being courageous. It really means a lot to me, Stephanie.

 

Stephanie: Thank you, but it’s my pleasure. And yeah, and I had no idea how much pleasure it was going to be and I’m so excited for what’s to come from this.

Sundae: Right, what’s next? So check out Stephanie at Transcontinental Overload. If you’re even feeling frisky and excited you could even apply to be a guest on her podcast if she’s taken them. She’s got amazing people there.

 

Stephanie: I’m always looking for people and you know so many times people have said, “Oh, I don’t really have an interesting story to tell, I’m just at home.” And oh my God, there are so many stories and I always tell people I will find you a story. I’ll find it. 

 

Sundae: You’ll do some poking around and find one special there. So thank you so much check out Stephanie on Transcontinental Overload her blog and podcast.

 

Stephanie: I’m on Instagram as well now. 

 

Sundae: Oh, okay. Instagram as well.

 

Stephanie: Yeah Instagram and Twitter as @overloadedSteph.

 

Sundae: I love that and thank you so much for being so transparent about your journey with Year of Transformation. I know that there might be people who are on the fence right now and thinking first of all, what is Year of Transformation and how can I get that kind of transformation in my own life? So sharing your story could be exactly what someone needed to have that courage to apply and to have that conversation with me. So I really appreciate that Stephanie. 

 

Stephanie: Yeah. Well, it’s been amazing and if someone has that moment on a dog walk then I would be very happy. 

 

So you’ve heard from Stephanie what an impact the decision she made to say yes to her and make her a priority has had on her energy, on how she takes care of herself, and how she actually shows up for herself and for the expat community through her blog and her podcast. There’s this huge ripple effect that has happened since she said yes to changing the status quo.

 

For her it was follow-through. She needed accountability and she didn’t want to let herself off the hook. And that’s what Year of Transformation did for her. So if this resonates with you, we are in the final week of taking applications of Year of Transformation. 

 

So if you haven’t yet applied, what are you waiting for? Let’s just hop on the phone have a conversation meet the person behind the voice of the podcast and if you’ve applied and you’re still thinking about it, reach out this week and let me know if you have any questions or what hesitations do you have because this could be the next step that changes everything for you. 

 

I want you to be in a completely different place this time next year then you are right now. I’d love to be by your side. So check out Year of Transformation. You have nothing to lose just apply, and we’ll hop on the phone.

 

All right, everyone you’ve been listening to Expat Happy. Hour with Sundae Schneider Bean. Thank you for listening. I will leave you with the words from Lemony Snicket, which is the pen name of American novelist, Daniel Handler. 

He says: “If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.”