Missed Some Great Expat Links on Twitter?

Hi Everyone, Here are some expat-related articles and links that I have tweeted about recently, that might interest you:

Raising Global Nomads? Listen to a Podcast Interview for Expat Focus on Expats Radio:
http://bit.ly/eJZT6A

"Nobody Cares About My Life-Altering Trip. Or Yours." Article in Toronto Globe and Mail
http://bit.ly/gJ1L23

Savvy shopping abroad: The Art of Haggling
http://bit.ly/hfAA2X


Kissing the Expat Life Goodbye... This Expat Found That It's Not Always That Different From Being Back Home...
http://bit.ly/gBdN4M

Want To Live Longer? Maybe Try Living Abroad In These 10 Cities
http://bit.ly/hmk5B4

Expat Evacuations: Children of Diplomats Displaced by Strike: Caught Between Two Worlds
http://wapo.st/i3NZ0B

Does Working Abroad Improve A Woman's Career?
http://bit.ly/gx3db9

Expat Disillusionment - Story of an English Couple Whose Spanish Dreams Faded
http://bit.ly/f5A60V

Mixed Identity; "Still an expat, even though I moved home!"
http://t.co/ZsF8QTl

15 of the World's Best Places to Live - Nominated by Expats
http://bit.ly/h9pNqz

Expats: Looking for the Top Schools for Your Children?
http://bit.ly/e2kfBE

Adjusting to Expat Life - It's Not Easy
http://t.co/WcQQHi8

American Expat Helps Start-Ups in Hong Kong
http://bit.ly/exMJAQ

Good read: Interview with French Diplomat's Wife in the United States
http://bit.ly/gNglr9

Taking the Road Lightly Travelled: Collecting Experiences, not Stuff
http://ow.ly/43ioR

Great Tips for Traveling on a Third World Passport
http://bit.ly/gBpfFT

**

To follow me in 'real time' and keep up with even more great expat links on Twitter, please click here.

To sign up and receive our monthly, motivational Expat Women newsletters, please  click here.

Thanks for your support and I wish you a wonderful day/evening!  Andrea @andreaexpat

March 2011 Edition of Mobility Magazine Online

Hi Everyone, If you are in the expat, global mobility and/or relocation industries, you may be interested in the March 2011 edition of the Worldwide ERC® Mobility Magazine, which features the following:

How Mobility Fits in the Talent Management Puzzle
By Jody Walstrom

Culture Clash China: a Corporate Conundrum
By Jenny Castelino

Linking Expatriate Assessment and Selection with Talent Management Strategies
By Brenda Bellon and Jennifer Rowe

Export Control Certification—Challenges, Tips, and Key Considerations

By Steven Brotherton

Coaching—An Insurance Policy for Global Mobility

By Sarah DeHayes

Extended Business Travelers: Immigration Risk Management

By Sophy King and Lavinia Pascariu

The Secret Workforce: Hidden Talent, Hidden Savings

By Jill Heineck, CRP

Destination Profile: Shanghai, China

By Alexandra Wassenhoven

The Accidental Landlord

By Valerie A. Fortier, CRP

Furniture Rental’s Increasing Role and Benefits in Global Relocations

By Kenneth S. Barron, GMS

Leadership Across Cultures

By Michele Bar-Pereg and Ann Houston Kelley

Happy reading! Andrea

Missed Some Great Expat Links on Twitter?

Hi Everyone, Here are some expat-related articles and links that I have tweeted about recently, that might interest you:


Top 10 Tips for a Successful Expat Assignment

http://bit.ly/e4Ua6O

How Many Expat Americans Live Abroad?

http://bit.ly/i1X851

How to Cope While Living Abroad

http://bit.ly/hOYwle

Should You Move Abroad or Will It Destroy Your Family?

http://bit.ly/dVBXcX

Excellent Article for Expats if Your Assignment Suddenly Ends

http://bit.ly/gprBmw

New Site Interviewing Expat Women

http://bit.ly/giLTf8

What Is Identity and Why Is It Important for Expats?

http://bit.ly/hnQUwp

This Expat Publisher Jo Parfitt Focuses on "Life Abroad" Books... for the "shelfless"

http://bit.ly/gKHT38

Expat Kids: Bored with Moving Schools? Maybe it's Time to Board?

http://bit.ly/eTHnX6

Meet Rochelle Peachey, Founder of Expat Dating Website 'I Love Your Accent' http://bit.ly/gVinTl

Can Expat Children Ever Repatriate?

http://bit.ly/fjNjJl

Robin Pascoe's Fictional Expat Blogella: Read the Latest of Repatriate Joelly

http://bit.ly/gRUcan

Relocating Your Career: Social Media and the Expat Professional
http://goo.gl/fb/ruQOF

Expats: Why You Need to Be Honest About Why You Want to Move Abroad

http://bit.ly/fmrfWL

**
And this one... which is not expat-specific (unless you are in Bermuda), but which I loved all the same... For 40+ years, guy says "I Love You" to commuters each work morning in Bermuda :-)

http://bit.ly/ghKspP

**

To follow me in 'real time' and keep up with even more great expat links on Twitter, please  click here.

To sign up and receive our monthly, motivational Expat Women newsletters, please  click here.

Thanks for your support and I wish you a wonderful day/evening!  Andrea @andreaexpat

New Expat & Partner Guide, by Global Connections

Hi Everyone,  We would like to congratulate Global Connections, who officially release today their Expat & Partner Guide - a comprehensive and inspirational advice guide for expats. Global Connections' full-colour guide brings together the best of seven years of Global Connection’s magazine, plus some topics not previously covered in the magazine.

Whilst some of the general themes are similar, this book is different from our own upcoming, first Expat Women book (due to be launched 5 May 2011!). Here is some advance text for the Global Connections Expat & Partner Guide:

"A couple’s decision to embark on an expat adventure is often a daunting one. Not only are there dozens of practical questions to be considered, but expats-to-be also face a wide range of, sometimes emotionally charged, other issues and challenges. Living abroad is simply a life-changing experience. No other source will prepare expats better for this than Global Connection’s newly published Expat & Partner Guide.

The book’s 300-plus pages provide in-depth information and advice on everything from mobility trends, dual careers, finance, health, safety issues and preparing for the move abroad, to dealing with culture shock, expat partners’ work, voluntary work, study, expat kids related subjects and repatriation.

Internationally renowned experts shine their light on all these matters. Their advice is backed up by clearly presented results of ground breaking research studies on expat related issues. The 34 chapters are peppered with personal accounts from experienced expats and their partners. Their honest, sometimes moving stories make this invaluable guide a lively read.

“A company’s investment in sending employees abroad is more likely to pay off if they and their family settle well in their new country. It is our mission to inform and inspire expats and expat partners in order to contribute to the success of a posting abroad,” explains Jacqueline van Haaften, Managing Director of Global Connection and former expat partner. “We know that if expats and their partners are well prepared and have realistic expectations of their life in a foreign country, they will relish the experience and be less daunted by adversity. Our Expat Partner Guide is another important and unique tool to achieve this goal.”

To order Global Connection’s Expat & Partner Guide for €37.50 (€30.00 for Global Connection members) incl. VAT, excluding shipping, please visit the Global Connection bookstore: www.global-connection.info or to www.Amazon.co.uk.

Questions? Please contact Global Connections' Jacqueline van Haaften on + 31-182-300-000 or via email at: jvanhaaften@gcmail.info."

Thanks Everyone - and congratulations again to Global Connections! Andrea

Expat Women March Home Page

Hi again Everyone, Following on from our big announcement below of our new site, here the details of our March home page features. Please take a few minutes to read, enjoy, share and tweet about them for us. Thank you very much and we wish you a fantastic day/evening! Andrea

Success Story

Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland

CEO, International Coach Academy
Making a bold move from Australia to China paid off for Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland, who was able to expand her modest coaching business into a million-dollar company: the International Coach Academy. Bronwyn leads this successful Shanghai-based organization which certifies and trains people all over the world to be professional coaches...

Business Idea

Frasia Golf Training Center
Pascale Bon Yin
Pascale Bon Yin's expat journey began almost twenty years ago, when she relocated first from France to Taiwan, then to mainland China. After a few moves within China, she now finds herself in Shanghai juggling her role as wife to Chinese filmmaker Yin DaWei, mother to adopted daughter Jiajia, and busy entrepreneur running the Frasia Golf Training Center...
Read more

Evacuations
Sudden Departures: How They Impact Expat Families
Rebecca Grappo
As I watched the events in Egypt unfold, my thoughts were with the thousands of expat children and families who are/were living in Egypt as well as their Egyptian friends and playmates. Maybe others are thinking about the political implications of this open rebellion, but I am thinking about the many families who may be ordered to leave quickly to other safe havens...
Read more

Living in a Global Village
How Do Expat Women Cope with Life Abroad?
Riana Schreuders-van den Bergh
When I first arrived in the Netherlands, I felt as if my life had come to an end. I had no job, no friends and no social support system. I missed my family back home terribly and had no idea who I was anymore. Joining up with other expat women did not seem to help me either - they all seemed so happy and in control of their lives, whereas I felt like...
Read more

Expat Careers
How Breaking The Rules Can Help You In Your Job Search Abroad
Megan Fitzgerald
Breaking the rules in a job search is an interesting topic, particularly in today's ever-changing global marketplace... Often the rules that create frustration and stress us out the most are the ones that are either not based on fact, or there is at least significant evidence to indicate that the opposite of that belief could also be true...
Read more

Expat Confession
Keeping My Relationship Alive
Expat Women Girlfriend
Recently, my girlfriends were talking about the decline in intimacy in their relationships with their husbands since both the arrival of their children and their transfer to Singapore. I feel the same. With my husband working long hours and traveling a lot, then coming home to three children who all want his attention...
Read more

Not a Member Yet?
Just a reminder that our blog is separate from our main site, so if you are reading this blog post online or you are only subscribed to our blog, you will not automatically receive our Expat Women monthly newsletters. To receive our March newsletter and to go in the running to win our monthly prize of a complete set of Explorer Publishing's Mini-Guides, please sign up today to our main site, ExpatWomen.com, and also receive your link to our free e-book of Winning Stories. Thank you!

Expat Women Site Relaunches!

Hi Everyone, We are excited today to finally unveil our new-look Expat Women website.  Please come and visit it, share it, tweet it and 'like it' on Facebook. Your support helps a lot. Thank you!

New-Look Expat Women Site
Here are a few images to give you a quick guided tour...
PS. If you are reading this by blog feed and cannot see the images, please click here to read this post on our blog instead. Thanks.

Image 1: Top of our new Expat Women home page

* Search button

* Main menu bar (with sub-menu options appearing when you scroll over with your mouse)

* Introductory text for new users, but with handy text links for everyone to use!

* Sign-up box

* Sponsor logos

Image 2: Twitter Update

Now, it will be much easier to see the latest news and links :-)

Image 3: Monthly Features

* Success Story

* Business Idea

* Expat Confession

* Plus other great feature articles and interviews for that month :-)

Image 4: Expat Women Blog Update

* A quick way to see our latest blog postings updates :-)

Thanks in advance for your support of our new website, and for your sharing of our new-look Expat Women site with women all over the world. We appreciate it sincerely. Warmest wishes, Andrea x

Cartier Women's Initiative Awards

Hi Everyone, Whilst it might be a bit late for you to submit a comprehensive entry for this year's competition, here is a wonderful competition you might like to diarize for next year. It is the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards and 2011 entries are due March 15.

Here are some criteria details:

"The project to be considered for the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards must be an original for-profit business creation in the initial phase (1-3 years old) led by a woman.

• The “for-profit” requirement: the business submitted for the Award must be designed to generate revenues. We do not accept non-profit project proposals.
• The “originality” requirement: we want your project to be a new concept, conceived and imagined by the founder and her team and not a copy or subsidiary of an existing business.
• The “initial phase” requirement: the project you submit should be in the first stages of its development with one year of operations and sales to account for but no older than 3-4 years. The ‘age’ of the company will not be measured solely on the basis of the date of incorporation. The development and size of the company will also be taken into account.
• The main leadership position must be filled by a woman. A good command of English is required (both verbal and written) to take full advantage of the benefits the Award has to offer.
• All entrants must be aged 18 or the age of legal majority in their respective countries or states of citizenship, whichever is older, on the day of the application deadline of March 15, 2011."

Here are the details about how to apply.

Here you can read about the 2010 Laureates.  The awards ceremony for 2011 will be held in France in October. I look forward to reading about this year's winners! Andrea

Expat Women New-Look Website - Coming Soon!

Hi Everyone, Just a quick update on our new-look website for http://www.expatwomen.com/.

After many months of giving the 1,000+ pages on our site a face-lift, all going well, we hope to launch our new-look site for you next week (or soon after).

Stay tuned... and thanks as always, for your ongoing support! Andrea :-)

Expat Women February Newsletter Highlights

Hi Everyone, For those of you who missed our Expat Women February 2011 members' newsletter this month, or did not get time to read the new features, please find below the highlights and we encourage you to click on a few for a great read! (If you are a member and did not receive your newsletter, please email us here, thanks

Success Story: Raegan Moya-Jones, CEO and Co-Founder, aden + anais

Business Idea: Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, Shalini Ganendra

Women and Career Sabotage: 5 Ways to Build Executive Presence and Stop Sabotaging Your Career, by Lois Freeke

Expat Routines: The Importance of the Other R&R, by Marie Brice

Expat Confession: Expat Depression, by our Expat Women Girlfriend Expat Money: How to Avoid 7 Expat Money Worries in 2011, by Rhiannon Davies / ShelterOffshore

Expat Bloggers: Are They Going Pro? by Maria Foley

Winning Story: Houston, We Have a Problem, by Rachel in the UK

"It is a temporarily insane and somewhat delusional parent who books a holiday, takes their pint sized child on board an aeroplane and thinks that they will actually be able to sit back and enjoy their peanuts..."

Winning Member: The name of our Explorer Publishing mini-guide pack winner.

If you are not a member of our main site, ExpatWomen.com, please join today to support us (and receive a link to download our free Expat Women e-book "Winning Stories"). This will also mean that next month your newsletter will be delivered directly to your inbox.

Thanks Everyone!  Andrea

Clements International's Expat Youth Scholarship 2011 - Opened Today!

Hi Everyone, If you know any expat youth aged between 12 and 18, then today is an exciting day because it is the opening day of the 2011 Clements International Expat Youth Scholarship! The Clements scholarship offers US$10,000, to be shared by six winning students. It is a fabulously positive contest and we wish all expat youth entrants all the very, very best! Andrea

**

Clements International's Expat Youth Scholarship 2011

Now in its third year, Clements International's Expat Youth Scholarship is a unique contest exclusively for expat students who spend their childhoods moving between different countries and cultures.

The 2011 Expat Youth Scholarship is open to students ages 12-18 of any nationality who have resided in a foreign country for at least two consecutive years.

This year's theme asks participants to create a video explaining their favorite thing about their host country and its culture.

A total of US$10,000 in scholarships will be awarded to six students in the following categories:

Category One (Ages 12 - 15)
1st Place     $3,000
2nd Place   $1,500
3rd Place      $500

Category Two (Ages 16 - 18)
1st Place     $3,000

2nd Place   $1,500

3rd Place      $500

Please share this with any young expats you know who many be interested and visit http://www.expatyouthscholarship.com for more information.

The entry deadline is May 13, 2011.

The best way to stay updated and share info about the Expat Youth Scholarship (EYS)?

Become a Facebook fan and follow EYS on Twitter!

Thanks and good luck to all entrants!

ExpatWomen.com's Silver Sponsor Clements International is a leading provider of insurance for expatriates and international organizations.  Founded in 1947, Clements offers worldwide auto, property, health, life and commercial insurance with superior customer service and claims response to customers in more than 170 countries.  For more information on Clements International's global list of programs and services, please click here. Thanks.

February Edition of Mobility Magazine Online

Hi Everyone, If you are in the expat, global mobility and/or relocation industries, you may be interested in the February 2011 edition of the Worldwide ERC® Mobility Magazine, which features the following:

Seeking a Clean Bill of Health— Legislative Developments for Mobility Professionals
By Glen Collins

Working in Latin America Today: a Diverse Landscape of Opportunity and Risk

By Pablo Weisz

Destination Profile: New York City, NY

By Anne Dean, GMS, and Sylvia Ehrlich, SCRP

FHA and VA Home Loan Financing in Relocation

By Derek Latka, CRP, GMS

It’s a Great Time to Buy a Home

By Steven John, CRP, GMS

Global Mobility Policies and Practices in a Fiscally Responsible Era

By Timothy Dwyer

I-9 Enforcement Audits: Coming Soon to an Employer Near You

By Matthew T. Phillips

Internet or Inter-NOT? Technology for Relocating Employees

By Tamara Bianchi, CRP

Work-life Balance: Essential for the Road to Recovery

By Tom Zaunbrecher

Happy reading! Andrea

KISS Like Melody Biringer, Founder of CRAVE

Hello Everyone, In October 2009, I had the pleasure of meeting Seattle-based Melody Biringer in Amsterdam, where she was hanging out for a few months to kick start her CRAVE Amsterdam guide. Melody and I met up again a year later, this time in Las Vegas for a conference and have kept in touch in-between. I love hearing about all the cities that Melody's CRAVE guides have expanded to and I love learning from her entrepreneurial lessons (20+ businesses to date) and successes.

Recently, Melody posted this entry on her blog. I loved it and gained her permission to share it with you. If you are a current or budding entrepreneur, you'd be wise to listen to this seasoned experimenter!

Wishing you success in your business, at home and abroad, Andrea.

Nobody Kisses Like Melody Biringer

"The exercise of writing my business history down this last year, about the 20 some businesses I have started over the last 30 years, made one thing loud and clear to me. KISS (keep it simple stupid) has been haunting me most of my life. When trying to decide the title of my book, I thought I should just call it KISS.

This lesson learned has popped up over and over again. I know this stuff. I know it so well I could write a book about it! So WHY do I keep trying to complicate my businesses still today? I am a very “right brained” female. I like to have my hands in lots of things, and am easily tempted to live life like a mind map. BUT, my only successes have come when I kept it VERY simple.

I started my first business with the most simple business model of all. A lemonade stand. I sold lemonade….period. How much simpler can you get. Flash forward a few years and it is ironic that I still basically sell lemonade for a living. One of my most successful businesses has been the festival concession biz, where I sell strawberry shortcake and berry lemonade to thousands each summer. People stand in line and hand me cash and have continued to for the last 22 years. I have tried to complicate that business a bit over the years by adding other products to the mix, like pie baked in a bag, berry cobbler, even s’mores….always thinking of ways to grow.

But I finally got it through my thick skull…I am known for our strawberry shortcake and that is why I am still in business. Just KISS!

For several years, I was deeply invested in the wholesale bakery business. This is a perfect example of doing too much and not paying attention to simplicity. We sold muffins to grocery stores and coffee stands all around Seattle. It started with the fat free muffin, then we added 97% fat free and finally added full fat muffins. We had about 10 flavors of each kind. Of course the blueberry was always the best seller across the board. So many labels, ingredients, recipes to keep track of, so much staff to manage, so many headaches keeping track of all the flavors and which % of fat was ordered.

What if we just put all our muffins in one basket and specialized in the best fat free blueberry muffin in the world and sold the heck out of it? I might still be in that business today if I’d done that.

I remember being jealous of the Uncle Seth pink cookie at the time. He made one really good sugar cookie with pink frosting and could barely keep up with the demand.

It all goes back to the 80/20 rule I believe. Usually we are spending 80% of our time on nonsense and forgetting about the most important part of our business – the 20%. It is so easy to get trapped into the 80% because there is a lot of drama around it and very hard to see the forest through the trees.

I am so happy this lesson has come out loud and clear in my life right now. It makes decisions so much easier. When I am in team meetings, we all say “is this KISS?” and that makes our decision.

We even took a chance on this CRAVE blog. We had created a big huge nightmare for ourselves these last few years. Who are we? What are we going to write about? How many guest bloggers do we need? What should they say? What does our editorial calendar look like? We are behind! Help??? So we flipped it (another lesson learned) and took the KISS principal and decided to just talk about one of my lessons learned each month.

Talk about KISS all month? Is that too much of one subject? Will people get sick of us? Just do it, we said. It is simple and will simplify so many people’s jobs around here. YES I like the sound of that. A no-brainer. Who knows if it will work, but we are all breathing free and that is a good thing.

What can you simplify to breathe easier?

Melody"

Missed Some Great Expat Links on Twitter?

Hi Everyone, Here are some expat-related articles and links that I have tweeted about recently, that might interest you:

10 Secrets to Managing Your Expat Career

http://bit.ly/h1UA4h


Should You Move Abroad or Will It Destroy Your Family?

http://bit.ly/dVBXcX

What is the Difference Between Traveling versus Living as an Expat?
http://bit.ly/ezVTz3

Video Trailer for Expat Niamh Ni Bhroin’s new book, The Singing Warrior http://bit.ly/gPpn59

How Many Expat Americans Live Abroad?
http://bit.ly/i1X851


"Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" from the WSJ

http://tinyurl.com/4mfsm32


Why We Should Still Be Talking About Tiger Moms

http://bit.ly/gCS0dT


Tips for Gaining Speaker Experience

http://bit.ly/gXDQeW


For Lovers of Books: GoodReads.com (4.3 million members!)

http://bit.ly/gpaiQg


Got "Dead End" Signs in Your Life?

http://bit.ly/ihT2Iu

**

To follow me in 'real time' and keep up with even more great expat links on Twitter, please  click here.

To sign up and receive our monthly, motivational Expat Women newsletters, please  click here.

Thanks for your support and have a great week!

Andrea
Twitter handle: @andreaexpat