Meet Iva: Seven Moves and the Career She Left Behind

# Edit of EMF Ep1 Meet Iva

[00:00:00]

## [00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:00] **Iva Buschmann:** I'm Iva. I work with leaders, founders, and their teams between Prague and Tokyo. I'm also an expat mom, and I co-founded the Expat Mom Founder network with Linda. I have moved seven times as an adult, 13 counting my childhood, and I lived in eight countries. And every time, right when my work finally made sense again, it was time to start over from nothing, and this is how that went

## [00:00:28] Who lives in your house?

[00:00:28] **Linda van Egmond:** before we dive into your story, tell me, who lives in your house?

[00:00:33] **Iva Buschmann:** My husband, who is German. I have a Czech passport. We've been together 25 years, and we have two daughters. The older one is at university in Milan studying psychology, and the younger one just started high school here in Tokyo. And every move I'm going to tell you about, they were in it with me

## [00:00:53] What did moving around as a kid teach you?

[00:00:53] **Linda van Egmond:** I know you lived an expat life already as a child moving around.

What did moving around as a kid teach [00:01:00] you?

[00:01:00] **Iva Buschmann:** I lived in Nigeria as a kid and don't remember much from that time. It was preschool time. Then we moved twice within Czech Republic, and I remember vividly that when I was about 12, we moved from a small town near the mountains to Prague, and my grandmother made this beautiful dress that I was so proud to wear on my first day in the capital city.

But I remember when I walk into the class and I looked around, every kid had this hip clothes from the capital, and I felt so tiny and completely out of place. A year later, we moved again to the suburbs of Prague, which at that time was a small village, and suddenly I was the cool kid from the big city, and I had to adjust again how I dressed and how I behaved.

So what I learned is that what I call the rules of the jungle. To be accepted by a tribe, you dress like them, behave like them, talk like them. Because [00:02:00] if you don't, you become an outcast, and that's a very lonely place, and it doesn't matter if you're 12 or 47. So everywhere I move, I observe first. Who are the people here?

what do they care about? What are their values? How do they spend their free time? How do they dress? And I do that before I open my mouth, because believe me, I have said plenty of stupid things in other cultures over the years.

## [00:02:28] When you moved as an adult, what did you think you were signing up for?

[00:02:28] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay, those are stories for future episodes. Um, when you moved as an adult, what did you think you were signing up for?

[00:02:38] **Iva Buschmann:** Well, as a child, you don't think about moving, right? Your parents drag you from place to place, and you don't have a choice. My husband grew up as an expat kid all his life, and, uh, when we visited their house for family dinners during holidays, uh, it was full of fun stories, and I really enjoyed those stories that, uh, my mother-in-law is telling us.

And [00:03:00] he's a fabulous salesman, right? So he told me, this will be a massive adventure, the life we will live. So I thought, "This is going to be fun. Let's try it." And I always thought if my mom could live in Africa, we lived in Nigeria 45 years ago, and my mother-in-law could live in Pakistan 50 years ago, both raising small children, I can do it as well It cannot be more difficult than what they go through or went through.

[00:03:25] **Linda van Egmond:** That sounds, like, majorly impressive. We should have them, invite them as guests- We should, yes ... on the show sometime.

[00:03:33] **Iva Buschmann:** It's nothing compared to our stories what they lived through.

[00:03:36] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah. That must be a completely different experience.

## [00:03:40] Who were you, professionally, before the moves?

[00:03:40] **Linda van Egmond:** tell me, who were you professionally before the moves?

[00:03:45] **Iva Buschmann:** I started in 1999 at a major law firm called Linklaters in Prague, and I was supporting their media, tech, and telecom practice. It was a boom in telecom at the, at the time. So, and in 2004, we spun up the tech [00:04:00] practice And I became one of the founding partners of a boutique law firm called nowadays Pierstone.

I was an equity partner, but I was not a lawyer, so I ran the business side so the lawyers could be very good at what they do. And our clients were international tech companies and Silicon Valley venture funds. And even back then, the firm was run mostly by women, which I think is fabulous for that time.

[00:04:25] **Linda van Egmond:** And then you moved from Prague to Germany, right?

[00:04:29] **Iva Buschmann:** Sounds very sad when you say it like that.

[00:04:33] **Linda van Egmond:** Dum, dum, dum, dum. Dum,

[00:04:35] **Iva Buschmann:** dum. Yeah, it was my first adventure, uh, uh, as an adult, as a, at that time, boyfriend. Yeah. We, when we moved to Germany, I kept a job, and every three weeks I drove to Prague for a week of work, and I also finished university at the same time, so that's the combined commute.

Uh, I was working from home way before it was called home office, and, uh, I had my work, my network of colleagues and [00:05:00] friends, and my own money, and then we moved again.

## [00:05:04] From Germany to Japan

[00:05:04] **Linda van Egmond:** Oh, and here's the real cliffhanger, right?

[00:05:07] **Iva Buschmann:** Da-doo, Japan came. I arrived in Tokyo six months pregnant, and I kept working after our daughter was born.

And when she was born, she needed medical care, so I traveled with her between Japan and Germany, and later between Australia and Germany, and we stayed in hospital for weeks at a time. when you spend a lot of time with a newborn in hospital, either you go crazy with worry as a first-time mom, or you have something to focus on.

And I was alone in a place without any friends without any family, and I didn't speak any German. And every evening, I remember I stood in the hospital hallway near the windows. That was the only spot where I could catch internet. I sent all my emails out and pulled the new ones in so I could keep working next to my daughter's bed, and

The work saved me mentally more than once. I never planned to quit working for Pearstone. I was not even [00:06:00] 30, an equity partner. Who would give that up in their right mind?

## [00:06:04] When did your career stop working for you?

[00:06:04] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay. so you kept the career going through all of that.

Mm-hmm. Um, but it's not what you're doing today. So when did it stop working for you?

[00:06:15] **Iva Buschmann:** When we moved to Australia. When we moved from Japan to Sydney, our daughter was about two, and she was very adventurous kid. And I was mom from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening, and when she went to bed, I started to work because of the time difference, which is 10 to 12 hours.

I would be working sometimes till midnight, and I hardly saw my husband.

[00:06:38] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay. Some people would hear this and think, "Woman, what are you doing to yourself?"

[00:06:44] **Iva Buschmann:** I didn't think about it. It slowly evolved because you do what you can do when you can do it. When a baby sleeps well, you can work between the naps, and as she got older and needed more of me, I couldn't work during the day anymore.

I was first-time mom, and I had [00:07:00] no one around me in the same situation, and I just had to figure it out alone. And I remember the moment was New Year's Eve. Uh, we were walking up the hill to the Czech Embassy in Sydney, which has the best view of the Harbor Bridge fireworks, and my phone rang, and it was a big client in Prague who needed to close their accounts urgently because it was the last day of the year.

And I was annoyed. It was afternoon in Prague, so I had still time to do it after our New Year's. We watched the fireworks, and I skipped the champagne because I needed a clear head, but I was annoyed. We got home at 1:00 in the morning, and I worked until 3:00. And I had been enjoying a beautiful moment with people at a beautiful spot, and at this moment I was resentful at everyone for everything because I couldn't do well neither of it, and that's when I said that I cannot do this anymore, and I resigned in 2009.

## [00:07:56] What came after you resigned?

[00:07:56] **Linda van Egmond:** That seems like a tricky situation to be in. what came after you [00:08:00] resigned?

[00:08:01] **Iva Buschmann:** I stepped out of paid work for seven years, and if you look at my LinkedIn, that's where the gap is. Uh, we moved back to Germany, a different part of Germany this time. No support. We didn't know anyone, no friends.

Uh, we had a five-year-old, and I was pregnant. And we move into a small town, and I didn't speak the language at all. we had no friends, and seemed everyone around had them, and they didn't needed us. Neither were we invited anywhere. I was five hours from Prague only, so I could commute and ask if I could work back for Pearstone.

But now with almost two small kids, it, uh, didn't seem like a good job. Mm-hmm. So, uh, I was a full-time mom living in the country. I had no idea how things work. And four years later, uh, we went to Malaysia. We lived in Kuala Lumpur. And our daughter swam competitively, and the school didn't want to absorb- And a few passionate moms with talented swimmers [00:09:00] decided to run it ourself, as a company.

So we had about 150 swimmers, 20 nationalities plus, and a Ukrainian coach, and you can only imagine the clashes of cultures and religions. Oh

[00:09:12] **Linda van Egmond:** my God. Yeah.

[00:09:13] **Iva Buschmann:** And, uh, then came Shanghai. At the time, both girls were swimming and the club belonged to school, but it was so much bigger. We had 300-plus swimmers.

Most of those coaches, we had 12 coaches, were Chinese staff. So again, we were dealing with lot of different cultures, and I was the person in middle, uh, between the school, the coaches, and the parents. And since this is a private school and parents pay for the school, they are the customer, and you need to deliver service and make your customers happy.

## [00:09:44] What did running the school swimming as a business teach you?

[00:09:44] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like a, It sounds like a business. what did this teach you?

[00:09:50] **Iva Buschmann:** Always laugh. Looking back, this was my first leadership lab. I ran an organization, across dozens of cultures with no salary and no authority, where [00:10:00] everyone had an opinion parents that created WeChat groups where they would complain about the school or the swimming.

No one came and said anything straight to our, our face. And I get it, right? We all see things differently, and we all have different wishes and expectations, but having complaints out in public on social media is everyone's PR nightmare, especially if you compete uh, among international private schools.

So we had to be very, very careful how this was run and communicated among all stakeholders. And this is exactly what I do now, find out what doesn't work and fix it by making sure everyone is heard.

## [00:10:41] How did your coaching journey begin?

[00:10:41] **Linda van Egmond:** Right, because I know your coaching journey starting in Shanghai, where you lived for eight years. Your girls both went to school, and you had more time.

So what happened?

[00:10:53] **Iva Buschmann:** I was always amazed by communication, how good or bad it can go. I went back to studying, and [00:11:00] in 2016 I coached my first client and opened my practice. And at the law firm we had clients, and our lawyers were already the experts in their region. And suddenly now I was the expert in my own knowledge, but nobody knew me.

I didn't speak the language, and my own country was, thousands of kilometers away. It took me years and years, and not months, to get where I am today. It is very difficult to be here when your clients are there. And along the way, I worked, uh, four years as a performance coach and board facilitator for D3 Capital Advisory in London.

we worked with founders and investors. And I also became a coach and mentor for Fem Palette, uh, which is a volunteering role, and I was named, uh, most impactful mentor two years in a row, which I'm super proud of. And then I founded Tokyo Leadership Institute, which is, uh, much more than just coaching. I call it a leadership advisory.

And then, uh, last year almost to the day, I [00:12:00] met you, and we created Expat Mom Founder Network together.

## [00:12:05] For someone who has never worked with a coach, how would you explain what you do?

[00:12:05] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah. Woo-hoo. okay, so tell me, um, there are many coaches out there, and I'm always a little bit confused about who does what. Say someone has never worked with a coach, how would you explain that person what you actually do?

[00:12:20] **Iva Buschmann:** Mm-hmm. I work with leaders, founders, and their teams. I call myself a mind mechanic, and the strategy, I always say the strategy of the business is usually fine.

What's tallest is that people don't say out loud when they disagree or have a better idea, so decisions get avoided and postponed. My line is, uh, your team tells me what they don't tell you, and then we fix it, and here's what that means. If you lead a team, they don't tell you everything. Nobody does. Even in your marriage, you don't say everything out loud.

But it isn't malice. It's a fear and sometimes loyalty and gratitude. People go [00:13:00] to extraordinary lengths to avoid bringing bad news to someone with power. So when I ask my clients what their team really thinks of them, they generally don't know, or they tell you everyone is happy, and that is statistically impossible.

So I'm the person with no stake in the hierarchy. I have no fear of being fired, no loyalty bias. I get to ask the right questions to the right people, and I start to understand the reality from what they tell me is their reality. When I have spoken to everyone, I then present my learnings. Of course, all is anonymous to the team, including the leader.

The leader's always involved because this team needs to work together. And then there's usually a big, "Wow, we had no idea this is happening." And then we start to work together how to move forward

## [00:13:52] What does a 'wow' moment look like?

[00:13:52] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay, cool. Um, give me an example of a wow moment during work with your clients.

[00:13:58] **Iva Buschmann:** Okay. [00:14:00] Uh, a client, uh, he was in his 60s, maybe 70s, a lovely man.

It's a family company. They have two factories. they're a specialized manufacturer, uh, in a mid-sized city. why I'm saying that is because hiring top talent in Prague is easy, but when you're in a mid-sized city outside of the capital, um, it's not. It becomes very difficult to hire the people.

So, you grow your people from the bottom up to your management team. And, uh, this, uh, CEO, the owner of the company, he had an executive team reporting to him, and he was convinced everyone was happy and well looked after. They had the top position. They had company cars. He took them to f- trade fairs around the world and business trips, and he was sure from his point of reality, and he knew how they were doing, that they must have been happy.

Then when I spoke to the management team, they all said the same thing. They respected him for what he [00:15:00] has developed or grown this business to 700-people company. Uh, and they had a, a enormous respect. He had always taken care of them, and that is exactly why they couldn't tell him what they really thought, because they were worried that if they come up to him, that, that he will think that they're being ungrateful And the company was growing, and the, owner was bringing a new CEO from the capital, and nobody knew what, what that meant for them.

Was this person being groomed to take over one day because the owner was getting older every year? Would he arrive with a big city manners and tell everyone how things should be done? So the whole team was growing more and more uneasy, and the owner had no idea. So we spent a day together, the owner and his team, and for the first time, they talk about more than the day-to-day business, and, uh, they said what they've been thinking, and he answered the [00:16:00] questions nobody had dared to ask before because we created a, a safe space.

Uh, and uh, he told them he was not stepping down as an owner, that the COO would run the day-to-day so he could focus on building new business. He still brought the CEO in at the end, but now the team knew why, and he knew what to pay attention to around his management team. Because in a smaller city, without talent pool, your team is, uh, what the business really stands on, and that is my job.

His team told me what they couldn't tell him, and then he told them what they needed to hear. I mean, at the end of the day, as we, you and me always say, it's not a rocket science, right? It's back to the basics.

[00:16:42] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, but sometimes you need an, uh, outside, um, perspective on things or

it helps to have an outsider come in and put the finger on the sore spot or address the thing that nobody is talking about, right?

[00:16:56] **Iva Buschmann:** Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you need to have, uh, um, mm, you can [00:17:00] call it a coach or a mediator, someone who is, uh, independent, who has no stake in this to manage the conversation, because it's impossible for, for anyone else in the team to do that.

[00:17:13] **Linda van Egmond:** Absolutely. Um, what is something... Can you name one more example of what comes up with your clients?

[00:17:19] **Iva Buschmann:** Uh, something, uh, very interesting I see that I haven't, uh, gotten yet enough feedback at as much as I would like to see is, uh, leaders who are turning 50, 55 and they have 10, 15 years to retirement. Uh, it's usually a client with a brilliant career, you know. They do a million dollar decisions, and then I ask, uh, usually him one question, "What's your legacy?"

And there's a silence.

[00:17:45] **Linda van Egmond:** Ooh, yikes.

[00:17:46] **Iva Buschmann:** Because who are they without their job, right? And about, uh, I calculate that 85% of my clients can't answer it, and the rat race asks what you produce, and then 50 hits and a different question shows up. Did I [00:18:00] chase this or did it chase me? Would I choose this life again?

Hmm. And no one prepares you for that, so this is my favorite question always.

[00:18:09] **Linda van Egmond:** Ooh, it's a, it's a very deep one, if you think about it.

[00:18:13] **Iva Buschmann:** Because people, they don't think about it in their 50, 55. They still think, "I have so much time till retirement. I'm still building, building."

Yeah. Yeah, but in 10 years you're retiring. What's your legacy?

[00:18:26] **Linda van Egmond:** Time flies.

[00:18:27] **Iva Buschmann:** Time flies.

[00:18:28] **Linda van Egmond:** And you're certified for this, right?

[00:18:30] **Iva Buschmann:** Absolutely. If you ever want to get a coach, please make sure they're fully certified by one of the two associations, either International Coaching Association or the European version of that.

So I'm fully certified under ICF with additional certifications. Uh, one is with Marshall Goldsmith. He has been ranked the number one executive coach in the world and is in the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. He's in his 70s, a brilliant mind, and his teaching is so simple. Please, uh, [00:19:00] whoever's listening, go out on YouTube and see what he does and say.

And, uh, it's so simple, but that's why it works. And then, uh, because the life I live, I then studied under Philip Rosinsky, who is the pioneer of leading and coaching across cultures.

## [00:19:15] How do you run your family like a business?

[00:19:15] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay, very cool. I have to look these people up. you run your family like a company as well, and I personally think that is a stroke of genius. Can you tell me a little bit about how you approach this?

[00:19:27] **Iva Buschmann:** Oh.

[00:19:27] **Linda van Egmond:** Oh. I just think it's brilliant.

[00:19:30] **Iva Buschmann:** Well, one of the companies I run is Buschmann Gmbh. It's our family.

It isn't registered anywhere, it runs fully in my head. Like, you know, imagine all those computer screens with lights that run 24 hours a day. That's my head. And I say- ... the shareholders, uh, are my family members, and they're demanding, never happy. The

[00:19:50] **Linda van Egmond:** worst

[00:19:51] **Iva Buschmann:** of the worst. Yes. So every quarter there is a review.

Are our shareholders happy? Are the kids doing well? Is the marriage doing well? Do we need more, [00:20:00] you know, uh, uh, dating time? Because life gets very busy. And I always say, every relocation is a merger. New market, new school, new suppliers, and the whole workforce has to be onboarded again. And then school holidays come over the summer, which is peak season for the business, so the CEO in me doesn't get time off.

[00:20:20] **Linda van Egmond:** You just gotta keep going. Okay. So why run a family like a company at all?

[00:20:26] **Iva Buschmann:** Why not? Because a few years ago, I realized, you know, we give our best energy to the companies we work for. We leave in the morning, and we come back in the evening. When we come home, there's very little left for our own family and our own life, and I don't think that's correct.

Because family with two kids and two careers across several countries is... that is a serious operation, so I decided to run it like one. It's much more fun, I promise.

[00:20:55] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah. It's like a multinational organization.

[00:20:58] **Iva Buschmann:** True. You actually [00:21:00] told me that. I didn't realize that that much, because that is normal for me.

But I do have Amazon accounts in four countries, and I think of any kind of, uh, uh, in, uh, of... yeah, any kind of insurance, uh, health and house insurance in four countries, tax rules in three countries, school calendars in two, and I do that across five languages and time, two time zones. So that's a lot to carry in my head.

[00:21:25] **Linda van Egmond:** yeah. Like, it's no small feat. does that show up in how you work?

[00:21:30] **Iva Buschmann:** You could probably tell I'm very structured. I see the big picture, and I think about every shareholder involved in a decisions, because if someone isn't on board, how does that change things? I do this with my husband and my daughters, uh, the same way, I do it with a client and every, part of their life around them.

You can't take one piece out and look at it alone, because if you do, everything else is being influenced.

## [00:21:57] What did you lose in the moves that nobody really noticed?

[00:21:57] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, fair point. let's go back [00:22:00] to the expat life for a moment. what did you lose in the moves that nobody really noticed?

[00:22:07] **Iva Buschmann:** Ah, ouch. That's a sensitive topic, especially you say nobody noticed.

Yeah. Because nobody is able to see that because when we go everywhere we do have friends, but you don't see it from the distance, right? I can count friends on one hand that we have. Uh, I left Czech Republic when I was 21. I haven't lived there since. I have two friends there, and we see each other once a year for lunch.

And actually a friend of ours who is semi-retired expat, he keeps asking us every summer, "So who are your friends? Who will you hang out with when you retire?" And it's a very valid question, uh, because when the children are out of the house, uh, your circle, of your friends is becomes kind of your family, and our friends are all over the world.

And to be very honest, I cannot picture myself being 80 flying around the world to visit my [00:23:00] friends or making new friends, uh, at the age of 60. So this is a sensitive topic, and I have not figured this one out yet.

## [00:23:09] What do you believe now that you didn't believe before you started moving?

[00:23:09] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, it's a tricky one. what do you believe now that you didn't believe before you moved?

[00:23:15] **Iva Buschmann:** That happiness is a choice, and I'm the only person responsible for mine. Because when you move and you're all by yourself, the first months are not pretty. You complain, "The last country had better apples and more sunshine," right? You live in your own misery. But the mindset has to move with you, and nobody can do that part for you.

In Czech we say you're the conductor of your own train, and you're the only one, uh, who knows where it's heading, so happiness is a choice.

[00:23:44] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay. That's a good, good saying. And someone once told me to only focus on the people that wanna get on board of that train- Mm-hmm. Yep ... not the people that stay standing at the station, or the people h- are headed in other directions.

Yep.

[00:23:58] **Iva Buschmann:** And it's also [00:24:00] sometimes okay that people join you for a short ride, and then they

[00:24:03] **Linda van Egmond:** get off

[00:24:04] **Iva Buschmann:** the- Yeah, and then get off. Mm-hmm.

## [00:24:05] What are you unreasonably proud of?

[00:24:05] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, very true. in all of this, all the, this whole process of your life, what are you unreasonably proud of?

[00:24:13] **Iva Buschmann:** That I'm still happily married.

[00:24:16] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah.

[00:24:16] **Iva Buschmann:** It is hard work. I keep saying marriage- Yeah

is hard work. And 25 years- It is ... you have to reinvent and reinvent, and we've been together 25 years. And I'd have to say for us, expat life help because we're dealing with everything across cultures, so we never really have time to argue about who left the toothpaste out. We have bigger, bigger problems to solve .

## [00:24:38] What's the first thing you do in every new country?

[00:24:38] **Linda van Egmond:** Bigger fish to fry. Okay. Yes.

Let's talk about what tools you use to help you run your life. What is the first thing you do in every new country?

[00:24:48] **Iva Buschmann:** I start weeks before we land. Thank God for internet and, uh, uh, all the social media where you can find information, and the algorithm really helps. So the moment the call [00:25:00] comes that we're moving, I go onto Facebook groups and Instagram, and I go into the expat parents of, let's say, Munich or expat parents of Shanghai, whichever city that is.

I get tons of information about the doctors and the schools and this and that, and you can ask questions. and also then y- I would always ask about which schools and why and this and that. So, and I also tap into my network because there's always someone in my network of acquaintances that knows someone who is already living there.

Uh, and, uh, we spend most of our expat life in Asia, where you cannot count on English, so, um, I always say the expat community is like the Yellow Pages bef- and before I arrive, my Rolodex is usually ready.

[00:25:41] **Linda van Egmond:** Planning is everything.

## [00:25:43] How do you manage both your family business and your leadership advisory business at the same time?

[00:25:43] **Linda van Egmond:** and how about managing your like, your family business and your leadership advisory business at the same time?

How y- do you manage both?

[00:25:52] **Iva Buschmann:** Promise you won't laugh?

[00:25:54] **Linda van Egmond:** Uh, I'll try

[00:25:56] **Iva Buschmann:** Okay. So I say, I told you I run it like a business, right? [00:26:00] Everything. So companies have whiteboards, they have softwares, they have joint calendars, and they make minutes of meetings. So I used to run family on Trello, but they were not on it.

That was just for me. Different person, different projects. Now I moved it to Claude, where I have, uh, created a big dashboard with reminders. I also have two massive physical whiteboards at home. One is in my office, and one is downstairs in living room, or, sorry, dining room for everyone to see. And, uh, everyone has online calendar, and they're all interconnected.

And the house rule is, uh, before you plan anything or ask me anything, check the calendar because everything is in it. Uh, then, uh, most, um, of my clients are in Europe, so I run the family business during the day, and I work, for my coaching clients and, uh, for Expat Mom Founder Network from 3:00 to 8:00 in the, uh, PM in the evening, which is European morning.

I squeeze all calls in three, days of the week. I try to. And the other two [00:27:00] days I'm flexible for whatever comes up. If you ask me if I want to work more, absolutely. Been waiting. Uh, because I say that for me, uh, full-time work is, uh, on average four hours a day. Sometimes it can be, uh, 10 hours a day, and then the next day is off.

Uh, but it's, uh, on average four hours a day. so I would love to work more, but I already... uh, we already have one child at university, and I only have four more years with the second one, and time is flying fast, so I want to enjoy the time, uh, when she comes home and tells, still tells me about her day, and we have dinner together as family.

Because in four years, my day-to-day motherhood chapter is, uh, closing, and then I can work nonstop. So now it's the time to make priorities and, uh, build a working schedule to my advantage.

## [00:27:53] How did your perspective change when you learned you weren't the only expat mom founder?

[00:27:53] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, that sounds, sounds quite, um, realistic. we always joke about how [00:28:00] you and I met and our first conversation, and how enormously skeptical you were.

For a long time, you thought you were the only one doing all of this, like the combination of being an expat, a mom, running, like running a family business, and, um, yeah, like, oh, actually multiple businesses. So tell me about this. How did that come from your perspective?

[00:28:26] **Iva Buschmann:** There were no other women I could hang out with.

You had to find me on LinkedIn. And- Well, I spent most of my expat life in Asia, and I felt very lonely because I wasn't meeting these women. I was convinced there were no expat moms working like this. Either they worked for corporates or didn't have the... or didn't have children. And then you convinced me in one phone call, Linda is very good at convincing, that I was wrong.

And, and here we are 12 months later with Expat Mom Founder Network up and running with members spanning from Peru to Europe to Australia. Super proud of that. And it [00:29:00] has been a fabulous year building this together.

[00:29:03] **Linda van Egmond:** it has been. It's been a, a, quite a journey.

## [00:29:06] What surprised you most when member started joining the Expat Mom Founder Network?

[00:29:06] **Linda van Egmond:** what surprised you most, once the members arrived?

[00:29:10] **Iva Buschmann:** feeling exactly the same way and going through the same things, and I think that's what makes a tribe. You connect through hardship and the need of belonging, and suddenly here in Expat Mom Founder Network, you have someone to talk it through with. Uh, and you and me, we gave it a s- a special s- name, right?

It's the secret language. You say something and everyone nods because only we understand the complexity of our lives. Uh, and we can say, "Yep, been there, done that. This worked for me." It's... And, uh, that is really ass- reassuring, um, and that you don't get judged in our network

[00:29:46] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah, I think we underestimate the importance of having some people around- Mm-hmm

that just get it. it, it's a big game changer.

[00:29:54] **Iva Buschmann:** It is. It's, it's very comforting to have found this, uh, tribe, this network.

## [00:29:59] What is the Expat Mom Founders Network?

[00:29:59] **Linda van Egmond:** [00:30:00] Okay. And so we're building this together. Yeah. Um, tell us about the Expat Mom Founder Network.

[00:30:06] **Iva Buschmann:** Okay, a little marketing here. Expat Mom Founder Network is for expat founders building their own business.

Think of it as the founder network you would have joined back in your home country, uh, but this one is rebuilt for women who live abroad. Uh, and, uh, expat founders work alone at home. They can join the local accelerators or founders groups, sometimes because of the language, sometimes because it meets at the wrong time of the day when you have children.

So we're fully online, open around the clock, and you can join when you can. And it works on three levels. The first, uh, is your business. Every member sets a quarterly plan that's realistic about the holidays and the real life, and then each month we ask, "What are the three things you will focus on this month, and how will you track them?"

And once a month there is a business hot seat. You bring the challenge you're dealing with [00:31:00] right now, and you get a room full of advisors telling you what they would do being in your seat. Uh, and our members, they bring a lot. Their backgrounds include, we have now investment, uh, and finance person, pr- uh, someone specialized in product launches, psychology, procurement, research, and pharma.

It's very impressive what is, what are the backgrounds, uh, of our members. The second level is belonging. Mm. And once a month we meet for a founders circle, and that's where we talk about the side of founder life nobody posts about, the doubting whether it all makes sense building a business, um, uh, while raising family abroad.

Sometimes the exhaustion, um, often watching everyone around you grow their sales while yours stands still, and then you feel discouraged. So this is our founders circle. And the third level is visibility. We just launched last week a member directory, so, and other members know what you do, [00:32:00] uh, they can hire you, and they can refer you within their own networks.

And, uh, in our business labs, which are our live webinars, you and I are members and guest speakers. Uh, we teach practical skills. We had one of our members, uh, Laura, was sharing pricing, uh, tips, uh, three weeks ago. Sarah will have a, a webinar on the latest marketing hacks and how to get clients' attention when everyone is overwhelmed with information out there.

And, uh, uh, we plan a specialized webinar on sales, because we all need sales. So you join when you can and for parts that makes the most sense to you and to your business.

## [00:32:41] Quick-fire questions

[00:32:41] **Linda van Egmond:** Okay. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you for having me. I have a few quick-fire questions to- All

[00:32:47] **Iva Buschmann:** right, shoot ...

[00:32:48] **Linda van Egmond:** wrap this up.

tell me, konbini is a Japanese thing, I think. It's- Um, what is your go-to order?

[00:32:55] **Iva Buschmann:** Kon- it's convenience stores, a massive thing here. Of course, egg and tuna [00:33:00] sandwich always. It's so delicious.

[00:33:03] **Linda van Egmond:** Uh, one Japanese thing you'll never get used to.

[00:33:05] **Iva Buschmann:** How they hide their emotions. H- sorry, how they hide their emotions.

You know me, I'm a very... You can read me, uh, as a card, so that's why I'm banned from playing poker, and you saw it- ... on my face last week when, uh, you explained something, and I just gave you my face, and you knew- ... "Iva, do you understand what I'm saying?" So hiding emotions is not my thing. And I think that,

[00:33:26] **Linda van Egmond:** that's- And I

[00:33:27] **Iva Buschmann:** don't have a

[00:33:27] **Linda van Egmond:** poker face either.

a Japanese habit that you picked up without noticing.

[00:33:32] **Iva Buschmann:** Bowing. You copy the body language around you, so you nod with your head, sometimes you, you bow a little bit deeper depending whom you talk to or if you leave a s- a, a store. And then I land in Europe, and for the first week I keep bowing to the cashier and the bus driver, and they think I'm a very strange lady, because I look-

like them, but I behave str- behave strangely.

[00:33:52] **Linda van Egmond:** Your favorite hidden corner in, uh, uh, in, around you.

[00:33:57] **Iva Buschmann:** Well, it's not in Tokyo. [00:34:00] Uh, it's, uh, one of the beaches south where we live near Kamakura. It's beautiful water, view of Mount Fuji, and it's, uh, less than an hour from the city.

[00:34:09] **Linda van Egmond:** Ooh, that sounds amazing. Um, tricky question maybe, which one's home? Like, the...

You mentioned a lot of places. Czech Republic, Germany, Tokyo. What's your- Uh, yeah ... what's your home?

[00:34:21] **Iva Buschmann:** Uh, that is a tricky one. So my roots are Czech, my heart is in Germany, the North Sea, and the countryside right next to the ocean, but Tokyo is our home now. I say home is where the sofa is.

[00:34:32] **Linda van Egmond:** Fair point. And, uh, tell me one TV show that left a mark on you.

[00:34:37] **Iva Buschmann:** Ted Lasso, absolutely. I think it's the best show on leadership and kindness ever made. I've watched it twice, and it never gets old.

[00:34:45] **Linda van Egmond:** Yeah. We're about, uh, uh... We just started season three, so because of your, um, absolute endorsement.

If someone in the middle of this right now, the middle of expat mom founder life is, what is one true [00:35:00] thing you want them to hear?

[00:35:02] **Iva Buschmann:** Be a really good planner, and plan a buffer for the unexpected, because it will always happen. Uh, after a move, it can take 6 to 12 months before you have settled, uh, everyone else and have room for yourself again, if you know what can happen, you will not be overwhelmed

[00:35:20] **Linda van Egmond:** Very true.

M- life mantra, planning is everything

[00:35:24] **Iva Buschmann:** Planning is everything. And one last thing for two kinds of listeners of our new show, if you lead a team, they don't tell you everything. Nobody does, and that's the gap I work in. Your team tells me what they don't tell you, and then we fix it together. You can find me through Tokyo Leadership Institute, or just connect with me on LinkedIn.

And if you're an expat mom founder, Linda and I build the expat mom founder network for you. You will find us at www.expatmomfounder.com. And I spent years thinking I was the only one doing [00:36:00] this, and I wasn't, and I'm glad.

[00:36:03] **Linda van Egmond:** Yay.

[00:36:04] **Iva Buschmann:** Thank you for having me. This was fun.

[00:36:07] **Linda van Egmond:** Thank you for asking, letting me ask you all these annoying questions.

Okay, you're next. Yeah, yeah, yeah.