Why does moving abroad make me feel like I lost my career?
If you moved abroad and feel like you lost the professional life you built, this podcast is for you.
The Life of an Expat, Mom, Founder is hosted by Iva Buschmann and Linda van Egmond, two moms who moved countries, gave up careers they had built, and started businesses while raising kids in places where they didn't yet know the rules. This trailer holds the whole show in one morning: Linda has spoken Dutch, German, English and French before 9:30, and Iva has called her eldest in Milan about a flight and spent twenty minutes on hold with her tax office in Prague, all from her kitchen in Tokyo.
Across the series they take on the network you didn't bring with you, building a business in a country whose tax system you're still learning, balancing the workload with family life, and the strange feeling of being a slightly different person here than you are back home. They also talk about money, guilt, the invisible family logistics, and the weeks where you wonder if any of this is working. Guests are women from their community who have done it: who they were before they moved, what they expected, what surprised them, and how they found their own way forward.
Discover the Expat Mom Founders Network
Q: Why does building a business abroad feel so much harder than it did at home?
A: Because the network you built didn't move with you. Linda and Iva name that as the setup you're working inside, not a personal failing, and that reframe changes what you expect of yourself in the first years.
Q: How do I keep a business running when I'm also holding all the family logistics?
A: They talk about the invisible logistics that cross time zones, cultures and languages, and the money and guilt attached to them. Iva's own day is the example: a client call after dinner because that is the hour that works for the other time zone.
Q: Is there anyone else who actually gets what this life is like?
A: That is the reason the show exists. Two hosts who have lived it, plus guests from their community of expat mom founders, on who they were before they moved and how they found their own way forward.
If you've moved countries, kept your ambition, and sometimes feel like nobody around you quite gets it, start here. New episodes biweekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Life of an Expat Mom Founder is a production of the SwissCast Network
SwissCast Network supports independent podcasters who create English-speaking shows in, for, or about Switzerland. SwissCast also works with companies and brands that want to reach the English-speaking audience in Switzerland through sponsored podcast episodes, ad placement, and curated content.
[00:00:00] **Linda van Egmond:** It's 9:30 in the morning, and I've already spoken four languages: Dutch with my husband, German with my daughter's teacher, English with a client, and French with the neighbor.
[00:00:10] **Iva Buschmann:** Here in Tokyo, it's Tuesday evening. I have called our eldest in Milan about her flight home and spent 20 minutes on hold with my tax office in Prague.
After dinner, I will take a client call from Germany. Four countries and I haven't left the kitchen.
[00:00:26] **Linda van Egmond:** We're Linda and Iva. We moved abroad, left behind our professional lives that we'd built, and started businesses while raising kids in countries that were new to us.
[00:00:36] **Iva Buschmann:** And somewhere along the way, we realized there were conversations we really needed to hear, so we decided to start them ourselves.
[00:00:44] **Linda van Egmond:** This is The Life of an Expat Mom Founder, a podcast about what it actually takes to build a business and raise a family far from the place you once called home.
[00:00:55] **Iva Buschmann:** We will start with our own stories. You will meet me, then Linda, and [00:01:00] hear what it is like to be an expat, a mom, and a founder all at once. We will talk about who we were before we moved, what we thought it would be like, and what we lost and gained along the way.
[00:01:14] **Linda van Egmond:** Then we'll dig into what makes this life harder than it looks. The network you didn't bring with you and why it's the setup, not you, building a business in a country where you don't know the rules yet or the tax system for that matter, how to balance the workload of a business with family life, and that strange feeling of being a slightly different person here versus when you go back home during the vacations or the holidays.
[00:01:38] **Iva Buschmann:** You will hear us talk with other women from our community who have done it, about who they were before they moved, what they expected, what surprised them, and how they found their own way forward.
[00:01:52] **Linda van Egmond:** We'll get into the things that don't always make it into the success story: money, guilt, the invisible family [00:02:00] logistics, and those weeks where you wonder if any of this is working.
[00:02:04] **Iva Buschmann:** We will share what we have learned, the questions we are still figuring out, and practical words and ideas you can use in your own life
And yes, we will also talk about what makes it all worth it, because it is.
[00:02:19] **Linda van Egmond:** We're not here to tell you to work harder or pretend you've got it all sorted out.
[00:02:23] **Iva Buschmann:** We're here to have the honest conversations we needed when we started.
[00:02:28] **Linda van Egmond:** So if you've moved countries, kept your ambition, and sometimes feel like nobody around you quite gets it-
[00:02:35] **Iva Buschmann:** You're in the right place ...
[00:02:38] **Linda van Egmond:** follow The Life of an Expat Mom Founder wherever you listen to podcasts.