How to Scale Your Business when There is Only One of You | Arielle Tucker

Hey, boss mama. Welcome back to the show. This is the space where ambitious moms come to talk business, motherhood, and what it takes to stop doubting and start executing. I'm your host, Manouchka Elefant, business growth and marketing coach for mompreneurs. I bring together 15 years in marketing and a specialization in positive psychology To help you grow with more clarity, confidence, and accountability in a way that fits mom life. Today's conversation with Arielle Tucker, a certified financial planner and IRS controlled agent, who helps US expats and globally mobile families with tax and financial planning. But this conversation is not just about money. It's about what happens when your business starts growing, your calendar gets full, and you realize there's only one of me, and that is not very scalable. We talk about building a business while raising kids in Switzerland. Why partner support matters so much. How Arielle got over her fears of posting on LinkedIn, and how she started using visibility, podcasting, contractors, systems and AI to grow without doing every single thing herself. So here's a question we're really answering today. How do you grow a business when your time is limited, your family still needs you, the next level requires you to be more visible than you feel comfortable? Let's get into it.

Thank You for joining me on. Hey boss Mama. I'm so happy that we're having this conversation. It's been planned for a little while and it's just amazing to have you in a different context because we've worked together and I know how your business has evolved over last year and it's so exciting. So tell us a bit about who you are and what you do. Okay. So my name is Erin Tucker. I am a certified planner,

so my name is Arielle Tucker. I'm a certified financial planner

for US expats. So

and I'm a IRS-enrolled agent. And I do tax and financial planning for US expats or US globally mobile or connected families. So that's US citizens who are looking to move abroad, who are finding themselves living abroad, or even some individuals who maybe aren't US citizens who are moving back into the us.

start

That kind of us connected piece is really where why people would find me, and I really specialize in that kind of cross-border piece. And that's really important to just highlight because US citizens, US green card holders have really unique US tax obligations that continue.

the US,

Even after you've left the us And that's very different than pretty much every other country where you just have to worry about which country am I worry

worry

living in and paying taxes there? So I'm kind of like that piece between,

am

a kind of a a trained

in

accountant and somewhere between that and an investment manager where they're just doing investments. I

that and throughout the

in and think about like how do we really focus on the tax planning

where

piece for those globally mobile uh, US expats.

business when you were living in Germany and you already had kids, or did the kids come on later?

Yeah, so I started the business in the middle of relocating from Germany to Switzerland. And so we moved about three years ago, three and a half, a little more than three years ago at this point, back to Switzerland. We'd been here six years. Prior to that, so we have been very globally mobile ourselves. So I lived in Switzerland from twenty eleven to twenty sixteen, Worked in big four boutique US tax firms. Really kind of honed my US tax preparation skills and then realized, wait, no one's doing the planning for all these individuals, right? Tax filing is very backward-looking, And I became really interested in like, how do we look forward and answer the question not. How much tax are you paying this year? But how do we apps- optimize our taxes in the years ahead, right? Where are we living now? Where do we plan to, to live? What are the implications of those choices that we make in our life? So then we moved back to New York for a couple of years, then we were in Berlin, Munich and then we came back to Switzerland and. I decided at that point I had worked for a number of boutique firms, some startups,

and um, and so about four years ago, five

and I was like, okay, I have seen how the sausage is made

to the US permanently. and I decided that that was my kind of niche to focus on and I was like, okay, I have the knowledge and- Mm-hmm

and I am now kind of ready to take control of my own destiny. And I knew I had like a great network at that point, and I knew I had like this really unique skill, right? Doing this kind of financial planning, taking these different aspects of people f- financial information and tying them all into one place. And so we launched at that point and at that point. I had 10-year-old and a five-year-old when I officially started, so my kids were a little bit older, which I guess makes it a little bit easier.

I think that if they're in school, it's definitely a lot easier because you have time in the day. Like last week here was holidays.

Mm-hmm.

m- my son is two. so when he's not in daycare and he's in daycare, half the week now. could feel the difference the whole week with me. I had no time to do whatever, and I had such a big to-do of course. Uh, Yeah, I think that makes a big difference. still, You still have a lot of. Demands on you. And I think when you have kids that have such a big age gap, it also adds its complexity because they have very different needs. And if they have similar needs, it's not necessarily at the same right? But, um, it, it does make a difference when they're they're in school,

That's true. I mean, yeah, thinking back to when our kids were really little, like how we worked and how we parented is very different than how we do today.

Mm-hmm.

like being able to start my own. Firm that was really launched because I wanted more flexibility. Right. I Right. I didn't wanna be subject to standard business hours, 9:00 to 5:00, because when you have children, nothing is standardized. Right. Especially in Switzerland where your kids are coming home at 12:00 to eat sometimes, and other days they're at school until 5:00, and there's like a holiday every six weeks here for like two weeks. So

Yeah.

s- you have to have a lot more flexibility. I think what I underestimated. Starting the firm was, I would just have the luxury of working all the time.

Mm-hmm,

necessarily having, I have flexibility of like, when I'm available to my kids, so I'm always, you know, a- avail. I'm able to like block my calendar for the hours that I need to be available for them.

Yeah.

probably work more,

Okay.

Like I, I do probably work more, but. I'm more energized by my work and I find it kind of like addicting, like I love working so much because every little thing that I do I know is creating like my ideal future. And because I have such a clear vi vision of what that is, it really kind of becomes addicting and I have to be like, okay, so now this is family time, or this is family break. But I find especially like in the first two years, I don't think I took a vacation really. Like I always had my computer with me. I was always available to my clients. Um, it wasn't until maybe this summer that I start, like I took our first like real vacation and even then I'm still checking my emails.

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a difference between you do it because you're scared or you do it because you enjoy it.

Mm-hmm.

of course the first year, I think when you're setting up a business, you're, you're also scared of missing out on something. And so maybe you have a little bit more of a pressure to it, but then you enjoy what you're doing. And so it's not so much of a chore and you know, But I wanted to ask you something actually. What would you see between parenting in New York as a working mom and parenting in Switzerland? Because I'm, I'm,

Mm.

in Switzerland it depends. If you're in the city or in the countryside, there's gonna be differences. And New York is a very big hub, a very big city. It's bustling, right? I'm also imagining that there's quite a lot of difficulties when you're working and you're a mom, but like, how's the school system and, and because Switzerland is famously difficult.

Yeah. I would agree with that. So I, I s- there was a couple things. So we moved back to New York and we lived in upstate New York. Right. And we bought our house. So we were in like the capital district of New York and we bought our house based on the best school district that you could buy into. So like you, you do have to like think about that in the us like all the school districts are rated. And so we were in, like in what, literally one of the top 10 school districts in the United States. It was great. Um, through where we bought our house, it was also just around the corner from the elementary school and we were imagining, oh, it's gonna be just like Switzerland because our daughter's gonna be able to like, walk to school and we'll have all this flexibility. But it was such a completely different experience, like I was. Such a weird person in upstate New York because you couldn't actually walk to school like it wasn't safe because you can't actually cross the street and there's no, there were no cross guards. So our daughter literally had a two-minute bus ride every single day, which was just, it felt so wasteful to me.

Yeah.

um, And Most of the kids could have walked or biked. It's just not safe to do that. And that I found so annoying that you just, like, they didn't have sidewalks.

Yeah,

wasn't a thing. And cars just

Europe, it feels weird when you're in the

It was

and you can't walk or, to places.

Yeah, and you couldn't like just go into the school. Like here, we also live like right across from the kindergarten, And so our son went there and it was literally like, he would just get up and walk out the door and go to school by himself. It was like super, you know, self-effi- self, uh, sufficient four in. In New York, it was like they had, you know, a lot of security. Like you couldn't just like walk into the school. And so like culturally, I found that so frustrating that here is this place, it's the hub of the community, and because of all the security issues that we have in the US you have to basically have this in, a, in a lot of ways, a charade of security.

mm-hmm.

don't, I know if I felt safer because they had all these layers of security

Okay.

schools are, it's like you have so much support staff, right? And in some ways that's like amazing because the kids who need extra support, they really do have a lot of extra support for them. And you have so many extracurriculars. Like, Just, it was so completely different. Where here, our, our kids kindergarten, literally four kindergarten teachers in the school. No uh, no There's no secretary, there's no school nurse there. like, there's nothing.

Yeah.

And so it's really interesting to see how like the dollars are spent or the dollars and francs are spent on school.

Mm-hmm.

the US schools. Especially the schools we were in were like a really nice experience. Um, and really everything is set up for parents to work, right? So school day is starting before the workday. Kids are going to school until 3:30 like every day. Like even kindergartners in our town. And

they have

a- again, uh, yeah, they're having lunch at school. um, and then there's care, you know, up to like 6 o'clock in the evenings.

long for kids.

are just expected to have really, really long days and it's much more in the culture. Like most parents, where we were working, most parents were both working and that was just kind of like the norm. Or sometimes you would have like a parent or grandparent or family members helping out. But I find in Switzerland, like that's the norm is the, the parents and grandparents are like really helping out and very present in the school. In the US, it's just much more of a culture of like. Working and we're just all, this is like the expectation. The kids' schedules in the US I found totally insane. Like every on top of these really long school days, everyone was doing all these extra things. So you would like go to school all day and then you would have like judo or like ballet or like five other activities and like that starts really young. And then all of like the sports like that also started really young. And just the expectations of kids' times, like they lead really intense. Like lives. And I like, even though it's my home country, I still like really felt like an outsider. 'cause I was like, I don't want to subscribe to the, I'm busy um, lifestyle or just being involved in like every single thing. Like kids, r- I really truly feel like kids need a lot of time to rest. They need time to be bored, to kind of develop critical thinking skills. And the, the whole, the pace of the US I found really. Exhausting. And you could just see like how it leads to such a different social, social norms. Like if you are working until 6:00, your k- you're picking up your kids at 6:00, of course you're running through the drive-through to get dinner because you've gotta get over to judo practice for 6:30 or 7:00, Right? And it's, it, it's like such a go, go, go pace. um, convenience becomes such a big priority there. Where in Switzerland I find things are not as convenient, right? Like you and I know that, but I do think it creates, in some ways stronger families. um, because you're to be

Yeah.

and that can be really hard and I think detrimental to. the mom who normally is the one taking on that role, right? As like always being the primary caregiver, of course she's going to see her career and opportunities suffer. And I think, especially when I think about expat parents, if you have kind of mom in that role as be king, being the primary breadwinner, that can also become like socially, like it's not socially normal to have the dad being as involved. So

Yeah.

uh, like the way that our societies are set up are just I, I think so completely. Different

definitely. I, I feel like in the US you have more time for work, So if you're a business owner or you're developing a business, it might give you an advantage in that sense, but then it's also at the detriment of your family. And basically in Switzerland it's a lot more demanding and it's gonna be more complicated es- if you don't have And You're a foreigner or an expat and you don't have family around, then it's also less support that is free, or less And, and childcare in Switzerland is expensive, but then you are able to build a stronger family base kind of thing. So it's kind of like there's gonna be tradeoffs and it's also a question of how your family feels comfortable and how do you see your business evolving? And I, you know, like when I came here, I didn't know I would become a mom like three years later. And I, I just thought, okay, I'm starting my business and now I'm, I'm pregnant. I'll take a break for three months. And then the three months passed and I'm like, no, no, I'm not ready. I don't want anyone else to take care of my kid. And I was lucky enough that I was able to have that option. I know many women, whether they're in the workforce or they're, uh, self-sufficient or starting a business, they don't necessarily have the option of saying, I'm taking a year off. Right? And so. You have a system that's in place, but it's also limiting their ability to really be fully focused on their work kind of thing. It keeps you in check of you're a mom first, and then you have a business or you're a worker.

Yeah. and I think it also goes to like a lot of partner discussions

and

In a lot of ways. My husband carries a lot of the like, traditional mom mental load. He is,

love

sh- I have a really amazing partner. He is the one who's waking up every morning with the kids, making breakfast, packing lunches. He's the one who is speaking uh, much So he's negotiating and, and speaking with the teachers and kind of helping organize their school schedule. So in a lot of ways, I think. Without having that supporting supportive spouse, my business would not have been able to grow as fast. I really would've had the, had the brakes on, or I would just be way more em- emotionally exhausted. So

Yeah. No,

that's

And it is teamwork. No matter where you are, it's gonna make a difference also to how you're able to carry your, your own business and your own development or business development efforts too. And you know, like, that um, be very careful who you marry because that's gonna impact your futu- future success.

Yep.

And it, it goes around everything that you touch. Like it's gonna be your kids, it's gonna be if you're a business owner, if you're building a career. yeah, it makes a huge difference. But I, I want to understand a few more things about how you've done things because I got to know you through the Mastermind. You were a participant on the first edition of the Hey Boss, mama Mastermind, and I feel like things went really quick for your business. Because it went from starting on your own, getting big clients, then developing the product line, a podcast. And now I think you have a lot more coming up. Tell me about how everything came into place and, and how you did it.

Yeah, I think, um, preparation meets... What is it? What's the, the, you, what's the... I can't remember the, line, but it's like all about

think, um...

preparation, you know, meets success or something. And I felt like my whole life kind of led me to starting my own firm and. It, I think back, it, it wasn't like an overnight success, right? It, it was 15 years of being in the right job, building really good networks, building my reputation um, in and also. We had the, e- the US election, right? The election of Trump. And all of a sudden a lot of Americans are suddenly thinking about like, well, how do I move abroad? Or what are the financial considerations and tax considerations of moving abroad? And there are very few people and transparently in this space who can like just raise their hand and be like, yeah, I can answer those questions for you. I can explain what the implications are. Um, like all of these things just aligned at the perfect moment. For the firm to just be able to like take off. I also realized, like when I started my firm, I was starting the firm and I was like, I'm going to be a financial planner. And I saw that as my role and as everything has kind of developed, I've gone from, I'm a financial planner to, I'm a business owner and I love thinking about different business ideas and exploring different ways. And a lot of the things that I think about now is scalability. There's just one me and that's not very scalable given the level of services. That we provide our clients. My bus is full at like 50, so we're like almost to capacity as a firm, which means I either need to hire more people, train more people, and. Just like it took me years to be ready to do what I do. It takes years to, to have the right skills to be able to do this. So hiring becomes the bottleneck. Um, and so can I scale? And to me that's through the podcast and um, leveraging people who do what I do who maybe aren't as public or as good at, at marketing.

I think back to the beginning, when I was

The other thing I really leaned into early on. Was, you know, connecting with media. So figuring out how do I respond to media requests? How do we build the SEO into our websites? Um, and just getting c- comfortable with being uncomfortable of putting myself out there. And I know we've talked a lot about that Manouchka. is like my first year I actually hired someone to help me, just like. Review my po my LinkedIn posts because I was so scared to publicly post anything on LinkedIn, and I thought, I'm gonna post something on LinkedIn and everyone's gonna think I'm an idiot and everyone's gonna hate me, and like, I'm just gonna like, have to curl up in a ball and die. And so I, I basically just hired someone and said, "Will you just like review. This, and we did that for three months. And then I was like, so comfortable writing on LinkedIn. I mean, you, you know, I, I'm on LinkedIn all the time now. It's one of my favorite mediums. Through being so present on there, there's been amazing opportunities that have come out of being just present on LinkedIn. A lot of media requests have come there. I just signed a, a book deal with Wiley Publishing. They connected with me uh, from there. Right? So many people have found me to be a voice there, and so. That's been amazing. And now it's like getting comfortable on video, right? Is kind of like the next thing that I'm trying to get comfortable. So we've got the podcast, the Passport to Wealth podcast. um, and that's for us expats who are living abroad or thinking about moving abroad, those globally mobile um, individuals. And we have that on camera. And so we can make shorts and put them on LinkedIn, put them on Instagram, put them on YouTube. And just kind of getting comfortable with like seeing my face randomly pop up on the YouTube alg- or the... it's uncomfortable, but like, I think I just realized if I want to be truly successful, I have to be so uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. And I have just gotten so comfortable with that, that I'm like, ra, I raise my hand and I'm like, h-

more of

if I don't feel uncomfortable in a week, like how is like, am I even doing anything

Yeah, but

at, at this point?

short breath because I find it also crazy that we need to master all these things. We have to get comfortable at getting uncomfortable on all those platforms in order to sell our product. Now, Like, 10 years ago, we didn't have to do all of that. Like, if you had a really good blog, you would get good SEO traffic and that was probably what you needed. But now, Like personally, this phase of, um... I don't know if you noticed, but I have been absent from social media for two, three months now, and it feels so good. Like, I feel like there's so much noise out there and I'm wondering do I wanna contribute to that noise Because It's never ending. You always have to produce more and more and more and more. And we were talking about this right before we started recording, how YouTube is a platform that actually has more value in that sense because you create content that can be viewed years and years later because you had good SEO and you had good topics and it are, actually, people are interested. Whereas if you produce content for Instagram or Facebook, it just gets lost in the feed. And if you're lucky, it actually gets traction. When it's launched but 24 hours later, it's dead. And so. I find that it's so important as business owners and as women who have so little time and so many demands that we really focus on the things that make a difference and not just go because everyone else is doing it or because it's kind of expected. Like really take the time to think, where am I getting my clients from? And so maybe it's a little bit funny 'cause last summer I was hosting a Cringe to confident challenge, which was using Face- or Instagram reels as the, the medium basically to get uncomfortable, to get comfortable. And I, I, in a way, yes, because it used reels, but at the same time, no, because it's all about building that confidence and that's a muscle that we need even for in-person networking events. And so, yeah, I feel like you have a lot of choices to make when it comes to how you wanna be present for your

Yeah, and I will also transparently say, 'cause it's someone's listening to this and like, wow, she's like literally on every medium. Uh, yes, I am. But also I pay people to do a lot of my social media. So it's not me posting to YouTube, it's not me posting to Instagram. It's not me doing all that I do, I'm still the person posting on LinkedIn. uh, beyond that, there are people who are doing that for me, and I'm very happy to not be doing that. And I would not do it if it wasn't for kind of having a team. And we've also like systemized everything so that it's like we n- know everything is like a thing. So it's not something I'm even looking at more than like once a month maybe

sheer

just say like, Are we getting feedback? How did that perform? Can we ab test this? Can we improve this? Uh, and I think

do

if you're just starting out and you're like, I don't have the budget for that. Choose your one medium ch- and then do this. So for me, when I was starting out, the only medium I was on was LinkedIn and that is all. I wasn't on anything else. It's been a progression and a development over the year or two years

for me, it's been,

that I've become of doing more comfortable with being in, in different places.

so can you tell us a bit more about the people you've hired? Like are you giving, putting them on payroll? Are you taking freelancers? Because I feel like a lot of mom entrepreneurs. They like the idea of working with others, but then they're like feeling overwhelmed at the idea of responsibilities, cost, and even how to get things started. Because when you're so used to white-knuckling everything, and all of a sudden you have to explain to someone else what you're doing and you're not even sure if you're doing it right, you know, all of that. How did you start and h- who are you working with? Not, not the names, but like

Yeah. Yeah. No, great, great question. So I'm, I have like, a whole team of people doing stuff for me. Um, so I have someone who just runs my newsletter. I write my newsletter and I send that to them and they make it beautiful.

with

And I love their approach because their whole thing is m- improve one thing every month. And so if you look at my first newsletter to my newsletter now, it's like amazing how much better it's gotten, bet- it, it's Um, and so I was like, I love hiring people with that. like, I-- that kind of thought process. You don't have to make everything perfect today, but do one thing better every, you know, consistently and you're gonna make something amazing. Um, so I have that person, I have someone who supports me with my website, so I will like write things and they will put them up there because that takes time that I don't have anymore to make things pretty, it takes so much time to make things pretty. Like, I will get it eighty percent of the way there. And the last twenty percent to me is like, I don't wanna be involved in those details. Um, I have someone who runs my Instagram. And also runs like my and LinkedIn for Passport to Wealth. So for the part uh, my business.

Okay.

but yeah. I mean-- Oh, and I do have someone, I just hired someone for YouTube who. Will optimize like my YouTube videos because I realized, like, oh, it, it... There's a whole science behind like how to phrase things so that it's actually can be found. And unfortunately, like me coming up with those titles was not like working. So Passport to Wealth is also on YouTube. so and all of those people are, are contractors, and they, because they all work a couple of hours a month. And what I've tried to do in the past was like, have one person who did everything, but I found, like there was just never one person who could do everything. And so I've kind of like broken up that those roles and at, at this point, everyone knows their roles and does their job really, really well. But if I was, like, tell like I'm like, I've got like five people, right, who are doing different things, that could be really overwhelming. All of those people except for one. uh, my YouTube guy who actually, like reached out to me and was like, Hey, you should hire me. This is why. And I was like, okay. I let, fine, let's try you out

emails?

Yes, it was. it was, and yeah, he re and I was just like, like, you know what, actually let's try this for a hund- It was for a hundred dollars for Four long videos and, um, I think it was eight shorts a month and I was like, for 100 bucks. like it's not a big risk. And I think like that's where I've always been really comfortable. Like I will try anything once. If it doesn't work, I will try, I will try something else.

that's also the philosophy when you joined my first mastermind.

Yeah. totally. I will try anything one time and just see like what sticks and what doesn't. And, um, now as I've gotten busier, I'm much more selective about my time, but With all of these different people, a lot of them, I, I, I organically came across them through other connections in my network, and so I, uh, we talk about this all the time, like, your network is your net worth. You... It is so important to grab the virtual coffees, to get connected with people. It, I like, I've always loved your approach so much. Like you are always trying to add value into people's lives, and I approach things the same way If there's someone that I see who does amazing work and I realize the value that they have. I am going to approach them with either paying them for their time or trying to add value to them in some way. Not, I will never send an email, Hey, do you have five minutes chat? No, you don't. They don't. They don't have five minutes to chat. And when I get those emails, I'm like. No, I don't have five minutes to chat like about your situ. Like, so you really have to understand people's value and you also like understand your value, what you kind of can bring into the situation, and once you start to approach things like that, not because I wanna be super transactional, that's not my intent, it's just people, successful, busy people are very, very busy. And you need to find them either in a place where they already are and are available to network, or you need to approach them and make sure that you know how to add value to their situation.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, completely. And, and just to, do full circle around the support and the tools, what kind of tools are really making a difference in your business? Like, which ones would you recommend to someone who wants to set up something that is efficient?

Yeah, so one of the, I mean we talked about this before because you mentioned you switched to Descript, and I still use Riverside and I think Riverside's fine. And so one of the things like we do with the, with the podcast, we record the video, so I was really uncomfortable on video, but again. exercise that muscle. I'm now on video for all my podcasts. Um, and then we use that to create shorts, which then creates content for Instagram, YouTube, and even LinkedIn and Facebook. Right. And so I think it's just important to like, s- think about how can I be e-efficient. One 30 or 40 minute podcast recording becomes, you know. Three to posts, right? And so I, that's where I've been able to find efficiency. If you look back to my earlier Instagram posts, it was always me, like talking to the camera, scripting everything. That was super, super time. c- Consuming for me to do and I realized that I just don't have the time. So we kind of s- we changed the formula, so now we're able to kind of re- reuse content in different ways and I think it still adds a lot of value um, to our viewers. 'cause you talked about a lot about noise and. I agree with you. I, there is like so much noise and so anything I'm doing, I'm really trying to make sure it adds value to our audience, right? To us expats, trying to figure out their finances, trying to t- fi figure out, you know, double taxation and all of these questions. I want to make sure we're answering those questions and if I wake up one day and be like, this isn't actually helping anyone, I will stop. I will literally just stop.

content is Super powerful because it saves you a lot of time, but also if you're taking the time to really be clear on what it is that you're talking about, and then you're not just creating content because you feel the need to, then you can be very specific and targeted with your messaging, and it's all the more efficient, because you're actually saying the things that people need to hear, know, in order to decide to do business with you.

Yeah, and I've been um, at the amount of people who've like written and said, I, I love your podcast. And I'm like, you listen to my podcast.

Yeah.

mom and dad listen to, to the Um, and so, and it, it does mean a lot. The other thing is, I think you've gotta, w- and this is something I'm trying to explore right now is leaning into ChatGPT, right. Using it as a tool to leverage all the work you're already doing, I think is. So important from like, just, and, and I know you've taken time to like really lean into this as well. Um, a couple weeks ago, had, uh, someone reach out to me. they found me on ChatGPT.

ChatGPT? How did that happen? I wanna know.

Yeah. Th- Like they were searching for like cross-border financial advisors and they found me on ChatGPT

ChatGPT for

it...

of the information?

Yes,

they... Did

Yeah. So they.

away say this information is from there, or do you know? Because I tend to ask ChatGPT for its sources because I wanna verify information. Right.

No, they were looking for a cross-border financial advisor, and they were like, Who who are the cross-border financial advisors and. Our firm came up on their search. And I think that to me, that was like, oh wow, okay. ChatGPT knows who I am. And, and also like, l- like, how do we lean into this right? And not, and, and not be s- so scared of it? How do we say that this is actually like a Yeah, so I don't have the answers. I think you're ahead of me on this, but

I've, made it such a

Yeah

my team In a way that I'm often or surprised how there are still people that are not using it. I know it's still relatively new, like it's what, two years old, it's, first of all, it's crazy how it's evolved as well. Like the quality of the output you get and and the thinking process that it has now. It's just amazing. But I also see how. Some people don't know that it's an option that's so readily available, and then some people are scared that they're just gonna sound generic and like everyone else, and that they actually need to be an expert to understand how to use it. Yeah, there's a learning curve, but I feel like I've recently actually went over that you know, like the early- years of being a mom and I'm completely sleep deprived, like, I've got so much makeup under my eyes right now. Forget it. But I feel like it, it's been the great crutch for me when I couldn't think. now that I'm able to think a bit more clearly, I'm also like, okay, I wanna take a step back because I don't wanna lose my cognitive abilities. And I've read some articles about it and I've also experienced it myself. Like, you have to be careful not to let it. Try to do the thinking for you. You have to be very meticulous in the way that you use it to refine your output, generate ideas or brainstorm, but the, the cognitive work, the mental work

Oh,

to come from

y-yeah, To, I, I totally agree with that, but it's a, it's a tool, like it's a, like you said, it's a tool in the tool toolbox that you can use. But yes, if you just tell ChatGPT to create everything for you, everyone can tell, everyone knows. We all know I've, s- I've seen their content and I can tell, yes, ChatGPT did all of this.

um, maybe six months ago now um, to work on my other business which is psychology expert, a mental health business. she's been amazing, really great support. And I wanted her to start doing some of the social media because it's one thing that we're not spending enough love on because that business has good audience and, and they need more love. And so I was like, okay, I, I know she can do at the same time, it's not her specialty. And I wanted to ease her into it as much as possible. You know, like simplify it. And so I actually took the time to create a custom GPT, and when I say took the time, it's like less than an hour to feed it. All the information, all the, the brand values, the styles, the. Knowledge base because we also have like a a, where there's a lot of information about the, the type of therapy and and, coaching that we do. I fed all that in the custom GPT. And now when Cindy goes on and she just like puts in the information that she needs and the kind of social media that she needs support with, just simplifies her life. And that's one of the ways where it's also interesting to combine the tools and the real people helping us.

Yeah, Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, and especially like, you know, in my industry, right, we're, we're dealing with super sensitive information. I can't just like, we, we're not just throwing things into ChatGPT but when it comes to like all the marketing activities, organizing stuff, getting inspiration for blog articles, SEO optimization, if you're not using that, like you're really

Mm-hmm.

out on, um, or you're paying a lot more than you should,

So

honestly.

tools would you say you're using every day, basically?

Uh, you know, I still use Excel every day. Is-- Uh, cause I'm, s- I'm still an accountant at heart, so I'm still like in Excel, I would say uh, there's just some things that you In my bus- the other thing that we use is like our CRM system is like s- uh, point, like source of truth, right? And so like being able to figure out how to like run reports in there and make sure we're staying on top of everything and systemize. That has been something that I've really leaned into because I came from a firm where we had no CRM, so like, when did you last meet someone? I don't know, pull up an email and figure it out, right? How inefficient is that? And so I was like, okay, I wanna lean into all of the tools that I know exist. And that we can actually use to be more efficient. And my whole thing is right. We either have to hire someone or we have to become more efficient. So we're gonna try to become as efficient as possible before we go and hire that next person.

Let's take the efficiency part towards the more mommy part of your life. How do you make it so that when. the workday is over. It's kids' time, family time. do you create a balance or a semblancy of balance?

Let's Just say it's always like a work in progress. I. I, again, like I mentioned before, I have struggled with this so much and transparently I talk about it all the time. It's like finding that time that I have to turn my brain off. And s- there are some weeks where work is just so intense where even if I am physically present with my family, I am so in my head thinking about all the things that I need to do or should do, or like could do and it becomes really, really hard. And so there's been a few things that we've done. O- One. Like I try to stop work by 5:30. We always, always sit down as a family together every single night. That's really a non-negotiable. I'm also not the type of person who usually goes back to work. Like I know a lot of people are like, we'll eat dinner, put the kids to bed, and then go back to work. I can't, like my brain is like done. I am the type of person who's like in bed by like 9:30 or 10:00 every single night and like, happy to sleep until like 7:00. So, I- I mean, I've just tried to be. Really present when I'm with the family. So between like 5:30 and, like 8:00 when we're all to kind of together, I'm trying to be there and doing things with the kids and or doing things with my husband. so that, that way when I'm at work, like I am at work and I am really not available to

Yeah.

During that time. The other thing we're trying really hard to do is, you know, go hiking or get outside and get out of the city like every single weekend, right? And so that we're really s- having like kind of low tech, uh, a lot of low-tech time as a family. That's, that's kind of it. the other thing we've, Eh, I don't know. The other thing we've done as a family, there's a couple of other things. One, my 13-year-old daughter does not have a cellphone. so if she has to go into Zurich. She we're like planning it out. And she's going in by herself, no, with no cellphone. And then of course our son doesn't have a cellphone. We also will take our TV and remove it from our living room and just like have it completely unplugged for different parts. So we're really trying so hard to be like low or Sometimes no tech with the kids. We've also changed how we travel. So we used to take like, well, I would say more luxurious vacations. And in the last year we've really tried to like get back to nature. So like a lot of camping. So like we have all of our camping supplies and we will go uh, into the woods instead. And so that's like, we've kind of tried to be a little bit more like down to earth. As we kind of like raise our kids,

feel like this is very swiss of a, of a holiday.

I I, think so too. I don't know. Maybe we're just embracing like the, the local

Maybe.

a little bit more. I mean, I do feel like we've really like. tried to be simpler and uh, you know, our- we do have a son and he has some special needs and so for us we've just found like that's helped a lot with like behavioral issues and so w- it- I'm like a big, like if it's working, do more of it

Mm-hmm.

and that would, I would, that's how I would describe my parenting approach as well.

No, no, I, I, I think it makes total sense. You know, one of the reasons too, why I wanted to like get off social media for a bit, because I felt like even though I had set myself some boundaries, it's so like, it's so per perverse in our lives. It just seeps into it. Like,

Yeah.

get a message I'm spending half of my week with my son. I don't wanna be constantly.

Oh,

time I, I do this. Like when he was a newborn, I also deleted all the apps and it just felt amazing. But at the beginning you still have your hand wanting to like go to the screen like, oh, what if I just open the app? No, you don't need to anymore. You're off. And. That's one of the things as well that I see with kids that are a little bit older is that they find it so normal to be on the screen constantly. And I've seen some horrible statistics, how they spend like 14 or even sometimes more hours a day on a screen when they're supposed to be in school, like learning stuff. Like, you know, like where are these 14 hours when they're supposed to sleep? I'm just like, it's, it's so important to set an example and. That's also something that my partner is very conscious of. And at home we have a TV screen, but we don't actually have like TV connection, we just use it for DVDs. We usually watch like streaming stuff on the computer and then it's away. So we don't have like a pervasive amount of screens and technology around the house. And I think that also speaks about our values as a family. Like where do we wanna spend our time? And we're doing the same thing every weekend. We're out, we have a, a cottage up on the mountain, so we'll be there and we'll be hiking. And we're very careful that these are the habits we wanna create as a family so that we give them to our son because that's how he's gonna feel good and, and feel like he's part of everything, you know, connected to the world, to nature, but also just a good human being kind of thing.

I, I completely agree. And like I was raised weird. I remember I was the only kid in my class where we only had one TV in our house. Like that was not normal and we didn't have cable. And we like, uh, uh, like, you know, my parents raised us a little bit weird. And I'm raising my, like from a US perspective, I'm raising my kids really, really weird. From a Swiss perspective, it's more like in line with like normal expectations. But I do think it's, I, I love that like you have to be intentional with everything you do. But we've also talked a little bit about how at some point thing- things have to go, right? Would there be, a, a... do I wish I had more time to like work out? Yes. Do I wish I had more time to like socialize and have like fun girlfriends? Yes, but I don't like, I don't like, I, c- I'm not doing everything. I am basically working and I'm a mom right now and I'm just kind of embracing those two roles and I hope at some point, like there will be more capacity for me to, to explore the other things that I'm also interested in doing.

That's something that I'm, I'm also struggling with at the moment, and I'm trying to be like, you know, like I like to be or- organized or feel like I'm organized and, and then. always manage to follow the plan. And it gets frustrating, but at the same time, you need a plan if you're gonna actually get things done. And my partner has been pushing me to like have more time for myself because I'm also prioritizing like together time, family time, la, la, la. And he's like, no, you need to like see people. You need to do things for yourself. And I'm like, yeah, but even if I have like the evening for myself, what do I wanna go do? Like I wanna go out into a coffee shop with my computer and do work because I enjoy it.

Yeah.

i do have that boundary, except when, when I have those pockets of time, I do have that boundary that I'm not gonna reopen my computer in the evening unless there's a really, like a deadline or like the only period I've really done it with, Hey Boss Mamas was when I launched the podcast. 'cause I was like so excited and it was so much fun and but yeah, you have to find that, that kind of boundary of when you wanna set a limit of time and family, otherwise you're gonna and underdeliver in both of these.

I, completely agree with you. Completely agree.

And, the, the things that you're looking forward to, because you have the book coming up, how, what's the organization around that? Like, are you gonna create more space? Are you gonna hire more help or, what you told me offline is that you have a very short deadline.

I know we do. Yeah, so the, the, we're we're writing a book. The working title right now, and I don't know, this will probably change, is the US. Expat uh, money, uh, handbook or something like that. Uh, we'll, we'll, we'll play around with that. So basically it's, uh, it's gonna be like this guide for us expats, aspiring us expats, how do you navigate all of these different rules of the country that you wanna go and live in? So it's a pretty comprehensive book that I need to write. Um, and we also wanna launch a course. With that, right? So that people who wanna like dive deeper into topics, we have that course. So right now what I'm trying to do is like, we've really had to slow down and be really intentional in the planning business. So we've actually been on a waitlist for, at this point, like a solid year. Like we're just always o- on a waitlist with people who are like, I would love to work with you. It's like, great. Our next opening at this point right now is like January of 2026.

Okay.

and so we've really slowed down onboarding. We're also expecting to make our first full-time hire for a planner in January as well. And so that will hopefully free up a lot of my time around planning to kind of pursue some of these activities that I feel like are just way more scalable. But it's, it's all very tight and messy right now. Um, I don't know how it's all gonna work. Uh, honestly, I, I don't have enough time. And you know, the truth is the people who pay when I don't have time are, is the family, right? It's my husband who's like often taking the kids on the weekend so I can have an extra day to work. And so maybe I'm working six days that week instead of five. So I think it's o- I I just wanna be really honest with that. Like, it's not all perfect. I, but at the same time, I feel like I do have some really unique and exciting opportunities and. Where I am professionally, I do wanna h- take the time to pursue those and I feel very lucky to have a partner and a family who are like, they are understanding like that This is also kind of my time

Mm-hmm. No, that's really cool. One last business question. When you're, because I feel like you're very focused on what it is that you're trying to create with your business. Like all the different products, the different ways for people to access your knowledge and, and the services that you're offering. already think about how the business can function without you eventually, or how it would be possible to sell it at some point?

Yeah, absolutely. So I just went through this, nine-month mastermind, it was all about basically focusing on scalability and how to remove yourself. So for me, we've talked a bit about this, is like creating those processes, those templates. That's something we also have like built out in like our C- CRM.

Mm-hmm.

not recreated like. I do with my planning clients. Everything is so unique, right? Where you're moving from, where you're moving to, where you're gonna go eventually who you're married to, where you're working, all that stuff is really unique. And so the planning is unique to the clients, but there's still a lot that we could like template out. And so at this point, my focus very intensely over the last. you know, nine months has been how do I template everything so that it's not like I'm rewriting the same email every time. Right. Our onboarding process is very templated out. All the clients are gonna kind of go through the same j- journey, and then we're gonna veer out and we're still gonna find patterns, right? With the client work that we do. And when we see those patterns and we realize, okay, we've done this more than twice now that becomes a template, right? And, y- but you have to be. So diligent about that. And so that's, you know, we have an admin and her job is to basically, what did Arielle do and how do we build that template

Yeah.

someone else can do that next time?

mm-hmm.

so when I'm in a meeting, I'm there and I'm adding value.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

It's not that I've done all the meeting prep and I'll do all the meeting follow-up. It's like I am. As much as possible, more and more being intentional about removing myself from meetings that I don't need to be in, removing myself from emails that I don't need to be in. So that the people who can handle that can handle that and I can trust them to handle that. And then again, that frees up more time for me.

Yeah, that is so important. I love it. question. In 20 years from now when your kids are all grown up, what do you wish they would say about you?

Gosh, that's like a, r- I, I don't know why that feels like a hard question.

you said that you listened to some podcast episodes, so I'm

I, d- yes, I did. Yes. Well, I, it still feels like a hard question. I. I want them to always understand that I love them. I think that they will probably think I'm a bit of a tough mom

Why?

and I, because I'm, I'm like very structured and that translates into how I run our home as well. So I think that they'll probably say I was tough. I will hope that they will know that I always love them and that I always tried to do. The best for them. And I think that also kind of ties in like being the entrepreneur but also being an expat, right? Doing things differently than how I saw them growing up and doing them all 4,000 away miles away from our family. Like it's just a completely different motherhood journey and I just really will hope that they know I love them and that I always tried to do what was best for them and their future. And I hope they think I'm kind.

it. I love it. I love it. It's beautiful. And know, y- when you're saying like that, you're a bit weird and stuff. I feel like it's, it's something that I'm appreciating more and more in people is that they think differently when they've grown up differently. that they think more for themselves because they're not trying to conform into the group because anyways, they didn't growing up. Right. And I, I feel like that's giving an edge

I totally agree, and especially in the age of ai, right? Everything is, can be templated, everything can be produced to mass scale, and we've talked about that. One of the things I so appreciate about. um, Especially my daughter, right? 'cause we can really see her personality coming out. She has such a strong sense of justice. She has such a strong sense of not conforming with the others, which, if you know anything about Swiss culture, that can be a really hard place to be. And

And when you're

yeah. And I, to me, looking at how she has navigated some. Different social situations. I am like so proud. 'cause I was like, the, you are not a yes person. You understand? You can think and. my goal with our kids is not that they, you know, grow up and they go to some Ivy League school. It's like, are they, are you curious? Did you learn how to be curious? Did you learn how to learn? And did you learn how to think? And so I'm like seeing, and we're starting to see that. And it is like from a, like a, from a parenting perspective, it's like it's so cool to be like, yeah, you're a little bit weird, but that's awesome and we could not be more proud of you.

Where can everyone find out more about Passport To Wealth, your podcast and your business and connect

Yeah. so, Like I said before, I'm on LinkedIn, so if you just search Arielle Tucker, you will find me. And then. You can follow our podcast passport to Wealth. We have a website with, which also has a blog now. But you can find us you know, Spotify, apple S-Spreaker. You can find us across all the major platforms, YouTube and then connected financial planning. at connectedfinancialplanning.com is our main planning firm. You can find lots of free articles and, and blogs there as well.

will be in the extended show

Okay, Manouchka, thank you so much. This was really fun.

Well, thank you for coming over because I love hearing how you organize things, and I'm learning so much also from how you do it. All right, boss mama. That was my conversation with Arielle Tucker. If you remember one thing, let it be this: growth doesn't come from doing everything yourself forever. At some point, the next level asks you to get more clear, more visible, and get the right support around you. And really, I loved how Arielle gets so honest about that, and I wish more entrepreneurs would. She didn't start by being everywhere. She started with one platform that she focused on, LinkedIn. She got support when she needed she built systems, and she keeps choosing the next uncomfortable step. So here's a little reflection for you. Where are you still white-knuckling something in your business that could actually be simplified, supported, or delegated? So your next step is simple. Choose one area where you're making things harder than they need to be Your content, your admin, your visibility. Your follow-ups. Pick one and ask, What would make this 10% easier?" Just don't hesitate to DM me on Instagram @heybossmama. I love getting messages with questions, with suggestions, or ideas, even for collaborations. And in case you forget, you've got this, boss mama