Take on a new role in a few easy steps

by Chantal Panozzo

For many trailing spouses, reinvention abroad is a common theme. If you visit ExpatWomen, for example, you’ll find stories of successful lawyer turned authors, advertising executives turned entrepreneurs, and accountants turned artists. But how exactly, do you reinvent yourself?

Below are some tips:

-Start with what you love. If it weren’t for the money, what would you do? Would you write? Would you walk dogs? Would you go shopping? Brainstorm what you love to do in your free time.

-Figure out how what you love could become a business. If you love to shop, could you give shopping tours of your new city or launch an online shopping guide? If you love to write, could you become a professional blogger? If you love to paint, could you design and sell greeting cards?

-Now pick the most promising idea from your list and start creating a platform that will help your name get known. A platform is just a fancy word for a bunch of things you do that make you an expert in one area. How do you become an expert? Below are a few things to consider to get you started:

-Keep a blog about your area of speciality and build a readership. Network with other bloggers. Volunteer to write guest posts on popular sites in your niche.

-Sign up to receive HARO notices so that you can help a reporter and get your name in the news at the same time.

-Volunteer to give talks or classes about your topic at clubs and organizations.

-Write articles about your area of interest for publications.

-Start a Twitter account, but keep it single-minded and use it only for your chosen topic.

If you follow some of these steps, before you know it, you will be well on your way to a new career.

Have you reinvented yourself abroad? How did you go about it?

Chantal Panozzo is a writer in Switzerland who has written for a variety of publications on two continents. She’s the author of One Big Yodel, a blog about life in Switzerland and moving abroad, and also discusses living abroad as a freelancer at Writer Abroad.

By Chantal Panozzo

While living in Switzerland, I have devoured many books about the living abroad lifestyle. Books about a British woman involved with too many French men. Books about an American man trying to buy something as simple as a bay leaf in France to disastrous results. And books about an Australian journalist who can’t help but run out in her sweat pants to buy a baguette to the horror of her chic Parisian neighbors.

Below I’ve listed some of my favorites—and as you’ll see, I have an affinity for books taking place in France. Am I a traitor? I don’t think so. Because right now, I can’t seem to find any memoirs about living in Switzerland, even though the country has a foreign population of 20%. But no matter. Because the experience of living abroad and reinventing one’s self is a universal theme no matter the location. And because most of the books below have reinvention abroad as a major theme, I can relate to them all—and I think maybe you will too.

Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson is a memoir about life in Paris with a modern, digital twist. What happens when your blog messes with your love life and gets you fired from your job? This British author and expat has the answer.

I’ll Never Be French by Mark Greenside is a hilarious account of what happens when an American man buys a house in Brittany. It’s fun and lighthearted and makes me want to move to France.

A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke is an international bestseller, “almost memoir”, about a British businessman who takes a job in Paris. It’s an entertaining and humorous book that deals with the realities of life and work abroad.

GenXPat by Margaret Malewski and A Moveable Marriage by Robin Pascoe are both excellent informational and practical guidebooks books on living abroad.

Almost French by Sarah Turnbull is a bestseller in Turnbull’s native Australia and deals with a young woman trying to discover a new identity abroad.

But enough about what I like. What are your favorite books about life abroad?

Chantal Panozzo is a writer in Switzerland who has written for a variety of publications on two continents. She’s the author of One Big Yodel, a blog about life in Switzerland and moving abroad, and also discusses living abroad as a freelancer at Writer Abroad.