Expat Business Hero: Inspiring Interviews with Expat Entrepreneurs & Business Experts

A brain-storming session at a BBQ with friends inspired Barbara Lax to quit her successful engineering career and create a winning child care concept for modern families and companies in Switzerland. Undaunted by attempts to sabotage her business and the inevitable family struggles, Barbara eventually won Veuve Clicquot's Swiss Business Woman of the Year 2017 and is today ranked among the Financial Times 1000 fastest growing companies in Europe. 

Notes: https://www.alexcongdon.com/29

James Moffat is a Scottish born entrepreneur living in Switzerland. After 20 years in the corporate world and thinking, ‘Is this it?’ he found himself on the outside, looking for a new adventure. On his journey to gain his own clarity and purpose, he built a business helping entrepreneurs better align to their own purpose whilst boosting their visibility.

Episode notes : https://www.alexcongdon.com/28

Yuri van der Sluis is a Dutch sales expert, speaker and author living in the Valencia region of Spain. His passion is helping B2B sales organisations to lead with trust because without trust in the sales process you’ll never create value. Full of inspiration and enthusiasm, Yuri speaks to Alex about his struggles and difficulties in setting up the business and the things he has learnt along the way, and what he hopes to achieve in the future.

Episode Notes: www.alexcongdon.com/27

One of the hardest things a business owner faces is setting the price for their products, especially if you are the product! Janene Liston moved from California to Switzerland and has taken her career expertise and created a business advising small & medium sized businesses on their pricing and how to charge what you are worth. And that's why she calls herself The Pricing Lady!

Full Episode notes : www.alexcongdon.com/26

Johan Franzen, a Swede living in Switzerland, is proving there is entrepreneurial life after a long and successful corporate career. He's created what he calls a “virtual swiss army knife for your entrepreneurial journey”,  a platform for entrepreneurs that want to connect and be part of a trusted community of like minded business owners and specialists, exchanging resources, tips and tools. He’s given it a novel name too, www.entnest.com

Episode Highlights

01:33 - What prompted the start of your community ?
05:01 - The connection of trusted people for entrepreneurs
07:08 - The bigger and global vision to help entrepreneurs
08:15 - How has your corporate background helped ?
15:54 - The transition from employee to entrepreneur
26:32 - Key learning points when starting a business
32:16 - Future plans and goals

Full Show Notes & Transcript 
https://www.alexcongdon.com/25

Yann Ilunga is a Swiss-Italian entrepreneur based in Helsinki. His passion is podcasting and as well as producing his own successful shows, he coaches those interested in starting and growing a podcast very often to support their business. He also has a successful Facebook community group with over 2,400 member from all over the world and has been featured in Inc.com, Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Full Show Notes: http://www.alexcongdon.com/24

Episode Highlights

02:14 -   How and why did the business get started?
06:49 -   Is podcasting an ideal business when split between locations?
09:57 - What is a mastermind group and how does it help your business?
14:04 - When setting up a business why is a podcast a good idea?
17:38 - How can podcasting be integrated into an established business?
24:50 - Things to think about when starting a podcast
28:03 - Does the business and podcast topic need to be exactly aligned?
31:10 - How to get listeners to your podcast show
38:54 - Is there a place to migrate from audio to video?
42:07 - Structuring a location independent business
46:17 - Learnings and success stories from working with clients
50:07 - Future plans and goals

Guy White is the founder of Catalyx, a successful and very innovative agency based in Geneva helping brands connect with their ideal consumers. Originally from the UK, Guy quit the safety of corporate life to start his 1st business before he turned 30. In this episode Guy we discuss his view of risk, entrepreneurship and leading a start-up organisation.

Full Episode notes https://www.alexcongdon.com/23

Episode Highlights

00:57 -  Who does Catalyx help and how?
05:36 -  A different approach from other market research agencies
13:27 -  Challenges and difficulties of setting up the business
19:22 -  Practical support and inspiration from others
23:50 -  Business and clients achievements
22:06 -  What are the future goals for the business?
23:50 - Who would you like to mentor ?

Sarah SantaCroce is a Switzerland born and bred LinkedIn expert who spent time living abroad in California where she mastered the art of social media networks. Now living back in Switzerland, Sarah was able to build on her experience to build her business and the LinkedIn expertise that she has today. Sarah works with introverted entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants, to help them establish systems, make worthwhile connections, generate leads and for them to create their own businesses using LinkedIn.

For the full transcript and resources, please visit:

https://www.alexcongdon.com/22

Carl Wahlers, former rugby player and corporate manager wants men with mental health issues to get things off their chest. He's set up Blokes And Black Dogs, a support group in Switzerland for men who want to enjoy life once again. 

http://www.alexcongdon.com/21

Melitta Campbell, has a formula for helping women start a business on their own terms. Originally from Wales, she's now in Montreux, Switzerland and has overcome her own out of balance lifestyle to become a successful business coach for women.

The full episode page is available here:
https://www.alexcongdon.com/20

Jonathan Cave is a Geneva based New Zealander who quit the "good life" managing the lives & money of ultra wealthy families and is now on a mission to help individuals and teams connect with their purpose so they can live extraordinary lives. He says that it all starts with getting clarity and that only then can you truly be happy and perform to your best. His approach is based on creating your own personal philosophy of life using his MyPhy system. 

Show Notes:

To take a free 'Happiness Gap' test, visit http://www.myphy.com

Full Details on https://www.alexcongdon.com/19

-why hiring a business mentor beats free advice from friends
-how a mentor sees the potential in you that you can't
-how to sell : moving from fear to impact & empowerment
-the power of business & life partnerships
-the secret to maximising your energy in your business and life

And she also reveals why Italian women are great to date or marry!

If you would like to join Alessia and the Industry Rockstar team on one of their free business mentoring events in Europe or beyond, please sign up here:

https://www.alexcongdon.com/alessia

Michelle Masters, from California, is a world leader in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and has the incredible gift of helping people rewire their brains to overcome limiting beliefs around money and other areas of personal change. Her latest book is called Money Magic and you can find more details on her work and the book on the show notes, at https://www.alexcongdon.com/17

Sundae Schneider-Bean is an intercultural strategist and host of The Expat Happy Hour podcast, which has been rated no.1 on iTunes Places & Travel section. Originally from North Dakota, she lives in South Africa but calls Switzerland home. She works with individuals and organisations in over 60 countries helping them adapt as quickly as possible to ever changing international life. She’s experienced a coup d’etat & terrorist attacks, navigated very doggy internet connections and all whilst keeping her family safe and growing her global coaching business.

Useful Resources:

Interview with Sam Dorri, a Brit in Singapore, who creates customised art for parents who want to preserve their favourite parenting memories in Singapore. Sam gave up working with big brands and agencies and sought her independence as an expat, moving from the UK through Bahrain and eventually Singapore. We cover solopreneurship, the need for partnerships, sales and how to balance life with work.

Show Notes:

www.Sammyeve.com

Stuart Elliott, a British expat, arrived in southern China via a long detour through Southern Africa and whilst raising a new family, runs his global coaching practice from there. He's passionate about mindset and hypnosis as ways of building your confidence.

Show Notes:

Free 5 x step confidence boosting course
https://doubleccoaching.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartelliott1/

Ekaterina Filippova (Kat) helps entrepreneurs make their brands and websites more visible online, dare I say radiate? Her journey to Montreux, Switzerland started in a town in the Urals, Russia where the Soviet nuclear program was born. Sit back and listen to Kat's story, a wonderful heart centred person who makes a difference to those she works with.

Show Notes:

https://ekatcommunication.ch

https://www.facebook.com/ekatcommunication/

https://www.instagram.com/ekatcommunication/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterinafilippova/

Online visibility hacks community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/katsonlinevisibilityhacks/

Interview with Alex Greve, a Dutch 'Food Techie' entrepreneur living in Malta & founder of KickDish.com, an e-commerce app unifying meal planning and grocery shopping. Tells the story of his ups & downs of building an eCommerce app, testing before building & how to outsource (& in source) programming work. 

Show Notes:

www.KickDisk.com

www.Upwork.com for hiring freelancers 

Stuart Kibbe moved from the USA to Geneva, Switzerland where he founded THE IT GUYS, a very successful IT services business. On the way, he mentored disadvantaged children in inner city London, a phase which has greatly influenced his ability to show compassion for all those he works with today. As a double entrepreneur couple, Stuart is passionate about marriage and shares his tips on how to make it work, a topic his wife Harriet has turned into her own business (see link below). Stuart's always been obsessed with Peak Human Performance and just can't help himself running the odd triathlon here and there. He shares his thoughts on mentorship and how he struggled to initially to understand the concept of paying business mentors but is now a complete convert and puts this at the heart of his advice for others starting up.

Show Notes:

www.stuartkibbe.com

www.buildmymarriagetoday.com (Harriet Kibbe)

Diana Dentinger is an Innovative Change Maker & Influential Thought Leader who inspires you to Live "who you really are". Entrepreneur, Corporate Team Builder & Executive Coach. From Chicago, USA, now living in Torino, Italy. Podcaster & author. She starts the episode telling us that you need to choose between the two major values of freedom and stability - you can't chase both! And she also has some interesting observations about why you can never really be fully part of a culture you were not brought up in. We went just over an hour but the episode is full of great nuggets & fun!

In her Number One Self Help Transformation book “Modus Vivendi - Your Life Your Way” she takes you on a journey to discover yourself. Recently awarded one of the Top 100 World Women Achievers for 2018 in the HR Congress held annually in Mumbai India.

Show Notes:
www.dianadentinger.com - featuring a freebie page with personality quizzes, find your life purpose quiz, what is best career fit for you quiz and masterclasses on self confidence and time management.

Diana's book: Modus Vivendi - Your Life Your Way  (on Amazon)