124) How Gabrielle Became a Digital Nomad Mom & Started Her Family Abroad

Today I am in a studio in Bali, Indonesia, recording this episode with my dear friend Gabrielle Martorana, who I've known for many years and since I know her her life has changed so much. 

Gabrielle is a new mom with her first child who is living abroad in a Southeast Asian country. She didn't start there though, she used to work in corporate in a big fancy job in San Fransisco till she realized there was another way..

From pitching her employer to become her first freelance client to creating a life that puts family, freedom, and intention first, Gabrielle broke out of the matrix. 

We also dive into what it's actually like to have a baby abroad, why Bali became home for their family, and how they're raising their daughter while living as expats. 

If you've ever wondered whether digital nomad families are realistic or if you have to choose between adventure and motherhood, this episode is for you.

So today I'm really excited to have her talk about her slightly unconventional yet traditional lifestyle and how she got to where she is now.

In this episode, we talk about:

•  Why Gabrielle left corporate life to become a digital nomad 
•  The mindset shift that made moving abroad feel possible 
•  How she turned her employer into her very first freelance client 
•  Building a business while traveling the world 
•  What it's really like living as expats in Bali 
•  Navigating relationships while traveling full-time 
•  Deciding where to raise a family abroad 
•  Why she chose to have a baby abroad instead of returning to the U.S. 
•  Creating a birth experience aligned with her values 
•  Why digital nomad families are more possible than people think 
•  Designing a life around freedom instead of following the traditional timeline 

Whether you're dreaming about moving abroad, wondering how to become a digital nomad, or simply looking for permission to create life on your own terms, I hope this conversation reminds you that there isn't just one way to build a beautiful life.

Connect with Gabrielle:

Follow her Instagram: @expandwithgabrielle 

Ready to create your own location-independent life?
If this episode sparked something in you and you're ready to stop dreaming and start building your own digital nomad lifestyle, send me a DM on Instagram @christabellatravels with the keyword "APPLY." 

We'll chat about where you're at, where you want to go, and whether the Digital Nomad Life Academy is the right next step for you.

🎧 Ready to take action on starting a remote business? Watch Christa’s free business training “5 Steps to Work From Wherever:” digitalnomadlifeacademy.com/biztraining

Transcript

Opening And Why This Story

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast. I'm your host, Krista, also known as Christabella Travels on social media. And I am here today in a studio in Bali, Indonesia, recording this episode with my dear friend Gabrielle Marturana, who I've known for many years actually, and just I'm excited to get into the story of how we got to know each other, but also I really want you to hear her story. So, just as a little reason, backstory why I wanted to get her on the podcast today. So she's just had her first child, so she's a new mom, which is so exciting. A new mom who is living abroad in a Southeast Asian country, and a new mom who's just made different decisions in her life to get her to this point. But I think when you hear her story, you're going to just, I don't know how anybody could not respect this woman so much, so much for um the businesses that she's created, the brave decisions that she's made, the dedication to her relationship and to her family values. So, you know, for me, I'm someone who single person living abroad, maybe if you are someone who's really deeply connected to family values, maybe my story doesn't relate as much to you, but I'm sure Gabrielle's will. So I'm really excited to have her talk about her slightly unconventional yet traditional lifestyle and how she got to where she is now. So welcome, Gabrielle. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. So happy to have you here. So let's um just do an intro for the listeners. Tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're living, what your lifestyle is like, what do you do? Give us a whole whole spiel.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

All right. So I have been a digital nomad since 2019. Actually, Christabella Travels was one of my first really like anchors and inspiration of like how the heck do you do this thing? Way before we knew each other. Yes, way before we knew each other. Yeah, probably starting in 2017, actually. Because that's when I first heard of this term digital nomad. I came to Bali on vacation, and someone's like, Oh yeah, those are the digital nomads over there. Like, and I was like, What does that mean? They're like, Oh, you know, they work uh for the US dollar and live abroad and and they can travel. And I was like, excuse me, what? And from there I just became obsessed. And so you're a big part of that journey. And yeah, today I live here in Bali with my partner Andres. We um own a villa here and we just had a baby. I have a two and a half month-old baby. Andres and I have been together for almost 10 years. Um yeah, and I own a couple businesses, and I get to be a very, very present mom. Um, was able to put a lot of my tasks and things on either autopilot or offload them so I could really go into my birth portal, which I feel so incredibly grateful for. I'm still in the portal, I feel like. Um, it's just been super beautiful experience. Our families come out to visit. We just have so much spaciousness in our life to really enjoy this next chapter. Yeah. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

And um, before you were uh before you became a mom, before you got pregnant, before you got the villa in Bali, because the villa is like a relatively new thing that you now own the one, which you also built. Yes, right. So crazy. By the way, her house, oh

Meet Gabrielle And Her Bali Life

SPEAKER_02 7:09

my gosh, she's got this beautiful rice field view. It's a literal dream. So before, before that, um, what were you doing? You were traveling, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

And yes, we did the full-blown digital nomad thing for I think like three years, where we were staying places mostly for three months, one to three months at a time. We had a lot of places we wanted to see and experience. I think I've traveled to somewhere around 35 or 36 countries now at this point. Cool. Yeah. And then from there we wanted to slow mad. So then we wanted to kind of hang out in some places. COVID hit. We were in Bali for a while. Um, we were excited to explore actually living in the States again. So we hopped back over to Georgia for a bit. Um, we just get to kind of follow where we want to be, which is so nice being location independent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

What a dream. Okay, so like living the dream, and the dream has evolved and transitioned and pivoted and stuff since sounds like 2019. What happened before 2019? Where how did you what were you doing before? Yeah, just give us a little snapshot what life was like in your old life.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, yeah. I feel like I was a classic American college grad. Like went to school, graduated, went and got my beautiful big flashy job up in the city. I went up to San Francisco. I worked in the sales department of this beautiful hotel company. Um, but it wasn't all that I thought it was going to be. I had visions of me in like my heels and my pencil skirt and like being in corporate America, climbing the ladder, all the things. And then I start living that life and I hit like insane levels of depression. I hated my commute to and from work. I worked in the basement. I guess when you work in a hotel, you forget the nice parts of the hotel are for the guests, the ugly parts of the hotel are for the people who work there. Uh, so I worked in like a basement in the financial district. Um, yeah, it was just not what I had envisioned. And I thought, even at that young of an age, I thought, oh my gosh, this cannot be what the rest of my life looks like. And we talked about what was that pivotal moment that made me realize that this lifestyle is not for me. Because if you would have told me that a few years before, I would have told you you're for sure wrong. Like I'm a go-getter, I'm driven, I want to like climb the ladder, like all the things. And then I was living it, and I remember one day I was, I got permission to leave work for a couple hours, which was a big deal because you basically weren't allowed to leave the premise, you know, classic nine to five cubicle, like butt in your seat for 50 hours a week minimum type thing. Uh, I was out of the basement on a Tuesday at around 10 a.m. And I remember looking at these women who were sitting at this cafe and they were chatting, having a coffee outside, had the sun on their face. And I was just thinking, what am I doing wrong? Why, why is that not me? Why am I here on this like one hour of freedom to go get a parking pass for my car? I was allowed to leave. And these women seemed to just kind of have the freedom to do what they wanted. And I just thought to myself, you know, I really miss the playbook here. Like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Did you have any suspicions on what they were doing? Like, what did you what did you think?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

You just knew that you were not, it was just a mirror that you weren't happy, or like Yeah, I think at first kind of my rational mind was like, oh, they're a stay-at-home wife, like their husband is taking care of them, and or oh, they're a trust fund baby, or I don't know, something like that. Uh, kind of making up excuses about why they could have it and I couldn't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That that like hurts my heart a little bit just to be like, oh, they must have a man supporting them. Because I know you're like the last person to you're like so female empowerment and everything now. But um, yeah, at the at the time, I think it just really goes to show even someone like yourself who I see you very much as someone who thinks outside of the box and thinks for yourself. But even when you're so in the system, it's really hard to see outside of it definitely until you have these little moments like that. So, okay, so you had the moment of realization, and awareness is the first step, as we say, to healing and changing anything. Um, awareness that there is an issue.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

But what did you do with that awareness? Like and how long did it take for you to go from feeling like, oh, I think I missed the playbook here to actually making a change?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah. So that would have been 2015, is when I had that first kind of glimmer. And then I started

Corporate Success That Felt Miserable

SPEAKER_00 11:55

looking at alternative ways to create freedom or travel in my life. Actually, the first thing I looked at, because I was still kind of working in the constructs of being in hospitality, because that's what I knew. And I would say in hindsight, that definitely made the process longer and slower, is because I kind of set this box around myself, around what was possible based on my degree and what I had done and things like that. And so I was looking at jobs in the hospitality industry where I could have freedom. And I heard of this job where you could be a scout and go look for new properties and locations for hotels to be built for a hotel company. And I thought, oh, that could be a way I could have a bit more freedom and travel and movement. Um, but then I started traveling for work. And if you've ever traveled for work, you know that traveling for work is not great. Yeah. It's much better to travel for yourself than it is to go on a work trip. Yeah. Uh work trips can be just exhausting. And for me, I was always like inside a hotel or inside a convention center. I didn't actually get to enjoy where I was. And so that was the first piece. And I would say, really, the biggest piece though, was when I traveled to Bali in 2017 and heard about the concept of being a digital mad. I had been looking for something like that, but I had no idea that existed. And as soon as I heard it, it was like a lightning rod. Like my whole body was like, absolutely yes, that's what I'm doing. And then I had to figure out how, but I knew that I wanted it, and I wanted it more than anything. I knew that was going to be the life that I was going to live. I just had to figure out how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Wow. So, okay, so you were inspired. And at this point, it sounds like your actual only professional experience was working in a hotel.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I worked in a hotel and then I really, really disliked that whole experience. So I came back down to San Diego from San Francisco, and then I worked for my dad. My dad's actually an entrepreneur and owns his own company uh for about a year. And then I worked for a corporate events company for I think two years or something, something along that line.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Is a corporate events company where you were when you had this realization? Yes. Okay. Okay, cool. All right, so you had like slightly varied professional experience. Um did you was like working online something that you saw a path to at that point?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yes, because when I took the job to work at the corporate events company, it was a decrease in salary from what I had been paid before. So I knew that I had to have a side hustle. And it just so happened that a friend of a friend owned a couple businesses and he needed basically like a virtual assistant. And so I started doing some side work for him to make up the loss in salary while I worked for this corporate events company. And as I started working for him, he's like, Oh, you're young, you're you're a millennial. Can you do my social media? Can you do my marketing? He's like, Of course you know how to do that, right? You're like young and tech savvy, like figure it out. And um, I actually I love marketing and that's what I minored in in school. So I was like, of course, I'm in. And I slowly transitioned in the corporate events company to then working in the marketing side. I started on the operations and sales and then went into marketing. And so these things kind of converged at the same time where I was growing this side hustle kind of by accident that ended up becoming this marketing agency with several clients while I was still working for the corporate events company. And so I had a taste of what it felt like to just work from my computer at home at night, like um on the weekends and things. So I knew that it was possible.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Did you think that working for like working from your laptop from home was an important piece of the overall equation, like getting that taste, as you said? Did that contribute to your ability to do it later?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yes, I think it contributed to my confidence that it was possible. Um, and it also contributed to my confidence in that niche of digital marketing because I had all this proof that you know, people will pay me to do this. Like I do do good work and uh just establishing those foundations. Because what happened next was then I approached the corporate events company and I told them, hey, I'm leaving, like literally leaving the country, but I'll still do my same job for you, but as a freelancer, so technically for cheaper because you don't have to pay my uh all the taxes and benefits benefits, yada yada yada. Um and I'll still do it for you. I've been working for you for almost two years. Like I you know and trust me, you know I know how to do it. Uh so become one of my clients. And uh and I was like, just do it as a trial run, you know, just three months. Let's just try. And they're like, okay. And then they ended up staying with me until COVID hit. It was really just like that. They were like, okay, yeah. Literally.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I just like I'm I always picture somebody driving in their cart on their commute to work, listening to this, and like for just listen to this. There is a there is a world, there is a reality where you pitch your employer and ask them to become one of your clients, and they just say okay. Like, you know, you might not actually have to be so scared of doing that. Because I think that is uh what I've heard from so many people that have made the transition in from corporate into um yeah, being a digital nomad is that they make their boss their first client. Yep. So love that you did that. Okay, so then you had already decided that you were gonna move abroad. I want to zoom into that decision. For me, moving abroad was a very intense experience. Like it was very intense telling people that I was moving abroad.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Um, for me, it was 2013. So I guess at this time there was Instagram. Um, so maybe people were a little bit more like aware of the fact that you could

Side Hustle That Became An Agency

SPEAKER_02 17:54

be doing stuff abroad. I don't know, but um yeah, you decided to move abroad. Also, were you with Andres at that point? Okay, so okay, now I want to get into the relationship stuff too. Like, what was he doing at the time? Was he fully on board with this nomad plan?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Like, what was going on with that? It is such a funny story. So I have this aha that like this is what I'm doing, and it was undeniable. And so I tell him, I'm gonna become a digital nomad and I'm gonna go travel the world. Do you want to come with me? And he was like, I can't. Like he had just graduated university, he had this really nice job as a sales rep, and he was kind of on this path to what would have been kind of cookie-cutter success. And in my opinion, kind of a boring life, but he didn't. No offense, but yeah, no offense. But he could see his whole life path in front of him, like in this job and this career, and they had promised him all these things, and he was like, Well, this is what like I set myself up to do, and I can't leave. And I was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna go without you. And I was like, Well, do long distance and you can like come visit me and it'll be fine, but I have to do this. I'm sorry, but I have to do this, yeah. And he so he thought about it, I think for a week, maybe. And then I remember so clearly we're in my little apartment in PB, which is this beach town in San Diego, and he walked into my room and he's like, Okay, I'm coming with you.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

And I was like, Ah, yeah. Yeah, I was like, Oh shit. Okay, because the relationship wasn't the issue at all. It sounds like you just had this deep, deep, deep knowing yearning that you needed to be on this path. Absolutely, 100%. I love that. Yeah, okay. So he how was he gonna make it work? Did he quit his job? Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Yeah, he did. He quit his job, and he actually, so his dad is a very intelligent real estate uh investor, and so he had guided Andres into investing in real estate very, very early. So Andres had already invested and already had passive income. So he was able to actually quit his job between what he already had saved and the passive income coming from his investments, and then just kind of figure it out. And actually, what ended up unfolding was he kind of retired at the age of 24. Nice. Yeah. And he took that whole year to just travel with me and he didn't need to do anything else, which I was very envious at the time because switching over to corporate world to running my own business and traveling was a lot to do all at once. Yeah. And so I was quite stressed the first year. I was high on life, having a spectacular time, and very stressed out, like both. Yeah. Um, and he didn't have as much of that because he wasn't trying to juggle all of this workload while figuring out how to travel and live abroad and do all of these things, which was great because then he got to pick up a lot of the load of okay, where are we gonna stay? Where's the local grocery store? You know, all the pieces to settling into a new place. So that was a really nice partnership that we had there. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Okay, so he kind of handled all the logistics, everything, like I'm assuming he was looking for the flights and all that.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, I mean, I did I helped for sure, but he took a brunt of it, I think. Yeah. Okay, I feel like that's that fair, that's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Cool. Was did that um did that affect your dynamic at all romantically? If if you were having to, I assume, like when you're running your business, it's no one's making you work 40 hours a week, but it's like

Choosing Travel Even If Alone

SPEAKER_02 21:45

to your benefit if you're putting in more sweat equity, especially at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Um, so yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about just what that was like in the early days when you were working and he wasn't?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yeah. Um, I definitely didn't need to work as much. I I wasn't working 40 hours a week at that point. I think if I remember correctly, I didn't have too many marketing clients. I had like my big corporate one and maybe like one or two other small ones. It was a few years later while I was working a ton because I I had like, I don't know, 15 clients at once at one point or something. Um, but then in these early days when he wasn't working, I I was working a decent amount and I definitely felt stress, but not to the level at which I did later. I'm trying to remember. Oh, yes. Actually, I remember a few times that I felt very kind of resentful of his freedom. There were times when I had to go to the co-working place and I had to, you know, put in the hours and the work, and I felt like I had to, you know, I I had these commitments I made and these things I needed to get done. And he'd be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go surf with Alvaro today, and I wanted to go surf too. Yeah. And uh yeah, and then I had to stay in the co-working space and then he would go surf. But sometimes he knew that I didn't want to just be there alone, so he'd sit there and um do build things on his computer. He was into like 3D rendering and things like that. Um, but yeah, it w it was a pain point to a certain degree for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah. Do you have any advice for someone that is maybe traveling with their partner for the first time on just how to manage, I don't know, conversations or expectations, just any lessons learned that you got from that experience? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Of course, I would say one of Andreis and I's biggest strengths, which is why I think we have such a connected, passionate, loving relationship 10 years in and it's deepening and growing, is this profound level of communication. And I think it's also because we both take responsibility for our pieces in the puzzle. And I think that because I'm so available to say, like, yes, don't love that, I'm gonna change that, or yeah, I can see how that hurt you, or yeah, I can see how that's not a great way of doing things or things like that. And so is he, that we can come and sit and have these difficult conversations that are can be very, very uncomfortable, but with this underlying level of respect and this underlying level of knowing that this will pass. I think that's something that's really critical to remember is even when you are in like a fight or a confrontation or you know, trying to solve something, is there's always this foundational anchor point that like we're in this. It's not like, oh, our relationship is ending or something like that. It's like, no, we always figure it out. We just have to sit down and talk through and feel through the things that maybe feel really fiery or really um emotional or really intense and sit in that fire, and we can always come to a resolution. And I think that doing that over and over and over and over again builds a really, really profound level of trust. And that's I think that's the cornerstone to our happiness.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Beautiful. Okay, so just open communication, knowing that you're in sort of a unique, interesting, fleeting situation, and just to be yeah, talking about it as you go.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Yeah, because I think sometimes in past relationships, I've had conversations where you could feel the other person was like one foot out. And there was none of that. It was like, no, no, no, you can feel that we are both equally invested in this relationship. There is no one person as Like halfway, like you know, if this this gets a little bit too hard, I'm just I'm gonna go, you know? There was none of that energy. Yeah, so it felt really good and really safe to yeah, just have the conversations.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Nice, beautiful, great. Okay, so you made it through that chapter. Um, well, made it through that chapter as you I'm sure you were also having an amazing time too. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Can can we also hear a little bit about why it was so amazing? Like even though you were stressed, even though you were, you know, running running your business for the first time while also juggling, moving around, and doing all this crazy stuff. Like, yeah, what were some high moments?

SPEAKER_00 26:13

I mean, I had had Wanderlust since as long as I can remember. My mom bought me an Atlas for my 11th birthday, and I was elated, you know, like so just knowing that I could open up Google Maps and just be like, where do we want to go? Let's go! Like, what? So cool. Yeah, it was insane. And then we're just like uh picking our path, and we would just show up somewhere, and the the sense of adventure and wonder and novelty was just insane. And I felt so proud of us too. There was this real, real deep pride in knowing that we had broken out of what felt like this box, and we're seeing the world, and we're seeing it young too. So we were able to just do wild things and go wherever we wanted to go and adventure, the sense of adventure was amazing. I mean, things

Love And Work Expectations On The Road

SPEAKER_00 27:04

as mundane as going to the grocery store were exhilarating when you're on the back of a scooter and a go-jack in the jungle going to the grocery store, you know? Like yeah, so is that that was just beautiful and and sinking into the culture and the history and everything was a wow, everything, you know, so much novelty, so much excitement on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, I remember when I lived in Bangkok, there was this time where I needed to get my shoes fixed or something, and um, the location was written in Thai and like the street, it was in some local neighborhood where like there aren't really any street signs anyway. And I figured out how to get there, how to communicate with the person, and then I actually got the shoes fixed successfully, and I was like, Yes, like I can do anything. Yeah, yeah, the confidence building is insane when you travel like that. I totally agree. Yeah. Um, amazing. Okay, so you were traveling all around, have having the time of your life while also managing your business. Um, and then you said COVID kind of changed things considerably. So where were you at the beginning of COVID and what happened? And yeah, how did it change everything?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, we had just finished our first lap around the world, and we were headed from Brazil back to California actually to visit family. We had been gone for a full year, maybe a bit over a year. And we land in California, we're there for like three days, and then COVID hits. Yeah. It was wild the timing. Yeah. Um I remember sitting in my mom's living room and the stuff coming up on the news, and then lockdown was starting, and all these things were starting, and we're like, what the heck is going on? And we ended up staying in California for about 10 months. I ended up losing that big corporate client because corporate events, as you can imagine, took a massive hit during COVID. Uh, and then a different part of my business exploded. That's when I actually got decided to niche down into Facebook ads and Instagram ads. And I started to have tons of clients because you know, online sales was exploding as well. So then I was having people coming out of the woodwork asking me to help them run ads to their online businesses, and that was amazing. So that was the most money I had ever made in my life at that time. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Cool. Yeah. I want to actually emphasize that point because I think it's so scary when we lose our livelihood, in especially when we're working for ourselves. And I think that is probably the number one biggest fear that people have going off on their own, like starting a business, and especially if it's a client-based business. What if you lose your biggest client? Are you actually absolutely screwed? Um, but in this situation, it opened you up for time to do something that made you even more money. Exactly. So opened up a whole new door. So that is very cool. Okay, so you were you were in the pandemic, living in California, running your business. I assume you're just all in on that at the time. Yes. Um, and then somewhere you came here and then we got to meet IRL. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Well, we we actually met on the Nomad Cruise. It was the Nomad Cruise. It was before that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like briefly-ish. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then we got to know each other much better during COVID here in Pali.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Wait, side note, if anybody doesn't know about the Nomad Cruise, I do I have like several episodes where I talk actually all about the Nomad Cruise. You can just type it in the show notes if you want to hear more about it. But the Nomad Cruise is something that I owe so much of my community to, so much of the fun in my life, so many adventures. Um, it's a cruise ship that goes twice a year. It usually goes from one continent to another, and there will be about 300 other digital nomads. Everybody's doing different things, and you're gonna be on this boat for like a week, two weeks-ish, and there's just workshops and skill shares, and you go to different destinations, and you just really you meet so many people, and the networking is amazing. I've been on it like seven times, so it is true. If you haven't heard of the Nomad Cruise and you're curious about the nomad lifestyle, you don't have to be a digital nomad to go on it. It also can be a way to like get you into the community. Um, anyway, shout out to the Nomad Cruise. Back to you, Gabrielle. Okay, so okay, so uh okay, so it's 2020. Um it was did you come here in 2020 or was it 2021?

SPEAKER_00 31:40

It might

Travel Highs And Confidence Gains

SPEAKER_00 31:41

have been like January of 2021. Okay, yeah. Because I was in California for a bit, I think like almost a year. Yeah, yeah. And then and then I was able to get here. We were just waiting for our visa to come through. And then as soon as they opened the doors, we came to Bali. Nice, yeah. We had to quarantine.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Yeah. Um, okay, so at this point is Andres still retired.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Um during COVID, he did work a little bit for a family business and was just making some side money there while we were like physically in California. And then when we came here to Bali, I believe so.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

All right. So um I don't want to like lead the story too much because I know your story really well. But um, yeah, I think I I wanted this episode to be, you know, uh again about relationships and family values and everything. So I'd love to hear more about um, I guess the way that you were relating to the concept of family to your future. Like, were you seeing yourself as being a digital nomad forever? Were you seeing yourself as someone who would live abroad forever? Um, it's been a long time at this point that you have been living abroad. So, and now you're in Bali, you have a house, you have a baby, yeah, you're committed, your parents are coming here visiting you rather than you always going back there. So, yeah, can you take us back to maybe like the middle where what were your future projections at that point about what your life would look like?

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, so the first couple of years we were just in it to travel. We're just like, we want to see as many places as possible, weren't really thinking too far ahead. And I would say around probably year three is when we're like, okay, what it what's our plan here? That's that's also when our family is like, are you ever coming back or what's happening, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I think that's when I was about turning 30 as well, and I knew that I wanted to have babies. And on this, and I knew we wanted to have babies together. So we're kind of thinking, how's this gonna work? What do we want? What are we envisioning here? Yeah, and so actually, what we did is we tried to go find a bali closer to

COVID Pivot And Ad Business Boom

SPEAKER_00 34:04

family because we knew that we wanted to still maintain a certain type of lifestyle. We really love surfing, we really love the tropics, I love that crystal clear blue water. And so we're like, okay, maybe we can find a place that we love to live. We love the sense of adventure of living outside of the United States too. Um, so we went looking all over the Caribbean, Central, and South America to see if we could find uh everything we love about Bali, maybe over there. So that way we wouldn't be on, you know, the other side of the world from our family. Yeah. And so we went looking uh for a full year. Actually, I think we went to like eight different countries or something, and we did not find it. Sad to say. Yeah. Um, so that was kind of part of our process was we knew we wanted adventure, we knew we liked the power of the dollar abroad. We knew we wanted our families to still be a part of our kids' lives, and we still want to be a part because we're very close knit with our siblings and things too. So we didn't like the idea of just kind of disappearing and only seeing them once every couple of years or even once a year feels very sparse, you know? And so we're trying to figure out what the heck that looks like. So then we did that for a while, came back to Bali, as most people do, like, shoot, maybe this is it. And then we went and lived in Georgia for a while. So we're like, okay, what if we live in the United States, but we live somewhere we want to live that has more of the aspects of life that we're interested in? And we I loved living in Georgia. And that was cool too, because then we're only a four and a half hour plane right away from family, which compared to Bali, you know, 36 hours or whatever it is, that's nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Wait, hold up. I know that someone listening is gonna be like, Georgia. Oh, the state of Georgia, but also, but George, the state of Georgia? Like, why the state of Georgia?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah, yeah. What's so that? So I grew up in Southern California, which for some wild reason people don't know is a desert. Like, I don't I don't understand that. Like, if you ask anyone from the United States, like, do you know that Southern California is a desert? They're like, it is.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

It looks because those palm trees look green in the dangers. I know it's like near the water.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Yeah, it's yeah, it's desert. And um, yeah, there are trees, but they're like trees people planted in their front yard kind of trees. Yeah, they're dry trees that blow up in flames. Yes, that too. That too. Yeah, and so when we're contemplating moving back to the States, I was like, I want a Hallmark Christmas. I want seasons, I want forests, I want green. And actually, some of our buddies uh work in the movie industry and they had lived in Hollywood and moved to Atlanta because during COVID, Atlanta was exploding in the movie industry. So we went and visited them a couple times, and I was like, Georgia is gorgeous. And so when we're considering moving back to the States, I basically took the map and I drew a line across it, and I was like, I will not live anywhere north of here because I cannot handle the winter.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah, oh my god, same.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Yeah, so Georgia was below the line and it had the trees and it's on the coast. And so we're like, and we had visited a few times. I was like, let's just try it, let's just go live there and see what it feels like. And so that's why Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Nice. Okay, cool. All right, love it. Um, yeah, okay, so you chose Georgia. Side note, something that I was thinking when you were talking about um, I want a I want a Hallmark Christmas. I want to have green, I want to have snow, I want to have all the all the pretty things. Um, I was like, I love this is what I love about the nomad

Searching For A Base Near Family

SPEAKER_02 37:45

life. I love this about the way that you think, I think this way too. It's like, what can I imagine in my life? What can I what can I, what can I, what would be so cool? What would I love to experience? And then because you have the ability to work from anywhere, you don't need to be anywhere at any particular time. You can just decide, I want to have a Hallmark Christmas this year. And then you get to go do that. And if you want to experience a long, slow season where you get to go on walks in the woods every day, like you can't be in that, you can't drop into that energy when you're on vacation. Right. And and like if you're on vacation over the Christmas season, you are you gonna bring your whole family with you, or are you gonna decide, oh, I'm bailing on my family this year? Like the way that you just describe that, you have this mentality of I can have it all when I want to, yeah, at the pace that I want to. And if I want it right now and I don't want it forever, that's also okay too. Like you don't need to go to a place and just because you decided to live in Georgia, that you're gonna be there for the rest of your life. Yeah. This is a question that I people ask me all the time. They're like, Oh, are you gonna live in Bali forever? Yeah. I'm like, why what? Like, why why would it? I don't understand that question. But then I realize that's actually how people think. They think that if you quote, move somewhere, you're there forever. Right. Which is just bizarre to me, but I get that people think that way. It is. And you don't. And I love that about you. Even my mom asked you that the other night. She did. Yeah. It's like, how am I supposed to know where I'm forever? Like anything could happen. My mind could change. Totally. Like my situation could change. It just Bali could change. Yeah. A new place could emerge on the map. I just heard, oh, I just heard something today about Turkey. Oh. I need to send you this reel. Oh. Um, oh, but actually, it's not for Americans. Sorry. Okay. Basically, like Turkey just uh like dropped something about making it a great place for people that work remotely tax-wise. Cool. So, and I don't know if you've ever been to the French Riviera. I mean the Turkish Riviera. No. So beautiful. I've been thinking about it recently. I'm like, oh, I should go to the Turkish Riviera this year. Um, and then I was like, oh, I wonder if the Turkish Riviera could be another like Bali type place. Okay, we've mentioned Bali a few times. I know you've been like, nowhere is like Bali. I also feel that way too. What do you love about living here? A lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

I think some of the unique things that I didn't find when I was looking for a Bali uh in other places is the safety. Huge, huge. I think a lot of other places have the beach and the surf and the co-working spaces, and they have a bit of community and things, but the safety, yeah, the safety I think is unprecedented in Southeast Asia compared to I don't know, everywhere else.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Yeah, which I know there's gonna be some American listening to this being like, Southeast Asia's safe? Yeah, I know the news is lying to you. The news, the media, the TV is lying to you. I have never felt safer than here. It's just like I trust the local people so much. They're so wonderful and amazing. It's so true.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Yeah. And my mom being here, having never lived abroad and being in Bali for three months, has told me that numerous times. She's like, I can't believe how safe I feel. She did a little solo trip to Singapore. She did. And she was like, I felt so safe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Love that. What are was that like so unusual for your mom to do something like that? Incredibly. Like, very, yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

Wait, tell me more. So she can't even believe that she did it. It's how unusual it is. Yeah, and when she told her friends too, she's like, I did what's called the Visa run and I went to Singapore.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

It's so cute. Oh my gosh, love it. Why do you think she wouldn't have done a visa run before? And do you think that you or not a visa run? She had to do a visa run, obviously, in order to stay here longer. But um, why do you think she wouldn't have done a solo trip? And do you think you had any influence over her feeling comfortable and confident to do that?

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wouldn't have done a solo trip out of fear of safety and lack of confidence. And I think her traveling has established this new level of confidence of just being able to figure things out and get around. And I don't know, it just gives you this whole other level of trust in yourself. And I know that I've influenced her a lot because she actually had a lot of fear around traveling to Mexico. Um, a lot of Americans do. Um, I mean, for good reason in some cases, but where I was, it was fine. And so she came and visited me and she saw what my lifestyle was like there, and that was huge for her. And so since then, she's really cracked the door open and traveled to, I don't know, 12, 14 countries. Yeah, she's like a traveling maniac. Oh my gosh. I love that for her.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

That's so amazing. That's epic. Yeah. I feel like my mom also started traveling a lot more once I started traveling. Yes. Shout out to our moms. Yeah. And shout out to your mom, whoever you are listening to this. Like, I just I love pointing out the fact that sometimes when you go follow your dreams, yeah, yes, you're benefiting your own life. You are yeah, living a life of adventure. And maybe that could feel selfish. But the way that you end up inspiring other people and giving other people confidence and showing them that maybe their dreams are also possible and that they can go for it is also such a huge, beautiful benefit of you following your dreams. For sure. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Okay, so you're where where are we? Did I just go on such a tangent? Your mom.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Oh, what do I love about Bali? That's the original question. I was like, yeah, how do we get there? Safety thing. Yeah, safety. Yeah.

Why Bali Wins On Safety

SPEAKER_00 43:38

I think safety is the the biggest, biggest, biggest thing. And then, you know, all the other benefits of living outside the states, like um the value of the US dollar here, you know, goes a long way. Um, me just having had a baby, I can have immense levels of support. I would highly recommend having a baby abroad, especially in Bali.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

So, ooh, okay. I want to talk about having a baby abroad. Yeah. All right. So you were half-based in Georgia and you're American, and you probably know all about the American healthcare system. And I think when you're planning on having a baby, you're probably really invested in learning even more about it. So I assume that you were approaching having a baby from an educated perspective in terms of what was available to you for healthcare. And I'm I'm not just assuming this for the listeners. I actually know Gabrielle really, really well. And I know she's any someone who researches things like to the death. Like when you decide you're interested in something, you get so interested. So um, I know that you did your research. What made you choose Bali over the United States?

SPEAKER_00 44:53

I love the freedom that I have here to cherry pick what I wanted to be in my pregnancy and birth experience compared to in the states where you have to be so deep in the system and follow all the procedures and rules and things that to get what you want, and then maybe even don't get what you want. I wanted the freedom to handpick and to the degree of luxury that I desired, each and every piece of the experience, and say yes to the things I wanted and no to the things that I didn't. And Bali was the place where I could do that so much more easily uh and in alignment with my belief systems than in the States. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

It's back to this uh the the I want a white Christmas in Georgia this year thing. Like I want to have my baby this way and I want to have these things and these things, but not that and not that, and da-da-da. I want to make it exactly the way that I want to make it. Right. So um what were yeah, if you were to maybe there's another potential future mom listening who is maybe she is scared of leaving the American healthcare system.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Uh, maybe she has some questions about financing it. Um, yeah, could you speak a bit about about that? Totally.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Yeah, so it costs, I actually was I looked this up before because I figured this would be interesting for people to hear. I think it costs us around eight or nine thousand USD to have our baby here in Bali after everything. In Bali. Okay. In Bali. And we just paid that out of pocket because I just like chose what I wanted. Because it was about $2,500 for our doula and about $2,500 for the midwife. I had a midwife and a doula. That's what I what I wanted. And then so it's five grand, and then the other three grand was just stuff. Oh, and appointments. Because we did actually have to fly to Malaysia to get a shot that I needed and bring it back here to Bali. So that added some expenses. So we got like a little trip to Malaysia out of it, which is cool. Cool. Um, yeah, and so I kind of designed it. I knew that I wanted to have a natural birth, I knew that I wanted a doula to support me like emotionally and spiritually, and that I wanted a midwife to support me uh more on the medical like side of things. And so I was able to source all of

Designing A Birth Abroad In Bali

SPEAKER_00 47:25

that and choose how much I wanted to engage in the medical system, how much I didn't. And yeah, just really design my experience because to me it's A very, very sacred experience. And so I wanted to really give it the honor and the ritual that I feel that it deserves and that I wanted to give myself, like being uh going through this journey. So yeah. Beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Um, if you could compare that to what, like in a parallel reality you gave birth in the United States, why would that be how different would it be?

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Oh, yeah, it would be insanely different. So when I was doing all the research and kind of learning about everything available in the United States, I came across a community called the Free Birth Community, and they're very big proponents for like natural birth and home birth. So I heard lots of birth stories of people doing it kind of that way, like out of the system. And then, of course, I have all my friends that did it do it like kind of the standard way, you know, with through the healthcare and like in a hospital and whatnot. And the amount of kind of traumatic horror stories I've heard of women giving birth in the hospitals was terrible. And I'm not no judgment, like you can have birth however you desire. But my experience of kind of collecting, I like to collect first hand accounts. I don't like to hear what the media says or hoopla like that. I like to know, like you. What did you do and what did you experience? You, what did you do and you experience? Like people's first hand experiences, I find those to be the most valuable. And so when I'm talking to these different people and hearing their birth stories, I didn't want to be in a position to where my desires were not being fulfilled because they had to follow a protocol or they had to follow a checklist or they had to whatever follow the criteria of the insurance company that funded the hospital and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to follow what I wanted to follow. And of course, I wanted to be educated and safe and things like that, but I still wanted to open up this beautiful portal for my baby to come through and like be in the experience. And so for the people that I know that had births in the states in hospitals, it's very, very common for the doctors to take their own initiative and decide to not listen to your birth plan and do things that maybe you didn't want to do, or maybe there are things that come up that you had no idea were going to come up, and you're in such an altered state that you kind of just go into people-pleasing mode and say yes to things you want to say no to, and then later regret it and stuff like that. Why would you be in an altered state? Oh, like when you're in labor and you're going into giving birth, uh, different parts of your brain actually shut off and you go into this more like animalistic state, like if if you have the environment to do so. And so everything is happening quickly, and there's levels of intensity that if people are coming at you, peppering you with questions, like you're not gonna be in a normal, calm state of mind to be able to make decisions. And so you're very, very vulnerable when you are giving birth. Interesting. Yeah, and so I think it's really important to have decided ahead of time how you want things to go, and then have people around you who will then make sure that that's what happens. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

Um, what are some things about the US birthing experience that felt like an a a super no for you?

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Um, some things that felt like a super no were parts of the journey being shamed or like pushed on to the mother based on whatever it is that the doctor believes or subscribes to. So, like some examples of this could be vaccinations, they could be like the antibiotic stuff put on the baby's eyes right after giving birth. It could be maybe being prompted or pushed into a C-section when that's not actually medically necessary. There's all sorts of things, and it depends on your personal views of the situation, but you are much more under the influence, pressure, and perhaps even stiff-armed by whoever is kind of your medical representative, like the doctor, he they're ultimately the one who has the say in like those extranuating circumstances. Yeah. And if their belief systems don't align with yours, and that happens to be the doctor that your healthcare coverage sends you to, then that's the experience you're gonna have. Wow. Um crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

I feel like when I think about how I've seen birth in movies and in the media and everything, it's always depicted as this very, very stressful, intense experience, and yeah, everybody's screaming and was so like you were, I think, in a birthing center, right? Not in a hospital. And um, yeah, how was that different?

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah, I got to be really, really intentional about the experience that I created, which I wanted something very quiet and sacred. And I only wanted Andres there, my Dula, my midwife, and my midwife's helper. Um, nobody else was there with me, and I was able to go into that deep kind of trance-like state. Because what I had heard from a lot of women is that when you go into labor, you naturally will leave your conscious awareness and go into this like deep animalistic state where you don't need to talk. You're so like internal and you're so like going through the waves and going through the whole experience of opening so that way baby can come through. And if somebody is there talking to you, asking you questions, or probing you, or there's like bright lights or things like that, it can literally alter the chemistry in your brain and alter your birth experience for the negative. And also, if there's random people walking into your room and your body reacts in a sense of this is unsafe, because you can energetically feel when people come and go out of a room. And we're obviously animalistic beings, and so if the situation doesn't feel super safe, you're gonna open and close in relationship to that. So that could make your delivery process much longer, which can then make it more dangerous for baby and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Um, yeah, so I was able to choose all of that. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

And how's the experience? It was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 53:52

Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. Anything you want to share about it?

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Um again, or we're we're talking to people that are living in sort of the corporate environment, and they probably never heard of someone giving birth abroad in a different environment like this, something that's maybe more serene, more peaceful, more enjoyable, even.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

Yeah, yeah, definitely. The first question I always get asked is like, what if something goes wrong? Yeah, you know, what if something goes wrong? And and fair. Like that's part of I think maybe being a responsible um adult is having a backup plan. And um, I did. I had uh all of my paperwork was at one of the fancy hospitals here that if I needed to, I could go um get immediate help if that was necessary. But my vision was being at this birthing center where I had the music, I had the birth pool, um, I had this very like spiritual uh setup to where I could just kind of go within and be with the experience. And it was amazing. It was very, very short. I gave birth in under four and a half hours. Yeah, it was wild. It was a wild ride, but I felt so supported. Having the birth pool was a game changer. That's where I ended up delivering my little girl and then being able to just be with her and sit in our little love bubble with me and Andres um for a few hours alone after that. And then we did a delayed cord cutting, which we turned into a ceremony of really helping baby kind of ground onto this plane, onto this planet, and just ritualizing the whole experience was so so beautiful. Wow, yeah, love that. Were you on any kind of epidural or anything? Is no, nope, I had a just purely natural birth.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Beautiful, yeah. Wow, amazing. Loved, love, love, love hearing the whole story. And your daughter is so sweet and healthy and beautiful. And um, yeah, for the listeners, I got to visit Gabrielle and Andres recently and and meet meet the baby girl. And uh yeah, just it's so it was so cool to me. I don't know if a shock was the right word, but I was like, wow, you guys are living the it's at it somehow. Is it the American dream, but we're but we're in this setting. Yeah. And it, I don't know, it did something to my brain. I was like, I need I need to get you on the podcast about this because I think when I think about what's possible for my life, for example, I'm I'm very committed to living a quote alternative lifestyle. I'm like, yep, I I decidedly do not follow the status quo. I'm decidedly not going in order. The timeline that other people follow does not apply to me. Like it just none of that matters. Um, and I think I probably thought that I would therefore be un unsubscribing to a traditional family experience. And I accepted that, even though part of me is like, yeah, but like the nuclear family is also cool and sweet, and like maybe I would like to have that someday. So if I have that, does that mean that I would need to go back to the United States and like you know, surrender to being in the Matrix again? And and then now I see you guys in your your home that you built with your beautiful partnership and your healthy baby, and you both have so much time and presence, and you like drive to the beach in your cute little Jeep. And you're just like, Yeah, like can can you talk a bit about the your personal values of family?

SPEAKER_00 57:42

Yeah, yeah, family is huge for both Andres and I. We grew up with really close-knit families, we're really proud of our heritage and our culture and our food. We love to cook, and um, I really want to have lots of babies and yeah, have that kind of traditional family life. But like you said, it doesn't have to be in the United States. And so finding a place where those values can meet this sense of freedom has been really exciting. And we actually have friends that also inspire us that already have kids, and we see how they travel and they world school their kids. And yeah, the the possibility of the family life abroad is so cool because then your kids don't just learn about Egypt, like we go see Egypt, you know, like what? Cool, yeah. So it's been really beautiful to kind of decide what parts of American culture we want to interweave. I mean, obviously, my baby's only two months old. This is all brand new, but we're kind of thinking about it, talking about it. I love the festive energy. And so uh an intention of ours is to be back in the US for the holidays so that way our kids can really have that ingrained in them, that feeling of yeah, festivity. Nice. And then there's things that we can do at home, you know, to celebrate the seasons and and stuff like that. That's really important to me. Our food and culture is really important. Andrés cooks all the time and we'll continue to cook for our kids, like Cuban meals and Salvadorian meals and Italian meals and stuff like that. He's speaking Spanish to baby. That's another thing about raising kids abroad, is they get exposed to so many languages. Yeah. Oh my gosh, is

Building Traditional Family Life Overseas

SPEAKER_00 59:24

your baby gonna be trilingual?

SPEAKER_02 59:26

For sure. Right out of the gate. Damn. Yeah. Wow, amazing. Yeah. Um, oh my gosh. I'm really stuck on this trilingual, she's trilingual child. She's gonna be like speaking Indonesia Bahasa. Um, so cool. Again, this whole like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna take this piece and this piece and this piece and put it together in my own mosaic of life. Um okay, world schooling. What is that?

SPEAKER_00 59:55

It's this concept where instead of kids learning about things in a textbook, they get to go experience them in the world. And so it's the idea of taking them to different countries and cultures and places and letting that also be part of their education experience. Because, like we were talking about earlier, the amount of confidence it builds, also emotional intelligence, street smarts, um, just the organization of things that has to happen to travel. There's so many opportunities for learning, it's insane with like in travel. And so that's this concept of world schooling is letting the world be part of the schooling and education experience of your kids. Beautiful. Does that mean that you're also homeschooling? You can. Uh, people do it different ways. Some people homeschool while they travel, some people travel with these kind of like pods of families where there'll be, let's say, five, six, seven, eight families that travel together, and then they'll rent these giant villas or even like villas all next to each other, and then they'll hire teachers to come and teach the kids for the six months that they're there or the three months that they're there. Yeah, one of my friends was doing that, and they were in the Dominican, and we visit went and visited them. They're traveling with like five other families. Wow. And they had hired actually a teacher to travel with them. And so the teacher would just go where this pod of families would go, and the parents are the ones that would decide on the curriculum. So there's kind of like the standard curriculum or whatnot, maybe following Montessori or something. And then they would add in maybe they wanted their kids to learn coding, or maybe they wanted, I don't know, whatever alternative stuff they wanted added in there. And then the five families would pay for this teacher and her lodgings and her salary and whatever. Wow. And yeah, and that's how they were doing it. Oh my gosh, amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

Yeah, cool. Um, does that does that feel like what you will do? Do you know what you will do?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

I don't know what we're going to do yet. Um, I think that we'll probably have seasons because I can imagine that being really fun when maybe the kids are six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or maybe in like the early teens, something like that. Maybe when they're littler, maybe we'll be in Bali, maybe when they're much older, maybe we'll be in the States again. Because something on that I said and I spoke about is that if our kids are desiring that classic, let's say high school experience, that we would give that to them. Um, I don't know how I'm not like a huge fan of the public school system. So I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

Um, could you could you send them to a public school in a different country? Is that an option? Probably, or like a private school, I'm sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:40

I'm sure there's tons of different options.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:42

Yeah. I remember when I lived in Bangkok, um, most of my friends were teachers, and so many of them they were like teaching at the American school in Bangkok. And I just remember that concept blowing my mind being like, oh, you can get an American education, but abroad with other people that also are like, what? Hold on, what? Like just being like, wow, there really are actually so many other options.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:10

And yeah, I think what I've reiterated several times in this episode is the way that you're approaching the world, approaching life, approaching child raising is that you're like, okay, what is it that I agree with? What is it that I like where what is aligned with my values and my lifestyle

Worldschooling And Education Options

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

desires and my wishes for my child? Yeah. And how can I cherry pick the pieces and put it all together into something that just makes sense for me and where I'm at? Yeah. And I think it's actually so cool that you haven't fully decided yet because you are leaving your options open.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:43

Yeah. So yeah, definitely. And I think the only alternative that I've heard people say is like, well, will your kids feel really ungrounded or like untethered if they don't feel like they have a home? And that's something that we've considered a lot too. We want to make sure that our kids feel like they're Americans and that like the United States is their home. Uh, because that is a concern of mine too. I don't want to be too floaty to where the kids feel, yeah, like untethered or like I don't really belong anywhere. I belong a little bit everywhere and a little bit nowhere, you know, kind of thing. Yeah. Uh and I could see how I don't know, that could be a bit detrimental. And so I want them to at least feel like, yeah, like this, this is my home. And then of course the world is their home. And I feel like that's kind of the more elevated perspective, anyways. But um, is with the intention of bringing them back to the States once a year for a few months of the year. So that way something feels familiar and something feels a bit more rooted and grounded.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:43

That's the only kind of downside I could see to the lifestyle is this sense of like, oh, well, I don't have a home.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But you know what? Everybody's got some trauma.

unknown 1:04:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

And honestly, you're not really that interesting if you don't have any. That's my hot take. So yeah, but there's a lot of people that are, quote, third culture kids. I'm sure you know that that term. But if anybody doesn't know, third culture kid is someone who grows up in a culture that's not theirs and not their parents, um, which is what your child probably will end up resonating with. But then there's other third culture kids. Like there's so we're third culture kids all over all around the world. And I think that ends up being this like a culture that transcends a location. Yeah. It's just like you meet them around the world and there they are.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

Yeah. And I will say the kids that I've met that have grown up in Bali and go to the international schools or the alternative schools are some of the most confident kids that I have ever met. They're very well spoken. They're very like sure of themselves in a way that I haven't seen before, where they're like um available to say what they like and don't like. They know themselves enough to say what they like and don't like. Can't tell you how many times I talk to my cousins or my friends' kids in the States. I'm like, oh, so what do you like? Oh, I don't know. You know, it's like, yeah, they don't have time to be bored and figure out what they like.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

You know, I feel like I resonate with that. I feel like I was like that when I was a kid. I didn't have any exposure to anything other than my little suburban town. Yeah. Which is like, on the one hand, like, thanks, mom and dad, for supporting me and and sheltering me and like keeping me safe. And at the same time, it's just we grow so much when we're stretched a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Gabrielle, if you had any advice for someone listening, um, I like again, I like to think about them in the commute on their way to work. Maybe they're not stoked about their career, maybe they're not stoked about living in the country that they're currently in. They are maybe feeling so inspired and interested about your story, and it just feels so far away. What would you say to someone like that?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

I would say congrats for taking the first step of listening to a podcast like this that really opens your eyes to alternative ways of living. Because if I were going to summarize the first step in my journey, it was dreaming, like allowing myself to dream, allowing myself to admit what I want, even if it feels really far away and completely unattainable, and starting to like paint that picture of like, yeah, but what if? Like, what if I could do it? And what if I could live that life like her or him and things like that. And so I would say, like, just allow yourself to admit to yourself what you want, and then go from there. And I think that'll be your guiding light if you just come keep anchoring back into this intoxicating, exciting feeling in like your stomach and your chest of like, oh my God, that would be so cool. That is what's going to give you the energy to take the steps to make it happen, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

Wow, that is so beautiful, such profound advice. I completely agree. Like it really is that awareness is the first step, right? Like becoming aware that maybe you're not in the situation that you want to be in, but that um to allow yourself to think about, okay, maybe there is something else for you. So um, if anybody doesn't know, if you're new to my podcast, I have a business called the Digital Nomad Life Academy, where I support you step by step by step, going from dreaming to actually creating a business of your dreams, launching that business, and then setting up your lifestyle in a way that you can live whatever life you want. That you could be the one cherry-picking the life experiences, that you could be the one that tunes into what it is that you value, whether that's part of your career or part of your lifestyle or your family values or whatever, whatever it is that you value, I will die on this hill. Having a location-independent business is the cheat code. It is the vehicle to enable you to live the life that you really want. So the Digital Nomad Life Academy is your shortcut to getting there. Instead of spending years and years trying to figure it out yourself, we can get you there in one year or less. So if you're interested or curious about that, you can slide into my DMs on Instagram at Christabella Travels with the keyword apply. I'll ask you a series of questions, asking you about where you're at right now, what you've done for your career, and then we'll just have an actual productive conversation. And if I think you're a good fit for the program, if I think that I can help you, I'll tell you how. I'll tell you more about it. Um, or I will just send you in another direction because I'm here to support you and I know that you can do it. So thank you so much for being here on this episode, Gabrielle. This was fascinating and heartwarming, and I'm just so, so happy that the listeners got to hear your story because it really is yeah, just amazing and inspiring. So thank you so much for being here. If anybody is interested in getting in touch with you, is there a good way for them to do that?

Dream First Then Build The Plan

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

Uh yeah, I'm expand with Gabrielle on Instagram, and that's a good place to see my story, connect with me. You can send me a message, questions. If you want to know more about my journey or my birthing experience, feel free to shoot me a message. Yay! Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:17

And thank you for listening to the Digital Nomad Life podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

We'll see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:21

Bye.