Moving Countries With Your Business with Casey Kelly-Barton

Have you ever considered moving yourself and your business to a new country? Content marketer Casey Kelly-Barton did just that and shares her challenges and opportunities as an ex-pat:

Her journey to niching into the intersection of three related niches— including how niching bumped up her revenue and reduced her hours worked.

Meeting the challenges to building a business while single-parenting after a divorce (and the most freeing thing she let go of).

Why she decided to move countries with her business—and how long she let the idea simmer first.

How she identified and evaluated target locations including the resources she tapped to explore the expat experience in advance.

The dividends from intensely focusing on that critical first year of transition.

LINKS

Casey Kelly-Barton Website | LinkedIn

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Casey Kelly-Barton provides content marketing and brand development for B2B companies in cybersecurity, fintech, and fraud prevention.

When she started her business, she was a newly single parent looking for ways to make the most of her writing and strategy skills.

Now, her business is well established with a roster of clients she enjoys working with, her kids are grown and she works from Portugal, where she moved in late 2023.

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – 00:28
Casey Kelly-Barton: So I started researching and I was very methodical. I made a list of countries that met my criteria for like weather, time zones, languages, blah, blah, blah. And so I was looking at Latin America and Central America pretty carefully because I speak Spanish. My parents are still in Texas. It would be time zone friendly for my American clients. And then both my kids ended up in the EU.

00:32 – 01:11
Rochelle Moulton: Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast where we’re all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I’m Rochelle Moulton and today I’m joined by Soloist and new expat, Casey Kelly Barton. She provides content marketing and brand development for B2B companies in cybersecurity, fintech, and fraud prevention. When she started her business, she was a newly single parent looking for ways to make the most of her writing and strategy skills. Now her business is well established with a roster of clients she enjoys working with. Her kids are grown and she works from Portugal where she moved

01:11 – 01:32
Rochelle Moulton: from the US in late 2023. Casey, welcome. Hi, thank you for having me, Rochelle. I’m so glad to be here. I’m excited to talk to you today. Yeah, me too. So when we met and I heard that you were moving countries, I just knew you had to come on the show to talk about your experiences because for some people, that’s living the dream.

01:33 – 01:39
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. I do get a lot of questions about it. And so I’m happy to talk about that in detail.

01:39 – 01:47
Rochelle Moulton: Well, first off, let’s go back to when you started your business. So what made you start the business? And when did you start?

01:48 – 02:27
Casey Kelly-Barton: I started the business, I was newly divorced and I had been doing some freelancing and some education off and on for years. And I thought, okay, now it’s time to get serious about this, I was a strong writer, I had good writing and strategy skills, but I needed something that I could tailor to my own schedule and that wouldn’t have me away from home 50, 60 hours a week. So I needed something that I could do independently. And at that point, I just started working my contacts and seeing who had freelance writing needs. And that was

02:27 – 02:51
Casey Kelly-Barton: the beginning of it. At the beginning, I did not have my niches. I was basically taking on any and all writing assignments for companies that needed it, like performance marketing, elder care, all kinds of things, just to build a portfolio, build some skills, and to really test and see if this particular path would work for me and my family. Well, obviously it did.

02:52 – 02:57
Rochelle Moulton: Do you remember how long it took you to get your first $100, 000 a year?

02:57 – 03:29
Casey Kelly-Barton: Oh, it took a while. I won’t lie because, you know, my kids were young, 7 and 12 when I started this. And so it took me, I want to say, 6 or 7 years to get to that point. So it was not an overnight thing And part of that was because I didn’t have the niche. It got to a point where I was just taking on, you know, the strategy that worked at the beginning of let’s try everything and see if this works. Let’s take on all the gigs you can find. Kind of that new freelancer.

03:30 – 04:06
Casey Kelly-Barton: I don’t want to say panic, but definitely an eagerness to book work. When I started, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Carol Tice, but she used to run a freelancer, sort of an online forum or a clinic. And she said, you know, You need to niche and not just take everything that comes along because you’re never going to move up your income if you are just a generalist and So I just started working on the things that really interested me which were fraud prevention cybersecurity fintech hadn’t really exploded yet, but it did pretty soon after.

04:06 – 04:22
Casey Kelly-Barton: And it’s related enough that I was able to capitalize on that. But it was really once I started to niche and develop some some expertise in specific fields that was hard for clients to find. That’s when my income really took off.

04:22 – 04:51
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, I think it’s interesting with writers, especially, I think a lot of writers just have this mindset that it’s about writing and just like it’s the craft of writing and getting really good at that. And that’s important, but it’s how you apply the craft, which is where you make the money and where you can get paid more. And Carol Tice had it right about Nisha. So how long did it take you to 0 in on those 3?

04:53 – 05:24
Casey Kelly-Barton: Fraud prevention came first. And that came, I had a client who requested that I handle, it was an agency client, and I still work with them. I’ve worked with them for a decade. They, I want to say it was like 2014. So 3 years in, I had somebody come to me and say, we have this account, it’s fraud prevention. We’re having just a devil of a time finding writers who are A, interested enough to learn about this niche and B, willing to actually commit to it for a while and do the homework. And I was like,

05:24 – 05:53
Casey Kelly-Barton: I’ll do it. And I found it was really, really interesting to me. And that’s where I just started to invest in that. And because fraud prevention has kind of a natural overlap with cybersecurity, I was able to capitalize on that and then start moving into those other areas. And then when FinTech startup ecosystem really started to grow, Well, a lot of what they need is cybersecurity and fraud prevention to protect their data and protect their customers. So that was just a natural segue.

05:53 – 06:00
Rochelle Moulton: That’s the tie because I had a different idea of FinTech in my head. So that makes sense then I see how the 3 are tied together.

06:00 – 06:08
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and cyber security now is kind of ending up in everything because everything is connected. So yeah.

06:09 – 06:19
Rochelle Moulton: So do you think you’ll niche down further into 1 of those 3? Or do you find that the combination really suits you?

06:19 – 06:57
Casey Kelly-Barton: I like the combination of them. And honestly, they’re so interrelated that there was a spate of articles earlier this year about the cybersecurity convergence, which is basically the idea that everything needs to have cybersecurity built into it. Anything that’s online has to be protected. Anything that handles money or data needs to also have fraud prevention. And a lot of it, if you’re moving money and you’re doing it online, there’s going to be some sort of fintech aspect to it. So I kind of feel like the niche is niching itself down without me having to do anything

06:57 – 07:32
Casey Kelly-Barton: necessarily. Yeah. There’s a little overlap with RegTech, like regulatory and compliance and insurance. So I could continue to niche into those areas, but I feel like there’s enough going on in cybersecurity and fraud prevention, especially with the 4 horsemen of AI, enabling this sort of escalation of the spy versus spy, good guy versus bad guy strategies. I kind of feel like I’m good for now, but these niches touch on enough other areas that if I needed to switch or refine, I can.

07:32 – 07:42
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, I was kind of visualizing a highway when you were describing it, because it feels like these things are all connected. It’s like you’ve cornered the market on a piece of the highway.

07:42 – 07:54
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean, there are plenty of other good cybersecurity and fraud prevention and fintech writers out there. I just make explicit the fact that I work at the intersection of these areas.

07:55 – 08:22
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, that’s a niche and it’s how you build authority. So I want to switch over just for a moment and talk about single parenting because it is a topic that comes up more than you might expect, certainly in my Slack channel. But it’s single parenting while you’re building your business. So we definitely have some listeners that can relate. I mean, like, what was that like for you? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with for that?

08:22 – 08:54
Casey Kelly-Barton: It was hard. It was hard, I won’t lie. It was super hard. And it was super hard, even though I had, their father was supportive. Like, you know, he paid his support. He was active in the kids’ lives. So I wasn’t without support the way some single parents are or newly divorced parents can be sometimes. So I had that. I also had a pretty strong social and professional network, But it was hard. It was hard helping my kids adjust to a new normal. It was hard learning all the things that I needed to learn as quickly

08:54 – 09:32
Casey Kelly-Barton: as I could so that I could start ramping up my business. Like I would fall asleep listening to podcasts. Like I would work, I would deal with the kids, I would fall asleep listening to podcasts, and there was about a year or 2 where I had literally no time for myself unless it was like the weekend when the kids were with their dad and I would do something really wild and self-indulgent like lay on the couch and watch a nature documentary for an hour You crazy fall asleep. I know So it was it was hard. Yeah

09:34 – 10:03
Casey Kelly-Barton: It was just my time was not my own, but I kept telling myself that if I invested this time and just went all in and went really hard up front, that I would be able to be in a better position and have more time and more options later on. Which safe to say that that happened. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a gamble though, right? Anytime you’re like, you know, you don’t know that it’s going to work out when you’re in the thick of it. But I thought, well, you know, I got to do something. So

10:03 – 10:04
Casey Kelly-Barton: I’m going to commit to this.

10:05 – 10:31
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. And I think a lot of times when we talk on this podcast, you know, we hear from people who’ve really been able to create a business where they have a lot of free time, what we don’t always hear about is the messiness in the beginning. Yeah. If you’re not sure, if you’re experimenting. Some people start this knowing exactly what they want to do. Other people are following their nose to see what’s going to work. So yeah, I appreciate you sharing the messy beginning.

10:31 – 10:59
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah. Oh, and it was messy. We were talking about this a little bit earlier in the green room, I guess. But there were a lot of things I just had to let go because my priorities were my children’s wellbeing and my business. And so there was 1 6 month period, I had a friend who said, well, how are you doing all this? And I told her, I said, you know, I haven’t cleaned my house in 6 months. And I was expecting as soon as it popped out of my mouth, I was like,

10:59 – 11:01
Rochelle Moulton: oh, no, judgment, judgment.

11:01 – 11:03
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah. Yeah. And she looked at me and

11:03 – 11:24
Rochelle Moulton: she said, oh, thank God. She said, I am so relieved to hear that I’m not the only 1. Yes. Well, if you look at Instagram, it looks like everybody has 47 children, works a million hours a week, and has a perfectly clean and well-organized home. So yeah, that’s not reality for most of us.

11:24 – 11:48
Casey Kelly-Barton: It’s not reality. And you know, the thing is, it’s like having a clean house. I mean, I love a clean house. But at the time, there was no money for a cleaner. There was no time for me to do it and I thought You know, how is dusting all the corners gonna further my goals? It’s not so I’m gonna put it on the back burner for now That dust will still be there when I get back to it and it was Good for you. I like that.

11:48 – 12:06
Rochelle Moulton: I like that. So I’m just really dying to talk about your expat experience. I know you know that. This idea of picking up and moving countries with your business. So first, what made you decide to move? Was this a big adventure? Was this like a very carefully calculated thing?

12:06 – 12:38
Casey Kelly-Barton: This was a project I had been working on since 2010. Well, even before that, I had always wanted to live abroad just for the experience of doing so. I was born and raised in Texas with the exception of 18 months when I lived in Atlanta. I’ve lived and worked in Texas all my life. And, you know, it’s a big state with a lot going on, but it’s also just 1 part of the world. And early on working on my business, I was working for an elder care, like information provider. And so I was doing a lot

12:38 – 13:11
Casey Kelly-Barton: of research on things like the cost of care when you get older, who pays for what? And looking at the numbers and looking at the trend lines, I thought there is no way that I can afford to grow old in the United States. And then once I got a divorce, I thought, well, I can kind of do what I want once the kids are grown. And so I started researching and I was very methodical. I made a list of countries that met my criteria for like weather, time zones, languages, blah, blah, blah. And so I was

13:11 – 13:46
Casey Kelly-Barton: looking at Latin America and Central America pretty carefully because I speak Spanish. My parents are still in Texas. It would be time zone friendly for my American clients, and then both my kids ended up in the EU. There goes that plan. And they were like, well, you should come over here. They said, but don’t live in the same countries as us because that would be creepy and weird because Europe is so tiny, you know, that if I’m in the same country as them, I’ll practically be looking into their living room window. So I thought about it

13:46 – 14:20
Casey Kelly-Barton: and I thought, well, let’s try it. And so, yeah, but I spent about a decade researching and planning and making some little trips here and there when time and money allowed to check out different places. So, yeah, the fact that my kids ended up in the EU really kind of changed that calculation. And Portugal has a nice clear, I mean, I say this, even though Portugal right now, their immigration agency is going through some major logistical and technical challenges that weren’t present when I applied. But of all the countries I looked at in the EU, they

14:20 – 14:34
Casey Kelly-Barton: were the ones that had the clearest immigration process, everything spelled out in detail, and the clearest path to a dual citizenship in several years, should I choose to pursue that?

14:35 – 14:43
Rochelle Moulton: So I’m curious because I love Portugal. I could totally see why someone would want to live there. Why not Spain if you spoke Spanish?

14:43 – 15:18
Casey Kelly-Barton: Right. I asked myself that a lot. I did look at Spain extensively, and this was before, you know, they just, I want to say at the end of last year, maybe it was right when I was almost done with my visa application process for Portugal, when Spain finally came through with their digital nomad visa. Before that, they only had something called a non-lucrative, which you were supposed to be retired. And depending on who you talk to, there either were or weren’t restrictions on earning money from outside Spain. And like I talked to immigration attorneys in Spain,

15:18 – 15:48
Casey Kelly-Barton: I talked to different people. They said, well, it depends. It depends on your consulate. It depends on who is interpreting the rules. And I thought, well, I can’t move for it depends. And Portugal’s guidance was very clear. They had a visa that was in the category that fit my needs. And they were like, bring us this, this, this, and this. And, you know, it’ll take a while because it’s there’s bureaucracy, just like everywhere. But, you know, do these things and this will be the outcome. And I was like, yeah, clarity. I like that.

15:48 – 16:09
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. And I just Portugal, I’ve been all over Europe. And there was something about Portugal that felt like it had some of the best things about Europe, sort of the history and the culture and all that with just being more accessible, more livable, a little bit easier to get around and live. So I think you made a

16:09 – 16:12
Casey Kelly-Barton: wonderful choice. Thanks. I do too.

16:13 – 16:26
Rochelle Moulton: So let’s talk challenges and opportunities about moving to a country, especially where you don’t speak the language. So first question is, did you sell your place in the US or did you keep a home base like just in case?

16:27 – 16:53
Casey Kelly-Barton: I did both. I have a permanent US address because my parents still live in Texas and so do both my siblings both live in the US. So I have a permanent US address, which you kind of have to have 1 for a lot of things like your American banking and things like that. And for my business, I needed a US physical address because it’s set up in Texas and I didn’t want to like pull up stakes and move all that stuff.

16:54 – 17:01
Rochelle Moulton: Let me just interrupt for a second. So you kept your business domiciled in the US. You did not move the business to Portugal.

17:01 – 17:36
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, I didn’t because it was going to be the Portuguese business environment is really different. It moves a lot slower. I didn’t understand it. It’s complicated even for people who have grown up here and gone to business school here. And I thought this is more challenge than I need. But also, a lot of my clients, even if they don’t necessarily need to work with a US based company, it just makes everything easier for them. So I thought, well, this isn’t broken. I don’t have to move it. Let’s leave it as it is. But yes, I did

17:36 – 18:00
Casey Kelly-Barton: sell my house. I thought about renting it. I had a nice house in Austin. But then after the second winter storm took the power out for a week, and like trees were crashing down all over the place, and it cost me thousands of dollars just to get the tree debris out of my yard. I thought I don’t want to be dealing with this from overseas while also dealing with maybe an unhappy or frustrated tenant. So I just sold it and I’m glad I did.

18:00 – 18:04
Rochelle Moulton: And so when in Portugal, did you buy or rent?

18:04 – 18:32
Casey Kelly-Barton: I rented it first. That’s actually a condition. You have to rent in order to you have to have a home or a lease in order to even apply for a visa, which a lot of people complain about. It is inconvenient because you’re paying for a place you’re not living But that’s how they make sure I guess you can afford to come over here and keep a roof over your head So I rented for a year I lived here in the rental for 6 months and I just recently bought I bought a penthouse apartment

18:34 – 18:35
Rochelle Moulton: Well, that sounds very she

18:36 – 19:02
Casey Kelly-Barton: It’s not quite as chic as it sounds, but it’s chic enough. There aren’t any really huge high rises in central Portugal, So I’m on like, I guess the seventh floor of my building, but the views are fantastic and it’s close to everything. And I’ve got a nice terrace. So yeah, that’s my architectural brag. I have a terrace. Perfect. Well, you’re in Portugal, you should have a terrace. Absolutely.

19:02 – 19:13
Rochelle Moulton: So what did you find, like in terms of the process about moving to the country, what were the big challenges and were they all like physical or were there some emotional challenges too?

19:14 – 19:56
Casey Kelly-Barton: There were some emotional challenges just because it’s, well, were there? Yeah, there were a few, but they were related to some unique family circumstances that were outside of my control. It was fine. It just took some navigation. I followed, she’s an expat coach, I can’t remember her exact title, her name is Deborah Dahab. And she coaches people on like the, I guess the psychosocial or the emotional aspects of making a move abroad. And she was saying, you need to make sure you’re moving for something, not just away from something, you know, to kind of like define

19:56 – 20:26
Casey Kelly-Barton: that play in your community, things like that. So that kind of helped me on the emotional side so that I didn’t get over here and think, oh, what have I done? But mostly the challenges were bureaucratic, like having to get to Washington to schedule my visa appointment, having to gather all of these documents and my FBI background check and a letter from my bank. Just things that are not standard in the US but that are standard in other places. Like I had to have a signed letter from my banker saying, yeah we’ve known this lady since

20:26 – 20:33
Casey Kelly-Barton: 2010 or whatever. That had to go in the application packet. Moving my pets was a whole circus.

20:34 – 20:37
Rochelle Moulton: Did you have a cat, dog, both?

20:37 – 20:38
Casey Kelly-Barton: Dog and a rabbit.

20:39 – 20:44
Rochelle Moulton: Rabbits are surprisingly hard to move because airlines don’t like to transfer them.

20:45 – 21:19
Casey Kelly-Barton: No, they don’t. They’re considered livestock. And they are messy. So yeah, that was, and just the timing of the paperwork, because you have to have a USDA certificate. Anyway, more detail than most people probably want to know, but it was a lot. But just keeping track of it, There were some really good groups on Facebook, and I had a friend, a good friend who I’ve known for like decades, who was, she and her husband made the move the year before me. And so she was like, here’s the process, you know, here are the groups that are

21:19 – 21:36
Casey Kelly-Barton: going to be helpful to you. Here are the checklists. And so having her there that I could come to with questions when I had them, or, you know, she could kind of flag the potential pitfalls for me was super, super helpful and important. Yeah, those who have gone before. Exactly.

21:37 – 21:46
Rochelle Moulton: So what opportunities really did you find and whether you expected them or not? Like what kinds of things have just become opportunities for you with this move?

21:48 – 22:29
Casey Kelly-Barton: Personally, professionally, or? Really both. I am finding that professionally, I have more time to focus on the actual writing part of my business and the content creation part and strategy development because my working hours are offset a little bit from my clients. 1 thing that I have found and this is not a knock on my clients. This is more of like when everyone’s working at the same time, everyone’s kind of back and forth. You know, they’re on Slack or they’re on email. And I always feel like a little bit of a diva saying this, but I

22:29 – 23:02
Casey Kelly-Barton: have to have some time to create. Yeah. I really do. I have to have some uninterrupted focus time. And it’s just a little bit of a challenge. Whereas now, I am like, 8 hours ahead of my clients on the West Coast. So when I’m wrapping up at the end of a traditional workday, they’re coming into the office. And I still tend to work a little bit later in the evenings just because I prefer to do that. I’m not a morning person by any means. But it gives me a little time when I can sit down and

23:02 – 23:36
Casey Kelly-Barton: know that, you know, a my notifications are going to be going off and B, if I have my notifications turned off, I’m not going to be tempted to check on them. I can just sit and work and then catch up on all my admin stuff. You know, I hit the email 1 last time in the evening and then check it first thing in the morning. So yeah, I feel like my work has been, I don’t know if it’s been better, but it’s certainly been easier for me to accomplish it with that little shift. And personally, oh

23:36 – 24:10
Casey Kelly-Barton: my gosh, I am meeting so many amazing people and just getting into the swing of like the life where I am now. I adopted a Portuguese dog. We go to the little dog daycare and yeah, she’s wild. I love her. I think she’s digging a hole in the carpet right now. I can’t really see. She knows when I’m distracted and uses that opportunity to like, you know, pursue her own interests. I’m not being super articulate about this, but yeah, there’s a million things to do. I feel like I’m at summer camp when I’m not working because

24:10 – 24:52
Casey Kelly-Barton: there are so many different activities within the expat and immigrant community here. And there are also, man, Portugal is like, gotta be the festival capital of the world. Every little village has a big old festival. And it’s summer. So like, everybody, all the medieval, like the historical reenactors and the medieval enthusiasts are coming out and doing what I guess in the US we would call a Ren Fair, but they’re actually doing this stuff in medieval castles because all these little villages have something, right? They have, in many cases, an actual castle or a monastery from the

24:52 – 25:15
Casey Kelly-Barton: Middle Ages or, you know, there’s a Knights Templar castle, like, in the parish that I live in. I walk to Roman ruins with my dog every weekend and they usually have something going on. So it’s kind of like, there’s just a lot to do. And I, unlike when I started out, I have the time to actually go and do these things that interest me.

25:15 – 25:37
Rochelle Moulton: The kids are gone. And then when Joe Jacoby was on the show, he’s an American expat in Spain. You know, he commented about having the mornings to himself, just amazing in his case, you know, he’s he’s navigating rivers. But to have that time to yourself, your kids are grown. It’s just got to feel like you’re in a nice big sandbox to play in.

25:37 – 25:56
Casey Kelly-Barton: It is, it’s kind of nice. I was in Malta for the EU Startups Conference in May and I met another expat. She’s not American, but she lived a long time in America. And we talked about how being in Europe and being kind of unencumbered, working from here and then having all this free time, it’s like our villain era. Because we can do what we want. And we,

25:56 – 25:57
Rochelle Moulton: you know,

25:58 – 26:07
Casey Kelly-Barton: no 1 can tell us no. If we want to go to a soup festival or go to the beach on a weekday afternoon, like no 1 can tell us now.

26:08 – 26:11
Rochelle Moulton: So. Sounds like you found a new partner in crime.

26:11 – 26:17
Casey Kelly-Barton: Right? Yeah. Well, she’s in France though. So I need to go visit. Yeah

26:18 – 26:43
Rochelle Moulton: In the US we tend to think oh, it’s like flying from you know, LA to New York Well, it isn’t I mean you can’t actually get places. So that’s awesome. Yeah, just you know Maybe a little bit off I’m just curious how you think the expat experience has changed you and your business so far. We talked a little bit about being able to remove yourself from the day-to-day client stuff, but are there other things?

26:44 – 27:13
Casey Kelly-Barton: I feel like I’m more attentive. I don’t want to say I was ever inattentive to my clients, but I feel like I have an extra level of attention that I can bring to them now because I do have that time when I can focus. So I don’t have this constant drumbeat in the back of my head of like, okay, who’s messaging me who needs what, because when that time of day rolls around, I can focus on it. So that’s been helpful. In addition to being able to focus better, I feel like I’m better able to focus

27:13 – 27:45
Casey Kelly-Barton: on and anticipate what my clients need when they’re communicating with me. And for myself, there are so many things. Oh my gosh. When I first got here, I was like, what is happening? I just felt so weird. And I was talking to 1 of my grown kids about it. I said, I just feel like there’s no anxiety, there’s nothing going on. Like I just wake up and just see what the day is. I’m like, am I losing my edge? Am I motivated? And they said, you might just be relaxed.

27:49 – 27:52
Rochelle Moulton: What is that? I could tell your brain was thinking.

27:52 – 28:22
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah, because I had just been between building the business and raising my kids and getting them launched and building more of my business and then doing the whole like selling the house and moving, it was just go, go, go, go, go for like more than a decade. And then I got here and the business is still going strong, you know, things are good, got a house and I’m like, oh, what is this? And I’m like, oh, this is what it feels like to not feel like you have to grind every waking minute of the day.

28:22 – 28:48
Rochelle Moulton: Yes. Well, and I think the other thing that’s interesting here is some people need to get out of the usual to be able to do that. Others are really good at setting boundaries and closing phones, closing laptops. Everybody has their own way of dealing with that. And I feel like you found your path to be able to do all of that?

28:48 – 29:17
Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, I think for me, I just needed enough novelty. Well, first of all, I needed to not be still parenting children in the home and to get my business to a certain point, but mostly for me, I needed enough novelty and a different culture when it comes to work and leisure time. You know, the Portuguese work hard, but it’s not the center of their universe the way it is in America. It’s just a different work ethic, different work culture, I guess is the better way to phrase it. Just having that modeled for me every day. I’m

29:17 – 29:22
Casey Kelly-Barton: like, look, people take 2 hours for lunch and the economy still runs, the sky does not fall.

29:22 – 29:23
Rochelle Moulton: Imagine that.

29:26 – 29:40
Casey Kelly-Barton: So people go and do things. So yeah, having that, all the new cool things that I wanna see and do is what gets me away from my desk and away from my computer so that I don’t just sit there and focus on work all the time out of habit.

29:40 – 29:55
Rochelle Moulton: Well, so now I feel like I might know the answer to this next question I want to ask you, which I ask of every guest. So if you could go back to who you were when you first started your business, what’s the 1 thing you would advise her to do?

29:56 – 30:20
Casey Kelly-Barton: Boy, you know, I should have thought of an answer for this already. I would say just go ahead and take some time every day to just breathe and do nothing. Doesn’t have to be a long time. I know some people would say that’s meditation. I would say just go ahead and carve out that 15 minutes a day for yourself. It’s gonna be okay.

30:20 – 30:29
Rochelle Moulton: You know, it’s interesting when you said that, breathe and do nothing, that feels like so much less work than meditating. The way

30:29 – 30:29
Casey Kelly-Barton: you said

30:29 – 30:38
Rochelle Moulton: it, I was like, oh, That sounds nice. And then you said meditation. I was, oh, yeah, yeah, I could see maybe the anti-meditators could just try that. I like the sound of it.

30:38 – 30:55
Casey Kelly-Barton: I’ve done meditation and it is kind of work. I mean, it’s beneficial for sure for me, but there is a certain amount of work to it because I have to, for me, I’m sitting out on a park bench or sitting out on my terrace and just like staring at the landscape. That works really well too.

30:55 – 31:27
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, I meditate every day and it’s such a habit that I don’t really have to think about it. But a lot of people get kind of worried about whether they’re doing it right. And so I like your idea. Just stop and just look at things. Just do absolutely nothing. I think that’s good advice. Yeah. So Casey, thank you. And Thank you so much for sharing your expat experience, your single parent experience, the change in your business from niching. I really, really appreciate that.

31:27 – 31:42
Casey Kelly-Barton: Thank you so much for having me. It was fun to talk about it. I hope that it’s useful and interesting to somebody. Thank you for putting this podcast together and having all the people on that you do. It’s a great source of information and inspiration.

31:42 – 32:00
Rochelle Moulton: Well, thank you. So As we wrap up this episode, if you haven’t joined my email list yet, now is the time. Your soloist business and your future self will thank you. The link is in the show notes. That’s it for this episode. Please join us next time for the soloist life. Bye Bye.