Understanding someone’s problem and providing genuine help is one of the noblest deeds. One such kind soul, Emily Rogers, Founder of Expat Parenting Abroad, is supporting expat mothers to settle easily and find meaning in their experience abroad. She feels privileged to support them and create change in their personal lives.
She states, “To see a mother who has lost her sense of identity overcome the grief and guilt to start living their best life is quite frankly priceless. They become a better person, and as a result, I become a better person too. I think that sums up success for me.”
Journey to success
Emily states, “My career was in human resources, which I was able to continue with our first move to Asia, Hong Kong. Subsequently, our moves timed with the arrival of our daughters, Mumbai and Delhi, which was a lot more challenging to work in as a spouse.”
She focused her time and energy on volunteering with networking groups and NGOs. In her last move, she realized that she needed something to do, something that mattered.
So, she took the matter into her own hands. She started her own company by combining her HR skills and her long experience of living abroad, including 12 years around Asia, and supporting mothers like her in need.
Getting stronger with challenges
Emily expresses, “When you live abroad, almost every day is a unique challenge. Through these challenges (some big and some small), we develop our resilience, our ability to adapt, our ability to do the next right thing.”
She believes that she has the talent to find the silver lining no matter the circumstances. Finding the positive element in the challenge is necessary as it pushes the person to overcome it and grow. She focuses on finding the hidden opportunity in the challenge and grabs it to progress further. She adds, “It’s the same in business. You just need to find the silver lining and take that next step.”
Helping expat mothers with Expat Parenting Abroad
Expat Parenting Abroad was founded by combining my professional HR career with my personal experience of living abroad for over 20 years.
Emily provides coaching support to expat mums when they are in transition, supporting them to make a move smoother, easier and ensure their family settles well. Then once settled, she supports them at the next level to find meaning in their experience to ensure they are living their best life.
She offers three services, namely, tailored individual coaching, Families Thriving Abroad (8-week Online Course), and Kickstart Life (6-week coaching program).
Adding Innovation and culture in Expat Parenting Abroad
As she is an avid reader and keen podcast listener related to inspiration and technical learning, she stays more focused and sharp in terms of business and skills. For incorporating further Innovation and ideas, she says, “I am a board member of Families in Global Transition, which is an organization supporting globally mobile families (www.figt.org). I also have an amazing accountability partner with who I bounce ideas on a weekly basis.” She loves to serve on the board of FIGT as through that she got connected with others in her industry to learn and support one another.
Catering to clients and learning about their specific needs is a big source of Innovation. Her next step involves understanding the client’s perspective and addressing it directly in one of her weekly posts. Through this, she tries to touch people’s lives and help impact personally, which has been largely ignored before.
Emily shares, “To have the ability to change the lives of others is an incredible gift, but it is also so humbling. I see Expat Parenting Abroad partnering with globally mobile companies to support the families they are moving in a way that is personal, and addressing the underlying issues that are so common but until now has been largely ignored.”
Supporting more families helps in completing more successful international assignments. It is considered to be highly beneficial for communities and companies.
Maintaining a balance between personal and professional fronts
As the Founder of Expat Parenting Abroad, she manages everything to impart the best services. She handles all the communications, weekly posts, social media, updating the website, and other aspects. Her work hours start after she sends her girls to school, after which she exercises and then works dedicatedly until she picks them up from school. In 2021, she has mainly focused on developing more and more digital content to support her coaching programs.
For her superb efforts, she has also been adorned by awards. She shares, “I’ve been fortunate to receive awards, including Global Coach of The Year 2015 for WIAL. However, I think the best recognition comes when I get amazing feedback from my clients, “you’ve changed my life!” is so much more powerful than any award.”
As she has strictly kept her working hours only when her girls are at school, she is trying to keep a steady balance in her work and life boundaries. The best part is that this limited-time actually makes her super focused and motivated while working. However, she still struggles sometimes in maintaining time and states, “It doesn’t always work, this morning, I was on a call with Switzerland at 5:30 am, but I do my best to keep balance.”
Future plans of Expat Parenting Abroad
Expat Parenting Abroad underwent a huge metamorphosis ever since its operations began. However, now she is happy with the strong foundations on which the platform is built. She aims to develop Expat Parenting Abroad as the all-time ‘go to’ platform for all individuals and companies that are moving their people abroad.
Whenever any assignment fails, the reason behind it is mainly because the family didn’t settle. No one deserves to go through that pain alone. Moreover, she desires to expand her team further to help more families. Personally, she wants to master her skills and show up for her family.
Sharing her message for budding entrepreneurs, she states, “Stop allowing your life to slip past you, recognize your own strengths, acknowledge your own dreams, and start today to create your best life without guilt, but with pure focus.”
