015: 2 Countries, 15 Moves & Some Amazing Life Lessons!

The Modern CEO Podcast Episode 15 hey, have you heard? There's a new style of CEO on the block. The Modern CEO. And she is changing the way businesses are run. She's setting her own hours and her own salary. She's creating a business around what matters most to her. Freedom, family, and impact. And her corner office looks nothing like what you'd see on Wall Street. It's a kitchen table, your grandma's lake house, a spacious home office, the living room floor maybe surrounded by kids and crayons or the local coffee shop. Your business, your way. This modern CEO is here to stay. Because when you embrace your role as modern CEO, you will have more freedom, more profit, and more fun. Most importantly, you'll fall in love with your life and a business in a way you've only dreame. Trust me, this isn't a pipe dream reserved for only a select few. You are the modern CEO. You are creating a business and life you love. Because a better business means a better life. Well, hello. Hello. Happy New Year. I am so excited to be here with you. And boy, has it been too long. I have missed you, my friend, and I'm excited to be hanging out with you here today. Today? Do we have a lot to catch up on or what? We are rolling into this season of the podcast with a guided experience. We're going to take you through a virtual planning process for your business. It's New Year's after all. But just because it's New Year's, if you are listening to this at any other time in the year, you want to come back to this later when you are ready for a fresh start. Do it anytime at all, because you can create the opportunity for a fresh start anytime you want. So we're gonna dive into that in the next episode, but first I thought we should maybe catch up on everything that's been going on. So I'm gonna share what's new in my world on this podcast episode and I wanna invite you to tag me in on Instagram. Amber McHugh, ModernCEO with everything that's going on in your world, what is new? What are you looking forward to in 2019? You don't have to share and spill all like I am going to do in this particular episode. But I would love to know what's new and what you're excited about as we roll into 2019. I almost said 2018 the other day. I almost said 2020. Also, I am all over the place and so looking forward to taking on this year. Definitely. If you post an update on what's new and what you're excited about. Don't forget to tag me. Amber McKeownInsta ModernCEO so guys, I am coming at you today from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and I have a whole new love in my life and that new love is Africa. So as I say that at the end of most of our Modern CEO podcast episodes, we do a little singing and I bet you can guess what song we will be singing at the end of today's episode. So listen up to see if you are right and listen to the end. You know, five years ago, more than five years ago, me and my husband started setting the intention to live abroad. He had different career interests and it occurred to me that we were setting up my businesses in a way where we would have that freedom, have that flexibility. But it does not happen overnight. What's important is that you ask, because ask and you shall receive. And you start taking action steps and you start putting plans in motion. You don't just make the plan and not take action steps toward it. They might be baby steps, but those baby steps add up, which is exactly what happened in our case. More than five years ago. We set that intention to go international and ask and we received over and over again. It reminds me of that song God Bless the Broken Road that led me straight to you. This story, this journey, this adventure that we are going on today is a little bit like that song. There are so many twists and turns because after we set that intention to go international, we are now at 16 moves later, 15 of which happened in 2018 alone. And we have landed here in in Africa. And boy, was 2018 a wild, wild ride. I mean, let's take it from the beginning. I didn't actually even remember that this thing happened in 2018 until I saw a friend, Lauren, posting it on her Instagram. But in January 2018, we hosted an event for our clients called Implement Live. We've got another one coming up this January in California. But we hosted this event thinking this was the last we were going to be face to face with our clients for a little while because we were packing our stuff to move to the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And we all systems were a go. Pack everything up. They are coming to move you out on March 8th and move us out on March 8th. They did. We cleared our apartment. We were living in a temporary apartment because two years earlier, summer of 2016, we had actually sold our house in Maryland prepared preparing for this international move that we knew was going to take some Time to come. We knew it was going to take some time, but we knew we could start making steps for it to happen. And part of that was selling our house. So we packed up our apartment that we had moved into temporarily on March 8, and we were supposed to fly to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on March 13th. Well, guess what? After they moved our stuff out on March 8, and we had nothing left in our apartment, we were actually planning to move into a hotel just for the weekend till our flight came around. Guys. We ended up staying in hotels and Airbnbs from March 8th all the way through to August 12th, 2018. We had several months of Airbnb hopping and hotel living out of our eight suitcases because plans changed. Plans changed big time. In fact, the circumstances, if you followed the news at all, you will have seen have changed. In the Congo, there's a lot of unrest. There's a lot going on with elections there, elections happening, elections not happening, and Ebola is really come back to life in the cities in the Congo. So it's a little bit uneasy to think about living in the Congo. And different plans were being made for us. In fact, my husband was learning French to go to the Congo, and because the situation was changed, they wanted him to improve his French a little bit more so that, you know, he was totally set up for success, which is a wonderful thing. But it put some big changes into our life. So we had a choice to make. Stay in the United States and learn more French. Who knows how long that was going to take? Or look at going to a different country. And that different country ended up being Ethiopia. And we didn't push it. We didn't want to force it, because we thought, you know, maybe this is what we're supposed to be doing. Maybe we are supposed to be going to this different country. And when we found out we were going to Ethiopia, we were ready. But, no, there had to be a lot more planning. So I think it was about June 2018, when we found out it was going to be Ethiopia that we were going to instead. But it was going to take time to get all of that in motion. Different health assessments, different living arrangements had to be made. They had to plan for us here in Ethiopia. So there was a lot that had to happen around that. So we were essentially, again, homeless, living out of suitcases for several months, and we stayed at an Airbnb near my daughter's school because we wanted her to have stability. She's in. What was she. She was in first grade at the time. She's now in second. And we wanted her to have continuity. We wanted her to be able to go to the same school. We only had. Oh, oh, wait. We had no cars. We had sold our cars so we could start making this transition. And so we had to rent one car, which my husband needed to drive to work. So I had no car. And we wanted to continue to walk her to work or school or get her on the bus. So our Airbnb options were kind of limited. And we were staying in Annapolis, Maryland, so we found some Airbnbs close to her school that weren't, you know, weren't ideal, but we met lovely people along the way. And it was the weekend before school was getting out and we were sitting and having dinner at our Airbnb table. And out of the corner of my eye, a mouse ran by. Of course, this wasn't just any mouse. It looked like a warthog sized rat when I saw it. And in that moment, babe, we have got to change Airbnbs summer is coming. Let's get to a place where we can have a pool and enjoy the outdoors a little bit more. And we don't have to be by school anymore. So ask and you shall receive. My husband very quickly upgraded us to an Airbnb with an indoor pool. And we could only stay there for a couple of weeks because they had other people coming in. And then we upgraded to an Airbnb that was walking distance to the Annapolis beach. It was actually in Severna park just a little bit over. So it's crazy how this all unfolds because our kids were living a summer camp dream at the Airbnbs and we were able to continue to leverage and work with our nanny, who drove wherever we were to take care of the girls. So I could also keep working and running the business. Because, yes, while all of this is happening, we're still running Amber McHugh Consulting. We're adding a new team member. My photography business. Three boudoir not suitable for work or kids. I always like to warn people. We added a city, we grew our team. In fact, we expanded to San Diego where one of our team members was moving. So if you're looking for some boudoir photo shoot, definitely check us out because Carrie Ann is ready for you. And as we're gearing up for Africa and all this is happening, I'm thinking about this new work schedule I'm going to have to implement with time differences. Right? So we're gearing up, we're living out of hotels and we're preparing for A September move. Of course, we get closer and closer and closer to that date and things change yet again. Oh no, you're not moving in September. You want to move? Let's move that up to August. So a couple of weeks we had to prepare and shift and change everything again and get final details in place to move not in September, but on August 12th. And we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on August 14th, right on time. And I, as I walked off the plane, I was expecting to feel a little bit uncomfortable. I was expecting to feel awkward, you know, because I feel awkward even when I'm in a different state in the United States and watching news that isn't mine. It feels foreign. These aren't my news people. This isn't my, These aren't my stories. I don't know what areas or neighborhoods they're talking about. So I was definitely expecting to feel a little discomfort as we walked off that plane and walked into this new country. But I felt right at home. Audrey, on the other hand, said it looked a little bit like a war zone. There is a lot of development going on here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There's a lot of expansion that is being done. There's a lot of building, so there's a lot of dust. There's a lot of rumble as things get knocked down. And so it was completely foreign and completely new for them. And we started at a hotel at the Marriott. And at this point we are at move number 12. The Marriott was move number 13. And we were there for a couple of days. And get this, guys, on Friday afternoon at 2:30pm, my husband calls and says, we're moving today. They're going to pick us up at 6:00'. Clock. Be ready, like, okay, we're moving where? Oh no. We were moving to our permanent house. We were moving to another temporary house. Oh my gosh. So they drop us off, they were late picking us up and they dropped us off late at 7:30. And here in Ethiopia it gets dark a little bit early. And so it is dark. We are dropped off who knows where. We've never been to this neighborhood before. We've barely made it out of our hotel room because there wasn't much to do in the neighborhood we were in. And my husband was up and running with work right away and I was back to work. I wanted to make a seamless transition there and adjusting to jet lag. They dropped us off at 7:30, who knows where. We didn't even have toilet paper in this house that we moved into. So that in and of itself was like, what is happening sort of adventure. But we wanted to be in house. So ask and you shall receive. So be careful what you ask for. And then a couple of months later we did move number 15 into our permanent house in Ethiopia where we have blazing fast Internet, relatively speaking. I actually speak with friends in the UK and my Internet is oftentimes better than their Internet. So props to Ethiopia Telecom for the Internet world working. And we asked, we wanted to be moving into a small, normal place because a lot of the houses here are multi level, gorgeous marble floors. But you step in one friend's house and you enter her foyer and you step up and you go to the family room and you step up and you go to the living room and you step up a little bit more and you go to the kitchen. And she has a very extreme circumstance with all of her flights. But it's not uncommon to have a good four to seven levels in your house here. And we have a fairly normal house of just two stories. Oh, and there's a condo in the back, seven bedrooms, one of which I turned into an office. And we have a main living space that is an open floor plan style living space with our living room, dining room, kitchen, kind of all in one. And yeah, are there things I change about the decor? Yeah, definitely. And we're working on that little by little because the embassy housing furniture guys, it looks like my grandma's furniture and not the grandma's furniture that I would want to keep either. It's something that I'd want to paint over, refurbish. Not the old fashioned antique stuff that I do still have, but it's the stuff you were like, grandma, it is tiny for that to go. Yep, yep. That's the kind of furniture we have. So we sold all of our furniture when we moved out of our house in 2016 and I probably could have kept a little bit and moved it with us because this space is big enough. This furniture that we have, while I am grateful for it, is just not my style. So sofa covers, here I come. And we're working on that slowly but surely. But our place is small and normal, which is exactly what we asked for. Ask and you shall receive. After we got settled in our new house, my dad was going to be in Dubai, which is a couple of hours away from us, so we definitely made plans to see him because we haven't seen him in a couple of years. And Dubai is an incredible experience. You know, we're coming from a place in Ethiopia where you you don't necessarily eat the milk because it may have aflatoxins in it. We're coming from a place where it's hard to get things. Things are often out of stock, so you've got to stock up when you see it at the store. And there isn't a lot to do around here. You know, there are great restaurants because there's a lot of Italian influence here and there's a lot of diplomats and expats coming in and creating new. But it's hard to find and it's difficult living. And I was reminded of that when we went to Dubai and everything is so wonderfully commercial. You know, it's one of those things where you say, you know, I don't know if I'd be excited to say that. Oh, but I was excited. The mall is like a Smithsonian museum. It's so big. There's dinosaurs and gold in one section and in the other section have you. You've got the aquarium and technology shopping stores like the Apple Store. And then in the other section you've got the kids area and the kids museum with all the kids stores around it. So going to Dubai was an incredible experience and really a great reflection in how business is done. They're taking those malls and really creating community centers. The DMV is at the mall, as I said. They're museum like experiences at the mall. The pharmacy at the mall, everything was right there, which made it really convenient when I needed to stock up on some things, you know, some new clothes for the kids because they were growing out of sizes. The weather's a little bit different here than it was supposed to be in the Congo. So we had to stock up on some things. And it made it so convenient to have all of those things in one place at the Dubai Mall. And of course in Dubai, we hit the sand dunes, which are an absolute. The girls would just run up one down the other, up one down the other, and before you know it, we could not see where they were because the dunes are so massive, so spread apart. But it was an incredible experience. And I've got those photos up on my Instagram if you want to check some of those out. And then we also had my family, my two sisters, one of their boyfriends, my mom coming to visit us, and my daughter Lily, who's in college in Santa Barbara, came to visit, visit us for Christmas. And after we showed them around Ethiopia, we did Mercado, the largest open air market in Africa, which was a trip and an experience in and of itself. You have to move fast, watch for pickpocketing, lots of negotiation, total blast. Great lessons there in running business, which I'll definitely share with you more in detail later. And we did mercado. We saw the city. We stopped at local shops that are creating products that are sold in anthropology and ABC stores and experienced the countryside in Ethiopia with them. And then we had Christmas here and we packed up and we headed to one of my bucket list items. Masai Mara. Masai Mara. I've got to make sure I say that right. Masai Mara in the savannah in Kenya to do our first ever African safari. And guys, that was the trip of a lifetime. If that is on your bucket list, let me know because I have got the resources for you to make the most incredible experience happen for you. We came front and center, like right. Stood right next to lions. In fact, lions were walking by our safari truck and they were about three feet away from my door. And sweet Harper, my four year old, sticks her head out the window to see that. Like honey, you better put your head back in. Oops. She popped it right back in and all was well. But ask and you shall receive. We saw every single animal we wanted to see and they went right by our truck. Cheetahs, leopards, elephants, lions, hyenas, the warthogs, which are so crazy adorable and end to end, it was everything we could have dreamed of. You know, things don't always happen as we plan. Wasn't planning on 15 moves in 2018, wasn't even planning to be in Ethiopia. But ask and you shall receive. We asked for international move. We didn't ask for the Congo, we didn't ask for Ethiopia. Be clear on what you want and be ready to show up. Put plans in action and meet your goal halfway. Notice I said goal, not goals. And you will start to get traction. Put action in place. One goal and then the next goal. And show up for your goals one at a time. Be present and little by little, things will start to take shape for you. In fact, things will come together in completely unexpected ways that might be better than you could have imagined, right? We were supposed to go to the Congo and Ethiopia is more than we ever could have expected. Yes, there are challenges, but it's really shaping us to become different people. In fact, people said when we were moving here, Africa changes you. Does it ever? My friend Elsa Isaac wrote me when she found out we were moving here and said to enjoy the slower, richer pace of life. That's exactly what's happening. I'm getting in shape more because of the work schedule shift. I've got more time in the mornings to spend time with the kids, to get them to school, to pick them up and have lunch with Harper every single day after school to spend time with them before I step into work, primarily working east coast hours here from Ethiopia. I have time to exercise while they're at school. And it's even the little things like I wear less makeup here. And the big change that I'm really experiencing and really feeling is that even though I've been a mom for 19, oh my gosh, she just turned 20, I've been a mom for 20 years. A 20 year old who we had in college. And if you don't know the story on that, definitely listen to the first episode of the Modern CEO podcast for details on that. But I've got a 20 year old, I've got a seven year old, and we've got a four year old. And while I've been a mom for 20 years, I'm really just starting to feel like a mom because I'm more present. I'm so much more present. I'm more patient, and I am surrendering more to what is unfolding. I make the plan, I step into action, knowing I will not be late. We are right on time for whatever is going to happen, because I'm showing up and I'm taking action around that. In fact, in the fall of 2017, as this journey was coming together, as it was becoming clear what was going to be happening in our future, I asked for lessons in surrender and patience. And then in about May of 2018, when we were on move, I don't know how many, I called Uncle. Uncle, I get it. But I didn't have a new ask. So I continued to surrender. I continued to ask for patience, and I asked for clarity on what the next move is. For me personally, like, things were unfolding, my husband and I were staying connected on the plans that were unfolding, even if we didn't know exactly what was happening from moment to moment as we moved through these 15 moves. But I asked for patience and surrender continually. And I asked to know what was next. And guys, it's little by little it has been unfolding. And actually the first day of 2018, oh my gosh. See, there I go get my years mixed up again. The first day of 2019, I shifted my focus from surrender and patience to reimagine. And as we sit here together today, I want to invite you to reimagine everything that is possible for you. Surrender to the possibility that there is more for you out there, that there's something different for you out there. You don't have to do it like everybody else is doing it. Reimagine what is possible and ask and you shall receive. So with this little catch up, I want to invite you to stick with us because in the next episode, we are going to step into action and we're going to get a fresh start together where we reimagine what is possible for you and your business when you ask for it. And we're gonna take you through what to ask for, what to look at, what to examine in your business and your life to create the business and life you have always dreamed of, the one you wake up loving every single day. Thank you so much for being back with us in this next season of the Modern CEO Podcast. And as. As promised. Oh yes, we are ending on a high note. Gonna take some time to do the things we never. I hope you could not hear my voice while that Africa song was playing because I was so off key. Now, whether you are off key or not, show up. Sing it loud, sing it proud. And let's meet up in the next episode of the Modern CEO Podcast to reimagine what's possible for you and your business and your life. I'll see you soon. I cast the rains down in Africa I cast the rays down in Africa I kiss the rains down in Africa.