TALKING TIME
WE ARE TALKING TO: ANDREA
MARTINS
After a combined 20 years of expat experience the two friends Andrea
Martins and Jill Lengré decided to share their knowledge and create
an online network for the trailing spouses around the world. ExpatWomen.com was launched in January 2007 and met immediate success.
In just two years
this network has grown to be a comprehensive, global website helping
women living overseas. The site displays more than 1,000 quality content
pages, nearly 800 expat women blogs, more than 200 readers’ stories,
invaluable country resource pages, interviews with successful expat women,
loads of motivational articles and an inspirational monthly newsletter.
Mamizeit got to talk to Andrea Martins who now runs the website alone
after Jill Lengré stepped aside to focus on her move back to the
US.
Mamizeit: Andrea, tell us a bit about your own experience as an Expat.
Andrea: Prior to ExpatWomen.com, I was on the trailing spouse circuit.
I scored some work with multinationals and the Australian Embassy in
Indonesia and then played mum for four years in Mexico. Before going
abroad, I worked in strategic human resources, workplace diversity and
project coordination – nothing to do with the Internet.
Starting out with ExpatWomen.com we found that time was our biggest challenge.
With both of us juggling work and family priorities, there were only
so many hours in the day to research and create a new product, then oversee
every aspect of its development to our satisfaction. We were crazy enough
to start with the whole world at once. Our vision was always to connect
women globally. Since Jill stepped aside a year ago due to personal reasons,
it has just been one web person and me who run the site. The time/effort
is phenomenal. But we see the value – so that keeps us going.
Legal issues were another challenge for us, as we tried to set up business
entities that were fair to both Jill (American) and myself (Australian),
wherever we would go on to live in the world. We overcame this by paying
highly experienced lawyers. However, this cost us ten times what we would
have paid if we had found a simpler solution and was probably not the
best option.
We publish new articles on our site every week. Guest contributors mostly
write these articles. Once a month, we change our home page and send
out our newsletter to highlight some of our newest articles. ExpatWomen.com
attracts close to 20,000 unique users per month – from all over
the world, and we have 3,600 members who receive our newsletter every
month.
My biggest highlight since starting ExpatWomen.com, was probably interviewing
celebrity expat model Gail Elliott (who met her husband through Helena
Christensen) and getting mentioned in Pink Magazine (US) when Tyra Banks
was on the cover.
Mamizeit: What advice would you give expat women who are trying to create
a new network in their new country?
Andrea: My best piece of advice would be to stay positive and keep motivated.
Do whatever it takes to keep a smile on your face when times get tough
abroad – exercise, socialise with new people, travel and explore,
attend motivational conferences and if you are not working, find a way
to keep your brain active.
In terms of work, if you do not have a job abroad but want one, think
creatively about what you can do. I had some wild business ideas (like
creating a board game, starting an eBay store, developing kids bath toys
and even sourcing products to sell on home shopping network channels)
before we started ExpatWomen.com Those business ideas never came to fruition,
but they kept my brain moving and I am sure they made me ready to run
with ExpatWomen.com when the time came. Too many expats seem to limit
their ideas by what they knew before. If you cannot work locally in your
field of choice, work virtually (see sites like www.elance.com), volunteer,
study, learn a new area of work or start a business locally doing something
fun. You never know how the pieces of the puzzle will work out later – so
give new ideas a go, get inspired by expat women before you and enjoy
yourself!
Mamizeit: by the way these days Andrea considers ‘home’ to
be the beach in Australia. However, and she says it best: “I
am a repatriate in denial and my soul is always wondering when it is
time
to move on again”.
(Thank you Andrea for taking time out to talk to us.)
Andrea Martins
director of ExpatWomen.com
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