Solo Episode: A vision for how community can help queer folks thrive abroad

In this solo episode, Jess pulls back the curtain on Rainbow Relocation Strategies, sharing her personal journey and passion for empowering queer folks to thrive abroad. Discover the vision behind creating a global, supportive community and learn about a unique opportunity to join the first-ever expat cohort launching this August.

Key takeaways from today's episode:

• Community Focus: Jess emphasizes the importance of building a supportive and empowering community for queer expats through Rainbow Relocation Strategies and the Queer Expats Worldwide Facebook group.
• Specialized Support: Jess outlines her decision to focus on working with queer clients and corporations to address the unique needs of LGBTQ individuals relocating abroad, highlighting the gaps in knowledge and support from traditional corporate relocation services.
• Challenges and Advocacy: The episode discusses the unique challenges queer individuals face when moving abroad, including discriminatory practices and lack of support, illustrated by a high-level employee's experience.
• 90-Day Exit Strategy Program: Jess introduces the first-ever cohort of a 90-day program designed to help future queer expats plan their move abroad, providing hands-on coaching, community support, and actionable tasks. Book now to start August 7th, 2024 and finish just ONE day before the US election.
• Vision for the Future: Jess shares her broader vision for the future of Rainbow Relocation Strategies, aiming to create global pathways and networks for queer individuals, enabling them to thrive in an interconnected world shaped by global mobility and interdependence.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

[time sensitive] 90-Day Exit Strategy Cohort (by August 7th or waitlist!)

Queer Expats Worldwide Community
Rainbow Relocation Strategies
@rainbowrelo on Instagram
Book: How To Move Abroad 

Your host, Jessica Drucker, can be found online at jessicadrucker.com

The Adventure Calls podcast is a bi-weekly podcast that seeks to empower queer folks to move, live and thrive abroad with interviews with relocation experts, queer expats and other organizations that give a lens on the LGBTQ+ experience in the world.

Transcript

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We're already limited by the countries we can move to because the fact is there are certain countries as a queer person you're just not going to move to. But as a queer community, we can unite across borders, we can unite across communities and the unity and the empowerment that I was talking about isn't just amongst expats, It can truly be bridges across and connecting queer communities around the world who can, like, even learn from each other and grow from each other. Welcome back to another episode of Adventure Calls where we empower queer folks, our families and allies to move, live, and most importantly, thrive abroad. I'm your host, Jess Drucker. Today's gonna be more of a solo episode. I've got something I wanna share, and I wanna take the time to really lay it all out because I've been a little bit unclear about a few things and I wanna bring some clarity to the podcast and to what's going on over here with me, with the podcast and, of course, with Rainbow Relocation Strategies. So, you know, a long time ago, I wrote a book. And if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know the book is called How to Move Abroad and Why It's the Best Thing You'll Do. And I truly, truly believe that moving abroad is one of the best things you can do with your time, with your life, for your family, for yourself. And so I wrote that book a long time ago, and as a result of the book, you know, it started selling relatively well quite quickly. I got a lot of coaching opportunities. I was helping future expats learn how to move abroad. Over time though, I felt that I started to feel inside of me a little bit of anger almost towards some of my clients and the anger was totally unwarranted, of course, but I'm just being really honest. It was more an anger that I didn't realize I had been holding in for a lot of years. Many of you know that I lived abroad for 15 years and I was, you know, identified as queer the whole time that I lived abroad. And I never really realized how limited I did feel at certain points in my life living abroad because of being LGBTQ. And I didn't really realize that for a long a long time. And then I would have clients who I was helping to relocate who were cisgender, heterosexual, white, either a male or a married couple, usually pretty financially well off. And they could really go anywhere in the world they wanted and experience a level of privilege that, you know, I never could and a lot of people never can. And instead of being, like, feeling a little bit angry at clients who just, like, get to move wherever they want to without having to think about whether or not they can be safe there as a queer person like I had to, I decided to really draw a line in the sand and say, I just I wanna work with queer folks. I I really want to work with queer folks and honestly, through some of my corporate work, I also do a lot of work in terms of, like, diversity in general, being a minority abroad and that sort of thing. But it's so much more meaningful to me on a daily basis with everyone I work with to help queer folks, like, find their place in the world. And so that's why a few years ago, I started Rainbow Relocation Strategies for a community of queer expats worldwide and anyone really interested in moving abroad as a queer person. And so today, what I really wanna do is talk about that level of empowerment and what the, like, higher purpose of Rainbow relocation is and has become over time. You know, and over the past few months, it really felt like we were about to be led by people who chose to divide us and keep us all small. And then recently, over the past few weeks, especially with these, like, you know, political shifts, Joe Biden stepping down, Kamala Harris stepping up into more popularity than I think we could have imagined, we definitely feel more empowered than we have in a really, really long time. I think we're remembering what it means to be united again instead of the fear of being divided. But, you know, before that happened, before a few weeks ago, we were reminded again how vulnerable we can feel as queer folks. The rise of, like, right wing populism, the threat of fascism coming back into fashion, really the thought that like all the progress we've made could be threatened. It's a stark reminder of how quickly our rights and our comforts can be challenged if we're divided. So I don't wanna look at this though through a negative lens. I wanna look at this positively. I wanna focus on the adventure again of moving abroad. There's a reason why this podcast is called Adventure Calls and I wanna talk about strength, strength in numbers, and strength in unity. So I founded Rainbow Relocation as I said because I realized that I wanted to work with queer folks and empower queer people to take the opportunity to live abroad. And one of my goals now with Rainbow is really to connect queer folks across the world. And so with that, I really wanna share a vision of the future for my company, but also for us. There are lots of LGBTQ organizations out there that seek to unite us as a community. I don't have any thought that I'm doing something fully original here. However, I don't find any organization out there that seeks to unite queer folks who have chosen or been asked to relocate, whether on their own as self initiated expats or as corporate expats moving for a job or a career opportunity. I find no community, really, in the world that unites queer folks who experience expat life, international relocation, a life of global mobility. And that's really where I wanna come in because I really think that we need a community, we need a space that unites us. There are unique needs. Sure. That's absolutely true. There are, unique issues that come up as a queer person living abroad, and I think that we are the ones who have to answer our own questions. We have to empower ourselves. No one has the answers that we need except for us, and I can't know everything either. I try as hard as I can and I listen to as many stories as I can and I, obviously, you know, through my clients, I learn. But a lot of the work that we're doing is also reliant on learning from each other. Every single time I have a trans client, I am learning completely new information about being a trans expat. It's not my own personal experience, first of all. 2nd of all, every single country has very different laws, very different societal norms around being trans, access to proper medication or gender affirming care, and it is like every single client is like a grassroots effort to find the right information, and that's awesome. First of all, it's awesome that as a trans person, you feel safe to go relocate and live a life of your dreams or take a career making opportunity abroad. This is great. I want everyone to have it. I wanna be there to help. Absolutely. However, we are the ones that have to really empower each other and learn and so Queer Expats Worldwide, my Facebook community right now is an online space for all of us to connect with each other, whether we are future expats who are just looking to figure out where in the world to move first, or current expats who live abroad now and can either, you know, help advise those future expats or share their own unique struggles and challenges and get information about anything, you know, from information that you really need, like in terms of survival on a day to day basis or just like, hey, I'm going to Barcelona, who's queer and who's there, who wants to meet up? I mean, I think there's power in numbers in that way. And so you know, that's one way that Rainbow is really looking to unite and empower queer expats around the world. On the other side of things, so we we work with self initiated expats, right? People who make the choice to move abroad themselves, they want to bring their families, and they're gonna do it on their own, But then another side of the business is working with corporations, global mobility teams within big multinational corporations, or relocation consultants who help get expat settled on the final end of their move. We do trainings, workshops, consultations to help companies understand the unique needs, not only of queer folks, but also of any non majority person relocating. And what I realized over time, honestly, is that the team that actually does the relocating of that employee, that's not even where the work needs to be. I mean, yes, there's always training and education that can be done, but I also noticed that most of the people that are relocating in a corporate capacity who are queer for example, are like, cis white gay men and it makes sense because they're excelling at work due to quite a lot of of privilege early on in the pipeline from talent acquisition, meaning, like, you get the job, all the way through to, like, being considered for a job abroad. You know, there's there there was recently a story told to me, which I'm just gonna do really high levels on because it's a touchy subject and, I I don't wanna give anything away too much. But, you know, there was a a queer woman, who had a wife and she the woman was a very high level, employee at a big multinational corporation. And in order to become a member of the c suite, so like a chief financial officer, you really needed at this company to have international experience. And so she was relocated to a country where there's a lot of business, so it was a key market for the company. Same sex marriage isn't legal, but also they're not very queer friendly. And so, of course, she has a wife and the wife obviously needs to relocate. The company is not gonna say, hey, move without your wife, because they're not gonna say, hey, either end up, like, getting divorced or quitting this job early because your wife couldn't come. Right? So they're gonna do everything they can to move the wife. That's clear. But since same sex marriage isn't legal, the wife had to go on a student visa, right, just to get her there so that they could, like, live together. So they go through all the trouble global mobility team and getting all those approvals and everything. And so they go through all that trouble and the staff there, the local staff there find out that she's gay and that she has a wife and they won't do the work for her and she doesn't really say anything at first because she thinks okay, you know, I'm new, I've gotta figure this out. After 2 months, they basically say we won't work for you because you're a lesbian. And she tells the team back, in at HQ at the headquarters and they say, well, maybe it's best if you come back. So she goes back into her regular position. Now she doesn't have the career making international experience that she needed to have, and she eventually quit because the company did not support her while she was there. They didn't do any trainings. They didn't do anything with the local staff. They didn't take that into consideration. They didn't know it beforehand, and she had to go through all of this not only alone, but also maybe if there had been a community there that she had been a part of, she could've asked a lot of questions. She could've thought this through, someone could've thought this through, someone on the team could've thought this through. And then when they repatriated her and took away the opportunities that would have allowed her the pathway into the c suite, because she obviously deserved to be at that level, she sued them and, you know, honestly, for 1,000,000 of dollars. But the fact of the matter is this kind of thing is happening all the time. Companies aren't considering the queer experience, they don't have any sort of intercultural knowledge in terms of LGBTQ acceptance, and these issues are coming up time and time again. And queer folks are always forced to sort of eat the cost of that. Eat the eat the cost of the lack of knowledge that that corporations have. And that's another reason why having a community, a network of queer folks around the world is super important. We have to do this work of empowering ourselves as we make our way through the world. And you could say, well, Jess, like, then just like why move abroad? You know, like why do this? Because I truly believe that it's like the best thing you can do. In my book, I give like 15 reasons right up front, chapter 1, why moving abroad is the best thing you can do. Not only does it give you actual like, career skills if that's what you want, right? You become multilingual, you can flourish in an international environment, work with all different kinds of people in a way where you couldn't have before And and those are clear for like your career making, but also you start to be able to operate very well in an area of like a gray zone. When things aren't clear, you can keep a level head because if you move to a country where you don't speak the language and there's a whole new system for just about everything from taking the subway to going grocery shopping, right, you learn to operate in a gray zone. You learn to operate where things aren't so clear. And that means that even especially if you return home where all of those things become clear again, you have skills that allow you to operate in business in gray zones and not freak out when you don't have all the answers. Or in your personal life, you're able to see things through a lens where it's like, okay, well, okay, I can be calm here, I don't have all the information, but I can still function. These are really important life skills. And also, honestly, there's something to be said for the fact that you move abroad once in your life and maybe it's just something you had to get out of your system or maybe it's something that you end up loving. But when you're 80 years old, you don't have to look back and wonder. You can say like, well I did that. That's something that I did and it's experience that no one can take away from you and that's something I talk about all the time with my clients. No matter what, this is experience that can't be taken away from you. So for a lot of reasons and way more than I just named, I think that queer folks should also get to have these opportunities. We shouldn't be limited. We're already limited by the countries we can move to because the fact is there are certain countries as a queer person you're just not going to move to. But as a queer community we can unite across borders, we can unite across communities and the unity and the empowerment that I was talking about isn't just amongst expats. It can truly be bridges across and connecting queer communities around the world who can, like, even learn from each other and grow from each other. It might sound totally lofty but like what's the point of a vision if it doesn't get that lofty, if we don't go that high up toward what the apex of our possibilities are. So if you're still listening to this and you don't think I am absolutely crazy, I thank you. I want us to have that level of connection to each other, because I think it is incredibly relevant and important. You know, I want us to connect because of this shared experience of being queer and being out in the world, but, like, I also want us to be able to explore and share like job opportunities or ways to become financially independent not reliant upon our careers. You know, living abroad, it offers us a chance to break completely free from the heteronormative constraints that we face and truly create like our own paths out there. And so Rainbow Relocation, it's about way more than just like helping queer folks relocate. It's truly about creating global pathways and networks transcending boundaries for queer folks. And honestly, in a future shaped by, like, climate change and interdependence globally in terms of business, global experience and global connections are going to be what brings us success in the short future, right, in the near term 5 years, 10 years. But also if you're someone with a family and you have kids, those kids also need to be be able to operate in like a global environment. So even 30, 40, 50 years in the future. And I want us to have a network. I want us to be connected in that way. That's the vision for Rainbow Relocation Strategies, for the work that I'm doing, why I even want you to buy in on all of this and be a part of it. Be a part of it by listening to the podcast. Learn how to relocate, empower yourself, avoid mistakes that you would normally make so that when you move abroad you can actually thrive. And then how to create community when you are abroad. And then how to take the lessons that you learn and apply them and really live like an elevated level of life and also, like, find ways to be happier and thrive, generally speaking, by by, like, really releasing ourselves from all this, like, heteronormativity. Was it Compulsive heteronormativity or comphet, right? Like lifestyle. I want that for you by listening to this show, of course. I want that by, you know, joining queer expats worldwide. And so to bring it back, one way that I'm really working to create important community and connection, I'm forming the 1st ever cohort. You can be the 1st ever cohort of future expats ready to move abroad in my 90 day exit strategy cohort that I'd like to kick off by August 7th. And I really wanna have at least 5 people and no more than 12 people committed to this journey together. So you'd be a part of the first ever cohort and I will definitely explain what in the world a cohort is. Essentially, you will be a group of people who get group coaching from me on a biweekly, every 2 week basis. Every single week, you will have tasks and I will help you figure out everything from where you wanna move, where you can move, what visas you can get, what jobs you're gonna be able to get or what jobs you can start now and take with you, what is realistic for living in terms of cost of living, how do you figure out where in the world to move in terms of what city you're gonna move to, how to figure out how to make a life abroad, and by the time you are done with this 90 day exit strategy, you're gonna be so far down a checklist that you're already gonna be on a train that's, like, literally has already left the station toward your moving abroad. This 90 day program, you might notice that from August 7th, 90 days is November 4th, so it'll be right before the election. Whether that turns out to be a great thing or not so great, you'll have your exit strategy all in place and it's a 90 day program, it's a total commitment, but at the end of it, again, you're gonna have an action plan, you're gonna have a checklist and tons of items already checked off your checklist, and you're gonna have a community of people who are doing it at the same time. You'll be able to learn from them. They'll ask questions that you didn't think of. They'll share mistakes or observations or a thought process or research that you didn't discover or you didn't do. They'll be your network when you first move abroad because you went through all of this together. In all, it's about 13 weeks, guided action the whole way, live workshops with me every 2 weeks, practical action based tasks every week to keep you on track, and you don't know what you don't know. And so these tasks will be laid out so that you can honestly think of everything. You're gonna have 247 community support. So you'll be added to special WhatsApp chat channels with all the cohort members. This is your space to ask them questions, share progress. I'll jump in every single day and answer any outstanding questions every single day, so you'll have 247 support. You'll be able to work with at least 4 other people and only 11 other people. So this is a small group where you can feel safe, everybody's queer, everybody has the same concerns and this will be your support network. You'll get 9 full hours of instruction and I do just wanna say, I'm not trying to be super salesy here, but honestly, if you had 9 hours of instruction from me on a personal basis, this would cost you alone$1665. $1,665. Okay? Because I charge from my hourly rate 1.85. So 185 times 9, 16.65. But in this program, you can get all the workshops, all the tasks, 247 access, a community and coaching with me for literally a fraction of that because you're also gonna be my first cohort and so I'm gonna charge you a literally about 25% of that cost and you're gonna get so much more. So if you're ready to to take this leap, you need to be ready. I don't want anybody to commit to this who's not ready because it's not fair to the other people in the community, but if you are ready to make an exit strategy plan, you're ready to join a community of like minded individuals, you are ready to transform from someone who dreams about being an expat into someone who's like actually literally all planned and ready to go, come November 5th, you'll have an action plan in place and you'll have your literal exit strategy in place, then what I want you to do is go to rainbowrelo.comforward/90 days. So rainbowrelorel0 dotcomforward/90 days. Get all the information there. Again, I'm gonna cap this group at 12, but I actually really prefer something smaller. So when we get the right number of people in and it feels like the right size cohort, I'm gonna close it. So I'm running this at half the price of the future cohorts. I'm gonna kick off the next one in November. If you're ready now, I do it now because it's gonna be half the price of the one in November, but you gotta be ready and you gotta be serious about a move abroad. I'm gonna kick off August 7th, so if you have questions, if you want more information, please don't hesitate to reach out before that. I want this group to be a tight knit group of future expats ready to take on the world with me. And if you're not quite there yet, that's fine and I'm always here in so many other ways. Because like I said, I I'm so focused on creating a community of people who can help each other. I want you to feel empowered, I want you to feel connected, but also, I really want you to feel motivated about chasing your dreams and following your call to adventure. I want you to do this if it's something that you dream about doing and I wanna empower you in any way I can. And with that, again, thanks for listening. I hope that this helps to explain what Rainbow Relocation Strategies is, why this podcast is called The Adventure Calls Podcast, that we have a Facebook group out there if you didn't know about it called Queer Expats Worldwide. All this information is obviously gonna be in the show notes of this episode and you can also always reach out to me. I'm at rainbowrelo on Instagram, at Rainbow Relocation on TikTok. Jess@rainbowrelo.com is my email. So you can reach out to me in any way that you need. And until next time, stay adventurous, stay connected to each other, stay proud.