In 2017, when we moved to Taipei, I knew something in me had shifted.

For more than twenty years I had worked in HR and executive coaching. I had sat at leadership tables. I understood how businesses actually run. Not just the vision and energy of them, but the operations, the systems, the financial mechanics that hold everything together. I knew how strategy connects to process. I knew what makes organisations succeed and what quietly makes them unravel.

But when we arrived in Taipei, I could not step back into a traditional corporate role. And if I am honest, I did not want to.

There was a restlessness in me. A knowing. I needed to do something different with my life.

One afternoon I saw a post titled, “Why as an expat you have the skills to be an entrepreneur.” I still remember the moment. It felt like someone had turned a light on.

I did not know what the business would be. I did not have a name. I did not have a plan. But I knew I needed to build something of my own.

Starting was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. Not because I lacked capability. I had capability in spades. It was hard because starting means putting yourself out there. It means being seen before you feel fully ready. It means saying, this matters to me, and risking that others may not understand.

The idea did not arrive fully formed. It grew slowly through conversations, through noticing what people came to me for, through reflecting on my strengths and how I wanted them to show up in my life.

Then one day at the school gate, my beautiful friend Ellen said something that changed everything.

“I would pay you just to talk to me and share your ideas.”

We went to lunch. There was a glass of vino, maybe two. And somewhere between laughing and scribbling thoughts on paper, the shape of a business began to form.

Within a month I launched Expat Parenting Abroad. I created support groups for women who were moving, or about to move, countries. Women who were navigating new cultures and trying to find themselves again in unfamiliar places.

It was not perfect. It was not polished. But it was a start.

What I know now, and what I tell my clients often, is that once you are clear on your strengths and how you want to use them, your world starts to organise itself around that decision. It is like deciding you want a red dress and suddenly you see red dresses everywhere. Your attention sharpens. Opportunities become visible.

Starting is never neat. It is rarely comfortable.

But it is powerful.

And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is decide that your life needs to look different, even before you know exactly how.

If you are standing on that edge right now, wondering whether you are ready, the truth is this. You do not need the whole business mapped out. But you do need clarity around who you are, what you bring, and where you want to head.

That is the work we do inside a 90 minute Business Clarity Diagnostic. We slow it down. We untangle the noise. We find the starting point that feels solid.

You can book yours here:
https://theleaptolead.com/clarity