Andrea Vahl: Have you had a lifelong dream to live overseas and haven’t made that happen yet? Maybe things have gotten in the way like family, jobs, life. And my guest today, Christine Gritmon didn’t let that stop her. She had a family and had this lifelong dream to live overseas, and she made that happen this year, moving her entire family to the United Kingdom. Find out how she made that happen in today’s episode. 

Hello, dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration, mindset, and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams. 

Andrea Vahl: Hello, everyone and welcome to the show. I’m your host, Andrea Vahl. And I am here with the lovely Christine Gritmon calling in from across the pond, as they say. She is in the UK. Currently, she just finished moving her family over there, uprooting everything, moving her family over there midlife. And we’re going to dive into all of that in this show.

So welcome, Christine.

Christine Gritmon: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. I will do your formal introduction. Not only has she moved her family across the pond, but she is a brand expert. She empowers professionals to step into their personal brands in a bigger, bolder way on social media. And you can do it, she’ll teach you how. 

She has spoken on stages worldwide. She is a frequent expert guest on podcasts, live streams, Twitter chats. Is that still a thing? Blog posts, as well as hosting her own weekly podcast. Let’s talk about brand. So super excited to have you here again, so awesome. And speaking of brand, Christine is a master. Red, if you can’t tell is part of her brand.

She has it, she wears it. She embodies it, she lives it. It’s her bag. Yeah. It’s all about, when you think of the color red, you think of Christine. 

Christine Gritmon: Sickness, it’s a sickness.

What was the seed that got Christine thinking about moving to a new country with young kids?

Andrea Vahl: Awesome. So let’s just dive right into what it really took. This has been a long process, and I’ve been watching it online and watching you make this move. What was the initial thought when saying, “Hey, let’s move to a whole ‘nother country when my kids are 9 and 11.” what was the seed for thinking about doing that?

Christine Gritmon: Well, the initial seed actually goes back 20 years. I was 22, 23. And I had a breakup, a big breakup for a serious relationship and I realized, “Wow, wait, I’m an adult now.” The next man I date, I could wind up marrying. I’m an adult. So before that happens, before I wind up with, the husband and the kids and the white picket fence in the suburbs and the dog and the cat and the white picket fence and the station wagon, all of which I wanted and all of which I did wind up getting. What adventures do I want to have?

I felt almost a pressure. To have kind of a cool adventure before I settled down. I don’t know exactly where it came from, but I decided, you know what, I’m going to move to Dublin, Ireland for a year. And that wasn’t quite out of nowhere. My mother was born in Ireland. My mother is from Galway and I said, but Dublin seems like a better place to move for a young 20-something. 

And so I moved into a cheaper apartment. I started saving money. I got my Irish passport, which I had eligibility for through my mother. And I just didn’t pull it together. I just did not pull it together. There’s so many moving parts to an international move, and you hear about people all the time who just wing it, and they seem so underprepared.

And either you’re not hearing the whole story, or they’re astonishingly lucky. Probably a bit of both. But I didn’t pull it together, or they have a very high tolerance for uncertainty.

Andrea Vahl: Yes. 

Christine Gritmon: Maybe that’s part of it as well. Whatever the reason, I did not pull it together. So years later, when I got together with my husband, I did tell him it may creep up again someday, the urge to go have an adventure.

And he was like, all right, cool. We’ll talk about it when it comes. And then he’s the one who actually brought it up a couple of years ago. Yeah, so that was a combination of a few factors. Part of it was certain things happening in the United States in recent years. 

Andrea Vahl: Mmmm, yeah. 

Christine Gritmon: Made us feel a little less comfortable being there, a little less like America or bust and a little more like, maybe we could peace out for a bit. So that was part of it. I think that was the initial idea but also we’re spectacularly lucky that we can do that. I have Irish citizenship and Ireland is part of the European Union still. So I can live in a whole bunch of countries, but. Ireland also has a longstanding arrangement with the United Kingdom.

It predates either of their involvements in the EU, which is good because the UK is no longer part of the EU and they opted to keep it. called the Common Travel Area and people, Irish citizens, the Republic of Ireland, their citizens and UK citizens can live in each other’s countries. I’m registered to vote in the United Kingdom.

I didn’t think I’d be able to do that, but I have full rights of citizenship, which is crazy. So I set up visas for my husband and kids and you can do that. You can do a family visa. And we made it happen. And also the fact that we could get a lot of money for our house when we first decided to do this.

The market cooled a little bit by the time we actually pulled together to move, but still we wind up getting more for our house than we paid for it. So that helped for sure.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah.

Christine Gritmon: It seemed like the right time. And also if the kids were younger, it would be hard because young kids, very hands on labor intensive. And if they were older, it would be emotionally harder on them. It’s harder when you’re a teen. 

Andrea Vahl: Right, you’ve got your friend group.

Christine Gritmon: My son’s 11 and he was already starting to be in that zone. It was just the right time. And they’re the type of kids you travel with, and we hadn’t.

But they’re open to new experiences. They’re flexible. They’re best friends with each other. They eat actual food. They don’t need chicken nuggets everywhere we go. Yeah, we figured let’s go for it.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, that’s awesome. And that is a sweet spot of time. I can see where making that decision for the kids is easy.

Christine Gritmon: Oh, also we both work remotely too. That was another element of it. My husband, his job, he used to have to go into New York City. We were not far from New York City. He used to have to go into New York City 2 or 3 times a week pre-pandemic, but was fully remote the other 2 days. Not very far into 2020, they just decided they weren’t going to reopen the office.

They said, we’re not having any problem doing that. He works for a tech company. They’re like, we’re not having any problems doing this remotely. Let’s just do it remotely. So he was already fully remote had been for years. There were no plans for a return to the office and I work for myself. And before that, I had a job that was fully remote.

That’s another element of. We can, so let’s. 

Andrea Vahl: Let’s. Yeah. That’s awesome. It sounds like just a lot of things really lined up for you and that is amazing and awesome that you can make it work with that visa. I know that is sometimes a challenge and sometimes people, yes, yeah, exactly. Even with all the things lined up, it can be really hard, but it’s it’s great.

Was there ever a moment when Christine wanted to move back home?

Andrea Vahl: Was there ever a moment where you were like, Ooh, let’s turn this train around?

Christine Gritmon: There still are. Absolutely, this is going to sound so horrible and I’m sorry to get borderline political on your podcast, but there was a time in the spring and summer where every time I would say aloud, “What are we doing? We have such a lovely life. Why are we blowing this up and doing something completely different? Ah, maybe we should stop.” 

There’d be a shooting. Every time. And I’m like, am I causing this? It was just really fascinating how news would just be like or you could go though. And feel free to cut that out if you don’t want to go there, but.

Andrea Vahl: No, no.

Christine Gritmon: Once, so I left before my husband and kids did, I was here getting things situated in the UK and when they arrived, there’d been so much discombobulation.

They didn’t start school immediately. There were just so many things that made it tougher for them than it really needed to be that there have definitely been times we’re looking at them. And especially looking at how nice and settled they were in our previous town. They had their friends.

We had families that we could really trust and had good relationships with. We had actual family. All these things that we just ripped them from.

Andrea Vahl: Mm-Hmm. 

Christine Gritmon: Definitely still have that moment when if I’m in a situation without Wi Fi, I’m trying to get into the habit of emptying the camera roll on my phone, which involves going back through the camera roll on your phone.

And sometimes I look at our life and I’m like, why did I leave that? It was great!

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. Oh, sure.

Christine Gritmon: But this can be great too.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. And I think that’s it. That’s why people don’t make a move like that or don’t make a big change. Because it’s comfortable and it’s easier for sure. You’ve got things in place and I think the unknown is so scary. People I’m sure are looking at you now and just are saying, “Wow, look at what she’s doing. I wish we could do that.” And I think that’s hard. You know, there’s two sides to that coin.

Christine Gritmon: Yeah, I’m really proud of us for doing it. Quite frankly, I think it’s awesome that we did. And when I have those thoughts of our life was so great, why did we leave it? I remind myself that you shouldn’t only make changes when you’re unhappy. You shouldn’t only take the step to do something that could be amazing because you’re uncomfortable where you are. I think it’s perfectly okay to be happy and comfortable and still decide that something else could be cool. I got everything I had always wanted and it was fulfilling. And

Andrea Vahl: Yeah.

Christine Gritmon: the most fulfilling parts of it with me. I’ve got my family here. And, I’ve got my career. I’m still obviously having my friends who are in far flung places already anyway.

Yeah, and again, we’ll always go back to New York. We’re about to go back to New York for Christmas break. We’ll probably always go for a bit in the summer, it’ll be there and I’m talking to people I love all the time. Also, New York will always be there if we decide to move back too. That’s another thing.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, that is true. And it can be great to just say “Hey, we’ve got a safety net,” and to have a support system. Both really can really make change a little bit more palatable. So that’s great. 

How Christine decided where she wanted to move with her family

Andrea Vahl: So let’s talk about how did you go about finding a place? And actually when you can settle in any of the UK, how did you go about picking, “Hey, we’re going to pick this spot.” How long did that research take?

Christine Gritmon: I am so grateful that part wound up working out. So first of all, the original plan was we were going to move to Ireland, not the UK. Because that’s where I have my citizenship and that’s where I have family and I do have some friends there as well. But there were a combination of things that made us go with the UK.

I do know way more people here in the UK, including professionally, which is helpful if you’re trying to make a living. Also, I felt like it was a slightly different culture change from the U.S. I felt like being in the town I’m in right now, St. Albans, is about as far from London as where I was in New York, which is a town in the lower Hudson Valley called Nyack, was from New York City.

I’ve spent my entire life within a very small orbit of New York City. So being within a very small orbit of London was something that we decided we wanted, but my kids didn’t want to be in a city. If my kids had been down for living in a city, we might’ve gone with Dublin. But instead, so we decided on the UK and originally I was looking actually at Brighton.

So Brighton is a city on the Southern coast of England. It’s pretty accessible.

Andrea Vahl: I went to school there.

Christine Gritmon: What?

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, I went to school there for a year. It was great.

Christine Gritmon: Brighton is a very cool, very fun town. So originally we were thinking of Brighton. We liked that it was very open minded and artsy and liberal and like all these things. And so last November I had stuff to be out in England for professionally anyway, I was speaking at an event and then I was working with Adweek magazine at another event.

And so I had to be out here anyway. So I said, you know what, let’s do a family trip. And so my husband and kids had never been to the UK. They came with me, and they did sightseeing stuff while I was speaking, and then we took a weekend, while I was in London, then we took a weekend in Brighton. A long weekend, and we stayed at an Airbnb because we wanted to be really, not a hotel, we wanted to be in town.

And we concluded that we really liked Brighton to visit, but that it wasn’t home. It was a little more a city than we wanted, and there’s just some, there’s some things about cool up and coming places that were just like, I don’t know, it was a little grittier than we wanted, but it’s a very cool place, we want to go back.

 But I wanted a bit more suburban, I don’t know.

And so I just started researching. Again, we wanted to be very accessible to London. That was very important to us because travel’s part of this, especially being able to go home to New York very easily. And we just want to be near London.

And I’m especially happy about that because I’ve since fallen pretty deeply in love with London more than I expected. And yeah, St. Albans came up, we found out that Hartfordshire, which is the county we’re in was really everything we were looking for. They’ve got very good schools in St. Albans, which is good because the school situation is not like it is at home. 

There’s more choice, but less choice. It’s weird. And we were freaked out by that because it works differently. So we were happy that all the schools are good. A blanket statement. They’re all good. And it just has the right vibe where if we want to go to London it takes between 20 and 40 minutes on the train that’s right here.

But we don’t have to go to London because we have everything we need right here. And so that’s the exact vibe we wanted. We’re walking distance from City Center. We can go to all the things, which is great because we didn’t have a car for the first month and change.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah.

Christine Gritmon: So, I researched it. Oh, we did the vibe check though. In January, my husband and I came out, just the two of us. Again, stayed at an Airbnb instead of doing a hotel to get the vibe of St. Albans and we loved it. We’re like, this definitely passes the test. 

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. So now you’ve been there for about six months.

Christine Gritmon: Less than. So I came out to the UK at the beginning of September. My family joined me October 11th. So I guess now it’s the end of December. So three months, not long.

How they’re handling the culture shock of moving to a new country

Andrea Vahl: Okay. So how are you finding the culture shock? Because I know , when I went to school in Brighton I thought, “Oh, great. I speak the language. This is going to be easy.” And at the same time I was there, I was like, I don’t know what these people are saying. 

Christine Gritmon: Yes.

Andrea Vahl: There’s just a lot of differences, right?

Different shows, different ways that people interact, different, things about how people like to be polite or things like that. So how have you found the culture shock? 

Christine Gritmon: Yeah, and different stuff that everybody just knows. Absolutely. I had been over here a lot. So I have experienced more culture shock than I was expecting, simply because I’ve been here so many times and I have so many British friends. I thought that it would be a little, I knew that there were differences, but I thought that I knew them.

And no, there’s definitely, when you live here, you definitely experience things differently. Though it’s also very interesting, because I very quickly, just seeing the thoughts in my head on some of the cultural differences, I’ve been saying, “Oh God, am I already that insufferable American who has traveled and thinks that they’re more worldly now? Just because I’m have such observations about the cultural differences.

Andrea Vahl: Right. 

Christine Gritmon: And I have to go back. I’ve been back twice already, by the way. So I came out at the beginning of September. I had a long planned trip at the beginning of October to come back. Because I spoke at Marketing Profs B2B Expo in Boston.

And then I came back at the beginning of November for my uncle’s funeral. So I’ve been back. And both times I found myself, I tried not to say it out loud too much, but I was like, that’s so American or they wouldn’t do that. And then especially when you have kids in school also, that’s a whole other set of conventions you’re just not familiar with. 

And thankfully, each of my kids schools, there’s an unofficial parent run WhatsApp group for the year. And we’re so glad we got in on that because so much of the stuff we’ve just had to ask other parents. Just last week. So, the kids have uniforms, they’ve never had uniforms in their lives.

Finding out details of uniforms and how strict the dress codes are, and all those things was a whole thing. But then also, just certain ways you do things. They just had Christmas stuff. We didn’t have Christmas stuff in schools in the U.S. very much because they tried to avoid the whole Christmas thing.

No avoiding Christmas in the U.K. All about Christmas, August on. And there was a day where they had a non-uniform day at my daughter’s school, and they said Christmas dress. What does that mean? Does it mean she literally wears her Christmas dress? Like her poofy red Christmas dress? They’re like, “Oh, it varies. Some people dress up as something Christmas.”

I said, “What do you mean dress up as something Christmas? What does that mean?” It actually did turn out that some people dressed up as presents, or like an angel, or snowman or whatever. But most people just wore a Christmas sweater, which is what she opted for.

But I’m like, what does that mean, Christmas dress? And the parent organization, they’re running a raffle for the Christmas fair, and they said, “Bring in a bottle for the Tombola.” For the what? We never heard word Tombola before and there’s also, and of course, foods.

It’s interesting to be here during the Christmas season, especially because they take it very seriously here and they have a whole set of things that we’ve tried to dive into that we never even heard of. had heard of Christmas pudding. We didn’t really get what it was. So now we’ve had Christmas pudding.

We’ve had minced pies. I thought it was minced meat, I thought it was a meat thing. It’s not a meat thing. 

Andrea Vahl: Right, I did too. And it’s fun, it’s delicious. It’s chopped up dried fruit.

Christine Gritmon: Soaked in a lot of brandy for years. And there’s this theatrical tradition here called panto. Do you know about panto? Pantomime shows.

It’s like slap sticky, there’s a few vaudevillian tropes that they toss in. They base it around a familiar story, like a fairytale or something. But they toss in lots of nonsense. There’s a lot of tropes that you just include in all of them, whether they have to do with the plot or not. And there’s, I hesitate to say drag queen ’cause they’re the type of man and woman’s clothing who’s not glam and gorgeous. 

They look like a man in woman’s clothing. And so they have one of those, always, who leads the thing. And there’s a lot of audience participation. There’s a lot of screaming things back. Sometimes they make you get up and do dances. A lot of times they’ll squirt water guns into the audience.

It’s madness. It’s the opposite of proper British elevated theater. It’s hilarious. And they love it. It’s not Christmas, if you haven’t gone to a panto. And so there’s all these things like that, that everyone just knows and they’re shocked that Americans don’t know it. 

What happens when we get out of our bubbles

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. That’s the thing is, people don’t even realize how ingrained certain habits, certain traditions are. And that’s I think the thing that’s great about travel is when you get outside of your country bubble, you realize, “Wow.” I just came back from Japan and you talk about total differences.

Christine Gritmon: That’s a big change.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, and just the way, even the way you hand people money and all of that you, and just the things that people do in the subway and it’s just everyone lines up very orderly and it’s very interesting.

Christine Gritmon: I love that element of British culture. Bubble is an interesting way to also go into one of the things that I’ve really noticed, which is that Americans tend to own their own bubbles, whereas Britain is a collective bubble in a lot of ways, part of that is in terms of there are certain cultural touchstones that everybody knows and everybody does because it’s a small country.

For certain television shows, there’s a national brownout during the first commercial break because everyone’s put their kettles on. I’m not making that up. That’s a thing. Because everyone’s watching same few shows, because BBC. So there’s some of that, but also, it’s really interesting in the U.S. And U. S. itself is eight different countries, as we all know. 

Culturally they’re different, but things are pretty broad. U.S. is more about personal convenience, personal space, personal immediacy. So you hop in your car, which is parked in your driveway of your big house and drive directly to the door of where you need to go.

In the UK, the houses are smaller generally, and much closer together unless you’re in the countryside, but then there’s more countryside. So the collective civilization space is more together so that the collective open space can be more of a thing. And also the public transportation options.

It’s a more walking friendly society. I have a good friend who travels to the U.S. quite often, and when he’s traveling in the U.S., he doesn’t have a car, and he’s shocked by how hard it is to get around much of the U.S. a car. It’s impossible.

Andrea Vahl: Oh, yeah.

Christine Gritmon: And U.K. is a lot less like that. They’re also a lot more environmentally conscious.

I’m accustomed to our trash schedule in New York. We had full on trash, twice a week and then recycling, maybe once a week, maybe it was every other week. Here, we have full on trash every other week. You’re allowed a maximum of three bags and recycling every other week and compost every week. Compost is part of it. Wow, because they really want you to waste less. 

Andrea Vahl: Right. In Japan, you have to divide your trash into like burnable trash and other trash and recyclable and it’s very strict there. And they actually don’t have any trash on the streets trash cans on the streets and it’s super cute.

Christine Gritmon: I’ve noticed that here too. London has very few trash cans because of political situations in the past. Things happened in trash cans, that was one of the first things my kids noticed on their first trip to London. They said, there’s no bins but there’s no litter.

I said, “Yeah, because people don’t.” They don’t.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. So I’m walking around with pockets full of trash, hoping to find a trash can somewhere.

Christine Gritmon: I’m carrying around a muffin wrapper inside my coat. Cause I’m like, I had a muffin and I didn’t have a trashcan.

What’s been the hardest thing and the most unexpected joyful thing that Christine has found about moving her family overseas?

Andrea Vahl: I know. So let’s talk about , what’s been the hardest thing? I know there’s probably a lot of hard things, but what has been the hardest thing and the most unexpected, joyful thing that you have found about moving your family overseas?

Christine Gritmon: Hardest thing has, I think, been the allocation of energy. That’s been a struggle this entire year because first, back when we were in New York, I had to focus so much energy on the process of figuring out getting the visas for my family, which was complicated because I had a full time job that I got laid off from at the beginning of the year and there were financial requirements on me.

Because I’m the sponsor of the visa. And then , there were all sorts of things we had to do. There’s a lot of stuff where you couldn’t do this until you did this, but before you do this, you have to do this. So all of that just took up an exorbitant amount of mental energy for all of the year.

Then when I was finally moving over again, it was frustrating that I couldn’t set up housing more in advance. But then everyone was like, “How are you moving there without housing?” I had to rely on friends on a combination of hotels and Airbnb’s. I’m so grateful to the friends who put me up. It was just, it was like, don’t people want to rent these places out?

Like, why wouldn’t anyone show me things? And so that was frustrating and it’s exhausting and just, I feel like still, we’re still playing catch up. There’s still some boxes and that we haven’t found places for yet, because we’re moving from a much bigger house to a much smaller house.

As I was saying to you before, I had a nice studio set up in my old house. I had a room. I had an office and here I’m at my dining room table. And my husband’s office is in our bedroom, so I feel like I’m still paying catch up. My daughter commented the other day. She feels like our family doesn’t have any time together because by the time they get home from school, it’s already dark because it gets dark very early here in the winter and my husband has calls on New York hours.

So she feels like you don’t get. Time between school and bed. So we’re trying to work on how we can make that better. It’s just everything just feels more exhausting than it needs to right now because we’re still in the process of settling and the day ends. And I wonder where it’s gone. So that has been the hardest part.

We need to adjust our energy.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. 

Christine Gritmon: But it’s understandable, I’m trying not to beat myself up over it because who wouldn’t be in this situation is what I’m reminding myself. And the unexpected joy, there have been a lot of joys and some of them I definitely expected. I am delighting in the cultural difference that I pointed out before about how I feel like it’s more of a collective society here.

It’s more of a society. And I’m looking at the American ways of kind of everything being geared towards the convenience of the individual, versus the convenience of the many. Just those considerations. It is different and I do like that.

I like feeling in a place that feels a little more unified. And the Brits laugh when I say that, because of course they don’t feel that at all, because they’re very keenly aware of their problems. Which I’m certainly thinking about because I’m a member of society now I need to look at it, not with rose colored glasses.

I’m not visiting it, but it is different, and it is a lot more communal and I’m enjoying that. I like the spirit of it. The one thing I hate, this is the number 1 thing, the number 1 thing I’m having trouble with, and I will have trouble with it as long as we are here, even if that’s the rest of our lives.

Andrea Vahl: Mm. 

Christine Gritmon: Clothes dryers.

Andrea Vahl: Oh, they don’t have as many.

Christine Gritmon: From starting to do a load of laundry to having it fully dry and ready to put away, for that to be maybe two hours. Do I put it away at the end of that? No, but I’m used to that being a two-hour process, and here, the washing machine itself takes three and a half hours. They do have clothes dryers, but they’re mostly condenser based rather than vented, and so they don’t really get your clothes clean.

They’re just evaporating and then putting the water back on it. You have to hang your clothes. People say, “Oh, the washing only takes a few hours to dry.” Lies, lies, lies, lies. Air is made of water. It takes days, days for my clothes to dry. And I’m not that organized. Ah.

Andrea Vahl: It definitely is. There’s just so many things, changes to get used to. For sure, hard. Well, Christine, this was amazing. The half hour just always flies by. But thank you for sharing all your wisdom on this. I know that there’s lots of people who are thinking about overseas moves. I think the thing that’s wonderful about our world is that it is easier than ever to make an overseas move. 

That being said, it’s still challenging. So many things and I’m sure it will take a while to really feel settled in, but it’s great that you are doing it and chasing after that dream, even when you had a comfortable life.

Christine Gritmon: I’m grateful that our modern world also is why I had so many friends here and why I didn’t just show up and have to figure everything out myself. Some of my friends helped me with the visa process, helped me with the getting a house process.

Andrea Vahl: Right.

Christine Gritmon: Literally let me stay in their homes. And the whole reason I had those relationships is because technology connected us to begin with.

And if anyone out there is considering an overseas move, I have resources that I can certainly direct them towards that have helped me people who know more about it than I do. I’m happy to put you in touch, for sure, with the things that helped us.

Christine’s favorite motivational saying

Andrea Vahl: That’s awesome. And as always, I like to end the interview with a favorite motivational quote or inspirational saying. I’m such a quote junkie and love to hear your favorite.

Christine Gritmon: Again, I’m getting spicy here, but I literally asked my sister for a cross stitch of this phrase to hang up in my office. Even though I don’t have an office anymore, but I will again someday, which is, “Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man.” This has been a year of a lot of self-doubt, a lot of questioning, there have been like professional shenanigans going on the side.

And I’ve just had to remind myself every time I felt doubt in myself would that dude have this doubt in himself and he probably wouldn’t, he’d probably just go for it. So go for it. Yes.

Andrea Vahl: Go for it, figure it out on the way. That’s it, that’s awesome. That’s hilarious. That’s so great. We’ll share where people can find you. Obviously, coaching people on overseas moves is not your main gig. Your main gig is branding. So we’ll see you soon. Bye. For sure. Connect with Christine on branding questions, but also, feel free to, as she said, reach out if you are considering a move overseas.

Christine Gritmon: My personal brand is why I could do this. If I like, I was already known in the UK and I have gone, I’ve walked into events here since moving here where people I hadn’t met totally knew who I was already. And that is gold.

Andrea Vahl: that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So share where people can find you, share your, where your people can subscribe to your podcast

Christine Gritmon: Sure. I’m Bruce.

Andrea Vahl: and we’ll have these links.

Christine Gritmon: Yeah, I’m Christine, spelled the usual way, C H R I S T I N E. My last name is Gritmon, G R I T, like when something’s gritty like sand, M O N like Monday. Gritmon. So I can be found at Gritmon.com! And I’m also @cgritmon on other things, including Instagram. Not on X much anymore, but I am on Threads a bit more.

I’m Christine Gritmon and Christine Gritmon, Inc. On LinkedIn. I’m Christine Gritmon, Inc. On Facebook. Not there much anymore either. And I have my own awesome podcast that you are going to be on soon, which makes me very excited, called Let’s Talk About Brand, and that can be found on any podcast player as well as on YouTube.

So again, but Gritmon.com will lead you to all of that. That’s GRIT, like when something’s gritty. MON, like Monday.

Andrea Vahl: Awesome. Thank you so much, Christine, for all your

Christine Gritmon: Thank you.

Andrea Vahl: good luck with continuing to settle in and enjoy the UK and I have to come over for

Christine Gritmon: Absolutely. We’ll have tea. Lots of tea and biscuits.

Andrea Vahl: Bye. Yes, for sure. Love the biscuits. Bye. 

Hope that was helpful and make sure you grab the free guide top tools for late starters on the website at LateStartersClub.Com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.