SUBSCRIBE THE POD: SPOTIFY  | APPLE PODCASTS SEASON 2, EPISODE 22 SHOW NOTES I stumbled across Jen and Yvonne of Simple Germany through their YouTube channel, and boy am I glad I did! Jen was born and raised in Guatemala and sought better quality of life due to LGBTQ+ rights and security concerns. Yvonne was raised in Germany but always wanted to explore the world and worked for many years on a cruise ship (side note: This is the second Germany Expat Business Show guest that worked on a cruise ship!) Jen and Yvonne met in Düsseldorf where they became partners in life and business. Togethe ..read more

Last week I went on kind of a rant about Germany, so I thought I’d share some pretty pictures with you today. I got a new camera. It’s one of those jobs that you can click on to your iphone and control with an app. I’m not much of a natural photographer, but I’m pretty pleased with these. Now that I’m looking at the pix, I realize I should have actually bought and ate some of these berries. A pretty wreath. My husband, whose a better photog, pointed out I should have closed in on a single berry for more contrast with the depth of field. Next time. Oktoberfest is around the corner, time to ..read more

Are you spinning your wheels trying to get started with your website or online project? Should you start now or wait until you have the whole thing thought through completely? Should you do it yourself or hire a web designer? Do you need to start blogging? Should you just do everything on Facebook? Hopefully you have an objective (the why) for getting growing your business and getting your new website launched. Until you have a digital strategy - basically a plan on how to use the internet to achieve your objective, it can be hard to get much traction. Sadly, a lot of your efforts may end up b ..read more

SUBSCRIBE THE POD: SPOTIFY  | APPLE PODCASTS SEASON 2, EPISODE 20 SHOW NOTES Tetyana Pirker came from Ukraine to Munich in 2002. She studied psychology in the university of Munich and afterwards she started a career at Accenture as IT SAP consultant. After many years SAP consulting he looked for a ‘soul business’. After the birth of her first child in 2017 she discovered her passion; photography. Tetyana works for both business customers but also she loves weddings. She has 2 kids, lives in the north of Munich and still works part time in the consulting while she is developing her photogr ..read more

This is my business right now. The truth is if you looked under the hood since late summer last year, you’d find a hot mess... Why? After years of trying to make it work, I finally had to divorce my CRM. Streamlined processes are critical for the smooth experience I strive to offer my clients. The tool wasn’t cutting it, and it was impossible to manage. I’m fairly comfortable with technology but I regularly had to hire consultants to set up automations and workflows. If I tried to do it myself it would often break. No bueno. I had to take my own advice and stop using a tool I hated. But findin ..read more

There is something idyllic about Munich. It’s landed in the top spot of the Monocle Quality of Life survey, like what, three times now? The easy biking and walkability, the lush, bountiful green spaces, low crime, beer gardens, human scale architecture, gelato shops. This is all on full display in the summer. Especially like the summers we’ve been having lately in Bavaria; long, warm and hot (for now we’ll not think about why this is). Since we’re landlocked, Münchners have to find alternatives to cool off. There’s of course the Isar, and all of the surrounding lakes  (Starnberger See, A ..read more

Tell us a little about you. How did you get your start? How long have you been in business? Describe your style of photography. Hi, my name is Nano! I started portrait photography in 2016 in Japan, working primarily with the military community families and local bloggers. While I like to guide and pose my clients during photo sessions, I allow ample time for candid shots where I step back to assume a role of a photojournalist and capture their simple yet meaningful moments together. I love working with natural light and enjoy editorial style of photography, especially for solo portrait session ..read more

SUBSCRIBE THE POD: SPOTIFY  | APPLE PODCASTS SEASON 2, EPISODE 19 SHOW NOTES Time for another episode of The Germany Expat Business Show Mailbag. This time I’m sharing a question from Nutan Jaeger. Nutan is a trained architect turned writer who moved to Munich with her German husband. She was laid off from her job and has worked as a freelancer in Germany before but always stayed under the mini-job level and making enough to cover taxes and insurance. Her biggest challenge is figuring out how to start. Should she exploring business ideas as side hustles and see what takes off? OR Sho ..read more

Springtime in Munich makes me wish I had a better camera. And also that I was a better photographer. It’s so difficult to capture how glorious it is here this time of year. It’s like living in a time-elapsed nature film, where you watch the entire city wake up from a winter sleep. Each days the trees get a little more green, pink or yellow. Münchners run around shirtless and half-naked, revealing the deep, pagan, nature-worshipping streak that resides in all Germans. I love it and I’m here for it. There’s a soundtrack in my head that switches between Diana Ross’ languorous ‘Love Hangover’ and ..read more

SUBSCRIBE THE POD: SPOTIFY  | APPLE PODCASTS SEASON 2, EPISODE 18 SHOW NOTES It was a thrill when John Ismailoglu cheerfully accepted my request for a podcast interview. He is hands down one of my favorite LinkedIn follows, posting about - of all things - Insurance!  A fellow American born and raised in NYC, John is a ‘4th culture’ person with a family story that spans Turkey, Bulgaria, the U.S. and now Germany. With close to two decades in the dynamic realm of insurance, John has seen it all. John’s story began in New York where he started from the bottom, selling car insurance in ..read more