Building a business abroad can feel as scary as moving abroad did. Val has found that international professionals usually get stuck because of the beliefs they carry, not because they lack experience, ideas or knowledge. She goes through five common beliefs and how to reframe each one.

The 5 beliefs

1. "I need to figure things out before I can start."
   Preparation has a limit. After that you're just consuming information instead of acting. Ask yourself what you could test in practice to get an immediate answer. That might be speaking to three potential clients, sharing your offer or becoming visible on LinkedIn.
2. "It took me years to rebuild my life abroad, and I don't want to start from scratch again."
   You aren't starting from scratch. You're building on years of experience and skills you can transfer. Write down three past transitions you navigated and what each taught you.
3. "I'm not a salesperson."
   Think of sales as a doctor's diagnosis. You ask questions, reflect back what you understood, suggest a course of action and ask for a simple decision. It doesn't take a particular personality. First, be honest about whether you trust the value of your work.
4. "My network is scattered across countries."
   Connections in many countries can be an advantage, especially for an online, service-based business. List the people you've worked with, reconnect with them and build relationships rather than chasing sales.
5. "Why would anyone choose me with so much competition?"
   Competition shows there is demand. Your edge comes from combining your experience, personality, expertise, perspective and type of client.

Key takeaways

• Notice your beliefs and treat them as thoughts, not facts.
• You don't have to fake confidence. Take a small step that's a bit uncomfortable, like talking to a stranger about what you do or writing your first post.
• Ask yourself what you could do differently this week.

Resources & Links

The Business Building Sprint (November): three live workshops on Zoom, max 20 people each, €39 each. You can join one or all three.

1. Workshop 1: Nail your positioning.
2. Workshop 2: Find your first 10 potential clients.
3. Workshop 3: Build an offer people can actually buy.

You will get your money back from the Sprint if you later join the group program in January.

• Apply to the Spark Your Expat Business program.
• Book a free clarity call and let's explore working together 1:1
• Get the checklist to see if you're ready to start your business, and which steps to take first

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

This episode explores a topic that often gets overlooked when someone leaves employment to start a business: how that decision changes a relationship, especially when finances, household stability, and emotional support are shared. Val shares her own experience of building a coaching business while living abroad and explains why this is not just a career choice, but a joint life decision. She focuses on two main areas: money and psychological safety. The episode is especially relevant for couples where one partner is becoming self-employed, and even more so for internationals navigating visas, shared expenses, and reduced safety nets.

Key topics

• In this episode, Val explains why starting a business changes the household economy, not just the founder’s career path.
• She breaks down the real-life impact on shared finances, including savings, holidays, housing plans, children, and long-term security.
• She shares how she and her husband discussed runway, including savings, benefits, and a timeline for when they would reassess the plan.
• She warns against leaving too much unspoken, especially around who covers shared expenses and how long that arrangement can last.
• She stresses the importance of setting boundaries so a partner supports the journey without becoming the person who controls the business.
• She highlights the added complexity for international couples, especially when one person has already compromised their career for a move abroad.
• She walks through the uncomfortable money questions couples should discuss early, including temporary income gaps, business investments, and whether the founder pays themselves a salary.
• She explains why your partner should not become your business manager, therapist, or decision-maker, even if they are your closest person day to day.
• She encourages founders to build support outside the relationship through community, business coaches, and peers who understand entrepreneurship.
• She closes by reframing the conversation around success, not just failure, asking what happens if the business works and how that changes lifestyle, location, and household choices.

Resources & links:

• Join my dinner with Mad Money Club "Three's a crowd: Love, Money and the Business"on November 17th, Copenhagen
• ONLINE: Join my practical Business Building Sprint "Nail Your Positioning" on November 12th
• Book a free clarity call and let's explore working together 1:1
• Get the checklist to see if you're ready to start your business, and which steps to take first

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

Val explains why LinkedIn reach is not just about the algorithm, but about how clearly and personally you show up on the platform. She shares the content and profile shifts that helped her increase impressions, grow her network, and attract better-fit clients.

Key topics

• Val shares that her LinkedIn impressions grew by about 100,000 in 90 days, up 104% from the previous 90 days, with 52% of impressions coming from outside her network.
• She explains that early LinkedIn content often tries too hard to prove expertise, but that posts become more effective when they include the story behind the knowledge.
• Valeria distinguishes vulnerability from oversharing and says the goal is not trauma bait, but showing how you learned what you know.
• She breaks down the value of trial and error in content, including mistakes, client conversations, changed opinions, wasted time, and lessons learned from other professionals.
• She says independent professionals often fail on LinkedIn because their profiles still look like corporate resumes instead of client-facing positioning.
• She recommends fixing the profile first by making the photo, banner, headline, and About section clearly answer: what do you do, who do you help, and why should someone work with you?
• Valeria stresses the importance of speaking in the client’s language, not industry jargon, so posts sound like a real conversation instead of insider terminology.
• She argues that your personality, perspective, and lived experience are the real differentiators in service businesses, not generic expertise.
• She shares that every useful lesson has a cost, and posts become more credible when readers can see what it took to learn the lesson.
• She advises writing for the actual client, not for other coaches or consultants, by reading posts aloud and checking whether a potential buyer would understand and care.

Resources & links:

• Book a free clarity call and let's explore working together 1:1
• Get the checklist to see if you're ready to start your business, and which steps to take first

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin - write me "PROFILE" in DM
• Instagram

This episode is for anyone building a business in a new country and wondering what actually needs to be in place before taking clients. Val shares the legal, tax, banking, insurance, and systems foundations she wishes she had understood from day one. If you are transitioning from corporate into entrepreneurship abroad, this is a practical checklist for avoiding costly mistakes and unnecessary stress.

Key topics

• Val explains why running a business abroad is not just about getting clients, but also about handling the admin and legal side properly.
• She shares her experience starting a business in Denmark as a foreigner and why local language barriers make official guidance harder to navigate.
• The first thing she would check is whether you are legally required to register a company and whether VAT registration is separate from company registration.
• She breaks down choosing the right company structure, including why she chose a sole proprietorship and when a limited liability company like an APS may make more sense.
• She explains why taxes and accounting quickly became too complex to manage alone, especially when dealing with cross-border sales and deductions.
• She highlights the importance of opening a separate business bank account and researching which bank fits your needs as an entrepreneur.
• She stresses that professional indemnity insurance is essential for service businesses, especially if you work with clients across different countries.
• She recommends reviewing what corporate benefits you lose when leaving employment, such as pension, life insurance, or house-related coverage.
• She outlines the minimum systems she would set up early: a client contract, a way for people to contact and book you, and a simple CRM or tracking sheet.
• She explains how her own onboarding system connects contract signing, invoicing, email, newsletter signup, and client tools like Notion and Slack.
• She advises outsourcing or buying help for tasks that are high-risk, time-consuming, or outside your expertise, such as taxes, legal setup, and banking.
• She warns against overinvesting too early in complicated funnels, websites, or software before the business model is clear.

Resources & links:

• Book a free clarity call to understand your next steps
• Enroll to the January cohort waiting list
• Get the checklist to see if you're ready to start your business, and which steps to take first

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

Val breaks down how to turn years of corporate, international, and cross-cultural experience into a clear offer clients will actually buy. She walks through her S.P.A.R.K. framework and shows how to move from broad expertise to a focused, testable business idea.This episode is especially useful for people with varied backgrounds who feel overqualified, multi-talented, or unsure how to narrow their experience into one direction. The main focus is building an offer around the problem you solve, the audience you understand best, and the outcomes you can prove.

Key topics

• Why the real challenge is not having enough experience, but deciding which experience to monetize.
• The S.P.A.R.K. framework: Skills, Problem, Audience, Results, and Kickstart.
• Break skills into three buckets:
  • skills you enjoy and people would pay for
  • passions you love but would do for free
  • skills you are good at but do not enjoy using
• The best starting point is the overlap between what you are good at, what people already ask you for, and what you actually want to keep doing.
• Skills only become commercially relevant when they solve a real problem.
• Val warns against describing your business by title or expertise alone, like "strategic communication consultant," because that does not explain the actual outcome for the client.
• How to assess whether a problem is urgent by looking at what happens if it is left unsolved, including costs in money, time, health, reputation, frustration, and quality of life.
• Audience should be defined by circumstances and psychographics, not just demographics like age, gender, or job title.
• Results are one of the hardest parts to define, especially for coaching and mindset-based work where outcomes are not always numeric.
• Val encourages turning vague outcomes into measurable indicators, such as time spent on work versus self, completed projects, focus days, and productivity shifts.
• The final step, Kickstart, is to test the offer with real conversations before building the full program or service.

Resources & links:

• Enroll to the January cohort waiting list
• Book a free clarity call to understand your next steps or work with me 1:1
• Sign up to the newsletter

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

Val shares a practical guide to making networking events feel more natural, less awkward, and actually useful. The episode focuses on building real human connections first, then following up in a way that helps people remember you for the right reasons. This episode will help you to approach networking with a connection-first mindset, especially if you are an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, or service providers.

Key topics

• Do not pitch immediately: Val explains why leading with your offer shuts conversations down fast and makes people zone out.
• Start with curiosity: she recommends asking simple, neutral questions about the event, the person’s reason for attending, or what brought them there.
• Use light vulnerability to build trust: sharing small personal details, like needing coffee or having a chaotic morning, helps the other person relax.
• Do not turn the conversation into free consulting: instead of jumping straight to advice, ask follow-up questions to understand the person’s actual situation.
• Let conversations end naturally: If the exchange is going nowhere, it is better to close it politely than force small talk.
• Use clean exit lines: Val gives examples of how to leave gracefully while keeping the interaction warm and respectful.
• Follow up the next day: She stresses that a quick message matters, and that the message should reference something personal from the conversation.
• Choose a clear intention before attending: her own mindset shift was to go in with the goal of connecting, not selling, pitching, or proving competence.
• Focus on relationships, not immediate sales: she explains that trust usually comes from repeated exposure and human connection, not a single conversation.
• The same rules apply online: Val notes that virtual networking still works best when it feels personal and curious.

Resources & links:

• Launch Circles community:
  • Copenhagen events
  • Amsterdam events

• Book a free clarity call to understand your next steps
• Get your Business Growth Tracker and sign up to the newsletter

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

In this episode, Val shares the biggest mistakes she made when transitioning from corporate into coaching and how those choices added 6 to 8 months to her business ramp-up. She breaks down what to do instead if you are starting a coaching or consulting business and want to avoid wasting time on the wrong priorities.The focus is practical and honest: build the business side early, narrow your positioning faster, price with confidence, and spend less time preparing in your head and more time testing with real people.

Key topics

• In this episode, Valeria explains why getting certified felt like the obvious first step, but also why she wrongly assumed that credibility alone would bring clients.
• She shares the corporate mindset she brought with her: in corporate, more training and more credentials usually increase value, but entrepreneurship does not work one to one.
• She reflects on the gap between being a qualified coach and actually knowing who needs the service, what problem to solve, what to charge, and how to market it.
• She explains why starting the business side at the same time as certification would have saved months, and recommends getting a business coach or joining a community early.
• She discusses positioning mistakes, including starting with a broad offer like helping expats with career change before understanding the more specific problem she solved best.
• She points out that her real strengths were tied to business backgrounds in sales, marketing, and customer-facing roles, not every possible coaching need such as CVs and interviews.
• She compares broad positioning to seeing a doctor for a toothache, arguing that people choose specialists when they know exactly what problem they have.
• She talks about underpricing, including the mistake of charging hourly or per session and ignoring preparation time, admin, prior experience, and the investment required to become qualified.
• She explains why lower prices do not necessarily make sales easier, since selling still requires the same trust, energy, and effort, while higher prices can signal greater value.
• She emphasizes that corporate habits can make people think there is a cap on income, when in business the real ceiling is often self-imposed.
• She closes with her biggest lesson: stop over-preparing and start gathering evidence by speaking to potential clients, testing offers, and getting real-world feedback quickly.

Resources & links:

• Enroll to the January cohort waiting list
• Book a free clarity call to understand your next steps
• Get your Business Growth Tracker and sign up to the newsletter

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram

Val brings back a call she had with her former client Alessia to show how you can build a creative business alongside your regular job. In this conversation, Alessia shares how she moved through career changes while also building a creative practice on the side. They discuss what coaching looked like, how she got unstuck from too many ideas, and the mindset shifts that helped her move forward and build her passion business alongside her existing career.

Since recording the conversation, Alessia has continued working towards her goal, although the path has evolved. She has returned to Twitch livestreaming and is growing her own community in the gaming space, while gradually bringing more music into her content. She is already earning through her livestreams, connecting with other musicians and singers, working on a collaborative videogame medley, and planning to release her own videogame covers.

Key topics:

• Background: Alessia introduces herself as an Italian creative who moved to Denmark at 19, studied multimedia design, specialized in web development, and now works as a software developer.
• The long-term vision: She wants to become a singer in the gaming industry, combining her love of music and gaming into one path.
• Confidence grew through non-judgmental support: She credits the process with helping her see that her goal was not “crazy,” just less conventional and more abstract than a typical path.

• Small steps made the goal feel real: Breaking the vision into manageable daily and weekly actions helped her move from stuck to consistent progress.
• Where she is today: Her original vision is still there, but the way she is building towards it has evolved through content creation, livestreaming, networking with other creatives and gradually introducing more music into her work.

Resources & links:

• Enroll to the January cohort waiting list
• Book a free clarity call to understand your next steps

Connect with Val:

• Linkedin
• Instagram