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Hello everyone, this is Howard Fox, and welcome back for another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series, the podcast that celebrates individuals and families, businesses, and organizations that seek out and promote the exploration, stewardship, conservation, access, and enjoyment of the outdoors.
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Sable Ryan is our guest today.
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Stable is a relocation and lifestyle strategist, complete your elevated experiences, where she guides her clients, especially black women over 40, through bold lifestyle transitions using her signature, and I love this word, Fuji Relocation Blueprint.
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Her mission is very clear to help women stop screaming about freedom and start living it globally and in community.
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Sable, good to see you again.
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How are you doing?
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I'm doing great.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I am so excited to talk about being outside, especially when it's so cold here.
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I'm in Maryland today.
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I I agree with that.
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We have to give our listeners just a little bit of context.
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Sable and I have known each other for many years.
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And last year, as I was watching or reading her post on Facebook and LinkedIn, she was suddenly living in another country other than you know on the east coast of the U.S.
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where I where she's actually sitting right now, freezing her little butt off.
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I'm I'm in Las Vegas, so I'm I'm gonna be warm today.
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It's gonna be 60 today.
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So oh my gosh.
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I know you would love everybody loves that.
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I just tell them, hey, look, between July and September, feel free to give me grief when it's 120 degrees out there.
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But so for our listeners, we Sable and I have known each other.
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We were in a mastermind together, and this idea, and we've explored it before on the podcast, if is the folks who are I call them digital nomads or folks call them digital nomads, but I've never really had a good friend of mine who's just like picked up and left.
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And so, Sable, uh, I would love to catch us up.
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What you what have you been up to?
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And tell us a little bit about your background, and then we'll just kind of hear the story of where you ended up.
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Okay.
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Yeah, so this is one year later into this uh when my whole world turned upside down.
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I would say, I don't, I wouldn't even say upside down, but just kind of how one decision, one person's decision, and my one decision changed my life.
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So last year, this time, I probably was sitting there.
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Let's see, this is what what is this, January 30th?
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Last year, January 30th, I was sitting going, oh my gosh, what has just happened working for the federal government?
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I was one of the first people who they kind of asked to go on leave.
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And I had to ask myself, now what do you want to do?
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You're 62 years old.
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I didn't know if I had a job or couldn't have a job.
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It was very ambiguous, but I did know for sure I wanted to do something different.
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And for the last five years, well, for for the last couple of years, I had been talking about I am going to retire in Panama.
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I am going to retire in Panama.
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And so that was kind of like the dream.
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But like most people, I was talking about it, but doing nothing about it.
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I had not been to the country, I had not researched the country, I just knew it was a country and somebody there, there were people living there who spoke Spanish, and I wanted to live there when I retired.
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And so that was pretty much all I knew.
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Okay.
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So a couple questions.
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I I get the major upheaval a year ago.
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I mean, it's worth and a lot of people are suddenly faced with these decisions, like, what am I going to do now?
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Had you so you had always wanted to live in Panama before this event last year, or because or how did Panama get on your radar?
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So it was always part of the retirement plan.
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So that was the retirement plan.
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Gotcha.
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That so I always say that I wanted to retire with flip-flops, sister locks, and teen and tank tops.
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That was the retirement, right?
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Like I just wanted to totally um just have a retirement of freedom.
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And for so people were saying, like, what are sister locks?
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It's a hairstyle that black women wear, where we don't have to do anything to our hair that most of us don't feel comfortable wearing.
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We're in corporate world.
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So I knew that this was gonna be freedom.
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This was gonna mean freedom for me.
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And so the fact that I was just gonna look for this life of ease, and I knew Panama was gonna be one of the places that could do that for me.
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All right, very interesting, and thank you for educating me.
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I was trying to figure out what are sister locks and okay.
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I have no hair and I'm a you know, aging white guy, okay?
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Yeah, so you're not quite a candidate just yet.
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I've got a candidate just yet, but I can live vicariously through you.
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I can do that.
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Uh, because that's why you're here, because I want to hear how you did it.
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So you've got the background experience.
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Now you were in HR, so you're used to navigating uncertainty and change almost 365 days a year, just given that role.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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You never know what's going to be a day of fire, you know, where you need your fire extinguisher to put out some fires.
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There's always a fire.
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But I also had lived in several countries before and worked in a lot of different countries.
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And I've also had help other companies when I had my own HR firm when I lived in Nigeria.
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I had clients where I would help them relocate their staff from one country to the next and get them settled in and bringing staff from various countries.
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So relocating people and me relocating was something that was already in me and something I was already doing.
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Okay.
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So you you actually had the the makings of the recipe.
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Yeah, yeah, you had all the ingredients.
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So that's good because I mean, some people go right to to YouTube, which is what I do.
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I want to learn something.
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I yeah, yeah, I do my Google search, and then I then I start looking at YouTube videos, and I figure out I can trust these folks, these folks no, not not in a not in my lifetime.
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All right.
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So you once this event happened, you found yourself uh retired from the government, how did you take your first step to say, okay, I'm gonna head to Panama, I'm gonna see what this is all about.
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Do I even want to be here?
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How did that happen?
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Do I so my thing was I'm looking at the job market, and this is early January, right?
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So this is before the major layoffs or the decimation of the federal government where so many federal workers were out.
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This was where I just looked and kept remembering all the open-to-work signs on people's LinkedIn profiles.
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I thought about how people were already talking about it's gonna take them 18 months before they can find um work.
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And I just thought, wow, at this age, over 60, at this age, do I really want to go out into that job market?
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Like, you know, I I'm very realistic.
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Ageism is alive and well, it does exist.
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And so when you're starting to show your experience and people are looking at those dates, they're wondering, you know, they also have this image of what a person who's over 60 looks like, how they're gonna work, what their attitude is.
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So I ask myself, do I really want to be involved in that?
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Do I really want to be on this place where I now am going to have to go into an organization, start proving my skills, proving my worth?
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Because also I'm not an entry-level employee, right?
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So, you know, into looking for those kind of roles that's gonna match your skills, your experience, your education.
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And I just thought, yeah, no, no, that's that's not the place I really want to go.
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And why not go live, you know, you're a retirement age.
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Why not retire now?
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Okay.
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Why not retire now?
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So I knew I didn't want to fully retire, right?
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I love working, I absolutely love working, and so I just thought, why don't I go now and begin to figure out how you want to live?
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Okay.
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How do you want to live?
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So when did when did you make the the once you started to answer those, get the answers to those questions for yourself?
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And I would imagine you're not just having a conversation with yourself, you're having a conversation with loved ones, best friend, best friends, BFFs, uh, a lot of people.
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How did you when did you buy that ticket to to Panama?
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What was it like to get that ticket?
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You're on the plane, now I'm here, now what do I do?
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Yeah, and so for me, I I kept saying for months, like, oh, I feel a pulley, right?
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I feel like Panama is pulling me.
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And then I thought, I'm gonna go in March, I'm gonna check it out, and then I'll come back.
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But one thing happens after another.
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So, you know, and next thing I know, it was almost March, and I still had not actually done anything.
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And so finally I just thought, I'm gonna go pack up my whole house, I'm just gonna go.
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And so when I moved in July, it was because I felt like I had been taking too much time of planning and not doing too much time of talking about I was going to go, but I really we're already in July.
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I was talking about this since February, and still, you know, I just saw like time was going by.
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So finally, when I bought the ticket, I thought, you know, like, yeah, I'm moving to Panama, so what?
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Big deal, right?
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I don't know what the place is like, but I'll figure it out when I get there.
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Because I had never visited before.
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So going by the ticket meant nothing.
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Packing up my whole house, no big deal.
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It was when I rolled all my stuff down to the road, waiting for my Uber to take me to the airport.
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I was like, oh shoot, you're doing this.
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Oh boy.
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Oh wow, this is happening.
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You are doing this.
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And it was at that moment that I realized, girl, you're about to go to some country that you have never been to before.
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I had like three or four suitcases, my golf club, because I love to golf.
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And I'm like, hmm, you don't know anybody?
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You uh never been there before.
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So that's when it finally kind of like just hit me that it was real.
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So when you got there, and we don't I don't think we have the time to to go into the details, but when did you begin to feel like this is home for me?
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And what were some lessons learned for you?
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For me, I the first month I spent in an Airbnb.
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Right.
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An Airbnb on a golf course, I had already kind of had that all picked out before I had landed.
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Okay.
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And so I thought, yeah, this is where I was going to stay.
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But after being there for a couple of weeks, I realized I wanted to live closer into the city.
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So I probably would say it felt like home more so in October.
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So I came in July, I stayed for a month, I um stayed in this place, and then I realized this is not where I want to live.
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I kind of started looking for a new place, came back to the states because remember, this was not originally my plan for life.
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So I had a lot of commitments still left that I had to attend to.
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Came back to the states for a month, and then when I came back in July, I moved into my own apartment.
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And moving in, you know, it was like, yeah, this is home, this is where I live.
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And building community was so easy.
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Um I built, um, there is a large expat community and a very large US expat community and in a very large black US community.
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So there are large expat communities, and so you can tap into so many things to do.
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If you never learn the language, you can just hang out with American people the whole time.
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Right.
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Okay.
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Now, so you've got the community.
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I mean, you had your have golf clubs will travel, so you already have three new friends you can meet literally anytime you go on a golf course.
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I am curious, uh, and then we'll come back to the experience in Panama and really beginning to cur create this life.
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Were there other countries that were on your radar?
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I mean, you you've mentioned Panama, you're very specific about it, but uh because I mean in talking to the so many countries.
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Why Panama?
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I visited Costa Rica like around during the COVID, like 2020, and I thought, well, this might be a good place to retire.
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I just kind of like we kind of thought about it.
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I was like, yeah, this might be a good place to come and retire.
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This might be a good place for investment.
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But when I kind of started hearing things like about Panama in terms of you can use Medicare, you can use your vet benefits, you use the US dollar.
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I thought I just changed, right?
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I had already lived in Africa, I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do too far away.
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I I knew I wanted someplace with strong infrastructure, and that's what it really offered.
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Okay, well, that's good.
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I I love that.
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I mean, it's uh it's certainly on the the list.
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I mean, uh, I have a list of retirement.
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Given on what's going on in this country, that list is you know, it's it's taped to the wall.
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So you you get there, you're starting to make the life.
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What were some of your lessons learned for you that you would then want to?
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Because I know you've you've got this entrepreneurial spirit.
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I mean, you and I were both in this mastermind.
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Uh, what was it, sales, authenticity, success mastermind?
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Lisa Sassovic there.
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I gave her a shout out.
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Uh uh.
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When you got there, and what were some of your lessons learned?
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And how are you now starting to impart those lessons for others who want to make the leap that you made?
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Lesson learned from me probably was mostly um stop talking about it, do it, right?
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Because all those months I spent, you know, like and you know, because it was a very chaotic time.
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So let me just kind of also say, you know, it was a very chaotic time.
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It was a lot of time of uncertainty.
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But what I find I did, and what I find even like a lot of our clients do is are doing is we're depending on, we're asking other people, like what we're trying to read what they want to do to decide what we should do, right?
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And not taking control of our situation, not taking control of our circumstances.
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And so that probably would be lesson learned.
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Like I knew in the beginning I wanted to do something different, and I should have started executing that plan.
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But instead, I was like, Oh, let me see what the government's gonna do.
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Oh, let me see what's happening out here.
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And I should have just said, this is what I wanted to do.
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What I hear a lot of people say is, well, what about my children?
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Because you know, I work with you know more mature people, so they're worried about their adult children, they're worried about their aging parents, um, they're worrying about their siblings, they're worried about their grandchildren, as opposed to worrying about yourself.
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Because people make decisions that are great for them.
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And most people don't consult us when they're making decisions that are good for their lives.
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But for some reason, and I would just say, as a black woman, we do a lot of making sure everybody else is okay, putting the oxygen mask on them first before we put it on ourselves.
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And so therefore, you know, we kind of delay our move.
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And that's what I did.
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I kind of was like, well, how is this gonna work out for how would this affect?
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And I should have just said, this is good for me, and I'm gone.
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Okay.
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So you and I met back in was it 2017, 2018, one of those those years.
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Yeah, when I was living in Ethiopia.
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Yeah, I I remember that.
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I mean, I'll I I remember having these conversations with you about coffee, but we don't have to go there.
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Does Panama have good coffee, by the way?
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They do, they do I may have to come and visit a spare bedroom.
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All right, or at least I'll rent a I'll rent a a condo in in your in your facility.
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But I'm all about the coffee.
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So had you begun to think about taking care of yourself back in 207, 2018, would you have moved sooner?
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Would you have made that leap sooner, or no, just not ready for it yet?
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My life, my what my life looked like in 2017, 2018 is totally different.
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What my life looked like in 2025, right?
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So 2017, I had um two girls who were off to college.
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I was in a 20-something-year marriage, and my mindset was totally different.
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Okay.
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My mindset, so even though I was living in Ethiopia, my family was living in the US, I was commuting every month.
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I was going back and forth every single month.
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And so I would have not just probably um, you know, I would have yeah, if my kids were going to college, I probably would have it would have been okay for them to move.
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If my spouse at that time said yes, they were interested in moving, I would have moved, right?
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If my spouse said they were not interested in moving, I probably would have not moved in 2017.
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:20.400
Yeah.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:20.960
Okay.
00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:25.039
So you're you're you're in Panama.
00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:32.240
Well, you're you're visiting your, I'm assuming you're just a short visit to Maryland, just so you can feel cold and snow and all that good stuff.
00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:37.119
I came to check out my investments, but yeah, and I got stuck.
00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:38.640
Oh, okay.
00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:45.359
So how are how have you begun to then like you?
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:46.400
I like to work.
00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.640
I mean, I I can see, I mean, I can coach and podcast anywhere in the world.
00:19:50.799 --> 00:20:10.160
That's the beauty transition that I absolutely and what how are you taking this entrepreneurial spirit and beginning to help others start to put what they need, what they want to the forefront and starting to make that happen.
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.319
What is that looking like for you right now?
00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:16.240
So now um I help other people do exactly what I did.
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I get a lot of people asking, well, me too, you know, raising their hand.