Why I'm leaving the US tech scene to start my coaching business in Lake Como

A few months ago, I told my employer of over 7 years, LinkedIn, that I was moving onto my “next play”. We had plans to move back to Europe, a place we haven’t lived in over a decade. And I shared my plans to start my own coaching business, supporting people to achieve their highest potential and their dream life, based out of Lake Como. (No, George Clooney hasn’t factored into the decision making).

The last 3 years for my family have been busy. We moved our family from Singapore in September 2019, landing in Silicon Valley. We assumed that San Francisco would be our home for the foreseeable future but then everything changed with the global pandemic. We felt isolated without close family and friends nearby, and so, we decided to move to Miami to be closer to my mum’s family who are all based there.

Now after a year and a half in Miami, we can’t ignore the calling to move back closer to our immediate family and friends. Living in Asia and the US for the last decade has given us a lot of perspective, and the thing we are craving now is to build roots and community for our family. My husband is Italian, and I have family from Italy, and the values and quality of life has been something very appealing for us. The economics of living in Italy also meant that we could take on more intelligent risks to pursue our passions and careers. ?

This geographical move to Italy is also a catalyst to take an intelligent risk and follow my passion for coaching in a full-time capacity. I know I am not alone as statistics show in the “Great Re-Evaluation”.

Some of the most common questions I have received about this decision include – Why coaching and Why now so I’ve done my best to answer these below.

Why coaching?

My passion for coaching started when I was lucky enough to have my first engagement with an executive coach five years ago. I remember some of the lessons & perspectives that I received from that experience like it was yesterday, and having critical “A-Ha” moments through the simple act of structured open-ended questions. I’ve been fascinated with “self-help” and “personal growth” for decades, and whilst I love business strategy, one of the areas I see a big opportunity is applying strategic thinking and operational rigor to better enhance people’s lives and decision making. I am clear that I would like to dedicate the next phase of my career to help people unlock their full potential and live their best lives. I have a very strong point of view that this needs to be done with a holistic lens, incorporating all elements of life, and that coaching is an incredibly powerful transformation tool to assist in this. I am currently completing my coaching certification with Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute and the process has definitely confirmed that this was what I want to pursue full time.

Why now?

There are many timing elements to this decision that have helped myself and my family know that this is the right time. Firstly, it’s something we have been planning for in the last year (thanks to my amazing coach Cari Jacobs-Crovetto ), and that’s given us time to prepare both on the personal side, and provide enough notice to build out a transition plan at work. Secondly, it’s also the right time for my daughter to start elementary school in Italy, and gives both of our kids plenty of time to become fluent in Italian. Lastly, I’m also very close to my sisters and parents, who I crave to be closer to, particularly as we all have small kids and want them to develop close bonds. The pandemic has reinforced the importance of us being closer to family.

I am so grateful for our experiences in both Asia, and now the US. We have truly grown from all of our international adventures, and we are looking forward to creating our new home in Italy. ?I’ll be starting a newsletter with more about how this big life transition goes (both highs and the lows!), as well as some of my key learnings as I start a business to become a full-time coach.

If you have anymore questions or advice for me as I my new adventure, please drop in the comments below! ?