How Do Creatives End Up Living Abroad?
Have you ever considered bringing your career abroad? Not everyone is happy living abroad, and it’s not always the best move to bring your career forward. However, there are some exceptions. Creative individuals tend to benefit from a change of environment. It is no surprise that happy expats are those who prefer a creative career. They find the new culture inspiring and energizing. In the words of Jon Burgerman, artist and illustrator, “everyone should be a foreigner somewhere”. The idea refers to the advantages you might experience if you choose to work abroad. Adam Tickle, who moved to Sweden in 2016, realized that working abroad removed a lot of his day-to-day stress. He found life abroad more relaxing and enjoyed the focus on well-being and lifestyle that he found in Stockholm. Shantell Martin, an artist, found new energy to restart her career in every location, utilizing her experience for new artwork and collaborations. The bottom line, there’s a lot of joy and excitement for creative expats, whether they use the opportunity to use their skills in a new workplace or to restart from scratch. What does a creative mind do to kickstart their career abroad?
They consider tutoring services
Being a native speaker gives you a unique approach to help people learn your language. Learning from a book or a local teacher is not the same thing as reaching out to a native speaker. You can find many opportunities to use your mother tongue as a tool to make a living abroad. What is even more interesting is that you can also learn a foreign language with your students, the more they learn English, the more you learn their language. If you wish to work as a teacher abroad, you will need to pass the relevant accreditations. However, you can also offer language workshops to your local community. If you prefer working from home, you can safely consider becoming an online English tutor on Preply or other platforms that allows you to provide language classes. The bottom line: As a native speaker, teaching a language is perfect to meet people and get to know the local culture. It’s a safe source of income while you settle into your expat life.
They work remotely for their home country
Living abroad doesn’t mean that you have to find a job abroad. As an expat, it can be tricky to find your mark in a new culture. So, you may not be able to land your dream job immediately. But as Adam Tickle mentioned, sometimes living abroad is all about finding a new lifestyle that suits your personality. You may not need to change jobs if your creative role enables you to work remotely. Ultimately, publishing content online, as a journalist or copywriter, can be done anywhere. You can submit your articles from any place in the world as long as you’ve got a reliable connection. A lot of creatives who choose to maintain their career connections tend to combine travel and digital works. Digital marketing, writing, or online journalism are some of the preferred career paths for those who have got itchy feet.
They create their own business
The next level when it comes to creativity is to utilize your unique creative presence as a promotional platform. Bloggers and social media influencers have been known to monetize their web presence as a way of funding their expat lifestyles. Influencers need to have a good understanding of the value they can deliver for potential clients. For example, it makes sense that someone who’s got over 100k followers would earn more per post than an influencer with 10k followers. Ultimately, the bigger your follower group, the more earning potential you have. Ideally, as an influencer, you should build partnerships with brands to secure recurring gigs. But as an expat, there are many opportunities to turn your digital influence into a money-making machine. The influencer role requires some level of creativity to design engaging and compelling posts for your followers, which is in many ways similar to an artist with an eye for marketing.
They share their cultural insights
If you’ve lived abroad for a while, or are familiar with the local culture, why not turn your knowledge to bridge the cultural gap with new tourists? Expats are some of the best city guides you can find. They always share their honest experience and never fail to engage their audience at a personal level. The reason they are so successful as city guides or tourist assistants is their creative mindset. Indeed, a guide is a storyteller who takes tourists on a journey through the city. Tales of ancient princesses and Roman soldiers can be read in any guidebook. But when they are told by someone who has fallen in love with the history of the place, they take a new level.
They live as artists
Not everyone can be an artist. However, artistic minds draw on the experience of living abroad to renew their creativity. The art is different because the story they tell is constantly growing. Yoko Ono is one of the most famous examples of an artist who has gained huge momentum through moving abroad. Ono was born in Japan and only got involved in the art movement once she moved abroad, to New York City. She’s been a prominent artist in the peace movement and the avant-garde scene. If you wish to pursue an artistic career, moving abroad offers a new range of experiences that you couldn’t get anywhere else. You can seize the unique zeitgeist of the moment.
The list of careers that creative people choose when they live as expats is diverse. Not everyone can afford to make arts their primary job. However, everyone agrees that the expat life offers a unique boost in creativity that many can’t find anywhere else. Whether you use the experience to find new satisfaction in your work/life balance or to engage with the local community through cultural exchanges, there are many ways to nurture creativity. It’s important to understand that creative personalities are happy to break away from standard expectations, which is precisely why moving abroad fits them. However, what they choose to do to maintain their creativity could be a mixture of options, both as a career or a life choice.