Moving Countries With Your Business with Casey Kelly-Barton

Have you ever considered moving yourself and your business to a new country? Content marketer Casey Kelly-Barton did just that and shares her challenges and opportunities as an ex-pat:

Her journey to niching into the intersection of three related niches— including how niching bumped up her revenue and reduced her hours worked.

Meeting the challenges to building a business while single-parenting after a divorce (and the most freeing thing she let go of).

Why she decided to move countries with her business—and how long she let the idea simmer first.

How she identified and evaluated target locations including the resources she tapped to explore the expat experience in advance.

The dividends from intensely focusing on that critical first year of transition.

LINKS

Casey Kelly-Barton Website | LinkedIn

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Casey Kelly-Barton provides content marketing and brand development for B2B companies in cybersecurity, fintech, and fraud prevention.

When she started her business, she was a newly single parent looking for ways to make the most of her writing and strategy skills.

Now, her business is well established with a roster of clients she enjoys working with, her kids are grown and she works from Portugal, where she moved in late 2023.

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:28

Casey Kelly-Barton: So I started researching and I was very methodical. I made a list of countries that met my criteria for like weather, time zones, languages, blah, blah, blah. And so I was looking at Latin America and Central America pretty carefully because I speak Spanish. My parents are still in Texas. It would be time zone friendly for my American clients. And then both my kids ended up in the EU.

00:32 - 01:11

Rochelle Moulton: Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton and today I'm joined by Soloist and new expat, Casey Kelly Barton. She provides content marketing and brand development for B2B companies in cybersecurity, fintech, and fraud prevention. When she started her business, she was a newly single parent looking for ways to make the most of her writing and strategy skills. Now her business is well established with a roster of clients she enjoys working with. Her kids are grown and she works from Portugal where she moved

01:11 - 01:32

Rochelle Moulton: from the US in late 2023. Casey, welcome. Hi, thank you for having me, Rochelle. I'm so glad to be here. I'm excited to talk to you today. Yeah, me too. So when we met and I heard that you were moving countries, I just knew you had to come on the show to talk about your experiences because for some people, that's living the dream.

01:33 - 01:39

Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I do get a lot of questions about it. And so I'm happy to talk about that in detail.

01:39 - 01:47

Rochelle Moulton: Well, first off, let's go back to when you started your business. So what made you start the business? And when did you start?

01:48 - 02:27

Casey Kelly-Barton: I started the business, I was newly divorced and I had been doing some freelancing and some education off and on for years. And I thought, okay, now it's time to get serious about this, I was a strong writer, I had good writing and strategy skills, but I needed something that I could tailor to my own schedule and that wouldn't have me away from home 50, 60 hours a week. So I needed something that I could do independently. And at that point, I just started working my contacts and seeing who had freelance writing needs. And that was

02:27 - 02:51

Casey Kelly-Barton: the beginning of it. At the beginning, I did not have my niches. I was basically taking on any and all writing assignments for companies that needed it, like performance marketing, elder care, all kinds of things, just to build a portfolio, build some skills, and to really test and see if this particular path would work for me and my family. Well, obviously it did.

02:52 - 02:57

Rochelle Moulton: Do you remember how long it took you to get your first $100, 000 a year?

02:57 - 03:29

Casey Kelly-Barton: Oh, it took a while. I won't lie because, you know, my kids were young, 7 and 12 when I started this. And so it took me, I want to say, 6 or 7 years to get to that point. So it was not an overnight thing And part of that was because I didn't have the niche. It got to a point where I was just taking on, you know, the strategy that worked at the beginning of let's try everything and see if this works. Let's take on all the gigs you can find. Kind of that new freelancer.

03:30 - 04:06

Casey Kelly-Barton: I don't want to say panic, but definitely an eagerness to book work. When I started, I don't know if you're familiar with Carol Tice, but she used to run a freelancer, sort of an online forum or a clinic. And she said, you know, You need to niche and not just take everything that comes along because you're never going to move up your income if you are just a generalist and So I just started working on the things that really interested me which were fraud prevention cybersecurity fintech hadn't really exploded yet, but it did pretty soon after.

04:06 - 04:22

Casey Kelly-Barton: And it's related enough that I was able to capitalize on that. But it was really once I started to niche and develop some some expertise in specific fields that was hard for clients to find. That's when my income really took off.

04:22 - 04:51

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, I think it's interesting with writers, especially, I think a lot of writers just have this mindset that it's about writing and just like it's the craft of writing and getting really good at that. And that's important, but it's how you apply the craft, which is where you make the money and where you can get paid more. And Carol Tice had it right about Nisha. So how long did it take you to 0 in on those 3?

04:53 - 05:24

Casey Kelly-Barton: Fraud prevention came first. And that came, I had a client who requested that I handle, it was an agency client, and I still work with them. I've worked with them for a decade. They, I want to say it was like 2014. So 3 years in, I had somebody come to me and say, we have this account, it's fraud prevention. We're having just a devil of a time finding writers who are A, interested enough to learn about this niche and B, willing to actually commit to it for a while and do the homework. And I was like,

05:24 - 05:53

Casey Kelly-Barton: I'll do it. And I found it was really, really interesting to me. And that's where I just started to invest in that. And because fraud prevention has kind of a natural overlap with cybersecurity, I was able to capitalize on that and then start moving into those other areas. And then when FinTech startup ecosystem really started to grow, Well, a lot of what they need is cybersecurity and fraud prevention to protect their data and protect their customers. So that was just a natural segue.

05:53 - 06:00

Rochelle Moulton: That's the tie because I had a different idea of FinTech in my head. So that makes sense then I see how the 3 are tied together.

06:00 - 06:08

Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and cyber security now is kind of ending up in everything because everything is connected. So yeah.

06:09 - 06:19

Rochelle Moulton: So do you think you'll niche down further into 1 of those 3? Or do you find that the combination really suits you?

06:19 - 06:57

Casey Kelly-Barton: I like the combination of them. And honestly, they're so interrelated that there was a spate of articles earlier this year about the cybersecurity convergence, which is basically the idea that everything needs to have cybersecurity built into it. Anything that's online has to be protected. Anything that handles money or data needs to also have fraud prevention. And a lot of it, if you're moving money and you're doing it online, there's going to be some sort of fintech aspect to it. So I kind of feel like the niche is niching itself down without me having to do anything

06:57 - 07:32

Casey Kelly-Barton: necessarily. Yeah. There's a little overlap with RegTech, like regulatory and compliance and insurance. So I could continue to niche into those areas, but I feel like there's enough going on in cybersecurity and fraud prevention, especially with the 4 horsemen of AI, enabling this sort of escalation of the spy versus spy, good guy versus bad guy strategies. I kind of feel like I'm good for now, but these niches touch on enough other areas that if I needed to switch or refine, I can.

07:32 - 07:42

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, I was kind of visualizing a highway when you were describing it, because it feels like these things are all connected. It's like you've cornered the market on a piece of the highway.

07:42 - 07:54

Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean, there are plenty of other good cybersecurity and fraud prevention and fintech writers out there. I just make explicit the fact that I work at the intersection of these areas.

07:55 - 08:22

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, that's a niche and it's how you build authority. So I want to switch over just for a moment and talk about single parenting because it is a topic that comes up more than you might expect, certainly in my Slack channel. But it's single parenting while you're building your business. So we definitely have some listeners that can relate. I mean, like, what was that like for you? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with for that?

08:22 - 08:54

Casey Kelly-Barton: It was hard. It was hard, I won't lie. It was super hard. And it was super hard, even though I had, their father was supportive. Like, you know, he paid his support. He was active in the kids' lives. So I wasn't without support the way some single parents are or newly divorced parents can be sometimes. So I had that. I also had a pretty strong social and professional network, But it was hard. It was hard helping my kids adjust to a new normal. It was hard learning all the things that I needed to learn as quickly

08:54 - 09:32

Casey Kelly-Barton: as I could so that I could start ramping up my business. Like I would fall asleep listening to podcasts. Like I would work, I would deal with the kids, I would fall asleep listening to podcasts, and there was about a year or 2 where I had literally no time for myself unless it was like the weekend when the kids were with their dad and I would do something really wild and self-indulgent like lay on the couch and watch a nature documentary for an hour You crazy fall asleep. I know So it was it was hard. Yeah

09:34 - 10:03

Casey Kelly-Barton: It was just my time was not my own, but I kept telling myself that if I invested this time and just went all in and went really hard up front, that I would be able to be in a better position and have more time and more options later on. Which safe to say that that happened. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a gamble though, right? Anytime you're like, you know, you don't know that it's going to work out when you're in the thick of it. But I thought, well, you know, I got to do something. So

10:03 - 10:04

Casey Kelly-Barton: I'm going to commit to this.

10:05 - 10:31

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. And I think a lot of times when we talk on this podcast, you know, we hear from people who've really been able to create a business where they have a lot of free time, what we don't always hear about is the messiness in the beginning. Yeah. If you're not sure, if you're experimenting. Some people start this knowing exactly what they want to do. Other people are following their nose to see what's going to work. So yeah, I appreciate you sharing the messy beginning.

10:31 - 10:59

Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah, yeah. Oh, and it was messy. We were talking about this a little bit earlier in the green room, I guess. But there were a lot of things I just had to let go because my priorities were my children's wellbeing and my business. And so there was 1 6 month period, I had a friend who said, well, how are you doing all this? And I told her, I said, you know, I haven't cleaned my house in 6 months. And I was expecting as soon as it popped out of my mouth, I was like,

10:59 - 11:01

Rochelle Moulton: oh, no, judgment, judgment.

11:01 - 11:03

Casey Kelly-Barton: Yeah. Yeah. And she looked at me and

11:03 - 11:24

Rochelle Moulton: she said, oh, thank God. She said, I am so relieved to hear that I'm not the only 1. Yes. Well, if you look at Instagram, it looks like everybody has 47 children, works a million hours a week, and has a perfectly clean and well-organized home. So yeah, that's not reality for most of us.

11:24 - 11:48

Casey Kelly-Barton: It's not reality. And you know, the thing is, it's like having a clean house. I mean, I love a clean house. But at the time, there was no money for a cleaner. There was no time for me to do it and I thought You know, how is dusting all the corners gonna further my goals? It's not so I'm gonna put it on the back burner for now That dust will still be there when I get back to it and it was Good for you. I like that.

11:48 - 12:06

Rochelle Moulton: I like that. So I'm just really dying to talk about your expat experience. I know you know that. This idea of picking up and moving countries with your business. So first, what made you decide to move? Was this a big adventure? Was this like a very carefully calculated thing?

12:06 - 12:38

Casey Kelly-Barton: This was a project I had been working on since 2010. Well, even before that, I had always wanted to live abroad just for the experience of doing so. I was born and raised in Texas with the exception of 18 months when I lived in Atlanta. I've lived and worked in Texas all my life. And, you know, it's a big state with a lot going on, but it's also just 1 part of the world. And early on working on my business, I was working for an elder care, like information provider. And so I was doing a lot

12:38 - 13:11

Casey Kelly-Barton: of research on things like the cost of care when you get older, who pays for what? And looking at the numbers and looking at the trend lines, I thought there is no way that I can afford to grow old in the United States. And then once I got a divorce, I thought, well, I can kind of do what I want once the kids are grown. And so I started researching and I was very methodical. I made a list of countries that met my criteria for like weather, time zones, languages, blah, blah, blah. And so I was

13:11 - 13:46

Casey Kelly-Barton: looking at Latin America and Central America pretty carefully because I speak Spanish. My parents are still in Texas. It would be time zone friendly for my American clients, and then both my kids ended up in the EU. There goes that plan. And they were like, well, you should come over here. They said, but don't live in the same countries as us because that would be creepy and weird because Europe is so tiny, you know, that if I'm in the same country as them, I'll practically be looking into their living room window. So I thought about it

13:46 - 14:20

Casey Kelly-Barton: and I thought, well, let's try it. And so, yeah, but I spent about a decade researching and planning and making some little trips here and there when time and money allowed to check out different places. So, yeah, the fact that my kids ended up in the EU really kind of changed that calculation. And Portugal has a nice clear, I mean, I say this, even though Portugal right now, their immigration agency is going through some major logistical and technical challenges that weren't present when I applied. But of all the countries I looked at in the EU, they

14:20 - 14:34

Casey Kelly-Barton: were the ones that had the clearest immigration process, everything spelled out in detail, and the clearest path to a dual citizenship in several years, should I choose to pursue that?

14:35 - 14:43

Rochelle Moulton: So I'm curious because I love Portugal. I could totally see why someone would want to live there. Why not Spain if you spoke Spanish?

14:43 - 15:18

Casey Kelly-Barton: Right. I asked myself that a lot. I did look at Spain extensively, and this was before, you know, they just, I want to say at the end of last year, maybe it was right when I was almost done with my visa application process for Portugal, when Spain finally came through with their digital nomad visa. Before that, they only had something called a non-lucrative, which you were supposed to be retired. And depending on who you talk to, there either were or weren't restrictions on earning money from outside Spain. And like I talked to immigration attorneys in Spain,

15:18 - 15:48

Casey Kelly-Barton: I talked to different people. They said, well, it depends. It depends on your consulate. It depends on who is interpreting the rules. And I thought, well, I can't move for it depends. And Portugal's guidance was very clear. They had a visa that was in the category that fit my needs. And they were like, bring us this, this, this, and this. And, you know, it'll take a while because it's there's bureaucracy, just like everywhere. But, you know, do these things and this will be the outcome. And I was like, yeah, clarity. I like that.

15:48 - 16:09

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. And I just Portugal, I've been all over Europe. And there...