LADY OF THE MONTH – RACHAEL LYNN – LADIES WHO ONLINE 

I joined a 30-day writing challenge a few months ago hosted on Instagram, and within that same network, I came across Rachael’s profile. I wasn’t quite close to being the writer that she is, but she got me inspired by her heartwarming posts. Being both expats in the UAE, I left a comment on one of her photos, to which she responded warmly. We were strangers, but I felt a sense of familiarity with her. And not long after, I learned that she authored At Home Anywhere – a book on feeling at home wherever life takes you. Since then, I have followed her journey and have discovered a lot about living abroad and journaling.

Rachael, who’s American/Canadian, was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Like me, she’s also caught the travel bug early in life. She realized her love for travel when she took a trip to Paris during high school. Other than that, she’s also dreamed about doing something ‘big’ with her life. So she got a degree in Business & Human Resources and started working a job that was stable enough but hardly gave her any time to travel. That’s when she dove into the world of personal development, and three months after moving to New York City for a job, she quit to work full time for a Life Coach. “My world changed! I could work from my laptop anywhere in the world, and I got hooked. I did the nomadic life and finally settled in Toronto before moving to Dubai. I published my first book, At Home Anywhere, just last year – all about how to support yourself emotionally through big moves abroad,” she shared.

LIFE ABROAD | For this current destination of Dubai, Rachael moved because her husband was based in the UAE. For her, he was enough inspiration. He lived in Dubai before they got married. And when they got married in 2018, she moved over just a couple of weeks later. “I knew that he was right for me and part of that rightness is trusting what comes up for our life, no matter what! But life abroad was always a dream of mine and he was a way for that to keep happening,” she said.

Rachael has been abroad for the last five years (she lived in Toronto from 2015-2018 before coming to Dubai). For her, Canada isn’t all that different from the US in subtle ways, but the more time she spent away from North America, the more she realized the nuances of her Canadian side. She shared, “during all of my time abroad, I have worked for myself in some capacity. In Canada, I was an online business marketing consultant – helping life coaches and business coaches and agencies grow their businesses online. Now I work for myself completely!”

WORK-LIFE BALANCE | Rachael approaches her days based on priorities rather than trying to balance everything all at once. “Let’s say I have a writing deadline. That day becomes a day where work is a priority – so I let someone else handle cooking that day. Or maybe I have family visiting, so I make my team aware ahead of time that I will be less available and ask for what I need to be covered. 

I get too overwhelmed when I think that I need to do it all – make all three meals, hit a deadline, connect with my family, get in my workouts, self-care, etc. all in one day. Choosing a priority for the day makes me feel like even if I only get ONE thing done, it was the most beneficial thing for that day. And then if I do anything else (which I always do), they’re a bonus!” she shared.

SUCCESS HABITS | The biggest factor that contributed to Rachael’s success was starting again. She spent the first 3 or 4 years of her business trying on different offerings and different ways to make money. “All of them felt good for a little while, and then I would get tired of them in some way. But I knew I wanted to have the enjoyment of something that was my own, so I kept trying new things. Re-motivating myself after a couple of ‘failed’ experiences has been the thing that has gotten me where I am. You always hear people who seem like they just ‘made it’ share how they worked for years before anyone noticed them. I find that to be true,” she shared.

One of her success habits is knowing when to ask for help. “By far I have jumped leaps and bounds by asking for help and even hiring help. This can look like a therapist, a coach, an assistant for my business, or even an online course. There are massive leaps that occur after every investment that I’ve ever made,” Rachael said.

Aside from seeking help, she also turns to journaling. Journaling is where she calms herself down, hears what her intuition really wants her to know, and gets new ideas. Her journal is the place where she realized she loved her husband, where she got the idea for her book, and where her online community was created. The help she hired gave her clarity, but her journal provided her with self-soothing and confidence.

Another success habit for Rachael is committing to other people even when she’s scared. “Agreeing to do Facebook Live interviews, podcasts, and LIVE classes make me scared every time. But they have also given me so much fulfillment and growth in my business. There are still fears I’ll say or do the wrong thing, but I can’t back out of something I’ve committed to, and that’s been advertised to the public! That would be terrible. Making those commitments over and over again has helped me to practice getting over my fears and connecting with people, which only opens up more opportunity,” she shared.

A STRONG, FEMALE LEADER | Rachael doesn’t see barriers in her business for simply being a woman. “I work for myself. My business is online. My clients and readers are women. I’m not looking for funding or things that put me into an environment to be ‘limited’ in a significant way. When there are barriers for me, often they are in my mind. I’m always happy to look at my own beliefs and mindset first and try to shift things in a way that works,” she shared.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES AND HAVING NO REGRETS | “Not getting clear on what my boundaries were as far as work hours when I would reply to emails and texts from clients, and my general mental health was definitely one of the first mistakes I made as a younger business owner. Somehow with experience, you realize that you can always find a new client, and you don’t have to put up with people you don’t want to. 

Second, being afraid to ask for help. I thought that people, especially my family, would think I was failing if I needed some financial support during the downturns in my business. I was not financially prepared with enough savings when I took the leap and started my first company. I still remember, in the first year of my move to Toronto, there was a month I had to ask my dad to pay my rent. It was humbling, but right after I allowed that support, it was like everything got better. I could have prevented that by asking for support much earlier (like before the day rent was due!),” she shared.

When asked if she could start all over again, Rachael said that she wouldn’t do anything differently. “In a cliché way, nothing, because it’s all okay. In a sappy way, I would’ve married my husband sooner. I know not a lot of women talk about this because right now women’s empowerment might have you think we have to do it all on our own, but having the right partner truly changed my business. Knowing I’m supported gave me space to think about what I really wanted to do, and the confidence to take the risk. I met my husband 10 years before we actually got together. Think of all the time I could have saved! I’m kidding about that, and of course, I could’ve and would’ve been successful even if I was single, but he has a huge role in my business and life,” she said.

WORDS OF WISDOM | Rachael wants the next generation of young women to succeed in the workplace or business, and she imparts some brilliant advice for all the ladies who are dreamers and achievers like her. “Get to know yourself deeply and intimately. Question if you really enjoy the things your friends are interested in, or if you’re just comfortable knowing some people are around. Read ONE personal development book and actually do the work in the book. Take notes. Read it again and take more notes. Take a couple of months with one book. Don’t just run from one blog or personal development book to the next because you won’t see true changes. THIS is what is meant by success comes with hard work. It’s not working so many hours that you get sick and successful at the same time. Inner work is challenging – but it will change your life faster than anything else.”

Love and light, 

Mai