Episode Summary

Are you curious about my move to Spain and how it's been going? Maybe because you are also thinking about moving to Spain? Or just 'cause you love those kinds of details! Either way, this episode is for you.

In this episode, I share my personal journey of moving to Spain, while offering valuable insights and tips for anyone considering a life-changing move abroad. Whether you're contemplating an international move or just curious about the realities of living in another country, this episode will guide you through the process and possible challenges.

In this episode you will: 

1. Learn the step-by-step process for moving abroad, including how to navigate the tricky Digital Nomad Visa process.

2. Discover the creative workarounds used to overcome obstacles—from building a makeshift recording studio to managing international logistics.

3. Gain insight to determine if a move to Spain (or anywhere) is the right decision for you and your family.

Tune in to this episode now and gain the confidence to take the first steps toward your dream life abroad!

Resources mentioned: 

Digital Nomad Visa assistance https://movetospainguide.com  

Employer of Record assistance https://www.oysterhr.com/ 

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Leave a voicemail for Jenna and get her personalized advice for your business: 

 https://www.theuncommonway.com/talk

Find Jenna on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

The Uncommon Way is led by business coach Jenna Harrison, who helps women entrepreneurs feel confident, find their ideal clients effortlessly and avoid overwork so they can manifest money and abundance in their business and life.

This podcast empowers female entrepreneurs to overcome imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and limiting beliefs through somatics, mindset, and spirituality, create 7-figure offers, and build an online coaching business with clarity and alignment.

Episode Transcription

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Are you curious about my move to Spain and how it's been going? Maybe because you are also thinking about moving to Spain? Or just 'cause you love those kind of details, then this episode is for you.

You are listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy. And step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed overanalyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome, welcome back to the uncommon way. I have a [00:01:00] very personal episode for you today and very real time in my life. As I've been coming back online and sharing more about the fact that I've moved, I received a lot of questions. And some of them are from people that say they too want to move to Spain or to some other country, often in Europe, and they're wondering how I did it.

Or it's just from maybe friends I haven't spoken to in a while, or people that have been following me for a while that are just really curious about the details and, and want to hear how it's going. So, um, So in this episode, you'll learn how you can transition from the life you're currently in into the life of your future, which I do think I did really well.

I'll also share what I would recommend if I were to do it again, so that you don't have to go through some of the little road bumps that I did. And I'll also share about daily life so you can see if it might be a fit for you or not. [00:02:00] But first, I have to tell you something that I have not shared yet.

When I moved over here, I realized that podcasting was going to be a little bit of an issue. And it's because, whereas back home, I would record in my closet, which I talked about several times on this podcast, because all of those fabrics make for really great acoustics. The aesthetic is very minimalist, and when you don't have a lot of upholstery and fabric, it means that you're, the noise is echoing and bouncing around and can really sound tinny, which was what was happening with my first episodes when I arrived.

So the solution I came up with. Was to actually construct this pillow fort around me. I record these episodes inside my makeshift pillow fort. So I just thought that'd be a fun detail to start this off with because it didn't really fit in my other [00:03:00] episodes, but it's perfect for this one because that is what everything has been like moving to Spain and It's been about getting really creative and coming up with solutions that you never anticipated.

Now I'll go through this in kind of a Q and A format for some of the top questions I've been getting. And the number one question has really been, how'd you make the transition? Like, how did you think about it and choose that place and get the ball rolling? What we did is we started taking one month a year.

To go overseas. We knew that we wanted to be in the Mediterranean. And so we also knew that if we were just going for a week or two weeks, and for instance, staying in a hotel, we really wouldn't get the true experience of what it was like to live there. So we definitely wanted to. Find an air bnb and shop at the local grocery store and do everything [00:04:00] that we could to kind of feel like a local during that time and then we'd really be able to pick up a lot of information.

Of course, there's a lot we wouldn't pick up on because we weren't. Um, you know, signing up for our own utilities and right there, a lot of missing pieces, but as best as we could get, we wanted to really feel what it was like for a month. So we experimented with a few different places, Greece, Italy, Spain, all in the Mediterranean because that is the area that we really, really love.

And when we came to Mallorca last year, which is where we ended up settling, the truth is we didn't necessarily even know that we were going to move here full time. We were still thinking that we'd split time between some home base in the United States and then a little place here. But what we started to realize is that housing prices had skyrocketed so much in the States and they had over here as well.

And because Dylan would be in [00:05:00] school most of the year, it really didn't make sense for us to have two places. Like, we would rather just have one place where we live and then go rent an Airbnb at the other one. So when we started doing the, like, calculations, Emotional calculations really about whether we wanted to live here or we wanted to live in the States.

We came to the conclusion that we were just going to go cold turkey after Ben retired, rip off the bandaid, so to speak, and all in one fell swoop, we would retire from the military and move over to a different country. And we did everything we could to prepare in advance as much as possible. We were, you know, doing, um, I think it was babble on online for Dylan to start learning some Spanish.

We were speaking with attorneys, speaking with CPAs, trying to gather all the information. And that I will say was a very [00:06:00] rocky period because there was a lot that went into getting Digital Nomad Visa, which is what we wanted to attain in order to come over here. In hindsight, I would recommend going with a company that really helps you start to finish.

And we just, we didn't find them. We didn't know about them. So I'm going to link to one. That several people have used. I have not had personal experience with them, but some people here on the island have used and I can just see how easy the process has been for them. And so I'm going to recommend them to you all for anyone coming to Spain.

They work with all different locations in Spain. And there's also this thing that I didn't know about, which is called employer of record. And the company specifically that I spoke with about this, when I was kind of already on my way to the digital nomad visa. So I did not pursue this route, but what they do is they hire you on [00:07:00] the books.

So they have a Spanish entity and that company hires you. And then from there, you're able to come in and As an employee, as if they were finding skilled labor that they wanted to bring in. And so I think that would have also been a really nice opportunity, but I just didn't know about it. So the way it worked for me is that because I have an S corp, which means even though it's my company legally in the United States.

It's seen as its own entity, and that entity hires me as an employee, and then I am basically sent over to go work in Spain, and that's how I'm able to get this visa granted. Now, there are some exceptions. Challenges with that. So I'm just going to kind of leave it with that and tell you that there were several loops that I had to go through that you won't have to probably, if you work with one of these [00:08:00] companies, I'll make sure you have all your ducks in the row.

But if you definitely want specifically to do a digital nomad visa on your own for any reason, then I would recommend really actually honestly getting on Reddit. And looking through some of the forums, because you'll see people start talking about the problems that come up specifically between the Spanish and the U S government, and then the Spanish immigration department, and then the taxation department in Spain, their equivalent of the IRS.

And so there are several issues that aren't like counter logical where one organization really wants this, but then it's impossible. So for instance, they want somebody to come in that has their social security taken care of in their home country. So they won't actually be joining the Spanish social security system, but the taxation people in [00:09:00] Spain, because this is a big issue.

Very new visa. It's really only been around for a year. And a lot of the details haven't been ironed out. And the social security people in Spain actually really do want you to start paying into the social security system. And so it's like one department says this, but another department says that. And so you definitely are going to need to get help.

You're never going to be able to file the paperwork on your own and make sure that you do everything that you're supposed to be doing. You're probably going to have to work with several people, but at least if you start off with one of these companies that start to finish, sees you through, you'll really have a leg up.

So I'll give you another example of how that was true. We were working with a local attorney to help us with our visa local to Mallorca. And one thing that he didn't tell us. Was that there's a magical number that you really need to have here for everything in order to set up a [00:10:00] bank account in order to buy a car in order to get a phone number.

I was just arranging a birthday party venue for my son and they said they needed this magical number of mine. In order to do so, so even if you want to rent a venue for your child's birthday, you need this magical number. Well, it turns out you can get this magical number in the U S before you even leave by going through the Spanish consulate.

But we didn't know that. And now there are so many people wanting to move to Spain that their systems here in the country are really, really, like, waterlogged. They just have so many people coming through that there's A delay. And so it wouldn't have made sense for us to try and get this number because if we got granted residency, we would automatically be issued the number.

So it was just better for us to go through the residency process and then get it. But what that [00:11:00] meant was all the things that we thought we would have to do to set up to settle in here, like get a car, like I'm all the things I just mentioned a phone number. Since we were not able to do so, we had to find workarounds for all of them.

We had to find international phone plans that would work in Spain. We had to find, um, a car leasing service that would allow, that would lease out their cars. Even though we just had our U. S. driver's license and a passport. So rather than just going straight in and doing all the research on the thing that we would ultimately stay with, we had to find all of these interim workarounds first, and then we got granted residency.

Yay. And got our magical number. Yay. And so now we're restarting the process, basically, but for real this time, of course, this is going much faster because we have so many lessons learned from the past one. So what I anticipated would be [00:12:00] about one month of time, I knew that there'd be just a A month where I was doing a lot of the settling in process.

I'm the only Spanish speaker as well, which is not as big of a necessity here in Mallorca because it's such an international community. And so English is really just like the second language here. Many people use it to communicate with each other if they're from a different country, but I have still had to, to step in.

Quite a bit and do a lot of the either research, or I've had to be the translator in a lot of situations. And so I thought this would take about a month, but it's actually, I think, when it's all said and done, it's going to be about 3 months. It feels challenging when you're going through all of it, but if you think about it in the grand scheme of things, is that worth it for you?

And that's just such an analogy for business too. I just have to [00:13:00] say, I was talking to someone the other day, right? And she said that she's constantly having to re decide if she wants to stay in her business or not. And I, we were talking about the like mental drain that that is. But I told her that before she would be a great fit for my program, right, the thing that I would, one of the things I'd want to see is for her to really, when she's not thinking of all of her fears and worst case scenarios, like, When she really thinks about the possibility and the fact that this could come to pass, is there enough desire for that?

Is she feeling enough passion for that to get her through this period that will inevitably happen right now, as she's in this phase of growth in her business? Because if not, it's only going to delay the process and it may even completely curtail the process. Whereas once she's fully [00:14:00] committed and she's in it to win it, right, she and I will be having a much different conversation.

And so that's also true with a move. I think like this, you have to know, and I didn't know, I just underestimated what it would, the time that it would actually take, but you have to know that it's going to be rocky and there's going to be a lot of like settling in and a lot of frustrations. And you just need to decide beforehand, is that worth it for you?

So I think one of the best things that Ben and I did was we decided before we even left that no matter what, we were staying here for two years. And we anticipated that there'd be some culture shock in the first year and there'd be, we'd be, you know, establishing new friendships and relationships and a new, you know, kind of daily rhythm for weekly rhythm for ourselves.

And so we really wanted to give ourselves a commitment of that [00:15:00] second year to really live it. Like, to really be in it and then be able to decide, is this really the best place for us? Um, especially with, with Dylan and, you know, his needs with school and all sorts of things. So because of that, we're never re deciding right now.

We're never saying, Oh my gosh, did we make the wrong decision? Should we go back? The decision was to come for two years and that's what we're doing and we don't have to re decide that we may not stay here forever, but we don't have to make that decision right now. We just have to figure out how to stay here for two years.

Another important thing to be aware of is that a lot of people are talking about that the fact that the Spanish medical system is really great. And so it's a great place to live for that reason. One thing you need to know, if you're American coming over, Is that there's a period where you're not on, you're not able to [00:16:00] be in the public system.

And so you need private insurance, but it turns out that the private insurance companies will not cover preexisting conditions. And so that's a huge problem because you either have to have insurance. That from back home that will cover part of your bills, or you need to be able to self finance. Now, as for the daily life, to be honest, it has changed a bit since I lived here 30 years ago.

So 30 years ago, it was pretty much what you read about where kids are always out playing in the plazas and. Everybody young to old is kind of doing, uh, you know, passeando, just strolling back and forth along these promenades. And you're greeting everybody and out and about and seeing your friends while you're having some tapas.

And now what I'm finding that may still be true in a lot of Southern [00:17:00] Spain, I'm not sure, but much of Spain, especially in the cities has really become More insular when it comes to children specifically, so they enter the school fairly early, they leave fairly late and they tend to do a lot of their activities, either with a few playmates from school or with their cousins with family.

And with organized activities. So a lot like is going on in the States now, and you don't really have that free range atmosphere where they can run and play, which of course is what we were really lucky to have in the military base because it was so secure and the kids could just be kids. But that said, people do spend a lot more time on the street here than they do back home in the U.

S. So we're always seeing people running along the water, or they'll be playing volleyball on the beach, or they're out at cafes and restaurants, they're [00:18:00] out walking around at night. And while we aren't really doing that yet on the weekdays, because like I said, we're getting up early for Dylan, and he has such a full school day and activities day, it's not just academics, but there's all sorts of, he's doing like, Capoeira class, and a robotics club, and learning tennis, and every day after school he has some activity that he does, which is so fun.

So we pretty much just bring him home, let him decompress, and then it's time for bed. But on the weekends we're just having a really nice time heading out to the beach, and then Having lunch at, you know, a little salad or some seafood right there and not being in any rush whatsoever. And then just exploring all different playgrounds.

They have, this is just not a litigious society. So there are all sorts of things that would just never be allowed back home, like playgrounds where kids could get hurt. [00:19:00] Or informal situations like case in point when we drop off my son, it's in a residential area and there's not actually parking for the school.

And so we just have to kind of park on the sidewalk or in somebody's driveway or like next to the fire hydrant or we're not supposed to park. And then just put on your hazards and then walk up the hill and, and drop them off. And everyone knows that, well, but this is just the school drop off. This is just, of course, there'll be cars parked in weird places because they need to drop off their children.

And I remember once, Actually, when we were in Italy, my brother and sister-in-law came to visit and we were talking about this kind of situation where you don't really have to feel rushed at a restaurant, right? You can, once you sit down, that can be your table or the afternoon and so many other situations.

And the word that my [00:20:00] sister-in-law used was micro stressors and that we don't quite realize. When we're back home, how many micro stressors there are throughout the day that we're always anticipating? Like, is this, you know, server getting upset with me because I'm not ordering something else to drink right now or are, you know, is someone going to give me a ticket for doing this thing?

I mean, you still get tickets in Spain, but there's a different mentality around where kind of these boundaries are. And it lends itself to relaxation, it lets you let down your guard a little more and feel safer. Of course, I feel very safe sending my son to school, I feel very safe in my home, there's very, very little violent crime here, and really, people are nice.

This is not true everywhere that you travel. As you know, especially when there's a large influx [00:21:00] of immigrants, and I don't know if you've heard, but there are a lot of anti tourism protests going on in Spain because the tourism is off the charts. I've mentioned before here in Mallorca, there is a population of 1, 000, 000 that blows up to 20, 000, 000.

In August, the island is very overloaded with everything with trash with pollution, and, you know, everyone is very echo minded here. So that's a big, like, source of contention for people. And so there are a lot of anti tourism protesters, but what they're protesting are specifically um, uh, me. The governments that are taking tax money and not thinking about the ramifications of their decisions of allowing in so many flights and all the private hotels that are bringing people in and, you know, all the construction that's allowed to happen to create more hotels.

And [00:22:00] so while in some cities they are actually kind of, I don't know, targeting tourists by holding up signs or, you know, throwing Paint. And this is mostly Barcelona, but, um, that's very rare. And I actually haven't seen that here in Mallorca, but really it's about not about the people that are moving there.

The immigrants. It's about the, like, massive, massive tourism machine that's happened. Spain. is the country in Europe that has the most tourism and makes the most money off of tourism. And so there's just a kind of political disconnect going on right now. But when it comes to actually living here and from what I've seen, really accepting that all sorts of different people are going to live here, that has been true for many, many, many years in Mallorca.

So I remember even, you know, 30 years ago when I lived in a neighboring island, everybody knew that [00:23:00] that so many, you know, Germans lived in, in Majorca. And now that's just only broadened, I think there are 83 nationalities in my son's school, and it's a tiny school. But what happens is they are, you know, there'll be like one parent from this country and another parent from this country.

So these kids are already dual language at home, and then they come to school, which is an English school, and they're speaking English, but they're learning Spanish and Catalan four days a week. Catalan's the local dialect here. And so they are overflowing with languages. And yet everyone seems to think it's normal, and it's wonderful.

I love it. But yes, apart from Spanish people, like we've become friends with a family that lives in our apartment complex, and there's a Colombian woman married to a man from the Canary Islands. And then we [00:24:00] have some friends from Dylan's school that we've made. There's a woman who's Brazilian. And a man who's from Seychelles, and then there's an Australian, I think married to a, I'm honestly getting confused at this point, but there's just such a mix of cultures and a kind of respect for cultures.

And, um, it just makes for a really fun place. The weather is beautiful. The scenery is beautiful. There is a lot of congestion in the summer and the country absolutely shuts down in August. So don't do what we did and move here in the end of July because anything that needs to happen will be happening in August, except that it won't because very few people are working or they're working limited hours.

And I just love that I have higher trust in what is in the food here, that I can look out my window of the [00:25:00] stairwell and see all sorts of like, olive trees and hibiscus, but also rosemary and pine, and it just creates this very delicious smell. And that at one moment, I can be in the city going to fun, trendy coworking spaces and fun cafes.

And then in another, I can drive 20 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere or go up into the Or to the sea, everything feels very accessible. And I know for sure that that always translates to your mindset. When you are in discovery and exploration and newness, it changes your mind. It changes how your brain works, and it opens up your creativity.

I have not been working a lot here. I Maybe start work around noon, usually sometimes a little later, and I [00:26:00] tend to have maybe one or two calls in the afternoon, mid afternoon, because that's when clients are waking up in the States, or that was, you know, our old legacy calls for my European clients.

That's when we were used to meeting. So we've kind of continued to meet at that time. And then I welcome my son home and go pick him up. But even though I haven't been working, it is working for me. And this is actually a concept I teach frequently, which is you do need to, at some point, believe that rest things like rest uncommon things like adventure, exploration, pleasure.

Are actually very important business activities and very lucrative business activities because I have so many ideas and so much energy and so many good vibes about what's ahead in my company, but it's all [00:27:00] due to the fact that I've tackled some obstacles, right? But I've really created like some great wins for myself and I'm always Out exploring and in new environments.

There's very little that feels like, I mean, there is safety and security and some routine, but I'm constantly changing and challenging. And so my mind is scanning in a different way and looking in a different way. So for those of you who are wondering, is it worth it for me? It's worth it for any entrepreneur.

Even just if it's, you know, a couple of years or even if it's just a month and I believe we can take these same kind of micro breaks even close to home or even within a staycation. How often have you had a friend come to visit and they've said, Oh, have you ever been to this place? And you say, Oh no, I've been meaning to get there.

We tend to over index [00:28:00] on the quote unquote business activities without realizing how valuable it is for our business. To be in new surroundings and new environments. So there you have it, how we made our transition, what the main lessons learned were, and what life is actually like over here. I hope you are having a wonderful September wherever you are, and I can't wait to be back with you next week.

Hey. If you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn. From Facebook ads to manifestation, just go to the uncommon way. [00:29:00] com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.

Thanks for joining us here at the uncommon way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business in life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way. com. See you next time.