What happens when you don't just move to a new country but reinvent who you are every time?
Today's episode is about transformation, across countries, careers and identity.
Our guest has lived in Italy, Greece, the UK and now in the United States, constantly starting over and building a new life each time.
And along the way, she didn't just change places. She completely transformed how she works and helps others do the same.
After the talk, I explained and we do the work. We are still stuck. We are something deeper.
I was watching Marisa Pia with Rapid Transformational Therapy, and she was using hypnosis to go to the root cause and I was like, that's that.
So I went another year, live in London with her and then full course and two years of training.
And then I was a clinical hypnotherapist and really changed how I work.
On top of that, she hosts a podcast that explores how creativity and identity evolve in a world shaped by technology and AI.
The podcast is now looking at the mindset as the science comes in, internet comes in, AI comes in.
And we may feel like we're not relevant, but actually we can be very relevant.
I'm seeing how the artists, designers, artisans, creators, musicians, actors, dancers, how they can exist.
Even if AI is doing everything that they can do faster, but they cannot do it better because it has no soul.
This is a story about reinvention, mindset and starting over again and again today on Almost Local, the living abroad story of Franz Sidney. Let's start.
Who is Franz Sidney? So I could write a whole book, basically I'm an Anglo-Italian person living in the States.
And I'm also many things, I worked as a language teacher for many years teaching Italian and Greek.
I lived in different countries. I'm also a clinical hypnotherapist. I'm a coach, I'm a podcaster.
What else? I'm an illustrator, Disney illustrator, comic artist, and I do lots of other stuff, but I'll stop here otherwise.
But I will go, I do so much.
Because that's a lot of things. It sounds familiar. I'm always like that. I also do thousands of things and then I don't know how I manage time, but I manage. It's okay.
Of course. Nice. Very cool to hear. You said you're Anglo-English, by Italian, but you're originally from Italy.
How was your life before moving abroad? Because you moved to multiple countries, we would go to there afterwards, but what were you doing in Italy?
Where did you grow up? Where are you originally from exactly?
I was born in Nure, which is in Sardinia. For you guys, you have a boot bearer, you have Corsica, which is French.
And then the second biggest island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia, which is actually called Sardegna in our language.
And the ancient name was Iknusa. So think about it. It's the name of a beer that we have in there as well. I was there for 22 years.
So just imagine this rugged, dry area. We have six months of uninterrupted good weather mostly. And then you have winter, you get a bit of cold, sometimes a little bit of snow.
You have all the rain and it becomes sort of green. You have more sheep than people like in New Zealand.
And just like it was when I left, there's hardly any jobs and there's a lot of poverty.
But there's also Viagra Canne and Costa Esmeralda, lots of designers there. I mean, the coast is wonderful.
So you have this really nice whole life, like Mediterranean diet and very close-knit communities. So they have so many good things.
But when you can't get a job, then you have to move because what are you going to do with your life?
That's when I moved at 22. I moved to the north where all my relatives were, my grandparents.
So I lived with them. Then I lived with my Brazilian auntie for five months. Then I went to Monza.
And I was like, "Hey, there's a lot more stuff here in Milan." So there I studied of the Polytechnic of Design in Milan,
which was one of the biggest, six biggest schools of design in the world. And it was a Bauhaus School, so great experience there.
I also went to architecture at the Polytechnic. So I was studying a degree, I had on two years of that.
And then I was like sidetracked. I found the stained-glass studio in, I think it was like Canozzi o Corte.
And I was working for them to do designs and they cut it and they do stuff. So I was really doing everything.
I already had the Ciccio Classico, which is ancient language diploma, which is very boring, but also had a fashion design diploma.
So I really explored everything. After you come out of Sardinia, like, "I can do this and I can do that." And it's all green in here.
It was like another country. So cool. I mean, I have so many questions. I mean, I'm also a product designer.
So I would be asking you about Bauhaus forever and ever. By studies, I'm a product designer. So I also specialized in that.
Maybe to focus a little bit the conversation on why did you move abroad?
Like you discovered a little bit, like a lot of things, and then you start doing different diplomas and things.
And this is how Greece come into the place.
Yeah. So, I mean, I was very happy in Milan. Excuse my voice. It's always low because it's very low humidity where we are.
So we'll be coughing a lot. So what happened is in Milan, I had lots of jobs, but it's very hard to get like a fixed contract.
It was like zero hours and don't want to work in black. I mean, Italian economy, submerged one is quite big.
So we do both five percent unemployment rate. But actually, we have a much higher, people can be bothered to register.
The reality is as a designer, this comic artist, it was really hard.
So I had three years training as a comic artist in Disney and he's approved. I have one of my originals.
That's cool. All done with a little brush. That's how we do stuff in there.
It's always very busy, but I could see the income was not going to come easily.
And it just, the Italian market was based on recommendation. Connections is everything, of course.
So networking is very important. And at the time when I was there, some 70 percent of companies in the 80s were a family owned company.
So you had to be a friend, a relative, somebody introduced. It was really complex.
And in Vienna just got a little bit tired. So I was looking, but I wasn't sure what would be the best thing.
Because as a creative, you know, the star being artist, my parents can't work for their business or the family.
So what should I do? And meanwhile, something happened in my life.
So I was a Catholic and I joined the LDS church. You might know it as a Mormon church. And I was just fired.
So I went straight on a mission in 1994 and I was sent to Greece. OK.
At first I had to spend two months in Provo in the Missionary Training Center. So that was my first time in America.
So I was in Utah for two months. I was like, wow, it's a different place. Look at that. So dry. So hot.
We were ready in summer and then they sent me to Athens. And I was there in a year and a half, 18 months in Athens.
And I just love a country, such a beautiful place, even hotter than Italy, the language.
So I started to see, well, actually, I would love to stay here. This is amazing, because I love the food.
The sea, I mean, you go to Glyphard, I see the sparkling blue sea and it's hot and you're sweating.
You just want to go in. They even have the ice skating rink and you can go there all covered up and then go out and sweat.
And the culture was great. The people were so friendly. And by then my mission ended. So I couldn't just stay.
I had to go back home and I couldn't go back to Monsaic because my apartment was gone. And with Disney, they were just doing a merch with Panini, Italians.
So they lost a lot of jobs at the Disney Academy closed down. I was trained by big people like Sandro Dossi.
So I had the big names there. I'm like, I'm not really sure about this. I stayed with my parents in Sardinia for four months.
And I was just thinking, what do I do? It was so hard. And at that time, after four months, there was no Internet.
Right. But there were adverts in the library while somebody was looking for an opera in London.
OK. And I thought I speak English because in Greece all my companions were Americans in English.
And maybe I could just go to England because I've been there twice for holidays. Loved it.
So before, from May 1996, me, my keyboard, my suitcase, I have a phone. I landed in London, Heathrow.
And then I took a train and I went to London where I started to work in Brixton until August.
And then I did to really explore London as a 30 year old. I was like, wow, this is so much bigger.
I mean, you came from Athens, which is not small either.
So I suppose you already were used to big cities in that sense.
But the weather is like completely the opposite one to the other. That's for sure. And the cows also.
That is why the weather is the main topic of conversation in England. We had to moan about it.
Yeah, of course.
We had to be British and just complain about the weather because it's not bad weather.
But this girl is so changeable. Every two minutes, you have a piece of new cloud.
You might come out and go to Sheringham today in Norfolk because I was in East Anglia for 28 years.
So we're going to go to the beach and enjoy the North Pole wind because it's cold. But it's hot.
We're going to go outside. By the time you're in the car and you're driving there half an hour,
these big gloomy clouds are gathering. And you go there, it's windy. In Italy you have umbrellones.
You have a big umbrella to shelter you from the heat of the sun. In England you have windbreakers.
Because otherwise you can't stay on the beach. We're all dressed. I never had a swimming suit in England
because you're not going to do with that. Because on the East, the water in the sea is so cold.
I mean, not for me. I'm just not. No. So yeah. And I thought it was amazing.
London is a different climate compared to East Anglia. So it's got like a microclimate.
So when it's gloomy, it's gloomy for four months. If it's cold, it's cold for four months.
It just stays there with pollution. It was amazing. Come on. Oxford Street. I mean, wow.
But you realize two and a half hours from Brixton to the center with a tube, that was a long trip.
I mean, you stayed nearly 30 years. Something must have attracted you from life there. I suppose.
Was adaptation easy or what did you find interesting? So I stayed for very reasons because first of all,
I just find the British people are so welcoming, or just one of them straight off, because I was
speaking English. And that's one of my suggestions. If you're going to England, speak the language.
Don't go there. Don't speak the language. They don't really like that. You're speaking to them
in Spanish or in Greek. They're just like, "We're British. We only know one language." That's the
same here, by the way, but I am now. So you have to speak the language. And I made huge mistakes,
because it's very idiomatic. So Italians learn by grammar, read and translate. Grammar, read and
translate. While in England, you teach the language differently. So you have to understand a
different way. You cannot just translate every word and then think they're going to understand
you because they won't. So there was a little bit of a learning curve there. By that time, I already
knew Portuguese, Italian, Sardinian, English, Latin, ancient Greek, modern Greeks, learning
British English. Okay. Just a step ago. So I tried. And with time, actually, I read that you became a
British citizen also. So you had dual nationality. How does that work? Because normally, like the
typical two passports, you see? Because normally a lot of the Italo-something that you met, it's
because they are family related to Italians or whatever. But in your case, it's just like,
you became a British citizen. Did it change your identity? It was easy because I was a translator
there for Intran. I was working for what you call it, the home office. And I trained and everything
just before the final exams. I was like, "Oh, that's so good. I might as well get a British
citizenship," which was easy because I was married to a British guy. I was working for a language
school. So a couple of months, sent a few documents and that was it. Now they made it a lot more
complicated, didn't they? But yeah, I got my passport and I'm glad I did because then we did
Brexit. And with Brexit, life is more complicated. Yeah, in Greece, it was easy. Is it easy to find
work? Still easy now, honestly. In Italy, it was so hard to send hundreds of CVs. We used to have a
typewriter. It was an ancient instrument. And there I had to buy my first Apple Mac, the G3.
And I just liked learning what can I do. So I was trying to do design work. And then I was doing,
I was a concessional manager in a store called Principles, which is a big store, which is now
closed down. So I was assistant manager there. And then after a few months there, a friend said,
"Wait a minute, you speak all these languages. You should work in a language school." So I applied
and I got taken in and they trained me. They gave me all the Cambridge course to become a professional
tutor of foreign languages to adults. So I got my certificate after one year and I was teaching
Italian and Greek, which I had done for 15 years or adult education. So it was fun. I've also taught
cartoons there and I also kept my art going all the time, always. And greeting cards, I had two
agents and illustration and I just cannot do one thing. I had to do a million things. So I loved it.
You know, the weather is okay. When it's good weather, drop everything and just go outside.
When it's bad weather, turn on all the lights and get your umbrella, wear little boots. But you know,
I had a half an acre garden. In Italy, I would have never had that. So green and lush with a big tree
and a polytunnel. I just felt like I was rich because I could grow my own stuff. And I think
Britain can be amazing. I mean, we in Britain, we complain all the time, but we have a lot of stuff
and people who never have. Nice. Yeah. No, no. No, no. Makes sense. You need to complain of the things
that you can complain about. No, I think everyone complains about things of their own place where
they are living. It's kind of common. It's not the, you touch upon a lot of different stuff that you
need to live. Artists never stop being artists. Being one of them. Like you never stop doing
things. I mean, that's, that's, I find it incredible. When does, because this is, it's the part that
surprised me, like the whole mindset work and the whole hypnotherapy comes into place. When did you
start opening even another front in that regard? Yeah. Since I have time. And no, what happened is
I always been into dancing gymnastics, civic connection. And so there was sadly divorce
when I was 50 and I had two small kids and I was like, okay, now I have to rebuild my lives
and what can I do? And I thought, well, should we do one of the skill tests? And I was literally
thinking about coaching for gymnastics because that's the sport that I really like and I like
roller skating and gymnastics. And my, my heroine was Nadia Comaneci who won three gold medals,
two silver and one bronze at the Olympics in Montreal, 1970s. I was like, I'm going to be like
her. I'm going to coach young girls and boys. And so I did all the skill tests and it turned out,
turned out that I was going to be a good coach, like a coach in general. I was like,
you know, it's quite good, whatever that means. So I started to research and I thought, well,
I actually like Tony Robbins. I like all this because I've always loved psychology. I've read
entire books of it. I was like, the human mind sounds very good. That's what I really need to do.
I'm re reframing, recreating, recreating my life. So I searched and I found an accredited course,
another four year, and I trained to become an NLP coach, Neurolinguistic Programming, which was like
my greatest experience because you learn how you can tell your own story all the time.
I kind of been stuck in a box of the story, tell it's your own narrative. It just framing what you
can do, but actually we are limiting ourselves so much. And then after the first year of coaching,
I was like, if it has some clients, after that talk and I explain and we do the work, we are still
stuck or something deeper. What is that? And at the same time, I was watching Marisa Pierre with
rapid transformational therapy and she was using hypnosis to go down deeper
and to go to the root cause. And I was like, that's that. So I went another year live in London
with her and then full course and two years of training. And then I was a clinical hypnotherapist
and it really changed how I work with my own mind and then helping others. So I started to work like
that. Still go with the art, still selling my illustration to national magazines, coloring pages.
Cause everything was just going, you know, wake on tablet there. That never stopped.
Still teaching languages. I was teaching still at Wensum Lodge and I was still doing it on Zoom.
Zoom was brand new thing, you know? And then I always had my life going in a lot of directions.
And then so the avenue in three years now is, but still now the pull to do more art was stronger.
Okay. So now I do more. Yeah, that's good.
More than that. But the mind work is always there. So everything I do, I'm like, is that what you do
in France? Look at you with your mindset blocking you. Ah, okay, I got it.
So it help you like analyze not only help others, but analyze yourself whenever you take decisions,
which is nice. When does United States come in this equation? I know that it's like a couple of
years ago, roughly that you moved there. Yeah. Why? After decades in Europe, why this decision?
I was never going to leave England because let's say, where is another country where you get the
same unemployment rate, the same salary, the same quality of life, the same kind of, same
easy life. Eurocracy is almost zero. The problem was the climate. You can have, you know, four
o'clock in winter in December, it's dark, taking your children back from school. It's dark. It can
be depressing, let's say it. So I'm kind of a bubbly person. I talk to a storm and friends in an
empty room. I'm always happy, but it glue that can continue for months and months and can suddenly be
in summer just like that, boom. But then it go back to gloom. So there was a change. Okay. So when I
first went to England, the average temperature in summer was 17 degrees. That means I was never in
short sleeves. Never! I just took off. I'm from Sardinia. Okay. It's like California. Then over
time, we started to have this 20 Celsius. 24. We even had a year, 37. We were dying for the heat.
It was rare, but it was improving. I have no plans, just not because I got everything here. I got
all established and you have amazing transport. You can go everywhere. You can go to London into
Arts. Who's going to move? Got my friends there. My kids are there. And then I met this guy and he
was American. Very loved. He proposed. And after five years being together, I took the plane and
landed in Denver in June, 2024. And I got green card and then I'm here with my daughter. My son is
traveling the world and he's in Nepal. He's been on a bike. Traveling the whole world on a bike.
It took him three years to arrive there. And I mean, we got this voyageur, traveler thing in
the mind. I mean, my own grandparents, they moved to Brazil and they were seven years in the face.
I grew up listening to Brazilian. So we're all moving people. I have people in Australia from my family,
people in Germany, people in France. We just don't stay where we are. We just have to move.
We love it, but we have to move. Something happens. So that's how I moved. It wasn't that I wanted to
come to the States. Never. Never. I told my girlfriend, are you crazy? Have you seen the medical expenses?
I'm never going to move there. And then I moved. Love makes you do crazy things. Yes. Maybe the last
question before we entered a little bit more about America and how is your life right now there.
How was it like the starting over again, like after nearly three decades being in a single country?
It's a new change. Yes. I mean, it's a big difference. Also, I am in Wyoming,
not in the typical Italian that goes to New York. You know, the Italians always do that. If I go to
London, I didn't born in New York. The rest doesn't exist. And the new generations are better.
Let's say this is a totally different country because you have different climate. It's super
dry. So we went from 65% humidity in England to like 27% here on average. Humidifier going behind
me all day just to avoid getting static electricity, whatever I touch, I get the static electricity.
Can't touch any. So when I touch electric stuff like it's in front of me now, my microphone,
static, static. I touch a handle, static. It's just crazy. So that's a big thing and also very
space because in Europe we have smaller roads, smaller houses, smaller cars. So you are on a
road. I mean, I could take 20 minutes from my house to Tesco, and Tesco was a three minute
walk from home, 20 minutes in the car because it was just stuck in the traffic at the roundabout.
That's England for you, right? And that was Dieram. It's a tiny place, 15,000 people. Here is the same
thing, same city, Naramie, but what is Russia? You might have three cars and the roads are larger.
And you just don't get congestion in these small towns in America. Obviously if you go to Denver,
you will see congestion. That's fast. But I drove in Solic city. Yes, but I have seven lanes. They're
going to 75 miles per hour. We in the city like well in Italy, Milan, I drove in Milan, I drove
in Monza. You're not getting anywhere because the traffic is from Monza all the way to Milan,
Sesto San Giovanni, Verderio, where it used to be. It's just cars, cars, cars. So that's the
difference is the space. You have so much space. But also the difference is in Europe, we're all
walking. We walk to places. Start the car, walk to the post office, walk to the thing. And you just,
you know, use a bike a lot. Well, here is like house, garage, car, drive to the place where you're
going, park in front of it, get off, and you're inside. So air conditioning, something that needs
air conditioning. What is it? So if you're like, you know, lots of places, like years ago was terrible.
Now you have to go to a Centro Comerciale. So, but now here is like in summer, you might go to a public
building, church, museum, shop, the air conditioning is so much. I can't know where I should live in
summer. I just so cold. So it's the lasting cold. And I suffer the cold. What have I done?
Cool. I mean, we already entered a little bit into America. So I would say we jumped directly
into the fast reply questions. I always ask the same exact 12 questions to everyone
to try to enter a little bit into understanding what it's your current situation abroad and then
how it is life there. The first question that I have, it's the cultural adjustment, the thing
that took you a while to adapt when you arrived to the U.S. So there were lots of adjustments. So
from Sardinia to the north of Italy, you're changing because it's a faster pace and it rains
more in this corridor. Some people tend to spend more time indoors compared to the south of Italy.
Then from there to England, you have other cultural adjustments to make, first of all,
the language. Because obviously in Italy, we have 11 languages, as you well know, not just one. So
you're used to speaking lots of languages. And so when I was in a store, I could greet people in
their language. It's like, "Hey, I know a little bit of your language." It was fun. British were
very welcoming to me. We are family, so we've been treated amazing. Just because I was Italian,
I was like, "Oh, here in Italy, I've been to Lago di Garda, I've been to Sorrento." You get all these
conversations going. So that was fun. And I find it really easy to find friends. So there was church,
there was work, there were online groups later, end of '90s. I went to lots of art classes,
language classes. We were still in touch with most of the people. We were very chatty. And then the
biggest thing to get used to was that at Christmas, everybody's giving you a greeting card that says,
"Merry Christmas." And when I mean everyone, you might get 50 to 100 cards. And you have to reply
to all of them. Sunday in Italy did not exist. I was like in shock. Why everybody's giving me
a card? They don't even know me. So you have to buy a stash of Christmas cards. And then you become
used to that. And then you realize, Vitali's don't really give cards. And it's a bit rude
they don't give you a card. It just makes sense. Yeah. You started adapting to things.
You touched upon the next one a little bit, but the social life, how do you normally meet new
people, new friends? You talked about hobbies and stuff, but what was the most common way?
Hobbies, interest groups. And to be honest, the library, Norwich, the Millennium Library,
we got a lot of friends going there. At exhibitions, you talk to the people. I'm just a talkative
person. And also in Italy, I worked as a DJ for five years and that really turned off any shyness.
I became a chatterbox. So I just talked to everyone. I realized not everyone is like me.
But I would say British people are always happy to chat. In Norfolk, they're really nice. You have
these little old ladies, they say, "Hello, Aline, love," and they treat you like whatever. They're
accommodating. I just love them because they are just very polite. There's a lot of please and
thank you for everything, which is in Italian. It comes hard because have you ever heard in Italian,
"per favore, grazie, prego?" Yeah, but not so much. In English, it's like the politeness is there.
The school uniforms are a big adjustment. Like in Italy, we have G-student. In England, school,
uniform. And if you are wearing something different, you can't even get to the school.
So there's division of classes, it's quite something to learn about. So "Oh, this is a
working class person. This is middle class." The accent will give away where you're from. So I say,
"Learn English better." So you don't end up being confused with a person of the wrong class. Not to
say the working class is not good, it's a blue collar, but there is still this classist being
looking at you, not to say we don't have it in Italy. Because in Italy, we look at your clothes
and like, "Look how she's dressed. I can't believe that." That's Italy for you.
I mean, you talked about learning English. We talk about it already like a bit. I mean,
in Britain, you said it's clearly a must, but maybe for you, you already arrived there or how
did you improve your English when you were there? So Berryman, I already have a Cambridge
certificate and I already spent a year and a half in Greece with Americans. So my English was fluent
till idioms. I had to go and get there with the idioms. I had gone to the British school of
Monza before for a year ago. My advanced certificates there. But English is a very
idiomatic language. Do you want to know a really fun story showing you how
literal translations don't work? It's embarrassing for me, but I'm very happy to share it if you're
interested. Here we go. I was just telling this to my husband last night. So my first job was in
principles. So there was a very posh clothes store like Dorothy Perkins. We were all together with
Topshop and so we all had to wear a uniform. I had to come from the store. So you see, it looks so
good on me. It might not look good on you. So I was there with Amy, the manager, assistant manager,
we were talking about what I really wanted to wear. I didn't want frilly things and complicated
stuff. I just want something simple. So I was very telling her I just want like a jacket, a straight
jacket. And everyone started to laugh. And Amy was laughing and Sarah was laughing. I was like,
what's wrong? It's a straight, simple jacket. And we're just laughing. But straight and straight
sound the same, but it's not. The straight jacket is Camicia di Forza in Italian, which is what you
get, it's in the psychiatric unit. You're violent and they give you this very long shirt that goes
all around you. And I just asked for one of those. So everybody was laughing for five minutes. They
couldn't even breathe anymore. I was like, what the heck is going on? Then finally Amy was like,
straight jacket, here it is. I was like, oh my gosh. And that shows that literal translations
don't work. You can't learn the idiomatic language. And that's 1997 when I did the
mistake. And so I just got into the habit of reading the news, reading newspapers and on the
internet, read the articles and talk about them. All my reading was now in English. So I went to the
library and read English books about art and design. What else? What else? It has to be.
Today slowly taught me a little bit more how to speak the language, but as you can tell,
the Italian accent keeps coming through and coming out. So that's me now. You know,
probably I can't be bothered to do much more to change it. But sometimes you need to embrace
it and that's it. It's not always that bad. The next one that I have, it's the cost of living.
How expensive or different was the cost of life? What was expensive? What was cheap? Yeah. So,
bearing in mind that these are costs from 30 years ago, but I did have a quick check and we're still
pretty much the same. Now spending in 2020 for about 1,000, 1,200 a month, sterling pounds,
just for living. So 400 something was for internet, electricity. I had solar panels,
so a lot of that was offset because I was living almost 2k a year in that. But let's say food,
food was more expensive in England compared to Italy, but the salaries were higher. So yeah,
car insurance way more expensive in Italy and we're just third party while in England,
you can get fully comprehensive for next to nothing. Car tax, I was, I had a Skoda,
okay? I won all the prizes for being a clean car. There was a 30 pounds a year road tax compared to
a Viano that was paying 350 pounds a year. So if your car is green, you're good. Here the tax,
the insurance of the car is just crazy expensive, crazy. Not enough competition, that's US. Then
you have a much higher income in Italy compared to Greece, quite higher and lower unemployment
rate, but it's way higher in England. So Greece is cheaper, they pay you less, but it's cheaper
to get the house, but they're not very big. England is more expensive, the houses are smaller. So
you have to see your values as a coach. What is more important for you? So you might earn a lot
of money, like here in the US you were 15 to 20,000 more a year you're going to earn, but that is okay
if you're educated and you have no health problems. If you're going to pay for insurance,
for anything, you're going to be out $20,000 in seconds. For example, in England, you just
say to the NHS, "Oh, I think I need a CT scan because I have this condition." Let's say you want
to test for something going on in your organs. You go there, the doctor sends a letter to the NHS,
the NHS sends you another letter, you get an appointment, you go there, CT scan, you get a
result, you go home. Continue with your life. Here, you go to the doctor with your annual
visit that is covered by the insurance. If you do more than once, you pay 200 to 300 dollars. So in
Italy, everyone is trying to go to the doctor all the time, not here. We're trying to avoid going to
the doctor. Then here there was a single scan, 1,350. So there was a heart attack, almost got
taken by the ambulance, but I couldn't because the ambulance will cost you thousands of dollars.
So I think you change mindset because, yes, you get paid a lot more here, but don't become you,
because that can be a strong thing. So as a person who wants to retire, do your maths
very well. And also I was looking at house prices, they haven't really changed much because if you
think about, I was looking at sizes, the average size of a Greek house, not in Athens, okay, but
the multifamily house is 126 square meters, which for America is 1,356 square feet. Okay, so we go
to Italy, we have 81 square meters, so 800 something square meters. We go to England, 76 square meters
on average. So you go 818, so it's smaller, it's smaller, but do you need such a gigantic house?
Depends. Also the unemployment rate, you have to be very careful. What is your job, especially with
AI, like in Greece, unemployment rate, 7%, 8%, Italy, 5%, England, 4%, but when you look at the
data, in Italy we have "Lavoro Somerso", "Lavoro Nero", you have a lot of people who are not sane,
they're working, but there are and there are also people who don't sign up with a job center because
there's no point. So if you look at how many people are not working and not producing in Italy,
I got numbers for that and I was looking. All these people are not looking because they do not
have any hope to get anything. So we think we have a shadow economy, so "Lavoro Nero". It's about 10 to
15% of the GDP. So where are you and where are you going to be? That depends on understanding the
taxes, the social benefits, how much it's going to cost you because you have something called the
labor force participation rate. In Italy it's only 66%. Where are the other people? What are they doing?
Are they living with their family because they can't afford it? Well, in England it's 75% and in
Greece it's rising, but it's a challenge. So when you look at unemployment rates, literally look at
the adverts. Are they into adverts? Most people will not advertise for positions. They look first
in the company, right? And they say, "Who is here that can move and fulfill this position?" So you
don't find out about work unless you know the company or somebody there. Well, in England it's
much more transparent. It's a lot easier to get in. You just present yourself, Melitoctocere, right?
You just go there, "Ta, and they like you. You have an interview." So it's a little bit more open.
So the numbers are one thing, but what are you looking for and who do you know in the area,
and how can you get in? And you have to really think about your mindset there because it's
probably easier to get a job here, but can you pay all the rent? Do you know how much you pay for
all the taxes and everything? So our tax in Italy and England takes off the NHS, the medical thing
in the beginning. So we're all paying for everyone. So at the point of use, it's pretty much free.
For example, glasses, contact lenses, you go to spec savers, you pay five to six pounds a month,
you have all covered exams, retinopathy problems, and photos, it's all there. So 50 pounds a year,
here, hundreds and hundreds of dollars, hundreds of dollars, just crazy. And if you talk about it,
to them, they're like, you're coming from another planet.
Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. You have another reality.
Yeah. It's a different reality. Yes, you earn more, but you're going to spend it. You're going to spend it.
Taking a little bit of time. Because you touched a lot of the questions that I had, so I will
jump a little bit in here. Yeah, yeah. I will jump. One thing that I want.
Everything is connected. Yeah, absolutely. It is. It is. I wanted to ask you one that
I find very interesting. I normally call it like living like a local, although I know that
being a local, it's something that it's kind of difficult. But what things did you do during
your time abroad to blend in or to avoid being the target of being a foreigner? How do you blend into
this culture? So how did I avoid being seen as a foreigner? Is that what you're saying?
A little bit like how you live more like a local or integrate more to blend into society.
Yeah. So you really have to watch what's going on. Well, before you go there, visit
the area, see what we do. The big thing is for an Italian. So we don't like queuing in Italy,
do we? We just go there altogether. Well, in England, everyone is in a queue. And if you
jump the queue, you're going to get into trouble. Excuse me? Can you go back to where you were?
Because I was there first. Excuse me? So that's something if you are from Italy and you're used
to kind of congregate in a two and a half hours queue at the post office and see you can push first.
In England, you just put yourself in the line, queue, and you just wait. You will not stand out.
Also one thing to learn, Italians are louder with English, Americans are louder with English.
English are much more quiet. So if you're in public transport, which is rare here,
but in England is normal, and you're shouting, everybody says, "That's not from here." Or they
got problems. Everyone will just stare at you like, "Why are they yelling?" But they're just talking
in their country, they speak louder. So there's little things there. And of course, if you keep
speaking your own language and you're in England or in the States, people will go. And that will be
the one indicator that you are not from there. But really it's not really... When you're in your
house, you're like normal. You can live as you want. I think much of it depends on your mindset.
If you live and act like a local, they take you as a local. Obviously they will see from your facial
feature, skin, how tall you are. Maybe they will guess you're not from there. But if you just act
like them and just go normally around, and not act like a tourist or somebody wants to change... I
mean, you don't want to impose your culture to anyone. I think it's like you have to take some
and give some, and take some, observe and hit the ground running. And I just love all the cultures.
I could go back to Greece tomorrow. It's just a little too hot. I love the country, I love the people.
Learn the songs, very important. Learn what people are singing. And so that when they talk about a
movie or a song, you can participate in the conversation. Watch their own... I think like
Michael McIntyre, Mr Bean, the culture, who are they? If you don't know them, how can you be in
England? You have to know who are the comedians. And then I throw three politicians names. So you
understand, okay, that's what people think about this. So you can make jokes about it. But literally,
when you go to the bus stop, the bus stop is there, you wait. In Italy, you wait for the bus stop.
In England, everybody's kind of small chit chat. And they're going to talk about the weather. That's
pretty. Just talk about the weather again. Yes. Because we have to. It's a national, we have to do
that. I think the last thing that we didn't touch from the list that I had, it's bureaucracy. How
has been dealing with paperwork, visas, permits and so on. So bureaucracy and an elephant-sized
bureaucracy apparatus in Italy is a killer. I moved back to Italy for two years almost,
when my child was going to be born in 2000. We ran back when we say "a gambe allevate". We just came
back to England. I kissed the floor when I arrived at the airport, I swear. It was crazy.
The bureaucracy in Italy can be a killer. You have to understand how it works. As long as it's
complicated, it's not going to be translated in English. It takes time, you have to get used to it.
Bureaucracy is bureaucracy. Just bam, it's not going to move. So if you don't like bureaucracy,
don't move to Italy. Just don't because it's going to kill you. The stress every day when you get
these hot bills to pay, tax and everything, it's just crazy. Bureaucracy is a stress-causing issue
that exists on everything. Permissions, like to get, have you ever tried to get a license for it?
You need 13 different permissions just to open a store in England too. Just two. Passport renewal,
it might take months on end. If you're abroad, it could take you a year to get there. You can't even
get appointments, so bureaucracy is crazy. You go to England and suddenly go there online. I'm going
to renew my passport. Pick up a passport, a number, UK, go to a number, send the electronic picture
you just took in Tesco. In nine minutes, you're done. You're paid. In 10 days, you got a passport.
You go to Haire in Italy, you can do a passport for Questura, it's not too bad. If you're living
abroad in Italy, good luck. Accendi un cerro alla Madonna. You just cannot do it. You go to
Prenotami, which is the site where you do the appointment for months and months and months.
You get in when you can't get in because most times you can't even get in. The calendar only
shows you six weeks, only three days a week, only two hours. Most of the appointments are taken.
For the whole seven weeks, you go on and on and on for months. There is even a petition going on now
from the Italians desperately asking, "Why don't you put more people? Why don't you put as a site
actually works?" Because actually breaking the law but not giving us the documents that we're
entitled to have. So bureaucracy is a killer. In England, everything is easier. The car insurance,
it was a lot easier. Everything is like, "Wow, they even have a diamond award for clarity."
In Italy, we have a diamond award for complicated stuff. Have you seen the voting papers? Where
are they? I have them here somewhere. I don't even know what the heck are we talking about.
You don't know what you're voting. You need a translator. And the way is we're still talking
like tacitus and cicerone. We can't say a sentence, A, B, C, and no. We have to start.
JobLogs, being born of a great family and because his family was from a great city of Athens and
because of the amazing mansions, he moved to England. England being such a wonderful country,
he found himself an amazing lady and he got married after being in love with her amazing cousin,
whose clothes everybody knew because of that. And because of this JobLogs now requires you to have
a postal stamp of 20 pence. Can you just tell me it's 20 pence for this? I don't want to know about
all this stuff. They go round and round and round, and you have to look at me, poor guys learning my
language. Can you get to the point? He's so flowery and he's flamboyant and he's showing how much you
know the language, but we don't care. Can we get to the point? Can we just tell me what's going on?
No, we can't. That's why I'm here. Yeah. Sounds like Italian bureaucracy, yes.
It was too much. Absolutely, too much. Bureaucracy and being large and complicated,
even in forums, you read the comments and like, can you just tell us what's your blinking point?
No, we can't do that. Looking at the time, Franz, I wanted to
give you a little bit of space to talk about, I mean, thanks a lot about all the responses about
living abroad and sharing your experience in multiple countries. It was very inspiring. I give
you a little bit the stage to talk about your projects that you have in your hand. I know that
you have a podcast. Is there anything else going on? Sure, there is things going on in your life
because you don't stop. I've lost my mind. Mainly what are you working on right now? What
are you doing and if the listeners are interested in getting in contact with you or checking what
you're working on, where they can find you. Yeah, sure. First of all, thank you for having me,
Marc. So it was a great thing to chat in three languages for me. Just exciting. So I always do
30 things at a time. I just cannot stop with one. I'm 61 and I only have 40 years left. I need to
kind of get going. So in 2020, we were in lockdown and having worked as a DJ in the past for five years
in Italy, I was actually paid. Now, so, you know, I should do a podcast and I decided to do that on
Mindset. So because that's my job. And, but not just mindset. I really wanted to help because I
saw a lot of people that were stuck and they couldn't really create a life that they really
wanted when living the life that somebody else wanted. And so they were upset, maybe they had
autoimmune systems going on there. It wasn't quite, it was more emotionally caused. There was
nothing at the doctor to tell what's going on here. So you have people with fibromyalgia and,
and psoriasis and panic attacks. And then you realize after working with so many clients, wow,
sometimes these problems are not coming because there's a virus and we have a German theory going,
but now it's because we have this story going on. Oh, I can't do this because of that. And I can't
do that because of that. So I thought I would explore all the realms of how the mindset that
we have can totally change our experience. For example, I lived in completely different countries.
I loved every country. And there are some things for, for my values that don't really align. So
that's why I left the country, but I still love most of it. So what are your values? And so in
the podcast, which is going on like six years almost in July, I analyze that. And after a couple
of years, I decided to have lots more guests because, you know, I don't know everything,
but the guests are all the top experts I could find. And they bring that 20, 30 years in the
field and they show me how exactly are we going to do this? What is the change you need to do?
And it really shows me how much power we have that we're giving away to other people. And
especially since September, October, I've interviewed lots of people that are experts in AI and
showing that we don't have to become a victim of this. We don't have to think that's it. With AI,
all the jobs are done. I'm just going to sit here and shrink and die. But actually,
if you change your mindset and you learn how to really create a resume, that makes a difference.
From all these people that are the hiring managers, from all the people that are the top people,
like one of the things I learned recently is that in a big company, medium to big, your CV will not
go through a person's mind at all until it's been filtered by chat, GPT or similar. So if I put five
keywords for the search of this particular person and these five keywords do not appear in your
resume, you're not even going to make it to stage one. They're not actually going to see that. They
receive hundreds. So this was told to me a few months ago by one of the big people they are
working, top personality also on LinkedIn. And he was like, "No, you have to put these five keywords."
Otherwise, chat, GPT, and whatever else we're using, Claude and Gemini, will filter out this.
So the recruiters will only see those that have this. And then after that, how are you positioning
yourself? Most people just put the same CV for everyone. So I learned all these details by asking
the true expert, because I cannot be an expert in everything. And how many people are there today
looking for work? They have masters, PhD experience. They can't get a job. They can't
get a job. They're terrified. How am I going to make it tomorrow? Have you been to the business
women forums? It's terrifying. They're all going into MLM or whatever, but this is because we have
now a great revolution happening. And that's what my podcast is covering now, my mindset during this
huge revolution. It's the same as the industrial revolution in 1700s. It's the same as the internet
revolution in the 80s, 90s, when we started to use websites. I was like, "Who on earth is going to use
a website?" Or everyone, the bank. So the podcast is now looking at the mindset as the science comes
in, internet comes in, AI comes in. And we might feel like we're not relevant, but actually we can
be very relevant. And in this very month I'm seeing how the artists, designers, artisans, creators,
musicians, actors, dancers, how they can exist even if AI is doing everything that they can do
faster, but they cannot do it better because it has no soul. The human touch is going to be the
most important thing in the art, design world, and everyone else. You're going to have a hedge. You're
going to be better because you are human. Showing those qualities is going to really upgrade you.
So your mindset is not going to change because you're no longer a victim. Now you are in charge
because you know how you're better than AI. Yes, you can calculate fast. You can calculate everything
fast, but you cannot see the big picture as a large language model. So here is why the show is
important for you guys. And it's been going higher and higher in the charts. And I'm so glad for all
the people following. But go and look up. There's always an episode for you. The description will
tell you exactly what it is for you. So you're not wasting time. There's no fluff. We're not talking
about the weather. We're not asking how are you for 20 minutes. We're not going round and round.
We're going straight to the topic. We give you a strategy and then we let you go in 40 minutes.
That's a promise every time. So you go home with something you can use today to improve your life,
to create the life that you want. And that's why I call it Create with France because create with me.
Let's create this new reality and enjoy it and especially mindset, flexibility and being joyful,
grateful and understand a lot of our problems. Don't come from outside. It comes from our
reaction to the outside. So challenges can be opportunities. Sounds super interesting. For all
the listeners who are interested, if you're not finding it, it will be in the description of the
episode of course. So all the links will be there. France, thank you. Thank you so much for the
interview today. It has been really inspiring. I really like talking with you and letting to know
a bit about you and your work and your experience abroad. It was super interesting. Thank you.
And as always for the listeners, if you enjoy the episode, give some love to the podcast,
but also France podcast, go to social media, go to Spotify and all the platforms and leave a review,
share it with a friend who loves traveling and YouTube. My name is Ternim. Food Create with
France will be the whole two full pages. It's all there. So I hope you come and visit and tell me
what else do you want to learn because I'm all for lifelong learning. So that's my big addiction.
It's a legal addiction. Perfect. So you know where to find France. Give some love to both podcasts
until the next time. Keep exploring, stay curious and see you in the next episode.
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