When I moved from Cape Town, South Africa, to Denver, CO, I was no stranger to taking risks and moving to a different country. That was my second move overseas.  I’ve always been driven to discover something new and push myself through an uncomfortable situation to reap a grand reward.

For me, taking risks is not only a thrilling part of life, but it’s ingrained in how I operate. I’ve lived in multiple different countries, each with its own benefits and risks.

When my husband and I decided to move from Denver, CO, to Scotland in 2019, we were met with yet another set of risks and rewards, all of which were connected to following our intuition and making a huge decision led to by a desire for change.

We’d already had a trip to Scotland planned for a wedding, but as we began to look at other things we wanted to see and do there on our vacation, we joked that we should just never return to Denver. As we got more and more into the research, we found ourselves looking at houses and dreaming of what it would be like to just pull to trigger and move.  And so we did.

move overseas motivation

The Old Mill – Kilwinning Scotland

There was a thrilling adventure on the horizon, and when we realized that we wanted more than just a vacation, we took a huge risk and started seriously looking at homes online. The thing is, we were looking at homes digitally and never stepped foot in one until the day we had the keys in our hands.

With the direction the world and technology are going, all the tools are there to make major decisions digitally, like buying a home online. While this may sound crazy to some, we put our trust in the digital systems we were using to find our dream home in Scotland.

As the owner of a digital marketing company, it seemed very fitting that my husband and I bought a home in another country site unseen. I work in the digital realm all day, and I truly believe in the power and benefit of using online platforms for what they were built to do.

How I Used Digital to Move Overseas

Technological advancements in the past decade have completely changed the world and the way we operate in it. At the beginning of the 21st century, buying a home online and furnishing it with goods bought digitally was unfathomable. But only 20 years later, my husband and I were able to do just that and have full trust in the process and the final product.  We used sites like rightmove.co.uk and amazon.co.uk to find and fill our overseas home.

This may have seemed risky to some, buying a home in another country online not having seen it in person at all before moving in, but to us, it was just another day in the digital world. Not only did we have full trust in what we were doing, but we did also have some family help on the ground in Scotland. However, we still had to take a risk of going through the entire process while still living in the US.

The capabilities of the digital world in 2020 are remarkable. You can do anything online, and we chose to be empowered by this potential and by the advancements of technology.

Once we knew we were moving for sure and had the house locked in, it was time to furnish the place and order regular house necessities from Amazon UK. Again, we had to fully trust in the digital world to not only deliver what we needed to our new home in another country, but we had to trust that the product was as pictured and the reviews were legit.

As a digital marketer, I see a lot online. I know how to see beyond the product photo and raving reviews. We took a huge risk in furnishing our house completely online, not being able to sit on the couch, touch the pillows, or step on rugs before we pressed “add to “cart.” But isn’t that part of the adventure?

Moving abroad and putting all my trust in digital was the perfect crescendo to my professional career as a digital marketer. And how fitting it was to be able to be so on brand. Rather than seeing this whole process as a stressful and risky situation, I chose to see it as an opportunity to be radically invested in the industry I have dedicated my entire career to Digital.