Leslie Forman, Global Citizen

In the past few weeks, I’ve been featured…

By Leslie On October 15, 2012 · 5 Comments

… all over the internet. Here are the links.

Alexa Hart interviewed me about my career path for Atlas Sliced.

Click here or on the picture to listen to the whole interview. It’s long, but it will be interesting to those of you who’ve been asking me to talk more about how I’ve gotten to where I am today. Alexa asks excellent questions, and she uncovered stories I hadn’t told in a while, like how I interned with a microenterprise non-profit in 2005 and how my “dream job” in Beijing disappeared in early 2009.

Fellow China-Chile connector Kate Yu interviewed me for her Travelers of Awesomeness Interview – Bridging China, Chile and the World.
Author Stacie Berdan quoted me in a Huffington Post article about the importance of learning multiple languages. She wrote:

Another came from a young entrepreneur, Leslie Forman, who wrote that “being able to speak more than one language has had an immeasurable impact” on her life. Originally from California, she moved to China and now lives in Chile as she builds bridges among three cultures working in three languages. She’s not even 30 years-old, but she’s on her way to becoming a global player.

Nnenna Ozobia, a former researcher on development in Latin America who is in rural China on a teaching fellowship, interviewed me for Americas Quarterly, in an article called China, Chile, and Youth Entrepreneurship.
I did the voiceover for this video introducing Chile Digital 2012, a major exposition that will take place here in Santiago on 12/12/12.

And, last but definitely not least, I may or may not have lent some awkward dance moves to this video for Piehole.tv.

An Update {in Technology and Photos}

By Leslie On October 3, 2012 · 3 Comments

We celebrated Chile’s independence on September 18. The celebration lasts basically all month.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy (welcome to my life!) But all is well and I’m so grateful.

First, the tech stuff.

Feedburner, the service that’s managed this blog’s subscriptions since the beginning, is shutting down, so I’ve switched to Feedblitz. Feedblitz is an infinitely better and more sophisticated product, and the CEO, Phil Hollows, is on Twitter and email to answer users’ questions, even on Sunday. Much appreciated and highly recommended if you’re a blogger in the same situation.When I switched to Feedblitz, I gained a new set of features, including the ability to send an automatic series of emails.

As soon as I realized this, I set up How to Create Your International Career, a free online course with articles, exercises, book recommendations, and stories to inspire and support anyone considering a similar path. I’d really appreciate it if you could pass on this information to anyone considering living and working overseas.

Also, you might not have received my last two posts:

Thousands of words’ worth of stories, in photo form. Enjoy!

Marcelo and I celebrated with terremotos at the fonda in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua. What do you think of the halo on M’s head?

I went to the Colo Colo game with Marcelo, Emma, Cristina, and Jenn (and Hartej and John who aren’t in the photo, but completed the Benneton ad effect of our group!) Colo Colo won 3-0. Fun times!

After the holiday, leadership coach and consultant Laura Calandrella spoke to my class via Skype.

Kate came to visit and we made a Chinese brunch.

This Monday I had the opportunity to attend a special event at the W Hotel. Mark Kramer and Dane Smith from the Foundation Strategy Group came to speak about Creating Shared Value, the revolutionary idea that businesses can grow by creating products and services that meet real social needs, especially in emerging markets. It was a valuable and thought-provoking event, and it had a noticeably larger budget than most of the events I attend. Lots of food for thought, and material for my classes!

What have you been up to lately?

Hotpot on Thanksgiving? Gnocchi in Jiaxing? “Edge” in Mandarin? How Creativity Makes Global Life Easier

By Leslie On September 28, 2012 · Add Comment

I believe that the most crucial component of building a global life is creativity. Not checklists, not a roadmap written by someone else, but trust in your own creativity.

In a new place, and especially in an unfamiliar language and culture, you need to figure out new ways to meet your needs.

I love Thanksgiving, so I celebrate it wherever I am on that day. In the small-town-of-a-million-people that was my first home in China, it probably would have been tricky to find a turkey and serve it with stuffing and cranberry sauce. But I don’t particularly like turkey.

For me, Thanksgiving must have lots of people, lots of food, and plenty of gratitude. So this is how we celebrated.

hotpot for Thanksgiving in Jiaxing China

Thanksgiving in Jiaxing. A Filipina, a Cameroonian, a Chinese girl, a New Yorker and I feasted on all-you-can-eat-and-drink hotpot buffet. I remember that this restaurant cost 20 RMB per person (less than $3 with that year’s exchange rates, but they would add a fine to the bill if you left uneaten food on the table. Definitely not the most traditional Thanksgiving menu, but… good times! Circa 2006.

That same year, I would make “5-minute butternut squash gnocchi” out of the baked sweet potatoes you can buy on the street and niángāo, a kind of glutinous rice dumpling. I would cut open the sweet potato and spoon the soft insides into a pan with a bit of water, and then cut up niángāo into the same size as gnocchi and added them to the mix, with some herbs. An Italian purist (or someone with a more literal interpretation of vegetables) might not approve of this recipe. But it was a quick, easy, and cheap alternative to the spicy, oily Chinese food we ate most of the time.

Creativity also helped me at work. During my short stint as an advertising copywriter in Beijing, I needed to explain a headline I’d written to my Taiwanese supervisor, who spoke zero English. It was 4am. The headline was a play on the word “edge.” Google Translate never came close to capturing the sense of edgy / cutting-edge / competitive edge / edge of the world, and my Mandarin was nowhere near thesaurus level.

Here’s a photo from my ad agency job. I was on edge.

So I typed “edge” into Wordnik, a cool online tool that shows dozens of definitions and usages. Then I copied the most useful meanings into Google Translate and shared those with the manager. So much more nuanced, and not impossible at 4am.

I’d love to hear your stories! How has creative thinking helped you meet your cross-cultural needs?

P.S. I’ve just created a new resource called How to Create Your International Career. It’s a month-long course, it’s free, and I invite you to join here.

Expat Entrepreneur in Chile: Rebecca Stevenson, Curvas Peligrosas Lencería

By Leslie On September 27, 2012 · 2 Comments

rebecca stevenson curvas peligrosas lenceria chile

Today I met Rebecca Stevenson, the entrepreneur behind Curvas Peligrosas Lencería, perhaps the only person in Chile selling lingerie up to a G cup. I met Rebecca at her showroom (also known as her flat, a which she’s remodeling herself. It’s going to be gorgeous!) She helped me find a bra (if you must know, it was somewhere in between the sizes she’s holding in that picture) and more importantly, she gave me a new understanding of what it means to be an entrepreneur, especially in a country and culture that’s not your own.

Rebecca moved to Chile from England several years ago, to manage finances for a project to extend Santiago’s metro line. Once the project finished, she decided to stay in Chile. Rebecca noticed a gap in the local market. In department stores, the lingerie selection is far from extensive, and the sales assistants are poorly trained and underpaid. Many chilenas believe that an A cup is “chico,” B is “normal” and C is “grande,” and that’s basically all that’s available in the stores.

Now I’m no expert in measurements, but the women of Chile appear to have roughly the same range of sizes as in the US or other countries, and any woman looks better when she’s wearing a bra that actually fits.

In the months since she launched Curvas Peligrosas, Rebecca has experienced all sorts of hassles, involving real estate, banking, technology, contractors, a legal threat from one of the biggest companies in the world, and more.

She’s also learned quite a bit about Chile’s consumer culture. She’s found that many customers are nervous about buying online because they fear that their credit card info will be copied or the products will never arrive. She’s also met women wearing something like a 40B, since that’s what the sales advisor recommended, when she should be wearing a 34DD.

Rebecca also provides something that’s far too scarce in Chile: personalized customer service!

Quien quiere ser modelo para el dia? Estoy buscando unas mujeres para mostrar que la belleza viene en todas las formas - no importa tu peso, altura, edad!

Translation: Who wants to be a model for a day? I’m looking for some women to show that beauty comes in all forms – no matter your weight, height, age!

Soon she’ll be hosting a glamorous professional photo shoot with women of all ages and sizes. If you’re all interested in participating, contact Rebecca directly at info@curvaspeligrosas.cl or through her Facebook page.

And of course, if you’re looking for lingerie in Chile, visit Rebecca at Curvas Peligrosas. She’s likely to have your size, and meeting her is likely to inspire new ways to think about cross-cultural commerce and the life of an expat entrepreneur!