Today we’d like to introduce you to Mara Despujol.
Hi Mara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m Mara, a Spaniard and a mother of three. My husband was offered a job in Chile, so we moved there as expatriates. That is where we began raising our children. It was a wonderful time; we met many people and had a large circle of expat friends, which made the adjustment easy.
We arrived in the United States for our second expatriation with very high expectations, so excited and full of hope. Our kids were still very young, they were eight, six, and four years old, and we were really looking forward to making the move from Latin America to the United States.
But just a few months after we arrived, COVID hit, and everything came to a standstill. Our dreams were put on hold, our expectations were put on hold, and even our relationships came to a halt.
Suddenly, we found ourselves isolated in a country and a city, Washington, D.C. where we didn’t know anyone. We hadn’t had the chance to build any connections yet, and we were living in a language we weren’t fully comfortable with.
Being stuck at home for all those months was a very difficult transition for the kids, but especially for me.
As a result of that personal struggle, when I felt stuck and trapped at home with three children who needed me to be fully present, I gradually discovered that I loved writing.
Writing became my escape. It gave me a place where I could let out my sadness and frustration about the life I had imagined when we moved to the United States, a life that never really turned out the way I had expected.
Little by little, through writing, I became interested in personal development books. And then, quite by chance, I came across a female professional coach who worked with me for a while.
I enjoyed the process so much that, driven by my curiosity and the time I had available, I decided to train as a professional coach myself.
And while I was going through that training, I realized that I was also healing. I was working through my sadness, my loneliness, and the way I had been looking at my situation. But, above all, I was getting to know myself on a much deeper level in a way I had never really had the opportunity to do before.
So, through my own personal story and my own experience, and after seeing the impact that deep self-awareness and having the right tools had on me that awakening, that feeling of finally starting to feel good again, and being able to see the world from a different perspective and recognize new possibilities… I felt driven to help other people who move abroad and have to start over from scratch.
People who find themselves dealing with the same things I went through: culture shock, the grief of leaving your home behind, loneliness, sadness, and all the challenges and difficulties that come with making the decision to leave your country in search of new opportunities.
And that’s why, today, I help people navigate these different stages and transitions, work through the grief that can come with living abroad, achieve their goals, and reinvent themselves both personally and professionally.
I help them get to know themselves on a much deeper level, build stronger self-esteem, trust themselves, make decisions, and, above all, gain clarity.
To understand what they’re feeling at a particular stage of their expatriation, what they need, what is really going on beneath the surface, and what they want to do next.
For me, coaching is ultimately about helping people gain clarity, find their focus, make decisions, and take action.
And the goal is that, by the end of the process, they have the resources and tools they need to create change in their own lives and to realize that, whatever situation they find themselves in, they have far more power to change their reality than they may have thought.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been easy, and it remains a challenge. Starting a business places you in a situation where you face a daily challenge with yourself. It isn’t just about doing your job well; you have to develop your skills and creativity to make a name for yourself in the market, grapple with your thoughts every day, and manage your emotions during difficult times so you don’t give up, all while making decisions daily as if you were the company’s CEO.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
What should we know?
I’m a life and executive coach specializing in expatriation and the personal and professional challenges that can come with living abroad.
But my work is not just based on what I have learned as a coach. It is also deeply rooted in my own experience. I have lived abroad for more than 16 years, first in Chile and later in the United States, and I know what it feels like to arrive in a new country, start over, lose your usual support system, and sometimes lose sight of yourself in the process.
What do you do, what do you specialize in, or what are you known for?
I work primarily with people living abroad who are going through a period of change, uncertainty or transition. I help them understand what they are feeling, gain clarity about what they need and want, make decisions, and take action.
Sometimes that means working through the emotional side of expatriation, loneliness, cultural adjustment, the grief of leaving home, identity changes or feeling stuck. Other times, it means redefining personal or professional goals, building confidence, improving self-esteem, or figuring out what comes next.
Ultimately, I help people understand themselves better so they can make conscious decisions about the life they want to build abroad.
What sets you apart from the rest?
I think what sets me apart is the combination of professional training and lived experience.
I didn’t choose expatriation as a niche because it sounded interesting from a business perspective. I found it because I lived it. I know the emotional complexity that can exist behind what, from the outside, may look like a successful international life.
I also believe that coaching should be practical. Self-awareness is important, but understanding yourself is only the beginning. My work is about turning that awareness into clarity, decisions and action.
What are you most proud of regarding your brand?
I’m most proud of the fact that my brand has grown out of my own personal transformation.
What started as a difficult period in my life eventually led me to discover writing, personal development and coaching. I trained professionally as a coach, continued studying psychology, and turned something that had once been a source of frustration and loneliness into a way of helping other people.
I’m especially proud when someone tells me that, after working together, they understand themselves differently, feel more confident, or finally know what they want to do next.
What do you want our readers to know about your brand, your offerings and your services?
I want people to know that expatriation is not simply about adapting to a new country. It can affect your identity, your relationships, your career, your confidence and the way you see yourself.
And you don’t have to wait until things become unbearable to ask for support.
Through one-to-one coaching and my self-paced programs, I offer practical tools and a structured process to help people understand where they are, what is holding them back, what they really want, and what steps they can take to move forward.
My goal is not to tell people what decisions to make. It is to help them develop the clarity, confidence and resources to make those decisions for themselves.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson for me is that we are far more capable than we realize and that we can create our own reality through our decisions. Living abroad provided the ideal setting for this to happen. Starting from scratch transformed the question of who I was into a question of who I could become here.
I discovered that, beyond the doubts and fear, I could be everything I hadn’t allowed myself to be in my home country.
I never imagined I could reinvent myself, write a book, start a business, and pursue a university degree at my age.
This shows me every day that we are the heroes of our own life stories and that we can build the life we want, if we truly desire it.
I have also realized the importance of the environment that surrounds us. When you leave your country, there is a certain liberation from the labels that tethered you to your identity.
This allows you to connect with new people, individuals you might not have chosen back home.
You open yourself up to other possibilities and ways of thinking, creating new frames of reference that give you permission to be far freer than you once were.
It is essential to feel the support of your loved ones or the new friends around you. A healthy environment can propel you much further than you ever imagined, whereas a limiting environment; filled with fear and judgment regarding your choices, will make you doubt yourself and perhaps even give up.
Your context and the people you surround yourself with are decisive factors.
Pricing:
- $750 8-session program + 1 free clarity session
- $147 20 pre-recorded videos in YouTube format from the “Encuéntrate” program.
- $47 Workbook with over 40 exercises for deep self-discovery.
- $75 individual sessions
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.maradespujolcoach.com
- Instagram: @maraglobalcoach
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maradespujol
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@maradespujol
