Miriam van Kempen is a mother of her son, Stein, an enjoyer of the good life of yoga, reading, learning, and exercising, and the sales director of Heart Relocation.  In this role, she has built Heart into a brand of caring professionals, helping global mobility teams build and improve their global mobility program and assisting their assignees and their families with their moves around the globe. To give back to the community and bring some of her other passions into the equation (connecting, helping people, and making the world a better place), she has founded LinkedIn communities such as Finders Keepers, Relocate the Profit, Struggle Latte with a Wink and Spill the Beans. She started her career as a primary […]

Meet Michael, the charismatic host of ‘Where Are You From? A TCK Podcast’, where tales of cultural fusion and global adventures come to life. But Michael isn’t just your average podcaster; he’s a maverick storyteller with a passion for bridging divides. His debut book, “Building Bridges: Can We Love & Relate in a Polarized World?” isn’t just a memoir—it’s a symphony of human connection composed from his odyssey around the globe. Michael’s journey began when his parents whisked him and his sister off to Thailand at the tender age of seven. But that was just the prologue to a saga filled with daring escapades and heart-stopping twists. From serving in the Navy, where he sailed across oceans and explored far-flung […]

Cultural EQ Certification for Coaches and Trainers Cultural EQ is a practical, skill-building certification designed for coaches and facilitators who want to deepen their effectiveness with globally diverse clients and teams. In this highly interactive program, you’ll strengthen core coaching and intercultural facilitation skills while gaining a ready-to-use toolkit of exercises, debrief questions, and session-ready prompts.   Plus, gain an assessment (ICBI™) you can incorporate into your work to accelerate insight, clarity, and action. Participants receive a detailed digital manual and, upon certification, ICF CCE credits along with a Cultural EQ logo to support professional marketing and credentialing.  The training is available virtually or in person at our annual retreat in Laguna Beach, California. Individual certification is also available; however, group […]

According to Brookfield (2016), 95% of companies do not measure their Global Mobility Return on Investment. “Given the inordinate amount of cost pressure on mobility today, it is somewhat surprising that more companies do not seem to have basic cost management practices in place. Only 62% of respondents indicated that they track costs during an assignment, and even fewer noted that a cost-benefit analysis is required at the outset. With barely two-thirds of companies actually tracking the basic and most transparent part of their investment in assignments – their cost, it is not surprising that 95% of companies do not measure international assignment ROI.”  This research is from 2016, and I bet if we had an updated version, we would come to […]

Over the last few weeks, in several conversations, I noticed a pattern: People reach out for a “coffee chat” or “exchange” on LinkedIn or by email, and then they usually want to sell something directly. While I can understand this as a business owner and as someone who also needs to make money, this is not the kind of “exchange” I am looking for.  What most of us need in informal exchanges is mutual benefit based on the 3Fs (Friends, Fame, Fortune). At the same time, if you are reaching out to an expert or more senior professional, you might need to be more mindful and sensitive to their time commitments. I would like to add general guidelines based on […]