Ever wonder how living abroad changes the way you see yourself?
I sat down with Ralitsa, an email strategist and conversion copywriter who’s lived in more countries than most people visit in a lifetime. What started as a chat about her work turned into something deeper: a conversation about identity, belonging, and how constantly moving shapes who you become.
Ralitsa is half-Bulgarian, half-Russian, grew up in Greece, and now lives in Denmark. She doesn’t have a simple answer when people ask “where are you from?” And honestly, that’s the whole point. We talked about what it’s like when your passport doesn’t match the language you think in. When “home” is a complicated question. When you go back to visit and realize you don’t quite fit anymore.
That constant navigation between cultures? It shows up in her work. She connects dots other people miss. She sees gaps where others see walls. And she writes emails that actually feel human, probably because she’s spent her whole life translating between worlds.
We also got into the messier parts of her journey. Health setbacks that derailed plans. Academic pivots that seemed random at the time but make sense now. A career path that zigzagged through design, linguistics, and architecture before landing on copywriting. None of it was linear. But that’s kind of the theme here: the detours taught her more than any straight path could have.
One thing we kept circling back to was depth versus speed. Can you really connect with someone in 15 minutes? Are we losing something important in our rush to be efficient? Both of us feel like there’s this cultural obsession with quick wins and optimized everything, and it’s leaving people feeling lonely. We miss longer, slower conversations. The kind that don’t fit into a TikTok or a 20-minute calendar slot.
We talked about failure too. Ralitsa shared how burnout forced her to rebuild from scratch, and how that breakdown became the opening she didn’t know she needed. I shared my version of that story. We compared notes on what it’s like to start over in a new country where everyone already has their friend groups. On what it feels like to realize you’ve outgrown the place you came from.
This episode moves around a lot. We go from email strategy to cultural identity to loneliness to creativity. But that’s what made it good. It’s not a tips-and-tactics episode. It’s about the emotional stuff underneath the work. The parts we don’t usually talk about but that shape everything we do.
If you’ve ever felt like you don’t quite belong, or if your path hasn’t been straight and you’re wondering if that’s okay, this conversation might resonate.
Enjoy!
