Strategy documents I wrote for Home Abroad and a villa: plans designed to be picked up and run, and where each one stood
a 12-month partnerships and growth plan
My own initiative, Oct 2026: a plan to make the publication partner-funded and less dependent on its founder. Three tracks (revenue, network, long-term options); a sponsorship offer built around the publication's own "rooms" instead of random ads, with 3 packages from a 30-day pilot to a 6-month house partner and clear commercial rules; a quarterly reader-insight report as a sponsor product; a sponsor-funded support fund for readers; a 90-day sprint with weekly targets; a target-company map with a pitch angle for each; and a weekly operating rhythm. I also did the sourcing: the partner list, built by category (global health, money across borders, mobility, housing, language and belonging, home and ritual brands), with the decision-maker and a warm-introduction route named for each company. And the networking track: the Home Abroad Operator Table, an invitation-only quarterly call for 8 to 12 senior people across mobility, housing, money, health, community and media, with no panel and no sales pitch, where each person brings one market signal and one useful introduction, and a one-page synthesis goes out afterwards. A strategy document, not launched.
an email marketing system
Designed for Home Abroad after the first funnel on Kit did not work, then moved to Sender, with MailerLite planned as the permanent home. I diagnosed the starting point at the time (1,866 subscribers across 4 separate lists, open rates of 6 to 18% and almost no clicks), designed the move from 3 competing welcome flows to one shared email system, and wrote the strategy, the original funnel and lead-magnet plan, and the email marketing planner: platform roles (Airtable, Sender, MailerLite), a reader segmentation model (journey stage, obstacle, interest), the subscriber data set-up and saved segments, after-the-welcome formats and a monthly email scorecard.
a referral and engagement rewards program
A system that rewards readers both for bringing friends and for showing up (comments, replies, polls, Lives), so quiet loyal readers count too. It includes an Airtable base (subscribers, referrals, engagement events, reward rules, milestones, rewards, payouts), points with weekly caps to stop gaming, Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers, five automation flows (referral sync, click tracking, poll and comment capture, milestone checker, reward delivery), privacy and anti-gaming rules, a weekly metrics dashboard (including whether referred readers stay as long as everyone else), reward email templates, landing page copy and a 1-week build plan. A design, not launched.
Pinterest and TikTok
I devised the Pinterest strategy after extensive research and built the Pin Production Queue, a 2-day Batch Design and Schedule rhythm and a Destination Library sweep, then designed pins with updated destination links. I also built out the TikTok execution strategy: our b-roll voiceover format, the posting cadence, a hook and script system, and a search and comment-funnel approach that guides every video back to Substack.
The Abroad Hours, a guided meditation series
A guided-meditation series for people building a life between countries, planned for Home Abroad. Five tracks, one for each emotional stage of the move (the night before everything changes, when nothing feels familiar yet, missing the person you used to be, thinking about going back, the day you realise you're home), each aimed at what people actually search for, with the "thinking about going back" track as the anchor. Destination meditations would pair with the Locales database. The plan covered three video formats, how one recording feeds YouTube, Substack and TikTok, how it would earn (YouTube, paid Substack subscribers, the Starter Kit and later sponsors), and a six-week launch sequence. A strategy document, not launched.
an interactive house for the Home Abroad website
A room-based, explorable Home Abroad site, planned to launch on the publication's anniversary. An illustrated house with an entry foyer and three launch rooms (the Living Room for essays, the Kitchen as the hero room, the Library for the Curated Topics and the Starter Kit), a resident cat as guide, the Curated Topics as a hallway, and Starter Kit cards that hand off to Substack for checkout. The plan covered the audience (the planner, the settler and the reader at the edge) and the voice rules, the build stack and a ten-step process, a roadmap starting two months before launch, the risks (an interactive house can read as a gimmick), and a content strategy with the full piece on the site first and Substack as the companion. A strategy document, not built.
the Creators Abroad Engine, a creators dashboard
A plan to turn the Creator Opportunities Tracker into a freemium web app, starting from beta feedback that readers wanted the opportunities without a Notion learning curve. Two product tracks: a free value stack (a publishing desk, brand guidelines, a network for collabs, a weekly momentum log) and a paid hero, the curated Opportunities Feed. Three paid rooms (the feed, an income ledger for people who earn in one currency and live in another, and Mission Control for tasks, goals and calendar), AI built into every room, and a tiered model (monthly, annual and a capped Black Friday lifetime offer). It tied into the Atelier funnel, with a month-by-month roadmap to Black Friday 2027. A strategy document, not launched.
rebuilding the Global Peace of Mind Binder
A diagnosis of why the Binder did not sell, and a plan for what to do next. The core issue was never the tool: it was storage for people who wanted answers. The Substack chat proved it, with nearly every reply a variation of "I wish I'd known the rule" and only three asking for a system. No segment had a reason to buy (the pre-move crowd had no paperwork pain yet, people in a crisis were fixing one thing, and settled veterans had built their own), and it never had a proper launch campaign, so I could not call it a failed product, only one that never got a fair shot. The plan: rest it this year and turn the chat into a story-collection thread; in 2027 lead with a mini-guide of the knowledge people actually want, organised by life moment, with the health insurance report as its flagship chapter and a curated resource list of the best tools; attach the Airtable and Notion tools as a free value stack at the end; and, further out, build an app that files uploaded documents and flags the rule you are about to trip over. A strategy document, not launched.
the Daily Altar relaunch
A relaunch blueprint for the Daily Altar Dashboard, planned for an October date. The diagnosis: the dashboard was beautiful, but it was mis-onboarded and mis-packaged, with too many doors, no one to walk people in, and one giant package nobody could buy a piece of. The plan had three moves: a guided "Life Audit" setup studio (a gentle form that writes your answers into your Vitals and creates your first dream, pillar, goal and journal entry, so no page is ever blank); selling the rooms separately as standalone tools (a cycle tracker, habits, a meal planner, life direction, astro, journaling and a low-day toolkit) while keeping everything in the full version; and cutting the clutter. It also covered a calm "Today" home, a soft-landing preset for the first 90 days abroad, a free lead-magnet version, how to avoid cannibalising the paid membership, a pricing ladder, channels (Substack, Pinterest, the Notion marketplace and Gumroad), a build timeline and an honest review of the current Free and Pro versions: the content was a 9 and the first run a 5. A strategy document, not launched.
The Crossing Game
A downloadable bundle for the moment between deciding to leave and landing, planned as a set of playful, reflective tools: an Abroad Starter Checklist; a Dream Locales Reality Test with a gut check, a reality check and a vibe test that add up to one score and a gentle reading of it; a set of goodbye rituals (micro-rituals for closure, journal prompts, a farewell checklist and a personal sendoff); a Move Abroad Plan template; and the Should I Stay or Should I Go worksheet and the Dream Locale Decoder Playbook as its final chapters. Not yet launched.
owner-direct sales for a luxury villa
July 2026: an owner-direct sales and long-term letting strategy. Buyer profiles with search signals and message angles, a free and ethical outreach pipeline (public intent signals only, no scraping, no paid introducers), written qualification questions and a 10-point lead score, a handoff process, three content pieces, a 30-day sprint with a weekly scoreboard, and a time cap for a success-only contract. A strategy document, not executed.