This publication exists because most people make the global decision without a strategic plan.
They fall in love with a country on vacation. They panic after an election. They see someone else’s Instagram and think that could be us. They spend months researching visa costs and cost of living, and almost no time asking the harder questions, the ones that actually determine whether a move like this works.
Should I actually move? Is this the right time? What does my business need to survive this? What does my family need to thrive?
Global Life Project is where I work through those questions publicly, rigorously, and from lived experience.
Hi! I’m Sonaya. I’ve been living globally since 2015.
I moved from the US to the UK, got married, and had my first daughter in 2016. Then we moved to Copenhagen with an 8-month-old baby and had my second daughter in 2018. We moved back to the UK in 2022, when my older daughter was struggling to speak either English or Danish. We needed to stabilize. In 2025, we moved to Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East, where we live now.
Four moves. Three countries. Two daughters. One business running through it all.
I didn’t do any of this perfectly. But I did all of it intentionally, and the moves that went the smoothest were the ones where I had a strategic plan behind the decision, not just a feeling.
Before any of this, I started my business in 2011. The reason was simple: I was raised by a single mother who worked multiple jobs to keep us afloat. I watched her sacrifice her presence for our provision, and I decided early that when I had children, I wasn’t doing it that way. I wanted to be home. I wanted to be present. I wanted to build something that was mine, not someone else's.
So I built a business - The CEO Partner - working alongside high-achieving 6 & 7 figure entrepreneurs as their Fractional COO and Strategic Operator. For over a decade, I’ve been inside businesses helping founders build the systems, structure, and strategy that gave them their lives back. That’s the lens I bring to everything. Not inspiration. Operations.
When I started living internationally, I realized that the same thing that makes or breaks a business decision, structure, clarity, and honest assessment of risk, is exactly what’s missing from how most people approach global decisions.
So I built a framework. And then I started writing about it.
What is this framework?
The Global Citizens Framework is a three-phase process for making well-informed global decisions.
Phase 1 is DESIRE: It answers the question, "Should I move?" This is where most people need to start and where most people skip to the wrong thing. Before you research countries, you need to get clear on your non-negotiables, your risk capacity, and whether you and the people in your life are actually aligned with this direction. A move made without this work tends to unravel.
Phase 2 is DIRECTION: It answers the question, Where should I move? Once the decision is real, the question becomes fit, not fantasy. What does your life actually require? What does your business need to keep operating? What does the location need to offer to make this sustainable in the long term?
Phase 3 is DESIGN: It answers the questions, When and how do I move? This is the execution phase. Global footprint, business structure, legal and tax considerations, the commitment strategy, and the timeline. This is where decisions become plans.
What is this publication?
Global Life Project’s job is not to tell you where to move. It’s to help you decide whether to move and to build the foundation of clarity you’ll need before any of the other decisions make sense.
I publish twice a week:
Life articles on personal alignment, family considerations, identity, raising children across cultures, and the human side of the global decision.
Business articles on continuity, cross-border operations, tax strategy, business structure, and how to build something that moves with you instead of breaking when you do.
Every article is grounded in the framework. Every article is written by someone who has actually done this, not once, but across multiple countries, through multiple phases of life and business.
Why listen to me?
I’m not a relocation consultant. I’m not an expat lifestyle blogger. I’m not someone who moved abroad and built a brand around the aesthetic.
I’m an operator who has spent 14 years building businesses and helping others build theirs, and who has been living the global decision in real time since 2015. I have moved with a newborn. I have reversed a move because it wasn’t working for my child. I have rebuilt my business structure across three different regulatory environments. I have made this decision badly and well, and I know the difference.
Global Life Project is what I wish had existed when I started. Not a community for people who have already decided. Not a visa guide. A serious, structured publication for people who are in the middle of the most important decision they’ll make about how they want to live and who want to get it right.
If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
Two articles a week. The framework behind every one of them.
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