Breaking the Relocation Myth: How I Started My Freedom Lifestyle

Ever feel like you have to move abroad to live your dream life? In this episode, Lauren Riley gets real about what freedom means to her—and why you don’t have to relocate or become a millionaire to experience adventure, novelty, and fulfillment.

Lauren shares her own journey, from her early days working in Ibiza to years of balancing travel, motherhood, and career—all without ever fully leaving the UK behind. She dispels myths about the “freedom lifestyle,” explains why home can be just as rewarding as any exotic destination, and encourages you to find what truly works for you (no judgment, no pressure to fit anyone else’s mold).

Plus, Lauren opens up about an upcoming operation, giving a behind-the-scenes look at life’s real moments and the importance of self-care as a solo parent.

In this episode:
- Why relocating isn’t the only path to freedom

- How Lauren first got started in travelling and the mistake she made

- How novelty and adventure can fit into any lifestyle—even with responsibilities

- The unique joys of balancing travel with a home base

- Honest updates from Lauren’s own life and business

Whether you’re a parent, a professional, or just someone craving more adventure on your own terms, this episode will inspire you to rethink what’s possible (and remind you that you’re not alone).

Want to go deeper?

DM “freedom” to Lauren on Instagram (Miss Lauren Riley) for instant access to her new Freedom Lifestyle Mini Course, and leave how to travel for free on low cost or join the mailing list at laurenriley.co.uk for first updates on new offers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi guys, welcome back. This week has been so exciting. I don't know if you spotted it, but I have launched something that I've wanted to bring to you for ages. It's called the Freedom Lifestyle Mini Course. And I'm basically sharing real world strategies for women to travel more and spend less. I have got some secrets, some hacks, some... amazing tips and tricks so you can travel for either low cost or in some cases absolutely nothing i have used these exact strategies to spend a month abroad without spending a single penny on accommodation or on flights so if you want a piece of that the um freedom lifestyle mini course is available now so if you go to my instagram and DM me the word freedom, I will send you the link to buy it straight away. It's a bite-sized course. It's only 22 minutes long. It's packed with other travel tips, tricks, hacks, strategies, and also those secrets. So go get it now. It's been a really exciting week, actually. I'll go through some of the Q and A's, some of the things that people are asking me, but really just wanted to start with that. So it is now out there. It is live. a little hint to the future so one of the things i'm putting together that i've worked so so much on is like an entire course for you guys like a complete start to finish strategy we started talking about freedom lifestyle last time what it means to people and to be able to travel more but not you know you don't need to be a millionaire to live this lifestyle i've said it so many times before you just have to know how to do it and i am bringing that to you the mini course is a great great place to start and i will be on that be doing a full course and i haven't launched that yet so look out for it the easiest thing to do is get on my mailing list so if you go to laurenriley.co.uk pop on my mailing list and i will update you as soon as anything drops and you'll be the first to know and if you're not following me on insta it's miss lauren riley so for anybody wondering i'm onto the episode anybody wondering yes that big pink thing behind us is a inflatable flamingo why have i got an inflatable flamingo in the car you may ask is because we are road tripping we are going on a road trip and in true me style i've packed absolutely everything into this week like everything so um before we set off i thought yeah sure we'll do a play date with one of our little friends and they didn't have a paddling pool so we got out on our so i'm taking it on the road trip so because it's a heat wave in the uk at the moment which is amazing and we just really wanted to make the most of it so that is why there is a flamingo in the back of our car um so yeah um i hope everybody is doing well out there like again i know that not everybody that listens to this um is from the uk but if you are i hope you are staying well i hope you're staying cool i hope you're staying hydrated and um yeah so it's hard isn't it because we want to complain because it's hot but actually we also don't want to complain because we don't get enough sunshine so um one of the things i kind of wanted to dispel myths i guess um and i think this is really important to say up front is that um one of the myths i wanted to dispel was that like because i'm talking about travel a lot and freedom lifestyle and i'm showcasing me and my daughter living in all of these spectacular and fabulous locations that does not mean that in any way shape or form i do not love the uk like i'm one of the biggest advocates of this country i absolutely you know i'm not saying it's perfect i know this is not a political podcast i'm not saying it's perfect i'm not saying it's not problems all of that but i love living in the uk and if i wanted to move abroad i would simple as that but i don't so i'm not kidding um I'm also not here to to trash on people who wanna live abroad. I am in my era of no judgment. I am in my era of living your life in the best way, the most fulfilling and genuine and authentic way to yourself. And if that for you is staying in the UK 365 days of the year, then go do you, honey, but it is not me. Because when it gets cold here, when it rains all the time, I need a break. So the intersection, the dopamine hit for any other ADHD neurodiverse people out there, novelty is what we crave, right? So being able to go somewhere for a short period of time, immerse yourself in that culture, live that lifestyle for a while and then come back to your home base is a life hack like nothing else. It's like my number one on is because it makes everything brand new even living at home even living in the same old house that you've lived in for like 10 years feels brand new and fresh all your friendships your relationships your you know um how you intersect in the world is just different once you've had a proper sustained break away from it so that is um yeah what i would talk what i would say about the you and I think you know I think it's a misconception people think when I talk about travel and freedom lifestyle that I'm somehow saying anything against it and I'm absolutely not and that just isn't just the UK by the way that's your hometown wherever that is for you so I am road tripping right now again not where I come from but in a different part of the UK different country in the UK just because I want to make the most of our summer we're having this spectacular the weather and we absolutely need to make the most of it when we get it so i'm doing that right now one of the things i thought i would talk to you about was um i guess where this all started for me i shared something on instagram this week uh where it's that trend you know and it started about relationships you know how many months have you been together we've not been together for months we've been together for years and you and years and years and here's all the pictures of us in love. So I don't have that because I'm single and nobody wants to look at a smorgasbord of random exes. So I do have an absolute and genuine love affair with travel and living this freedom lifestyle. So that's what I showcased. How many months have I been living this lifestyle? Ha ha, not months, many years. Almost 20 years I've been doing this. and my instagram post basically went all the way back pictures of me traveling all the way back to 20 2000 2006 so 19 years i have been doing this so when i tell you i know a thing or two about travel hacks and at no point in that have i been like probably objectively like super wealthy um there's been times in there where i haven't good money there's been times in there where I've earned no money, but all of those times you found me travelling because I know how to do it. I know how to do it. I know the strategies and that's what I teach in the Freedom Lifestyle course, mini course. So I thought I'd take you back to the beginning because I think it's kind of exciting. So the first time this lifestyle dawned on me was in 2006. So I'll share, I guess, what you call my origin story and that is that I went so I was a lawyer originally way back when and so I studied law at university and oh my god is there a volume of tests to take and books to read I was done absolutely done when I got to the end of my university studies I was like, no more, I'm not sitting another exam. And I did go on to do my postgraduate diploma in law, because otherwise you can't qualify, but not for several years after that. Because I was like, I'm fed up. So I applied for a job working abroad. And that was really, really exciting. And I remember you didn't know where you were going to be placed in this job. And I really wanted to go to Ibiza. I'd never been to Ibiza, but I was really into dance music, love my dance music and I just had this feeling I would love it there. So I applied for the job, I got the job but I was waiting to hear where I would be deployed basically, where I would work and I remember where I was, I was with my father and we were waiting for the phone call basically, we were out walking in the Lake District and I got the call and I was going to Ibiza and I was so happy and even though this job was a fixed term contract I just thought that was it, I was going to live out there and don't get me wrong like and I didn't basically it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped it would but that taught me something and that has given me the biggest lesson and it's why I don't teach people how to move abroad because I could do that right and don't get me wrong like if you were to buy the full course and you were to a lot of it would help you for sure but I actually like I said no judgement if you want to move abroad then that's amazing but there are probably people out there that specialize in you moving abroad what i want to do for people is say you know what if you love your friends and family and you love your home and you've got a cat and you've got a job and you've got and and and and or just like you don't want to leave your best friend behind like there are a million reasons why you wouldn't want to move abroad and i would support you in every one of them not saying it's right not saying it's wrong i'm just saying just because you don't want to up sticks and relocate permanently does not mean that you can't travel a hell of a lot more than you're traveling right now and that is where i that's like my where my specialism is something that's pretty unique as well um i'm not saying there aren't other people living this lifestyle but you know as far as i'm aware i haven't seen other people coaching on the subject so that's my niche i've literally embodied this lifestyle for 20 years and in like super ADHD style. I've gone completely off my Ibiza story haven't I? But I'm passionate about that part so I really wanted to talk about why I don't like advocate relocating necessarily. Okay back to Ibiza. So I went to work there and I was super excited and let's be fair a good time was had. A good time was had for sure. So you'll never hear me say anything bad about that season in 2006. But... It didn't go like I thought it would. I just thought because I loved travelling and I loved going on holiday that I would want to move abroad. So the first, I don't know, I can't remember now, we're going back nearly 20 years, but the first three, four weeks, say, were amazing. And I was like, yes, this is it. I'm going to live here forever. This is great. I'm loving it. Absolutely love it. Then, you know, week five, six, seven rolls around and I'm still enjoying myself. But, you know, there are things starting to creep in that I miss. so um Classic one when I'm traveling actually is baths. So in the UK, I have a bath every night before I go to bed, most nights. And abroad, you don't seem to get access to baths as easily. So it's things like that. Really little things, carpet. Like after three months of living somewhere and everything is tiled floor, and you've grown up in the UK, you miss random things. And I'm not saying don't relocate because you love carpet. It's certainly not as linear as that, but that was my experience. It was genuinely little things like my favorite sweets from the shop. So after a while, it started to not feel as good as I'd hoped it would. I was still enjoying myself. I started to feel, and I guess you would describe it as a level of homesick. And that was when I was like, oh crap. Like I thought that my life was going, was sorted because I was going to go and relocate. I was going to live abroad. And actually, turns out, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. And a lot of people would be really surprised by that realisation because, yeah, everyone thought they wouldn't see me again. And they did. At the end of that summer season, I moved back home. Well, actually, I moved to a different city in the UK because I was still wanting adventure. I was still wanting novelty. I still wanted to try different things. But I just wanted to be in the UK. And that's the life I've been living ever since. So my periods of travel, and like I shared, so many pictures on Instagram on that post this week, again, through from 2024, I think it was, or 25, all the way through 2006, with some very dodgy fashion, if you want a bit of a laugh. And I've been living that life ever since. And some of those trips were six days long. Some of them were six months long. But what I've successfully managed to do is... and live a life where I travel, but still honored my responsibilities. So at some points in those 20, almost 20 years, I was employed. I had a job. In some points, I was a lawyer. At some points, I was traveling and I was a VC, I was a founder, a tech founder of a VC-backed business. More challenging to do, of course. And now, obviously, I am... I run companies, my own companies, much more straightforward. But I've done it in all of those circumstances. So I think, I hope that serves as just a quick bite and a quick lesson to say that it's not just people who are entrepreneurs that can live this lifestyle. It's not just people who are wealthy that can live this lifestyle. It isn't just people who don't have children. That's something I'm such an advocate for. And I lost myself in that journey, if I'm going to be completely honest. But I am found and I'm traveling a lot and I'm loving it. And I also think it's a really enriching lifestyle for a child. Something that I'm really very blessed to give my daughter. And yeah, so that is my original freedom lifestyle travel story. And turns out that it just wasn't enough freedom for me. And I loved going home back to the UK and doing time abroad and time at home and time abroad and time at home. And that life suits me so, so well. And I would love to know if it suits anyone else. Does this resonate with you as a pattern that you would like to live? And again, like what I'm doing is I'm giving you tools, right? If you buy the Freedom Lifestyle mini course, it's available now, it's strategies. How you implement those strategies is entirely up to you. Like obviously I do do one-to-one work with people. So if you wanna come and do one-to-one session me or work with me for three or twelve months i'm fully booked at the moment and this month but i've got some availability um from next month uh then that's something we can work out together if you want to actually get hands-on help on the strategy but Really, the world is yours. I'm not here to say this is how this lifestyle must be lived. I'm not here to say, you know, if you just want like two long weekends a year more than you're getting right now, but otherwise you really like spending 90% of your time in your home country, that's also absolutely fine. You'll still get value from this. Or you could be like, actually, I want to spend, I want to do what Lauren does. You know, I want to spend a month at a on a tropical island somewhere, or I want to spend three months out of the country a year. And that, you know, you can also apply the strategies for that. So, I've actually got a big week coming up. I'm not sure at this point what I'll share on social media, but I'm talking to you guys now. I'm having an operation this week coming. It was unexpected. I have to have... my body which needs to be done under general anaesthetic so that's always pretty nerve-wracking if I'm totally totally honest um I think particularly when you're a parent when you have anything to do with your obviously you know in my first podcast you heard me talk about my daughter's health and the post-traumatic stress disorder that came from that it's not that level but when it's to do with you like I anyway certainly feel like a lot more pressure to be well as a parent particularly as a solo parent because she just relies on me so I've got that coming up this week so if I go a little bit quiet it'll just be because of that wish me luck and I will hopefully be back here and recording for you very soon I'm really excited thank you so much for the feedback on the freedom of lifestyle mini course I said I'd do some FAQs I guess the biggest question I'm getting at the moment is because I talk about travelling as a mum and yes it's like super relevant and I am a massive advocate of mums or parents being able to travel and I do give tips and strategies along those lines but it isn't just for you if you're not a parent that's what people would ask if you're not a mum can I still buy it of course you can you'll still get loads of value and anybody would get value from free travel right but like from being able to travel at a free or heavily discounted rate. So yeah, parent or not, go get it. Have a wonderful week, guys, and I will speak to you soon.