image: anastasia ashman

evolution of
a global niche
(or “how to use an identity crisis to your advantage”)
anastasia ashman
all images are my own unless specified
 what’s this “global
niche” i’ll be
demonstrating through
my own journey?
a concept & a community
you can use to find
success in the wide, wide
world you live in
 steps to seeking a
global niche

• dream of belonging
• playing with cultural
identity
• achieve new sense of
personal & pro self
 image: my friend map

we’re all over the map

can you tell where in the world you belong by a map of your
relationships, associations and interests?
(this is a map of my facebook contacts)
 dreaming of a life and
community beyond the
one surrounding us
right place, right people
where we can lead our ideal
lifestyle
&
livelihood -- work you love so much
it feels like play?
you’re not alone! most of us exist in
a situation mismatch
 i was a
disenfranchised
expat, 1990s
lost my voice during 5
years in southeast asia.

what helped: finding

context through play

stripping away the modern world

revealed the truly unfamiliar...

read historical travelogue

acted in the period film “anna & the

image: anastasia ashman
king” -- euro lady in the tropics, circa
1865 -- felt discomforts of being out of
cultural element, burdens of
mismatched expectations
 image: anastasia ashman

played with themes of

exploration, crossroads and
contrasts. started to
experience fusion!
(here, an early web venture, 1998 )
 flashforward to 2003: moved
to turkey with my turkish
husband
planned to write my
own asian complaint
travelogue
-- about surviving being
abandoned on a snake-
infested island, and cast
adrift in pirate-filled
waters.
image: andreʼa bucci

(no metaphor, that

really happened!)
 but turkey
kidnapped
me instead.
(that’s a
metaphor)

image: anastasia ashman

 found
theoretical home
in the expat
harem -- concept
of anthology
cocreated, 2004
inspired by:
foreign women of the
sultan’s harem
&
liminal state of this
crossroad nation
east, west
part european, part asian ancient
empire, new republic
image: anastasia ashman
compiling the expat lit
collection gave new
view into my character
enjoyed working at home, yet
in collaboration with many
others globally
an extroverted introvert (or,
introverted extrovert,
whichever!)
a homebody who loves
connection with the wider
world ...
 the harem, turkey, & the work
itself showed we can survive
(& thrive!) in limbo

we can be
embedded in a
place, yet be
forever alien
 image:sabah

found my historical
counterparts
in the harem
& my contemporary peers:
foreign women in modern turkey

(100 women in 14 nations

answered the call for submissions, wow!)
 image: anastasia ashman

overseas & repatriated turks

identified with the book’s
outsider-view-from-the-inside
(since they’re insiders on the outside?)
also found my cultural
peers around the globe

• turkophiles & travelers

• middle eastern studies types
• women writers, cultural
writers
• expats worldwide
 no longer alone in my
cultural limbo...
yet still out of synch with
mainstream & home country
american publishers suspected
book’s audience nonexistent
“turkey too niche a topic”, no
defined genre for expat lit (if
we’re abroad = we’re traveling!)
15 new york publishing houses
passed before sale
 audiences around world prove
mainstream predictions wrong
local, regional & national bestseller lists in 3
countries
recommended by national geographic traveler,
lonely planet & new york times
when usa’s top morning tv program
“today show” comes to istanbul in
2008, expat harem editors explain
turkey to 5 million americans
 so,
expat harem
called together
a virtual
community

but we had
nowhere to
meet
image: anastasia ashman
 wanted to see what was
beyond the book

what would cultural

peers tied together in
the virtual realm
want to discuss?
what could we do
together?
recognized we’re living
in a new social order

• traditional bonds
(family, culture,
nation!) no longer the
only meaningful ones
 today our connections can be
based on interest, experience,
worldview

rise of the
social web
now we can find
our true peers
and learn from
each other
for example, i’m not defined only as
an expat-woman-writer-in-turkey.
hope to honor many other
associations...
launched group blog/community, 2009

expanded our circle to include:

expats everywhere & intentional travelers
global nomads & multiculturalists
third culture kids & immigrants
men welcome -- if they dare to join a ‘harem’
anyone in cultural limbo (we’re all speaking same
language of *identity adventure*!)
expatharem.com becomes
a neoculture hub
a niche for globalists...
 expat+HAREM community
starts teaching me
during a podcast discussion with
10 members
saw we’re all using our creativity
to manage multi-faceted, cross-
national lives
...flexible skills & perspectives we
bring to all our endeavors
 we’re hybrids
of

life
circumstance
beliefs
ancestry

rather than a
liability, our mix
is an asset
image: anastasia ashman
 while launching
community site, also
working on 2nd book.
memoir about
friendship with a
multiple personality

career suicide to shift topic after last 5 years?

would i lose my audience?

problem: needed author platform to show cultural

writer shifting to psychological topic.

solution: emphasized *identity* in new site’s

mission, how it’s formed through culture.
getting away from strictly travel focus.
 image: unknown

there’s always a link between past & future work,

just have to pinpoint how we are evolving...

eureka!
we have multiple cultural personalities
caring for each is key to our health & happiness
discover our true literary territory
exploring what makes expat lit & hybrid life
writing different than ‘travel writing’:
people like us are more concerned with psyche
issues and personality changes
 also learning from
LIFESTYLE DESIGN,
LOCATION INDEPENDENT,
DIGITAL NOMAD MOVEMENTS
global citizens can
benefit from gate-jumping
new paradigms
*HOWEVER* ...
focus on mobility &
freedom to choose where
image: digital nomads to live, ideal is to become
unrooted. a common
question: “how can i live
on a beach in thailand by
running a blog?”
sensed our community’s
question is different

we’re already unrooted, or unable

to solve our limbo problem with a
simple location change.

there are plenty of other reasons

why-we-are-where-we-are...
we want to know: “how can i live
the life i want -- where ever i
happen to be?”

how to live/work to our

abilities, independent of a
location’s limitations
...a more universal problem, since
we’re not always in the optimal
setting to achieve our dreams
the answer is not to
defer our dreams:

instead...
let’s achieve
*psychic* location
independence
true definition emerges
& a mission, 2010

Glo· bal· niche, n.

a psychic solution to
your global identity
crisis

community mission: to
*find* our global niche
 psychic location
independence
operate to your
fullest potential
personally &
professionally

wherever you are

(or come from)
--> & wherever
you’re going image: anastasia ashman
 cofounded a mastermind
workgroup for creative pros,
2010
to forge belonging &
livelihoods based on our
unique strengths and
interests

playing with
possibilities to
find ourselves, our
audience, our peers
we build professional web
platforms to reflect our
place in the world, connect
to relevant people and
communities, then integrate
into offline activities

join us on linked-in and

facebook!
today, fusing past work
with future plans
the workgroup
plus
expat+HAREM’s mission to make
psychic limbo a productive state

... an exciting new spin-off

project => a global niche
workgroup
 codeveloping a private
educational community
for people like you:

transglobal & multicultural

dreamers in a situation mismatch
maybe you’re still in your hometown, or
surrounded by people speaking a language
you’re not proficient at (of the tongue or some
other kind!), or your best customers are 10 time
zones away...
 putting theory
into practice
an educational
community of
psychic peers
skills/tools to
*find & build* your
global niche
to learn about our upcoming launch:

please visit
globalniche.net