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My Big Intuitive Move: Why did I move to Australia?
28 Plays9 months ago
In 2019, I left my home country for Australia with a carry-on luggage, a working holiday visa, and a strong call that it was the right move. In this first episode, I share the story behind that decision: why I chose Australia, the challenges and opportunities I faced, how my career and perspective shifted, and the lessons I’ve carried forward. If you’ve ever wondered whether to follow a gut feeling that defies logic, join us in this conversation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Intuitive Move Podcast
00:00:00
Nadia Stejskal
Hi, my name is Nadia, and this is the first episode of the Intuitive Move podcast, the place where we shut our minds, open our hearts, and we share, we overshare as well.
00:00:15
Nadia Stejskal
So I wanted to first say a little bit about me. So I am originally from Argentina. I moved to Australia in 2019, almost, well, over six years ago now,
00:00:29
Nadia Stejskal
and I work as a project manager for the government. Back in Argentina, I studied engineering and I finished my bachelor's degree there.
00:00:40
Nadia Stejskal
That helped me to move to Australia and I got a skill visa, which very recently I got the permanent residency, finally.
Exciting Projects in Australia
00:00:49
Nadia Stejskal
Now that I am a permanent resident in this beautiful country, which is Australia,
00:00:54
Nadia Stejskal
Now I find the need of doing something more. And in the last few months, I've been craving create a project that excites me and motivates me to share my truth, to share my journey, to share everything, my transformation, what got me here.
00:01:12
Nadia Stejskal
So the intuitive move summarizes everything that I want to share in the world. is a play is a safe place where are going to discuss everything, what makes sense, what doesn't make sense, the hiccups, the little wins, everything.
00:01:31
Nadia Stejskal
Hopefully it will be a community and hopefully we can address any questions that you have about your own journey.
The Power of Intuition
00:01:38
Nadia Stejskal
My biggest dream is that we all connect very closely with our intuition and we can use it in our favor.
00:01:47
Nadia Stejskal
We can use our intuition as another skill, just as you you have the writing skills, so the intuition is a skill. And it's especially useful when you work with people, with teams, and also if you work by yourself.
00:02:04
Nadia Stejskal
If you are able to hear and follow your intuition, you'll find that every task, every work that you do every day, it will become easier.
00:02:17
Nadia Stejskal
And not in a lazy way, and it doesn't matter what other people think of you, but matters is that If there is a way of living life in a much easier way, so there will be more room for happiness. There will be more room for doing exciting things, following hobbies.
00:02:38
Nadia Stejskal
So my biggest hope and dream is that we all can connect with our intuition and make it the protagonist of our lives. The big, big driver, the voice that we follow in everyday tasks.
00:02:54
Nadia Stejskal
So today going to share a little story about me and I will answer the question that I got asked the most. So why Australia? Why did I move to Australia?
00:03:07
Nadia Stejskal
And now that I see it now after six years, I think, wow, that was a big intuition call that I followed. I jumped on a plane on a one-way ticket.
00:03:21
Nadia Stejskal
Even though I had a working holiday visa, completely temporary visa, I knew that I was moving to Australia for a long time. So let's talk about stories where we followed our intuition and it went well.
00:03:36
Nadia Stejskal
In another episode, don't worry, we'll
Journey to Australia
00:03:38
Nadia Stejskal
share those stories where we didn't follow our intuition and we got into deep trouble. But today, let's start on a bright note and going to share, why I Australia? Why did I move to Australia?
00:03:52
Nadia Stejskal
The truth is, at that time, I didn't know about intuition. I just wanted to do it and I did it. That's how I saw it. But in reality, and now that I see it, it was a really big call.
00:04:06
Nadia Stejskal
So I moved to Australia in 2019. I had no real plan, although I'm a little planning person and I did a lot of research.
00:04:17
Nadia Stejskal
I had the first three months of my 12 month visa planned. So I had this job in a farm in Victoria, the state of Victoria.
00:04:30
Nadia Stejskal
And I had a lot of research and a couple of contacts. but not really like huge contacts. So everything will will will be dependent on me.
00:04:41
Nadia Stejskal
But first, before going deep into the country, so what's the first thing that inspired me to move to Australia? So the reason why I started to think about moving to Australia is because I wanted to practice my English, learn as much as possible and be fluent, hopefully.
00:05:03
Nadia Stejskal
And through this, Australia wasn't my first country on the list, I know. So the first country that was on my list was England. And I did have the chance to go to England on holidays just for a week.
00:05:20
Nadia Stejskal
And I didn't think much of it. So I thought that it was a really beautiful country. But then once I was there, I realized that it was too cold and not my cup of tea.
00:05:33
Nadia Stejskal
So then I thought, okay. and also the other factor that didn't help with England or Europe in general is the visa. So the visa was a huge thing because I wasn't sponsor so easily since I didn't have a lot of work experience back in Argentina.
00:05:51
Nadia Stejskal
So I thought, okay, I need a flexible country that gives me a visa with no much experience. So I started to think of New Zealand.
00:06:01
Nadia Stejskal
So New Zealand was second of my list because had a friend that was going there. So I thought, let's go, let's go to New Zealand. And again, so I tried all the skill visas first, but didn't have much, many chances with the skill visa because of my very little experience.
00:06:23
Nadia Stejskal
I started to look at into the working holiday visa in New Zealand. So I signed up everything. I was ready as soon as they opened the 500 spots.
00:06:35
Nadia Stejskal
I was ready to launch my visa, but I didn't get any spot, so gone. So the third country in line was Australia. And I thought, OK, let's see the requirements.
00:06:48
Nadia Stejskal
The spots didn't have like a cap number, so that was good. I just had to do a couple of tests, one English test, and basically that's it, paying the visa, and that was it.
00:07:03
Nadia Stejskal
So Australia was the third country in line in my options or in my plans, and it turned out to be excellent. So...
00:07:14
Nadia Stejskal
see how a lot of doors were closed, but I thought, okay, no, let's be persistent on this and let's go to another country to learn English. So I applied for the working holiday visa for Australia.
00:07:28
Nadia Stejskal
So that's the first question. And the second question is, was it always a dream or maybe a spontaneous decision? And the truth is,
00:07:39
Nadia Stejskal
It's been always a dream of mine to move overseas and be able to speak English fluently. So who when I was little, I was always interested in the language, but I didn't have the chance to study properly like in an institute or something when I was little.
00:07:57
Nadia Stejskal
But when I grew up, I did start studying more seriously. So my love for English and the culture of Anglo-Saxon countries, I think I was attracted to that as well.
00:08:14
Nadia Stejskal
And I always had this dream of living overseas. It didn't matter, kind of, didn't matter the country. I just wanted to practice English, basically.
00:08:24
Nadia Stejskal
Yeah. And so the other question I get asked is, what was my life before the move?
00:08:36
Nadia Stejskal
So
00:08:37
Nadia Stejskal
the other question I got asked a lot is, what was my life like before the move?
Embracing Change and Financial Fears
00:08:44
Nadia Stejskal
And so before the move, I was working at Conicet in Argentina. I had a scholarship and I was working full time there.
00:08:55
Nadia Stejskal
So, and I was, yeah, I think pretty happy in general. had friends, I have strong community, friends from work, friends from outside work.
00:09:07
Nadia Stejskal
And I was quite happy, but there was something missing. Because that town where I was living at the time was the time where I grew up as well. So I I i thought I need to get get out of here, but not in a bad way. i i love my town, Mar del Plata.
00:09:25
Nadia Stejskal
I thought I need to see something different. I even tried to move to other provinces in Argentina. But believe me, it was harder to move provinces than move country for some reason.
00:09:41
Nadia Stejskal
In Argentina, since the e e economy is like the main thing, the main factor, finances and self-sustaining is hard when you don't have a job. So I had a job in my town, but in order for me to move somewhere else, I had to basically quit my job.
00:10:02
Nadia Stejskal
and find a job in the new place. But for some reason, that was too scary for me, and I never got to do it. I could have done it, but I didn't do it. So that's when I say, moving to another country, maybe you save in a different way, you know that you will arrive, and you will have a great job, or at least a good paid job, and you will be able to sort your finances sooner or later, but you'll be able to do it.
00:10:31
Nadia Stejskal
And so before moving, I was quite happy, but right after planning, between my planning and my moving was around six months. And those six months were a little weird. I tried to make the most of my city. I tried to go out with my sisters as much as possible.
00:10:53
Nadia Stejskal
Yes, so it was um really nice. I think I really appreciated my city, my town, a lot before leaving because I knew that it was really nice.
00:11:06
Nadia Stejskal
What were your biggest fears while planning your trip? but Oh, well, my biggest fears before my trip were...
00:11:17
Nadia Stejskal
I had this catastrophic thought about what if I never find a job? Like that was the classic, classic one. What if I never find a job? Well, I thought, well, if I don't find job or if I, I don't know, lose the job that I got, then I'll be a cleaner. It doesn't matter. Like I do whatever in order to survive and try to stay Australia as much as possible.
00:11:45
Nadia Stejskal
And so those were the main ones, I think. The finances, I think since I was coming from a country with a lot of struggles financially speaking.
00:12:00
Nadia Stejskal
So moving to Australia, I think I knew that ah ah there were more opportunities, but I still had the limitations and the limiting beliefs basically around money and around development.
00:12:15
Nadia Stejskal
And so once moved to Australia, well, that never happened. I always had a job. It was really good. And if I didn't have a job for a period of time, I had a savings. So everything was worked out well, financially speaking. So if you're planning on moving to another country and you're scared, so...
00:12:37
Nadia Stejskal
It's okay that you're scared, just make a plan to have savings for a few months and you'll find a way once you're there, I'm sure.
00:12:47
Nadia Stejskal
What visa did you apply for and how hard was the process? So the visa that I came into was a working holiday visa, the 462.
00:12:59
Nadia Stejskal
And the application process was very straightforward. I only needed to do the TOEFL test. And I did the TOEFL because it was the only one that was officially in my city. So I didn't have to travel.
00:13:15
Nadia Stejskal
That was really nice. Easy because I i only needed like very low score. It was basically just basic English. I passed that score with a lot more points. The other question I get asked a lot is, did I knew someone in Australia before coming?
00:13:35
Nadia Stejskal
Did you know anyone in Australia before coming? And the truth is, yes, I knew... So I knew one guy that I had met in a previous trip that I went around Europe.
00:13:48
Nadia Stejskal
And so he was Australian. And yeah, we became friends for that period of time in the trip. So when I came to Australia, I knew that I had him.
00:14:00
Nadia Stejskal
And
Starting a New Life in Australia
00:14:00
Nadia Stejskal
so we met the first week and I landed in their place. with his friends. That was very fun. And after that, I did start the trip on my own. So after those seven days there, I started my trip all independently. So it was a a nice little help at the start. But after that, I did everything on my own.
00:14:26
Nadia Stejskal
And what was your first impression? What was any culture shock that you found when you arrived? Yes, so ah ah as soon as I arrived, so the airport that I got here was the Kulangata, funny name, Kulangata Airport in Queensland.
00:14:48
Nadia Stejskal
It's in the border between Queensland and New South Wales. And I got, I passed the security and all the customs, everything, like an hour.
00:15:00
Nadia Stejskal
Once I was outside of the airport, I thought, what are those signs? And that were so many yellow signs with food, like stepping and food, like diagrams, which is the pedestrian, basically, the pedestrian sign.
00:15:18
Nadia Stejskal
And I was like, why there are so many? And I thought, wow, that's very strict. Like here, pedestrian, here, cars. And everything was super separated and very clearly.
00:15:30
Nadia Stejskal
I thought that was interesting. I only could see yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow. Like it was my first impression how many pedestrian signs are there. Yeah.
00:15:41
Nadia Stejskal
How did I find the first job and the place that I lived first? So the job hunting was a very interesting story.
00:15:52
Nadia Stejskal
So being an engineer and I'm a planner, I'm like obsessed and I was scared of not having money basically. So I started my job hunting before coming to Australia.
00:16:07
Nadia Stejskal
was against all advice. I thought, I just try. If I don't find anything, at least I will be practicing the application process. And I did apply for semi-qualified roles, but none of them gave me an interview. As as know, it's very hard to apply for a job from overseas.
00:16:28
Nadia Stejskal
But I found this job a Facebook group, which was the Australia Backpackers group. And this job was like sound amazing.
00:16:40
Nadia Stejskal
It was the perfect backpacker job for it said like eight to 10 weeks. It was like $25 an hour, $60, 60 hours a week. And I thought, I know it sounds like exploiting people, but it's a fun job. Like the more hours, the better.
00:17:00
Nadia Stejskal
And I thought, oh, my God, this is amazing. And it was working in a processing plant that makes olive oil. And I love olive oil so much. And I my God, I need this job. I should work here for sure.
00:17:13
Nadia Stejskal
I must. And I thought, okay, who is this person posting? The person posting was a guy my age. And I see, like, I stalked him. And I was like, I need to get this job.
00:17:26
Nadia Stejskal
And people apply, like, in comments, like, applying for me and my friend and the person was responding, yes, you can apply, send me your resume. So I thought, it it oh, is quite easy to apply.
00:17:39
Nadia Stejskal
So I sent a message and I applied. I explained in a text that I had an engineering degree and this will be my first job in Australia and this will be perfect. Like I wasn't looking for anything fancy.
00:17:52
Nadia Stejskal
And I thought, okay, I'll give it a go. And he did respond, coming back and forth a few times.
00:18:01
Nadia Stejskal
And finally... He called me. He tried to call me and I don't know how, but the call came in. Yes, so the call came in and I picked up and congratulations, you got the job. And I was back in my hometown still. So I was so happy couldn't believe it. At first I thought, no, this must be a scam. This must be, I'm sure I arrived and there is nothing. I still had this negativity and fears with me.
00:18:32
Nadia Stejskal
So that was amazing that I secured that job and it was an amazing experience. And by the way, so this was Cobram Estate and I love Cobram Estate olive oil until this day I keep buying it.
00:18:47
Nadia Stejskal
I love everyone there and I love their olive oil.
00:18:51
Nadia Stejskal
And let's do a few more questions. So... Ah, so the first, how did I find the house? So when I first arrived, I didn't have to rent any house until many months after. So what I've done is I was staying ah ah in hostels.
00:19:13
Nadia Stejskal
So I was staying in hostels in the days in between, before the job and even after the job. I was always in hostels and in the time that I was working in the olives, I was living in cabins provided by the company. So that was really good.
00:19:36
Nadia Stejskal
They were $30 a week. I will never forget that. So good. We saved a lot of money there. And the first house that I rented, rented a bedroom in a house.
00:19:50
Nadia Stejskal
So I found the house in a website called flatmates and it was was a really nice house. And I rented a room for a really nice, good, cheap money.
00:20:04
Nadia Stejskal
So that was my first house in Laura, Victoria.
00:20:10
Nadia Stejskal
And
Professional Growth and Achievement
00:20:11
Nadia Stejskal
the other question I was asked the most is, your salary or your work-life balance feel improved?
00:20:20
Nadia Stejskal
um um How did you feel about your salary and your work-life balance? So, when I was working in the farm in at the olives processing plant,
00:20:30
Nadia Stejskal
I felt like I was able to make a lot of money, even though I had, it was a very, as I said before, $25 an hour, like almost minimum salary. But it was great because we did a lot of hours and we didn't spend any money, only the money from the supermarket.
00:20:52
Nadia Stejskal
And during that time, I felt like I always had money for little treats and going out, even though there weren't many places to go out there. But i was able to, I don't know, go on little getaways in the weekend and go to...
00:21:11
Nadia Stejskal
now and then and buy clothes. So that was really good. But then once I moved to Melbourne Metro, so I moved to actually no, it's not Melbourne Metro.
00:21:23
Nadia Stejskal
So Greater Melbourne, when I moved there and I started working, you know, 38 hours a a week and I was, I mean, more or less the same per hour.
00:21:36
Nadia Stejskal
That's when I felt like I didn't have a lot of life quality. Like it was a starter salary. So it makes sense that you don't have like money to go on holidays very often.
00:21:48
Nadia Stejskal
But I still managed to keep saving, to keep... maintaining my money and my life quality improved with time. Maybe the first six months working Monday to Friday were a little tough, but then the following six months I felt much more organized and I I i even bought a car So everything helped for the next step and the next step.
00:22:16
Nadia Stejskal
Then I got a little better job over there with more money per hour. So it was every time was a little better and better and better. And one thing that I've done is I always try to keep my expenses the same.
00:22:31
Nadia Stejskal
So I kept even... i was lowering my expenses with the years. The first three years, four years in Australia... I was spending the same amount of rent, which is not very common because of there was some inflation. Not huge, but there was some inflation.
00:22:50
Nadia Stejskal
So, for example, I paid $180 per week when I first rented my first bedroom 2019. And then in 2022, when I was living my partner at the time, I was paying $165 per week, and which was half of the rent so i was basically paying less money ah because of the things how i found that house and we found i found the previous room so was always paying like maximum 180 per week which was really really good
00:23:20
Nadia Stejskal
So the life quality definitely improved with the years. The first year I was a little thrifty and I was organized and saving in every little penny. But then the second year, maybe I was buying a little more like basic needs like clothing and shoes.
00:23:44
Nadia Stejskal
And the third year, a little more. But always trying to keep my expenses so I could keep saving. Otherwise, you're always the same.
00:23:55
Nadia Stejskal
So that was really good. Yes, my finances and life quality improved with time. And what's the biggest opportunity you've had professionally?
00:24:06
Nadia Stejskal
I think the biggest opportunity I've had professionally was,
00:24:11
Nadia Stejskal
I think my current job, that was, I think the biggest opportunity that I had professionally. So I currently work for the Western Australia government.
00:24:25
Nadia Stejskal
And I find these opportunities is great. I'm extremely happy. I'm very grateful to work for the government for the first time. I've been working for them everything.
00:24:40
Nadia Stejskal
10 months and I can't stop being feeling grateful. I feel so good. I feel like my work, even though I'm a number and yes, I'm an employee, but I feel like I can make a little bit of a difference.
00:24:55
Nadia Stejskal
And I like the opportunity because I also have a leadership position. So I'm able to influence others. I'm able to be a mentor of other developing professionals as well as developing myself. There are so many good people that are mentoring me and the fact that I'm working for the government, it's huge for me as an immigrant. I feel grateful because they opened the doors for me when had this temporary 491 visa.
00:25:32
Nadia Stejskal
And they didn't care. They hired me because the contract period was within the visa period. And I feel so grateful for now now that I'm a permanent resident. Of course, I'm going to stay there.
00:25:46
Nadia Stejskal
And I really feel like I can contribute back to the community. So I see it this way. I can work for a private company. And of course, if I align with values and mission and everything that you like,
00:26:02
Nadia Stejskal
but the money will be going and my contribution will become money that will go to the owners or the shareholders of that company.
00:26:14
Nadia Stejskal
In here, there is no profit. So the money and the product and the result of my work and my contribution goes back to the community.
00:26:26
Nadia Stejskal
So no one is making money and saving in their pockets because of me. So I feel like energetically, I know this is woo woo, but energetically,
00:26:37
Nadia Stejskal
I am more balanced in here. And I even think in thinking on government and taxes. So I think, so we all pay taxes and my salary is basically coming from all those taxes. so feel like, okay, I feel like this is good.
00:26:53
Nadia Stejskal
I deserve this because this is kind of like paying my own salary. I don't know. I just like to think out loud. So that's the biggest opportunity.
00:27:05
Nadia Stejskal
challenges. What was the biggest challenge that you had as a migrant in the workplace? ah So I'm trying to think a specific example I can't remember in the workplace, but I think the most challenging situation I had was a little silly, but for some reason it affected me so much.
00:27:32
Nadia Stejskal
I was out in a bar in Melbourne, going out with my boyfriend at the time, and I was lining up to buy a drink in the bar.
00:27:43
Nadia Stejskal
And for some reason, ah I'm a chatty person, I like to talk to anyone. So I said something to the guy in front of me. And I said like, oh, I don't know, something...
00:27:54
Nadia Stejskal
Oh, this line, I don't exactly remember what I said, but something about the bar or the situation. I said, oh, how long is the line or what is it?
00:28:06
Nadia Stejskal
And he said, excuse me, what language are you speaking And I got, like, I lost everything. I was, I could not say a word.
00:28:18
Nadia Stejskal
I became all, like, red, blush, super blush, extremely embarrassed, even though the guy looked a little drunk. And we, of course, we were in a bar,
00:28:34
Nadia Stejskal
But all those situations and all those factors didn't block the fact that I felt extremely embarrassed and extremely Yes, I was so embarrassed of my English that at the point that I thought he could not identify that I was speaking in English. Okay, that's really, really bad.
00:28:56
Nadia Stejskal
And I started crying there, right there and then. And we had to leave the place because I felt really bad. I didn't say any word to the guy, it just really touched me. And I was really angry because at that same moment, I found ah ah famous comedian.
00:29:15
Nadia Stejskal
And I could not say anything to him because I was crying. I should have tried, but couldn't. And let's do more questions.
00:29:27
Nadia Stejskal
What
Balancing Intuition and Rationality
00:29:27
Nadia Stejskal
have I learned about myself? What have I learned about myself here in Australia?
00:29:33
Nadia Stejskal
Well, more than learning, I confirmed that I was very driven. Being in a new country, being in another country with speaking another language, everything foreign, and I still was able to develop myself with no family,
00:29:53
Nadia Stejskal
around no partner and no children. Because sometimes i i I see that kids, having kids, they help with the direction and motivation, you know, for the everyday work.
00:30:08
Nadia Stejskal
But I didn't have any of those. only had a partner for two years, which was really, really nice. But then most of my time in Australia, was single, and I still managed to find my North Star and to keep going, to keep chasing my goals.
00:30:27
Nadia Stejskal
So I did confirm that I was extremely driven. Mostly here in Australia, I also learned that I had to balance that because you can't be so driven that you forget about yourself. So basically, I was...
00:30:42
Nadia Stejskal
So driven, I think it was an unhealthy level of drivenness. A little bit is good, but I had to calm down basically here. So the big thing that I learned about myself is not everything is...
00:30:58
Nadia Stejskal
needs to make sense. Not everything is rational. I started to to question everything. Imagine i Imagine i my background is six years of engineering at university. I've got my mindset, like so rational, process-driven, facts, science, like everything's super rational.
00:31:24
Nadia Stejskal
But then... When I tried to apply that to everything, i could not explain many things. And of course, you will think, what were you thinking? I know engineering cannot be applied to everything.
00:31:36
Nadia Stejskal
I wanted to apply engineering to relationships, for example. Of course, it didn't make any sense. And that's where I started to question everything rational. And I started to connect with my intuition and the things that don't make sense, but feel right.
Conclusion and Reflection
00:31:54
Nadia Stejskal
And that brings us to the end of the episode. I hope you enjoy my introduction and my first episode, sharing my whys, why I moved to Australia and why I did this extremely huge life-changing move literally across the world.
00:32:16
Nadia Stejskal
And I hope you can think of things on how to connect with your intuition. And hopefully you will share moments where you followed your intuition and it went really well, even better than you could imagine.
00:32:34
Nadia Stejskal
So i I hope you can come back in the next episode and we can keep talking about all these things that I'm so passionate about. See you next time.