About This Substack

From Montana to Portugal

(or, how I sold everything and started over in Europe—with stories, tears, courage, and cappuccinos)

If you’re craving a life that feels more like yours, you’re in the right place.

I’m Janelle Holden—award-winning journalist, life coach, and accidental expat. After 20+ years of success, burnout, and reinvention in the U.S., I sold nearly everything I owned, moved abroad, and started over in Portugal.

What began as a personal adventure has become something deeper:
A place to explore what it means to rewrite your life at any age—with humor, heartbreak, and hope.

What You’ll Find Here

💌 Honest, hilarious essays about reinvention, travel, grief, healing, and joy—delivered every 10 days.
🔐 Passport Confessions: exclusive audio/video/personal stories just for paid subscribers.
🎓 My full course on How to Move to Portugal (practical + soulful).
🗺️ Travel itineraries, reflections, and behind-the-scenes vignettes from life in Europe.
🎟️ First dibs on future retreats, coaching offers, and reader events.

This isn’t just a travel newsletter—it’s a home for anyone carving a new path, asking deeper questions, or learning how to be fully alive again.

Whether you're sipping wine in Lisbon, reading from a small town in the Midwest, or Googling “how to move to Portugal with a dog,” you’re welcome here.

About Me

I’m a former journalist turned storyteller and soul-searcher. I’ve helped hundreds of people transform their lives and businesses as a life and business coach, and now I’m applying those same tools to my own journey—this time with much less hustle, and a whole lot more truth.

I believe we all get more than one life in a lifetime.
This Substack is about living all of them—out loud.

This is a reader-powered publication. If you like humor, heart, and a good reinvention story, hit subscribe and join the journey! 👇


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People

Janelle Holden is a former journalist, nonprofit leader, and business development expert. She writes essays from her travels abroad on Substack and is one of the top 100 bestselling Substack authors in the International category.