My Journey away from Corporate and how I ended up in Colombia

    My name is Rotisha Starks, I grew up in a small town in Petersburg Virginia with 7 brothers and sisters so a total of 8.  Moved away to Atlanta in 2002, but not before starting my career in the financial arena.  My first corporate job was at Capitol One in Richmond Virginia, then Bank of America in Richmond as well.  So when I moved to Atlanta I transitioned right into the fraud department and thats where my financial fraud career began.  I quickly moved up in titles, from team lead, to training new hires, to managing my own team of fraud analyst.  Even-though I loved my job I had this itch for owning my own business.  The whole time working at the bank I had already become an entrepreneur.  Every two weeks doing payday I would sell handbags, accessories, etc to the whole call center.  So I guess being a business has always been in me.  After about 4 years I left the bank to open my first restaurant called Krust Pizza Cafe off of south establishment and bolton road in Atlanta.  I will never forget the journey opening this place. 

     And I know what you are thinking a pizza spot.  But oh no little I in my 20's to be exact always dream big and am ambitious.  Krust sold everything from pizza to crab legs, to pasta, to wings, and everything was good.  No, I'm not just saying that asked anyone they will tell you.  It was a 109-seater establishment and I say that so you can see the size of my ego, lol.  We had pool tables, an outside patio, DJ, and a full bar, and was packed weekly.  So if Krust was a testament we can do anything we put our minds to now I was unstoppable.  Then life happens and people come into your life and put you on a whole different path that is not your own.  We close Krust not due to sales but for other reasons and if you want to know more book a chat with me lol.   I took two years off from everyone and really reflected inward.  When I was ready to face this game called Life again I went back to was I knew very well How to save companies Millions of Dollars in fraud prevention.  I called an old friend from Bank of America and 1 interview later I was back in corporate.   This time I was working in the fin-tech arena and boy was it fun, fast, and exciting.   The fraud had changed a lot in 6 years, and so had I.  Moved up quickly in that company as well to leading 2 teams and I assumed Fin Tech Fraud would be my life's path.  You know catching the bad guys lol.  Fast forward moved from that company to a higher title and amazing salary with a bonus.  Teams in other states, I have a company card, I'm flying to team meetings, working 1 person away from the CEO.  You know living the dream, some would say right.  But the universe had other plans for me.  I began to plan my exit from corporate but had no clear idea what I wanted to do.  But I'm a Virgo that’s normal we think we can do EVERYTHING. So as I've planned my perfect exit right after my bonus pays out COVID happens. As I'm transitioning my teams to work from home my spirit is still wrestling like you need to leave and leave now.  And the universe is so awesome they had a plan bigger than I could think of.. My company ended up letting go during covid.  But hear the blessing in that I wanted to quit after the bonus payout.  Now they let me go I get the bonus, I get severance pay, and unemployment.  Sometimes the plan is bigger than yours.  If you want to know more about that story book a chat with me.  Now I'm free, what to do?  Someone who has never traveled out of the country ever is now being told and shown you must move you must go now and you will be rewarded for your obedience.   So I began the search online safest places to live as an expat.  I laugh now as I made that decision off of Youtube but hey we hear.  We narrowed down two 3 places and I began booking our trips.  First trip, to Antalya Turkey, on October 16th, 2020 take our first trip out of the country.  Yeah, I know who would make their first trip 12 hours long it’s insane.  It’s 12 hours straight but you know we stopped in Istanbul.  The dollar is 8 to 1 guy’s best shopping I've ever had.

       Back on the topic of Turkey wow, that place will forever hold a special memory for me.  That place is magical, we stay directly on the Mediterranean Sea.  For 2 weeks we got to experience some amazing moment and meets some amazing people that I am still friends with today.  If you want to know more about Turkey and how they have one of the lowest cancer rates you already know book a chat I'll tell you everything.  We got back from Turkey on October 28th, and I was officially a traveler but not close to finding our new home, as the flights to Turkey is too far.  We have a son oh yes I never said anything about this.  We have a soon to be 13 year old and he is truly our world and the main reason we left the States.  The second trip to Mexico Christmas December 25, 2020, is not for me, and if you want to know more you already know book a chat with me I'll tell you all about it.  Third international trip to Colombia on April 18th, 2021.  By this time we knew it would be Colombia we had done more studying we had reached out to other expats.  We had a company take care of everything for us something like what The Connect provides.  Prior to moving we had settled on Barranquilla as our new home. But knew we wanted to see other places in Colombia.  So we started in Medellin.  Medellin is beautiful and means gorgeous it has everything you need to set up and ready a huge expat community but for me and my husband, we wanted something less city more slower pace to show our son another lifestyle.   If you want to know more of my opinion of Medellin, (laugh you already know).   Santa Marta was our next destination and boy was it hot, who knew in one week it would grow on us?  Everything was set up the company picked us up from the airport with the translator we went right away to look at properties and we saw so many oceanfront condos and truly couldn't believe we could afford it.  The places I'm looking at would cause 5k more a month in the States I'm talking oceanfront, bowling alleys, swim-up bars, sauce, Turkish baths, massages on the beach everything you pay to go on vacation for we can live it daily.   We still had 1 week in Barranquilla to explore, remember this was the place we settled on before coming down.  We spent one day there may a day in a half. Same thing, the company had someone waiting to show us property in Barranquilla, amazing city really industrial you can see the income is there but it did not feel like home.  We left on the second day and went back to Santa Marta. To be continue…