Welcome!

I’m Rachel — this site has two sides to it, and both are genuinely me.

On the personal side, I write about building a new life in the Netherlands: language and culture, travel, and the four-year journey of writing my first book. I know what it’s like to start over in a new place, and how you then feel about the place you left behind — head to Rachel’s Reflections for those stories, or My Book to read about the memoir I wrote for my late father, Alan Carter.

On the professional side, I spent years running Talentstorm, my own learning and development consultancy. I’ve since closed that business, but L&D is still very much what I do, and I wanted to bring my writing on the subject over here rather than let it disappear. In Learning & Development you’ll find what I’ve learnt about designing training, choosing the right platforms, building communities of practice, and relocating a freelance business to a new country.

Originally from the UK, I now live in Eindhoven, a vibrant, international city that’s shaped both halves of what I do here — it’s where I’m exploring Dutch culture as a newcomer, and where I built Talentstorm among a community of organisations and fellow freelancers doing the same.