We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Lemke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.

Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I was an Au Pair myself for over two years. Au Pair is basically a international live-in nanny for a Host family. I was struggling once in while during my years about little and big things. Which store has which items, how do I get a cheap rental car? How do I make friends besides the Au Pairs that are in my area? Stuff like that. There is nothing, or someone out there who helps you with that. So I became that someone. I advice Au Pairs in the US. With my experience as a former Au Pair, Teacher and budget travel enthusiast I have all kinds of tricks, tips, hacks and advice.
My time as Au Pair was everything I could ask for, it was fun, glorious, scary, lonely, playful, adventures and so much more. I always say it was magical, because at the end I become this fully transformed person that is truly happy and can enjoy life. I want that every Au Pair can have a similar experience, something magical, whatever or however that looks like. And if I can be assistant with that, great!

Michelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Michelle Lemke, 29 years old and from Germany. In December 2019 I moved to the US as Au Pair for a Family in Cleveland, Ohio. I felt unsettled in Germany and seeked to find more for my life. After I started solo traveling I learned quickly that I need English to have better experience, plus I love to work with children so becoming an Au Pair in America seemed almost natural for me. The Au Pair program is one year long, after that you extend only once for either 6, 9 or 12 months. After my two years I took a COVID extension from the government that they offered during that time, during that time I started my Account on Instagram to help other Au Pairs. I gave it a year to grow to a trusted community before I launched in June 2023 my website.
I’m working currently on guides and webinars to maximize the potential of all current and future Au Pairs. I even think about to offer personal Coaching to help with personal development during the Au Pair journey. The beauty of an Au Pair year is that you not only have a cultural exchange, learn a new language and live in another country, you also get the chance to discover a whole new version of you. Away from everybody who knows you, you get the chance to grow without the limiting beliefs, like ‘she’s always been that way’. So who are we, when there is nobody who knows us? This is my absolute favorite aspect of this journey and it gave me opportunity to find how I want to show up for myself and what I want after healing from a toxic relationship and an unhealthy work environment in Germany.
So with my Instagram Account and my website I provide guidance and advice for all sorts of aspects in the Au Pair life. Travel, the Host family, handling the kiddos and self improvement. And it has been so fulfilling for my own life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For my social media it was important for me to be helpful and inspiring. From a lot of research and experimenting with my personal account I knew the most important thing is consistency. Once I started posting I was posting for the first two month two Reels a day to get things kickstarted, then I went to once a day and eventually to every other day so I can work on other projects like the website and webinars. Because this is still just a side hustle, my full time job is being a Nanny for my former Host family. Besides being consistent I focus on the connection with the people. I genuinely care for them and help in my best ability and I think they can feel that. The feedback I get is great.
Further more for creators of the social media content it’s so important to stay up to date. Everything is constantly changing and what worked a couple months ago is no longer. It’s finding the balance about keeping up with trends and being original.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There was a time when everything stopped working. My Instagram account wasn’t seeing any growth for weeks, my friends were sad about me not having more time and everybody has ‘advice’ on how to make viral content, “just do something super stupid”. During that time I questioned myself if what I’m doing is really valuable. At the end I’m the first one doing this, so what if I’m the only one doing this because there is no need for it. But I wasn’t done trying. There were still things, approaches I haven’t tried and I’m no quitter until I tried everything.
I changed my approach and leaned even more in it. It was Tax season and I offered Au Pairs to help with their Taxes. I spend hours over hours educating myself on my own about Taxes for Au Pairs, because again no one is helping Au Pairs with that. And things got better, I changed my content and started the first webinars to guide thorough the process of filling Taxes.
And in the last month I doubled my following on Instagram.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehappyaupair.com
• Instagram: @thehappyaupair