The Wiley story
I’m originally from Clarecastle, County Clare and I’m the first in my family to move abroad and build a life in the USA.
My connection with America started in 2018 when I went to Montauk, New York, on my first summer J1 visa. I was 19 at the time, and it was my first real experience of living in the States. I loved the lifestyle, the people and the opportunities, and I knew I wanted to come back.
I returned to Montauk for a second J1 in 2019. Those two summers gave me a real insight into what life in America could look like and introduced me to New York in a way that a holiday never could.
After that, my life took me to a few different places. I lived in Dublin and abroad in London, Indonesia, and Belgium, each country giving me a different perspective on life outside Ireland. I enjoyed living in different countries and meeting and learning from different people.
Alongside all of this, I was building my business, Active with Amie. I started AWA from my college bedroom in Ireland, initially as an online fitness coaching business. Over time, it grew into a much bigger wellness business and community, and I began thinking seriously about where I needed to be to take it to the next level.
New York kept coming back into my mind.
Having already experienced Montauk through my J1 summers, I knew what it felt like to be in New York. But this time, I wasn't going for a summer. I was moving there to build a business and a life.
In 2023 after a 10 month process I got my O1B visa approved and in October 2023, I made the move to New York City.
Professionally, New York made sense for where I wanted to take AWA. The energy, ambition, opportunities and access to the US market made it the place I felt I needed to be.
Moving wasn't without its challenges. I had to build a new life, establish a network and continue growing a business while being thousands of miles from home. But I knew I had already taken plenty of risks to get to that point, and I was ready to take another one.
Today, I split my time between New York and County Clare. Clare will always be home and the place that gave me my roots, while New York has given me the environment to think bigger and push myself in ways I hadn't before.
Looking back, my move to NYC wasn't a random decision. It was the result of years of travelling, living abroad, building my business and figuring out what I wanted and what my business needed.
From my first J1 in Montauk in 2018 to moving permanently to New York in 2023, America has gone from being somewhere I visited in the summer to becoming a huge part of my life and the future of my business.