Keepin' It Real - Q&A Living in Mexico | Episode Three

Buenos dias, Mr. Tripoli. Keeping it real. Episode number three. So before we get started, I want to jump into a little bit of housekeeping. So this is the third episode, and they will all be available. All the episodes. If you want to go back through all the other questions. Welcome, guys. Diamonds, Gretchen Killier. They'll be in my highlights. So all of the episodes you can watch back to back. And I keep them probably around 20 minutes. So I'm gonna pick up where we left off. Hi, Sarah. Hey, Rinda. The life of Clark. Welcome to Keeping It Real. So I'm just keeping it real about moving to Mexico and answering all of your questions straight up and all the different things. Gretchen, thanks for joining me. Okay, so let's get started. Where did we leave off? We left off a lot about. In the last episode about, you know, owning property, about construction, all that stuff. So we're gonna go into some other questions that I have. I literally have a list of like a hundred questions that have been asked. It's weird that it's saying poor connection. I have great wi fi out here. I don't know what the hell is going on. All right, so the one at the top of my list is what is daily life like? How do you get your groceries? And do you have a car? Okay, so daily life is awesome. I have no alarm. I wake up. When I wake up, it's typically dogs licking my face. And I spend the day, a couple hours drinking coffee, sitting by the pool. I do work. I mean, I have to work, just sustain my life and I'll talk more about my work and how I make my money. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. So. And then get groceries. So I. It keeps pausing. I'm so sorry for that. I don't know why it does that. I can do a zoom call with no fucking problems. All right, so stick with me. If it pauses, just stay here. I'm not going anywhere. Let's see. So groceries. There's a little village that is about a 20 minute drive from me that has the most amazing. They call it a fruiteria, which is just a place where you can buy all your fruits and vegetables. So I get all the. The basics, the main things that I eat all the time there. But if I need to go to the grocery store that is the nearest is in Tulum, which is about 30, 35 minutes away. So. And I can get anything I need. Do I have a car? Yes, I have a car, but I did not have a car for the first 13 years I lived here. I didn't need one, I lived in Playa del Carmen. I had a bicycle. It was heaven not having to deal with a car and all the. That goes with the car and the registration and that. But since I moved out to the jungle and I was driving back and forth for a couple years, I kind of had to have a car and then I had to buy a truck for my workers. So I have a truck and a car. I do both. And if you have any questions while I'm talking, you can throw them in there. Evening. From Australia, K. Spice. What's the local attitude towards expats and how are you treated by locals? This is really cool because we're treated really, really. I don't know what's going on. I don't know why it keeps pausing, but we're treated really well by the expat, by the locals. They actually. The one thing you have to understand is the economy of this area is tourism. It is foreigners. That's how this whole area is sustained, is. It's all tourism. And so, I mean, I live off in the jungle away from the tourism. But Tulum, you guys have all heard of Tulum, Playa del Carmen, they make a lot of money off of the foreigners. And what's great is that the foreigners bring in tips because they don't have a big tipping culture here. But like, when. When people from the United States come, they love it because Americans tip really well. And so a lot of them even just live off of their. Sorry for the connection. So, yeah, and they treat us really well. They appreciate us, you know, they don't like people that come, obviously, and disrespect their culture and. And. But I would say most people that come here love to be here. And the locals, it's lovely. I've got lots of local friends. Got lots of Mexican friends. Tons. Yeah, they're wonderful here. Let's see. Let me turn all my other devices offline, see if that helps. Let's see. I'm trying to take everything else offline. I don't know why. I don't know why it's doing that. All right. But just is what it is. Okay, so we have that question. How do you integrate with the local community? Do you give back? How do I integrate with the local community? I'm very involved in the local community. I do lots of things. I actually host a big groove dance party where everyone in the community can come. I employ six Mexicans full time. I pay all their benefits. I treat them very well and give them a really nice life here as well. And it's awesome. I've got a staff here, I've got four, I've got five full time guys that help me keep up this property. Because she's a man, she requires a lot of maintenance and there's no way that it keeps doing that. And so, yeah, and I hire them completely legally. Like they're all registered. They get their insurance, they get their pensions, they get all of that. It's. They get their vacations, they get their Christmas bonuses. And so. And I actually pay them more than what they would make at any other job with an actual Mexican company. Some of them get double and triple what they would get from there because I really appreciate them. They take good care of me and I take really good care of them. Then I. One of those guys is a full time carpenter. So I have a full time carpenter on staff because I'm not done building. So he's constantly building new furniture for me. Like a lot of people ask me about the cool ass furniture. Like this dope ass table right here. Like I just. It's awesome. Everything, like, everything's handmade. It's super cool. So. And then I have an assistant. I have a girl that works for me. She's absolutely adorable and fabulous and she is the one that helps me with all my Mexican stuff, my residency, my taxes, my paperwork. There's no way I would try to do this alone. I need people that do it. So I have six full time employees. Let's see, how do you. Okay, what are the schools like if you have kids? I don't have kids by choice, but I do have lots of friends that have moved here that do have children. And the school system here is not great. Just. It's not. But it's not in America either. Or in the United States. I have to keep changing and saying America. Pause. It's because they actually get a little offended here if you say America or Americans because Mexicans are Americans as well. They look at it that it's North America, Central America and South America, they're all Americans. And so I was ignorant to this. And so it's really important that you know that I'm from the United States, I'm not from America. So it's really interesting how they relate to that. So I'm. I try to be really careful about stating that I am an American, we're all Americans. What are the schools like? So the schools, yeah, not so great. But there are really great private schools and like Waldorf schools and stuff like that. And so there's a community called Puerto Aventuras, where a bunch of. There's like 30 women I dance with on the beach every Tuesday morning. And they all have children, they all go to school together. They have a really tight knit, amazing community. And it's a really safe community. Like, it's like super security. To get into this community you have to have a code, you know, it's, it's not easy to get in and it's a beautiful, beautiful community. So yeah, that's the schools. Is it easy to rent while you're searching for land? Absolutely. It's super easy to rent here. And you don't have to be a resident to rent. You do have to sign a contract. They didn't like when I got my apartment, I didn't sign a contract. I just walked in and was like, this was 17 years ago. No credit check, no contracts, no nothing. I just. My boyfriend at the time had. I was. I ran home to go sell everything I owned and get rid of everything. And he found an apartment. Yes. I wasn't in a relationship when I moved here. Not in that relationship anymore. But it was great because it was one of the catalysts that got me to live here, which was one of the greatest blessings of my life. Do they have pharmacies? I'm a technician. Absolutely. They've got pharmacies. Hell yeah. And you don't have to have a prescription. And the medicine here is incredibly cheap, like incredibly cheap. A fraction of what it is in the United States. And the only thing you really need a prescription for is, weirdly enough, most antibiotics. And second is like if you need some type of like really hardcore pain reliever kind of stuff like the opioids, you would have to have a prescription for that. But other than that you can pretty much just go and get whatever you need. It's awesome and gives you an idea of how much were being overcharged in the United States because this is the real deal and they make it affordable for the people here and it's fantastic. So yeah, sorry that it keeps pausing. I don't know why someone asked a question. Perfect. Do you know the pay rates? Yes, minimum wage here. This is horrific. Minimum wage here is, is 2,000, I think 800 pesos a week. And that equates. I always like to like split it in half and then minus a little bit because the dollar always ranges between like 17 to like 21. So it's always kind of like I divide it in half. So you're looking at about a hundred and fifty dollars a week. And they work Six days a week. They work Monday through Saturday. They have a 48 hour work week. It's horrific. So with my guys, I don't, I don't do that with my guys. I only have them working about 30 hours a week, but I still pay them a full time salary. And like I said, my main guy gets five times that. Like, I take really good care of them because these guys are going to be with me forever. And I trust them. I can leave my home and they come and they stay here and they take care of my dogs. They sleep like, they sleep here. Like when I go to Europe for two months at a time, they just move in and take care of everything for me. In fact, the last time I was in Europe, there was a hurricane here and the eye of the hurricane went right over my house. And they all came, they boarded up. I wasn't even here. They boarded up the whole house. They slept here that night. They protected my dogs. They took care of the damage that happened before I even got home. Wasn't hardly any damage at all. Like a fence came down and a tree came down. But they are here and they protect my land and take really good care of my land and my dogs. And my dogs love them, which is great. So, yes, it's easy to rent. Easy to rent. I got sidetracked. Absolutely. And rents now are a little more expensive than they were. Like, my rent when I first moved here was $400 a month. I went from $2,000 a month in the United States and Beverly Hills to $400 a month here and a two bedroom five blocks from the Caribbean ocean. Like heaven. Didn't need a car. I could live here for less than $1,000 a month and live like, yeah, I could live like a queen. Can you live there without knowing Spanish? How hard is it to transition? Absolutely. Most of the Mexicans here that work in the industry speak English because a lot of the tourism and most of the Europeans speak English. So the root, like the main language most of them speak is English. I've lived here for 17 years. I've learned enough Spanish where I can get by and get through a basic day and. But I can't have in depth conversations. I don't understand it at that level. But I'm, you know, I'm still learning. But when you live in Playa, Playa del Carmen or Tulum, you don't have to speak Spanish. I mean, you should because it respects the culture. And try. But, but most people are going to speak English. Like that's just. And it's funny. I'll go to a restaurant and I'll practice my Spanish, and they know that I'm. I. I'm a gringa. So they start speaking to me in English. Even though I'm trying to speak to them in Spanish, they'll speak to me back in English. So it's really interesting. But, no, it hasn't been a problem at all. At all. How do I earn my money? So this is about my work and income, so how I earn my money. So like I told most of you, I. When I lived In Los Angeles 20 years ago, I literally, like, I was living on credit cards. I was. I went bankrupt. I lost everything. And I quit my job because I hated my life. I worked in corporate America. Even though I didn't hate my job, I was really good at my job. And it was fitness. I was a fitness director in Los Angeles at one of the largest fitness chains called Bodies in Motion. And I was their corporate Director. I had 500 employees underneath me. And I loved training instructors, I loved teaching, I love doing all of that. But I wasn't satisfied. And when I woke up, I had a powerful spiritual awakening, which I'll share in another video. In one day, I. Literally, my entire consciousness shifted and I started to question everything what I was doing, because I was miserable. I was bulimic. I was trying to be pretty. I was trying to fit into LA and the famous crowd, and I was hanging out with movie stars and trying to be cool and just all this. I didn't know who I was. And then I woke up and I was like, whoa. And within a couple of weeks, I was like, I will never let anyone own my time. No one will ever own my time. I quit my job, didn't know how I was going to pay my rent, didn't know how I was going to do anything. But I was like, I don't care. I'm like, I will not be a slave to anyone. Like, I own my life. And then I decided, what would my life look like If I spent 60 to 70 hours a week instead of working here? If I spent that invested into myself? And so that's. So I'm. And so that's. What I did, is I invested all that time into myself. I started, like, meditating four to six hours a day. I started dancing two to three hours a day. And then I would get powerful information that would come to me and then this inspiration. Cause I was always a dancer. This concept, the Groove method, came through me. While I was dancing. I saw the vision of me teaching all over the world. I saw my master trainer team. I saw millions of people doing it. And then I was just like, are you kidding me? Like, I'm just a little misty from California. How is this, like this big, huge vision? How is this possible? And this inner calling just said, you have to trust. You have to trust. And I did. And from that moment, everything started to shift. But I had nothing. I literally, like, I went. I claimed bankruptcy, sold my car. I was driving a Volvo and had to switch it in for about 800 Saturn. Little rinky dink. But it didn't matter. I didn't care anymore. I didn't care about trying to keep up the appearances. I didn't matter. None of that mattered. I just wanted to be free. Freedom became my, like, root, core value. And so I invested my whole life into building this dance company. So I created what's called the world Groove Movement. And you could. There's a link to it in my bio. Who keeps pausing? But the World Groove Movement, there's a link in my bio. It is awesome. It was grat. It's been grassroots, but now we're in 55 countries. So it's. I created what's called the groove Dance floor experience, and it's a community dance thing that I've got facilitators in 55 countries teaching this. And it's grown over the years, and it is amazing. So if you love dance and you don't want to have to follow hardcore choreography or you feel like you're awkward, it's like perfect. And then about. And that's never really made me money. That was just what I love to do. And I was making enough money to pay my employees, but I wasn't making. I wasn't living abundantly until I shifted my mindset. And then when I started to develop a more positive relationship. Relationship with money. Because I'd never had real money my whole life. I was always broke. Always. This is when about six years ago, I. Well, about 10 years ago, I created a dance video called Delicious Dance. It was this groove thing that I was doing that was different than everyone else and I created a long time ago. But we could never try to figure out how to sell it because it was so different than what anyone was doing. No one understood it. It looked weird, but it's not weird. And I had some business partners that actually started doing Facebook advertising, and it blew up. And we were actually the number one face advertisers on Facebook for about three years. And that is where I make my Money is my app. I have a dance app called Body Groove and where you can dance with me at home and it's super fun. And so that's where my money comes from. So I just, I have a huge dance studio. I'll take you on a tour of it. I'll be recording a tour of my recording studio. Slash studio. It's still pausing where you can see where I record my content that goes on the app. It's amazing. Like, it's amazing. So now I get to just create amazing dance content and live in the jungle and I get to dance for a living. Are you fucking kidding me? My way. And I'm not even a trained dancer and I get to make my money dancing. It's fucking dope. And. And if you're any women out there, my body group app is really for you because it's really about reconnecting to your body, to your essence, to moving your body in a way that feels really good. Because I was abusing my body through exercise and food for years and then it was when I finally woke up to, I just want to feel good because I, my, I was in so much pain. I was toxic. And dance literally saved my life. Like, literally. And so if that resonates with you, Body Groove is also in my link. You can go check it out. There's a think a 30 day free trial. You can go and see. How do I. How can someone work remotely from Mexico earning US Dollars? I do. All of my companies are based in the United States. My businesses are all there. So the best bet is establish your business in a. In the United States or in Europe or wherever you are so that you can earn money in those dollars. It's a lot. I don't know if it's catching me, but it's harder to make money in Mexico with pesos. It just, it's. It's hard to make. I'm not going to lie. It's hard to make money here. You have to have some form of income that comes from something else outside of Mexico. But what's great is then you bring your meal in here and it helps the economy here. All right, so how can someone work. What's the best way to make money if you move without a job lined up? Well, that's where it's hard. I'm not going to lie. I don't think it's easy. There are people that have come here that have created businesses and restaurants and stuff like that and are very successful. So you're gonna. But you have to deal with all the, the bullshit of opening a business here and, you know, all of the legalities and all of this stuff like that. And some people are built for that. I'm not built for that, but it is possible to do those things. So let's go into another question. Any other questions? My pleasure. Sorry for the pauses. Food prices. Food prices are amazing. Like some things, if it's imported products, because they do import of a lot of products from the United States, those are more expensive, obviously. But fruits and vegetables and the basic necessities and the fruits and vegetables here are amazing. Like the food that's local here, like, you know, papayas and bananas and mangoes and all of that. Avocados are huge here. They're not grown here. They're grown. Why are they grown here? I think some people might have avocado tree. When I go to the store, I can get enough groceries for a week to two weeks and spend around a hundred dollars. And I buy the imported products. But it's, it's not as much as in the United States. It has gotten more expensive over the years, especially since the key vid things have gone up. Yeah, it's not as. It's not so great. Oh, people are asking about my glasses. Oh, and. And someone said about alternative doctors. Mexico is on point with alternative medicine. I will tell you that. They have great doctors. It's not expensive. It, it'll. It would blow your mind. Like, I didn't have insurance up until two years ago, and I only got it because I travel a lot and I thought I'd get global insurance, but I didn't have health insurance for over 20 years. But this, like when I go see my gynecologist, spend an hour with her, it's 50 bucks. Like blood tests, $20. Like your lab work. Yeah. And they're open. They don't have like the FDA like here, where they block all of the things that actually do heal you. I'm pausing when it pauses. They actually practice a lot of this stuff. Stem cell therapies. All of these alternative medicines are available here. And really well done the doctors here. And most of the doctors speak English. It's crazy. A lot of them are actually educated in the United States, which is kind of crazy. A lot of people ask about my glasses. Just so you know, these glasses, I have them in every color. They're Amazon. They're super cheap. It's like a three pack for $15. So yeah, get them on Amazon super easy. Oh, I can't get Amazon here. I have to have it sent to my assistant's place, Playa del Carmen, and then she does a package drop off. But Amazon doesn't come out here. All right. They just changed something in Mexico with biometrics. Go to the biometric. Yeah. There's so much great stuff here, you guys. Like, so like medical tourism is huge here because it's cheaper. The doctors are really good. If your compound fully solar backup generator. Water source. Is it rainwater? Oh, well, I have underneath here. Oh, let me back up. I got sidetracked because it paused again. Oh, what was it something about? Oh, my friend who just had her breast implants removed here in Mexico for a fraction of the cost it would have cost there. She's 63 years old. She just moved from Los Angeles. She's a dj. In fact, I'm going to her party tonight. So I'll fill it. I'll post some videos from her DJing. 63 years old. She looks like she's 40. Just had her breast removed here. Like her, her implants removed. She had an explant surgery and they did a spectacular job. They even came to her house to check on her to make sure that she was okay. Like three different times to her house. Like. And the, the surgery was a fraction of the cost. Okay. My water source. My water source is underneath here in the Yucatan Peninsula is all water. It's very porous. Like I have my cave. If you look on my feed, there's something about my cenote water cave. It's a cenote which is a water cave. And it's fresh, fresh, crystal clear, clean water that's super mineral dense. So it's the rainwater that goes through all this porous rock and it gets filtered. And as it's filtered it also gets. I have unlimited water. Unlimited like. And then I have. One of these days I'm going to actually take you through my entire water filtration process because I can actually drink it. But it has to go through lots of different filters before I do that. But like I can fill my pool up every other day if I wanted to. It just all gets recycled back. And I manage my water really well. I have my own waste system management. So yeah, I have to manage my own shit. Like totally off grid. And by the time all of the water has. All of the gray water has been processed, I put clean water back into the system that waters my plants. So it's all just a. I'm doing it right over here. I'm just saying. Oh, and people were asking about land and what's really cool is I have a neighbor that lives about. About two miles away. She's really cool. She's from Spain. She's my age, did the same thing I did, but she did it about four years before I did. We met on the street when I was walking my dogs. And she's just like, we need to be friends. And I was like, yeah, we do. She's got two little Chihuahuas, lives alone in the jungle as well. But she actually has several different properties that are available. And so a lot of people have been asking me, and I'm not a real estate agent. None of this is available, which is 1.24 acres. That's only $98,000. And there's another one that is 29. 29,000 square feet for $53,000, which I think is a half of an acre, something like that. So there's all different price ranges, all actually on the channel. I'll post her contact information. If anyone wants to contact her, ask about it. There's their land in this area that's available for those of you that are interested. You lived off grid in Canada, moving to Mexico and being a good steward of the land. Yeah, it's very important connection. Yeah. I love taking care of this land. I honor this land, and this land takes care of me. I have typically on Sundays, this is my day. It's not to pray, but to connect. Like, it's, you know, no workers here. I'm here, and I sit and I stare at the nature and I talk to it. And it's like, that's how I designed this whole thing is I just sat and I would stare and I would look and what do I want to see? What fits into this? You know, I didn't have any plans to start with. I really was just like, what do I want to see right here? What do I envision? And then I would just build it. It's kind of cool, I think. What else did I want to cover today? I want to keep you too long, but this was episode three of Keeping It Real. Living in Mexico, just sharing the shit in my life and how all this happens. But I really appreciate you guys tuning in and I look forward. I'll do this again next week. Next week, my neighbor is going to be joining me. Her name's Sylvia, the one that owns the land. She'll be with me so that you can meet her. And that I'm not. I'm not unique. Like, it's just about making it happen and start. Don't let anything stop you. Especially Fear from truly doing what you want to do in your life. I was scared shitless. But I did it anyways because I knew this is how I wanted to live, and I wasn't gonna just fucking die in an apartment in Playa del Carmen. I knew I wanted to live out in nature and in the jungle, and I wanted to be immersed. So, I mean, I live outside. This is my life outside all day long. I want to be in nature. The most healing and powerful place that you can be. And it's different for everyone. Like, for me, this is the place. But forever for you, it's different. I'm a fucking inspo. Thanks, babe, but find your way. Do your thing, and I'll be here to keep answering your questions and shooting shit and keeping shit real. And just thanks for being here. I'm so excited that people are interested in what I'm doing. And I didn't realize how awesome it was until people were like, how the did you do this? And I was just like, I just did it. I just did it. Like, I don't know. But I'll break it down for you as much as I can. And I'm going to also start sharing some before and after photos of my land before I built an after. We're collecting all the footage right now. That's it for today. I love you all. Just keeping shit real. Please keep asking questions, post them, and I'll get to them every week. And if something comes up here, I will share it. I missed it. Yeah, you can see the replay. It'll be posted. Go to my. It should be here. But if you want to watch the other two episodes as well, the other questions I answered, go into my bio, into the highlights, and there's a Keeping it real. Highlight those little circles in my bio, and you can watch all the episodes there. So this was episode three. And I'll see you next week for episode four. Sending you love, too. Sorry for the pauses. Technology love, y'. All. Ciao for now.