Nearshoring Yourself; step by step to building an expat life in Mexico

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Welcome to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe Podcast.
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I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
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And if you have ever wondered what it's like to be a legitimate expat and go from Alabama to living in Mexico, this is going to be a great podcast for you.
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And bonus, we're going to get into what it's like to see some countries we have not yet talked about on the podcast.
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We'll talk about Ecuador and Belize, among a lot of other stuff.
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Before I introduce our guests, I want to thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, P-L-U-G-G.
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Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America with U.S.
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companies.
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Welcome to the podcast, Jen from XFATC, I am so happy to have you here.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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Let's get into it.
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You know, what a cool journey.
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I love talking to people that are well traveled.
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You're one of the more well-traveled people I've met.
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I'm glad that we we had a chance to connect.
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And I think our audience would just love to hear the journey.
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Life in Alabama, what were you doing?
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How did this whole life unfold for you?
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Yeah, I I don't know how many Alabamians make it out of the country.
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I feel like it's a pretty sticky place.
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But I I think I always knew there was something more that I wanted to see.
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You know, I went to a teensy weetsy little church school in first grade and we did Paris Week.
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And I don't who thought of this?
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I have no idea.
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It probably does not happen now.
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But this was the 70s.
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And so we learned some French words and we ate croissant and we set up little fake cafes in the hall.
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And I was hooked.
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I was like, you're telling me there is something more than Huffman, Alabama in this world.
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And in this place, you sit outside and you drink hot chocolate and eat treats.
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You've got to be kidding me.
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And so I think I always thought that there would be something more, but I wasn't really sure how to how to get there.
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You know, that's the thing.
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I I had all of the want, but none of the knowledge, you know, my no one in my family had even been to college, much less traveled outside the country or anything like that.
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So it was always in the back of my mind.
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And in 2016, I had met my partner, my current husband.
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My husband is currently my husband.
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Sorry, Britt.
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And he was up for whatever.
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That is the best thing.
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By the way, if you don't have a partner who gets it, that is the best thing you can find.
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And he was like, you know what?
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Whatever you say, I'm up for trying it.
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And so we started talking about moving abroad.
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And we had no idea how to do it.
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We went and visited Canada.
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Everybody says, I don't like it here.
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I'll go to Canada.
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And the truth is, it's hard to move to Canada.
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It is not easy.
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And it is insanely expensive, especially if you're somebody from Alabama.
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I saw somebody renting out like their closet in Vancouver for a thousand bucks a month.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And so I was like, okay, this is not the plan.
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But we weren't sure what to do.
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So it took us about eight years, but eventually we started to learn different visa paths and we realized that maybe we could save up and maybe I'd retire early, or Brett would work remote, and that there were different countries you could move to under those criteria.
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Each country was different and so on.
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And eventually we had compiled so much info that we said, oh my gosh, we can't be the only ones going through this.
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What if our business became helping other people do what we're doing too?
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Can you um give a sense for what you and your husband were doing for careers around the time you had these big ideas?
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Sure.
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So I was head of marketing at a SaaS firm and I had been in marketing for decades, marketing, digital marketing, new product development.
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Um I have an MBA from Emery in Atlanta.
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And my husband had been in more hands-on roles.
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He had been an adjunct professor and he was a catering operations director.
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But during the pandemic, you know, he it was not a good time to be in catering.
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And so he decided to reskill.
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So he went to a coding boot camp and learned how to program software.
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But, you know, he was just getting started.
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You know, you start at the very ground level.
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And so he had reskilled during the pandemic.
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It was a it was a great, great thing that he did.
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And it's part of what allowed us to be able to go on and build this.
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Yeah.
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And were you both working your I mean, just about everybody was working remotely during the pandemic.
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Were both of you doing that as well?
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Or he was doing school online?
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He did school first and then he got jobs.
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And we both were fully remote.
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My job um kind of played like they would let me move abroad and then change their mind.
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But Brett's job fully said that he could work from anywhere.
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And he had several colleagues who were doing it, and they had a management change.
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And the new manager said you can only move abroad if you moved to India because yeah, they had some, you know, a call center or something.
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And I was, you know, we weren't prepared to move someplace so far away.
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And we had already gotten our residency from Mexico.
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So I said, um, come work with me and let's just make it happen.
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We weren't, we weren't profitable yet.
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So we just poured it on so that we could it could support us both.
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But the thing that people don't realize is you don't have to replace your 30-year marketing salary and your software developer salaries and benefits to move abroad.
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The reason why you can nearshore employees and pay them less is because the cost of living is so much less.
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So essentially, we nearshore ourselves.
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That's amazing.
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That I think you're the first.
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Well, this is a nearshore cafe, and I think you're the first person who's said it in those exact words, nearshoring yourselves.
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I like, I like how you put that.
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Before we make the the the literal jump to Mexico, so you you brought up Canada first, and and I I just maybe want to compare and contrast like the process of exploring visas, moving Canada versus Mexico.
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And did you look at other countries too?
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Were you thinking Europe because of your school Parisian experience or anywhere else, and maybe how you found the guidelines?
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And this is probably before the Chat GBT world and way before you research and all that stuff.
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It was really hard to find stuff, which is why we launched X Patsy.
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So we started with Canada just kind of by default, and then rented a cabin.
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There is probably listeners have heard of Talladega, Alabama, because of the NASCAR.
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But outside Talladega, this is how small it is, there's a little cabin in a town called Waldo, and we rented it, no internet, no cell service, no landline.
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We just locked ourselves down and we started listing everything that we wanted in our lives.
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You know, what did we want the weather to be like, the cost of living, what did we want to be legal or illegal?
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And we made a list of all those.
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And then and we looked at a couple of books, but the books weren't, you know, most of the books are related to people just trying to save on their taxes or whatever else.
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And that wasn't our goal.
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So we wanted a certain quality of life.
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So we came back and we just started researching country after country.
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And so we'd say, okay, what is the weather?
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And it would get a point, you know, if it met our needs and it wouldn't get a point if it didn't.
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And then we came up with a top 10 list of countries.
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We have a quiz on our site now.
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This is actually how we got started called the X Patsy test.
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And it's essentially where other people can go through that same process, and then it will generate a top 10 list of countries for you as well.
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But so our top 10 countries, we were there were some in Latin America, some in Europe, some in Asia, and we were gonna visit them over 10 years and then choose our favorite.
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And then at that point, I'd retire a little early.
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Brett would um be working remote.
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But what happened was we came to Mexico next.
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We live in Merida, Yucatan, and we came there the next year.
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You know, it was gonna be our first country of the 10 to visit.
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And I said, I can't wait.
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I can't go nine more years.
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Like, let's move now.
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And that's what spurred us to turn all of that info into expatsy.
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And both of you were because you had already launched the business.
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Like you left your job, launched the business while you were moving, like in the process of moving to Mexico.
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Did I have that time?
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Right?
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So essentially we started in 2016.
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The retreat in the cabin was New Year's Eve 2020 into New Year's Day 2021.
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Our first scouting trip, not counting Canada, but our first in the Spain, was to head to Mexico.
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That was one year later.
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And then on the plane on the way back, I said I wrote out the word expatsy.
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Love it.
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I mean, this is part of COVID.
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So, were there any complications with like moving abroad to Mexico?
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And did they have different requirements?
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Or, you know, what did that look like for you?
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That's an interesting question.
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A lot of people did move to Mexico during the pandemic because they were in places that were super locked down, like Canada or Europe.
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Two of our guides here, one is um from Toronto and one is from Hungary.
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And they came to Mexico for the freedom because they felt so constrained.
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For us, on the other hand, you know, like I said, we came here for the first time in the beginning of 2022.
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We were enamored by how strict the requirements were.
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We had been in Alabama where it was, I mean, the wildest.
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You know, in in all frankness, my father died.
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And it was really very, very common.
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And so to come here and it wasn't just the rules.
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The rules wasn't part of it.
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It was the tone.
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They had signage up that said, I'll take care of you, you take care of me, and we'll take care of each other.
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And then when you got out into the little villages, they had the same signs, but they were hand-painted.
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And so you saw that it was this huge community effort to say, we're all doing this together.
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Now, I know it's controversial.
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I know people have different opinions.
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I'm not trying to get into all that.
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But for us, you know, we just wanted everybody to agree and be doing the same thing.
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Yeah.
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And the craziest, we were in um, we were in a bingo preserve.
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I mean, it could not be more remote on a boat, um, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of this lagoon, and there was a fisherman out there on his boat all by himself, and he had his mask on.
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Like in the middle of lake.
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And that's how it was here.
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People on motorcycles had their masks on, everybody did.
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And it and this is 2022, keep in mind, this is not 2020.
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And then they had and the deaths here were very, very, very low.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And so for us, what was getting to us was the was the divisiveness, you know, in the US and the tension that everybody had with each other.
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And that didn't exist here.
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And that appealed to us.
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That said, I can understand why people from Canada and Europe were very happy to not be trapped in their houses as well.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And if we could just step back a second with how did you decide on the Yucatan area versus there's a lot of other expat-friendly places in Mexico?
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How did you circle that that area?
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I didn't know anything about Mexico.
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It was so embarrassing, Brian.
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It is our closest neighbor.
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I did not know the first thing.
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And I came across a TikTok of some guys from LA who had moved here and they showed their townhouse and they showed where they're eating and they showed their days.
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I was like, I've never heard of this place.
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We should check it out.
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And I knew it was really hot.
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It's known as the Furnace of Mexico.
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Yeah.
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And but I said, you know, let's just go try it out and see.
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We were gonna go to Costa Rica first, and we ended up coming here instead.
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And we just knew immediately there's something about vibes that you can't that you can't find on social media, you know, seeing a place in person.
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But that's how we came across it.
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Yeah.
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I know probably people see my content and end up moving here because it just, you know, you can see that life is is very accessible.
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Merida is a very soft landing for Americans.
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We have a Costco, you know.
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Yeah, yeah.
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What did the uh the language superior feel like for you?
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It's tough.
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We did not speak any Spanish.
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Brett took a little bit in college.
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I had never taken, I took French because I was obsessed with France.
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And we tried to learn before we came, and it was just while starting a business, it was impossible.
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So after we got here, we started taking like in-person classes or using virtual tutors at different times.
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And it helps a lot.
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One thing for people to keep in mind is if you don't need it for your livelihood, it is so much easier to get by than, you know, if I had to have this podcast in Spanish, we'd be here all day long.
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But I don't.
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So I'm learning it.
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I think it's respectful.
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And I also, you know, want to know more about what's going on around me.
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And I also think it's good for your brain, good for you in all sorts of ways.
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But my brain is slow and it doesn't want to learn it.
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One of our best Spanish classes, we go to Pilates.
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And uh, for your listeners, if anyone goes to Pilates, our classes here are$5.
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Yeah.
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And so the class you know is in Spanish, and there is no translation.
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So you've got to figure out what she means.
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And of course, you can look also, but it is a true immersion.
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And so I know all the body parts really well, and I know push and pull and inhale, exhale, and all that sort of thing.
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And you know, I just I have to trust that over time we'll get there.
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I wish I had time to do full day classes and really immerse myself, but our business is so busy that it's just not that time right now.
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Yeah, yeah, got it.
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I want to detour into your business, the full offerings, the services, and then if you could segue that into some of the tours that you've done.
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Yeah, for sure.
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So we started, we just launched the quiz, you know, in 2022 and had no way to monetize and figured we would sort that out over time.
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And so one of the first things we did was start to offer consultations where we helped people think through the same things we were thinking through.
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That said, you know, we weren't anywhere close to moving ourselves.
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So we we knew that our perspective was limited.
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We also started building partnerships.
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Our first partnership was with our friends at Moving to Spain.
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And so we worked out where if we met someone who wanted to move to Spain, we would connect them and earn a referral fee.
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Now, today we have 150 partners around the world and we're growing.
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The next thing was we got a sponsor.
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So once we got our sponsor, we realized we needed a lot more web traffic to keep our sponsor.
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And that led to us starting to go live on TikTok.
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And we started going live every night.
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That was in 2023.
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Eventually we parried it down to five days a week, four days a week.
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Now we go live two days a week on TikTok and Instagram on Sundays and Thursdays.
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And we answer questions and, you know, have some regulars and things like that.
00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:03.759
But once we started to go live, we started to meet people and build relationships.
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:06.159
It wasn't just a broadcast situation.
00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:08.639
And so we made a Facebook group.
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:13.840
And I think the first post on the Facebook group is when are we all taking a trip together?
00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:20.159
So, you know, because people knew from our lives that we had visited Canada and Mexico and what our process was.
00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.879
And we had not, we had still not moved at this point.
00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:26.799
We didn't get moved until 2024 because it just took us a long time.
00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:30.240
So I asked, you know, I did a poll, where do you want to go?
00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:32.000
And they said Spain and Portugal.
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.320
And I was I was like, okay.
00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:41.840
So I took 30 internet strangers to Spain and Portugal, two countries I had never been to.
00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:43.120
Incredible.
00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:44.559
I love the coffin out here.
00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:48.559
You know, some people have imposter syndrome.
00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:53.919
I have the opposite delusions of grandeur syndrome.
00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:56.480
But I told them, I said, look, I've never been there.
00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.159
We're figuring it out together.
00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:00.320
I used Google Maps to plan it.
00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:02.879
I used blogs and content and whatever.
00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:05.440
But it ended up being transformative.
00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:07.920
So many people on that trip have moved.
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:15.599
Now, of course, those first folks were very adventurous owing to the fact that they went with me not knowing that much about me.
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:19.119
And so they were, they're some of our best self-starters.
00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:23.599
But a number of them have moved and a number of them work with us now as well.
00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:33.839
So over time, we added tours to Colombia, the Netherlands, Ecuador, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico as well.
00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:34.960
I think that's everything.
00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:38.319
And then we're hopeful to add more trips going forward.
00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:44.160
So the biggest offerings we have are our service providers and our tours.
00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:49.839
And then now we have a platform called Xpatsy Go that sort of walks you through all of those things.
00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:54.480
We also have a huge flagship conference once a year.
00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.599
This year it's in San Diego, May 9th and 10th.
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:01.599
And so we bring 50 of our partners in from six continents.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:10.400
And so you can come to that conference and like ask them one-on-one should I get a, you know, a temporary residency or permanent residency?
00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:12.720
Should I consider Panama or Costa Rica?
00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:14.000
What are the pros and cons?
00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:17.920
What would be, what would my finances be in both those countries and so on?
00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:18.640
Wow.
00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:20.400
This is uh this is incredible.
00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:23.440
Tell us what um what a tour looks like today.
00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:28.960
Done a few of these, kind of worked out some of the, you know, kinks just like any business.
00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:33.119
If someone were to book a tour to Portugal, what does that look like?
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:35.440
And what what do most people want to get out of that?
00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:35.920
Sure.
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:39.599
So the big thing about the tour is that it is not vacation.
00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:41.599
It doesn't mean that you won't have fun.
00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:42.799
We do have fun.
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:50.400
You'll be with uh like-minded people, but my rule is no churches, no museums, no landmarks.
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:54.000
I am not taking you to see Balem Tower or whatever else.
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:58.880
Instead, we uh we start with a big seminar.
00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:05.200
And so we have someone talk about all the visa paths, taxes, health insurance, housing.
00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:08.559
The what they talk about depends on which country it is.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:15.039
Because, for example, in Costa Rica and Panama, you probably aren't going to have any tax liability, but in Portugal, it's significant, right?
00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:22.000
So they come and talk about those things and teach you all the things you need to know, but then they sit down and break bread with you.
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.319
And that's a big part of our business.
00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:36.240
We think we're tech enabled, we want to be futuristic, but at the end of the day, this is a community of human beings helping each other out on, you know, both sides of the border.
00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:46.240
And so we want you to sit down and get to know the person who's going to help you get your visas so that at some point you need to ask for a favor, you feel comfortable doing so.
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:53.440
And then the rest of the time we tour different towns and neighborhoods, we go places where people live.
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:58.000
So it might be suburbs, it might be small coastal villages.
00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:01.279
We try to see a variety and we tour real estate.
00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:01.759
Yeah.
00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.480
Are most people looking to do a full move or like a partial?
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:12.559
I want to stay somewhere for for a summer, but I want to learn more about it before I do it.
00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:30.319
Most people who we talk to are going for the full move, or they are going for at least sort of a halftime move with the idea that, you know, I'll buy a house in Mexico, I'll stay, I'll snowbird, but then in five years, I'm going to move down there permanently.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:30.799
Yeah.
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:37.599
And do most people have remote jobs, or are they kind of starting over, finding new careers and the new places?
00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:43.759
So most people who are able to really go right now have remote work or they're retired.
00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:54.240
Without a doubt, if you have the opportunity to um uncouple the way that you make money from a geographical location, the better.
00:20:54.400 --> 00:21:00.720
You know, the folks who are in the fire movement or whatever else, which is not me, I was trying, have the best opportunities.
00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:05.920
And like I said, don't forget it doesn't mean that you have to go and make$20,000 a month.
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:09.200
Our cost of living in Merida is$3,000 a month.
00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:12.400
And I want to be clear, Merida is nice.
00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:15.519
Like it is incredibly safe, it's high-end.
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:22.000
Absolutely, we are certainly not the wealthiest people here by any stretch of the imagination, but we live well on$3,000 a month.
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:34.880
And that includes date nights and our home with a pool and our French landlord, as you can see behind me for people who can see it, who's back there fixing the pool, and excellent health care and everything that we need.
00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:36.720
So keeping that in mind.
00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.880
So people who don't have that yet, that is the first step they have to do.
00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:43.039
We say there's a six step process.
00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:48.960
It's ideation, planning, exploration, paperwork, logistics settling in.
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.559
People who come on the trips are in stage three exploration.
00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.400
So they've got that solved.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.759
But a huge number of people are in the planning stage and trying to figure out.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.279
How to make that money.
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:02.960
Yeah, yeah, got it.
00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.799
Tell us more about um the Latin America elements.
00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:10.880
Um, if I understand right, led a tour to Ecuador.
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:13.599
We've never talked about Ecuador on this podcast.
00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:20.400
Can you give a sense of like the sites, the sounds, what it's like to visit there and and where exactly did you go?
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:21.200
For sure.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.119
So we didn't lead it.
00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:25.599
We get to go and attend now, thankfully.
00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:27.680
Don't have to lead the tours myself.
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:31.039
But we have excellent partners in Ecuador and guides.
00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:35.440
And so we focused on two places, Cuenca and Mata.
00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:38.640
Cuenca is in the Andes Mountains.
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:45.119
It's not quite as high up as Quito, and it's not as big, but it is incredibly nice.
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:50.240
One of the things it reminded me of visually was Portugal.
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:58.000
And that's because it's in a valley, you know, all the places in Portugal are hills, and there are terracotta roofs.
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:02.400
So from any point, you can see out over a sea of terracotta roofs.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:03.920
There are cobblestone streets.
00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:14.640
It isn't um behind the times, you know, there's probably 500,000 residents and there's plenty of modern amenities, but it is beautiful.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:22.079
You know, they use the US dollar, so you don't have to worry about currency exchange, and it is incredibly affordable.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.319
You can move there if you have a college degree, that's all you need.
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:30.960
Or you can go if you buy a house worth at least$47,000.
00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:31.759
Yeah.
00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.519
The food was good.
00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:39.440
It it was, and I probably didn't eat enough to get a huge feel for it.
00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:42.559
But there was a real American influence on the food.
00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:52.799
You know, like it was there was a lot of American food, and then there was a lot of food that was just very simple and pure, like really great soups, like so many really good soups.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.720
And we had come from Uruguay.
00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:59.440
And if you've ever been to Uruguay, you know it's just nothing but steak and wine and caramel.
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:03.519
But I needed soup so bad.
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:04.880
We were delighted.
00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:13.359
People there were very kind, and you know, it's obviously on the equator, owing to the name, but in Cuenca, it's 70 degrees every day all year.
00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.119
And that's because of the elevation.
00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:15.839
Mm-hmm.
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:18.000
Yeah, yeah, very nice.
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:22.160
The sun's no joke, but the temperature is nice.
00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:26.400
I assure you, it's probably 95 in Merida today, at least.
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:27.279
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:28.319
And that's normal.
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:29.599
Yeah, amazing.
00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:31.200
How about Belize?
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:39.759
I know you haven't done a formal expati tour, but from my understanding, you visited Belize, which is another place we have yet to talk about.
00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:45.759
So uh you can you can break the barrier here and tell our listeners about your experience in Belize.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:46.400
Amazing.
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:52.160
So the nice thing about Belize for us is we can drive there and it's not terribly far.
00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:58.880
It's, I don't know, I think it's about six hours to the border, which is about how far it is from Birmingham to New Orleans.
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:00.000
So very similar.
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:03.200
And we have been uh a couple of times.
00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:18.319
Once we took a ferry out to the Keys, and these are, you know, beautiful, peaceful islands where you have a cocktail, you snorkel or scuba dive, and it and that life is available.
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:29.359
There are some islands that are pretty big and populated, and some where there's no cars, you just take a golf cart and it's very chill and it's uh fantastic.
00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:34.240
And you know, there it's English speaking, Belize, and it also uses the dollar.
00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.599
So both of those things make it a soft landing.
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.759
We've also been to Belize City, uh, which is much larger.
00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:49.039
The thing that I will say about Belize, and I I want to preface it by saying I know precious little about it.
00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:51.599
So apologies if I speak out of terms.
00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:56.160
But it was colonized by the UK up until just about 40 years ago.
00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:02.480
And you can tell it has so much opportunity for businesses.
00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:07.519
Um, they're just it's very difficult to buy things there.
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:14.799
There was, we ended up getting stuck down there for a while because I was having trouble with my paperwork from Mexico, and I needed to buy clothes.
00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:18.880
And I mean, like lit we're in Belize City, the capital, the largest city.
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:21.599
There are only 450,000 people in the whole country.
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:29.839
And there was not a single place to buy just clothes, you know, to buy socks, underwear, t-shirt, shorts.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:37.920
And so I ended up being able to get some things at a salvage store where you just hoped that it was the closest possible size.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.240
And then I did go, I ended up having to go to the consulate in my salvage store, you know, outfit.
00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:45.200
Yeah.
00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:59.839
But to my mind, I could just say, I certainly wouldn't want anyone to come in and make it worse, but I think that there are a number of opportunities to contribute to the life of Belize.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:05.680
And they have a number of residency paths paths that include investing in the country.
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:16.079
And I think that if you are a company that needs a workforce that's English speaking on your time zone, I think you're foolish not to consider.
00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:22.880
Now, I think there will probably be a struggle in terms of building facilities, you know, whereas in Mexico, it'd be very, very simple.
00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:25.279
Like construction here is just off the chain.
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:27.359
And I believe that would not be the case.
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:35.759
But there are so many opportunities if you needed call center folks or customer service or other things like that.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.319
And they have a real push for sustainable technologies as well.
00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:43.599
So if there are things you can do around, and of course it's sunny and beautiful.
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:44.319
Amazing.
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:44.799
Wow.
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:46.079
I will definitely look at that.
00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:50.000
Before we go, um, let's spend a little bit more time on uh Yucatan.
00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:54.480
Um, do you see a lot of American expats in your in your daily life?
00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:57.039
I could go weeks of not seeing American.
00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:57.680
Really?
00:27:57.839 --> 00:27:58.720
Wow, okay.
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:04.960
There are a lot of headlines about Americans, you know, invading here, there, and everywhere.
00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:07.599
And the truth is it's still really small numbers.
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:08.160
Yeah.
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:18.880
The best estimate I've heard is that there are about 2,500 Americans in Merida and maybe 7,500 Canadians, but they're here mostly in the winter and then they leave.
00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:25.279
I will say this there are enough Canadians here that they just open a Tim Hortons down the street.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:27.599
So there are not, there are not none.
00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:28.160
Yeah.
00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:29.359
But you really don't.
00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:39.279
Now, when you go to Cantonaroo, yeah, we've been to Plaido Carmen or Cozumel, and it's shocking to see so many gringos, but you really don't hear.
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:46.960
There are French, like my landlord, there are Italians, there are some Germans, there are international schools and things like that here.
00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:51.039
But in general, most people here are Mexican.
00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:52.640
Yeah, yeah, interesting.
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.640
And tell us about the infrastructure.
00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:57.599
Like it seems like our connection is pretty strong.
00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:02.160
Wi-Fi, groceries, AC, you know, all that stuff.
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:03.039
Um, yeah.
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:06.640
Probably things top of mind for people that might move to a different country.
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:07.200
Yeah.
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:10.720
So roads are always a struggle in Mexico.
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:13.440
You know, they're just, it's just not the same.
00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:17.200
They're bumpy and they have these speed bumps called topes.
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.960
But roads in Yucatan are heads and tails above what they are in the rest of the country.
00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:24.799
We drove here from Birmingham.
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:26.960
So we saw a little bit of everything.
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:27.279
Yeah.
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:33.920
And once we got to the peninsula, it was like, oh, smooth sailing, you know, just very traditional highway systems and and things like that.
00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:36.480
The power grid is not perfect.
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:43.920
And when it gets to the hottest parts of the summer, sometimes we'll have a little outage at night, usually lasts about five minutes.
00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:49.200
My theory is they do it on purpose to turn off all the stuff people aren't using.
00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:51.039
And then they turn it back on.
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:54.720
That said, tons of places, including ours, have solar.
00:29:54.799 --> 00:29:58.880
So it's uncommon to have batteries, but we feed into the the grid.
00:29:59.039 --> 00:29:59.359
Yeah.
00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:02.000
And there are also wind farms here as well.
00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.480
Internet, we have pretty good service.
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:12.960
We use a local provider, but we also have satellite internet as a backup because we do so much stuff like this, and we're both online all the time.
00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:19.359
So that also allows us to use two different networks if we need to, or rotate if one, if one goes out.
00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:20.160
Great.
00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:28.720
Uh, if anybody listening wants to do the expatsy experience, what's the best way to contact you or or get started?
00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:31.680
The best thing to do is start at xpatsy.com.
00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:41.279
It's expsi.com, and you can take the expatsy test and you'll be tapped into our services and our events.
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:47.519
Every Sunday I do a free webinar on how to move abroad, and then I do a workshop.
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:49.839
We have our conference coming up.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.799
It's at moveabroadcon.com.
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:58.079
It's perfect, especially for people in Southern California who have easy access to the San Diego area.
00:30:58.240 --> 00:30:59.440
We're going to have a great time.
00:30:59.680 --> 00:31:02.240
And it will speed up people's moves abroad.
00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:07.200
Jen Barnett, I am so happy you came here to share your story.
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:11.839
And I love that line about how you and your husband near short yourself.
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:12.720
That was fantastic.
00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:13.839
Thanks, Ryan.
00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:14.720
I appreciate it.
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:16.319
Well, thanks so much for being a guest.
00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:20.160
Thanks to our sponsor, Plug Technologies, P L U G G dot Tech.
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.599
Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America to growing U.S.
00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:24.079
companies.
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:28.240
This is the Nearshore Cafe Podcast, and we'll see you again next time.