From Kansas to Medellin: A Millionaire's Story

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From Kansas to the vibrant city of Medellin, Colombia, we embark on an incredible journey with our special guest, who shares his inspiring story of transformation.

 Growing up in an outdoor-oriented community in Kansas, he transitioned from being a swimmer to becoming a hunter before making the bold part-time move to Medellin, Colombia. His entrepreneurial spirit shines through as he discusses his ventures and highlights his son's remarkable career in country music, showcasing the dedication and perseverance needed to thrive in such a competitive industry. Join us as we bridge the gap between the United States and Latin America through enriching personal anecdotes and shared experiences.

In our conversation, we uncover the often-overlooked benefits of living abroad, with a focus on Colombia's superior and affordable healthcare. Comparing the conveniences of Western living to the unique experiences in places like Medellin, we challenge common stereotypes. From the efficiency of services like Rappi to the excellent medical care , these insights provide a fresh perspective on international living. Discover how Medellin's vibrant real estate market has become a lucrative investment opportunity, surpassing traditional hotspots like Miami, and hear about the spontaneous decisions that led to falling in love with this dynamic city.

We also dive into the exciting world of cross-cultural living and business building, exploring the challenges of starting a mattress business in China and the rewarding experiences of balancing life between the U.S. and Medellin. Our guest offers valuable advice for young entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of passion and living without regret. Listen in as we discuss the financial wisdom of relocating abroad, particularly for retirees looking to maximize their Social Security benefits, and the cultural appreciation that comes from learning the local language. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone considering a global lifestyle and seeking success beyond borders.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a
podcast hosted by Matt Chambers.
This is the podcast thattranscends boundaries, empowers
cross-cultural connections andfosters a more connected world.
I'm your host, matt Chambers,and I invite you to join us on
this quest to expand ourunderstanding and build bridges
between my two favorite placeson the planet Latin America and

(00:23):
the United States.
My two favorite places on theplanet Latin America and the
United States.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I've been traveling living and doing business in
Latin America for nearly twodecades.
Thank you, matt, for having me.

(00:49):
I appreciate being here, man,how you been.
Everything good, everything isgreat look at the weather here.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I know, man, beautiful medellin, colombia.
You know, this is the firstlive podcast that I've done
where I've interviewed theinterviewee live.
Oh, we're in the same room.
Yeah, I've been doing them allremotely and you know, because
everyone I interviews all overthe world, right, you can, it's
hard, yeah, that's true.
Yeah, hard to get in the sameroom, but yeah, man, it's nice

(01:15):
to nice to be here.
We've known each other quite afew years now, right, five, six
years before pandemic yeah,definitely before pandemic.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I took five years.
You were.
You were one of the firstpeople I met here.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
So I know you've been.
When did you first buy in downhere?
2018, 2017?
It's right at the beginning ofthe pandemic.
What?
1920?
2019, yeah, that's right Beforepandemic Gotcha.
So you came from Kansas, yougrew up in Kansas, had business

(01:46):
in Kansas.
What was it like growing up inKansas, man?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, kansas City in itself is more of an outdoor
community.
You know hunting and fishing,although I was in sports most of
my high school college and,being a swimmer, I tried every
sport.
Well, you can figure out whatyou're good at and, being a
swimmer, I tried every sportwhere you can figure out what
you're good at and then uh.
But I didn't really do a lot ofthat until I got older, because

(02:10):
swimming you go from 5 to 7 amand 3 30 to 6 monday through
friday and saturday.
Then you had meat and that was10 months a year.
So that took an incredibleamount of time.
Once I got married, I startedhunting, getting together with
my rugby buddies.
I needed an excuse to get outof the house.
Sure, I thought hunting wouldbe a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, like, what the hell else do you do in Kansas?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
right, hunt, fish, hunt and fish, a lot of it, a
lot of it, and you know, whichis really great because there's
so much open space.
There's a lot to do.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, I can identify.
I grew up in West Virginia,middle of nowhere.
West Virginia and Jesus,Exactly.
Yeah For me.
I didn't really have thepatience to hunt or fish.
I did it as a kid, but I didn'thave the patience to do it, so
eventually I had to get the hellout of West Virginia just to
not be bored.
But I do understand it and Ithink you told me your son's a

(03:03):
country music singer.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yes, he's had three number one hits.
They had eight top 40 hits.
He has a great career.
It's pretty amazing.
Now he went to Nashville,started, you know, cooking hot
dogs in Tootsie's, a famous bar.
Then they let him sing and, youknow, first one was 12 to 2.
I went in there and there wasthree people in there and he's

(03:29):
up on stage singing.
I had a panic attack.
It was like, oh my god.
And then, you know, he was oneof the better ones.
He moved two to four, four tosix.
Then he was headlined the 10 to2.
For you know, it took him nineyears to sign with sony so he
worked his butt off to do itisn't that kind of the common
thing with those guys, though?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Anyone that wants to make it, you just kind of have
to go through yourself with thewolves you know there's a lot of
great voices out there.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
You don't want to go to a karaoke bar there or in
Brampton, but you know, yeah,you have to survive and you know
you got to have a little luckand I'm still amazed when I hear
him on the radio that he's oneof the 10 million that made it.
It's really something that'sawesome.
Very proud of him.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Very proud.
So share with me your journeyas an entrepreneur I know you
worked for yourself your wholelife and share a little bit
about your upbringing in Kansasand how you got into business
and what are some of the keylessons you learned along the
way out there.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, you know I started, like everyone, fast
food at high school, part-timesomething's probably about 99
percent of the people in theworld.
But uh, when I got into collegeI'd always worked and I was
doing concert security work andworked my way up to where I was
running the company, where we'dhave 120 people go to a show,

(04:46):
social security ushers, tickettakers and I really enjoyed that
.
I got out briefly and went intothe corporate world.
I double majored in accountingand finance and sitting in a
cubicle drove me crazy and theconsular security thing was
always moving, doing something,a lot of issues all the time.
But I just love startingbusinesses and it's the one

(05:10):
thing you know.
I probably started seven ofthem and two of them were very
successful.
The other ones I still thinkwere great ideas, whether bad
timing, bad management, or maybethat's just my ego talking, I
just feel a thing.
But you know, like you, I meanstarting.
Maybe that's just my egotalking, I just feel a thing.
But you know, like you, I meanstarting a business.
It takes a certain mindset,certain person.

(05:30):
You got to be able to.
You know you can't be riskadverse if you're doing that,
like I.
When I first started you knowone of my businesses.
I didn't take a paycheck fortwo years.
I mean nothing.
It was growing but and I knewit was eventually going to be
there.
But it was a little tough.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
But how'd you get through that?
Did you just take the minimumof what you could take, or did
you do other things on the sideto make that?

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Well, fortunately, at the time I was married and that
helped, because you know it ledto a few fights, of course, but
you know she had an income, sowe at least had basic expenses.
And the problem was I had astaffing firm.
We did attorneys, engineers,project managers, so everything

(06:17):
was you had to pay people.
You didn't get paid for 30 days.
You couldn't even bill for 30days.
Then you didn't get paid for 30.
So you're 60 behind.
And then every time you'resuccessful, which means you're
adding more people, which meansyou have more payroll demands,
it means you just can't take.
I mean I knew it was sittingthere, but it was tough.

(06:38):
I mean it was never easy.
And I'm sure you've had thosesame things.
You've started up manycompanies and there's always
that, you know, trying to get onthere and with every business.
And then the next thing is do Ibring on a person to help me?
But then I have to pay them.
Is there enough work for them,full time?
And it's, you know it's alwaysjuggling something.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's easy.
I think that when you have agood month, it's easy to think
well, how can I hire somebody togrow this thing right?

Speaker 2 (07:13):
And then as soon as you do that, the next month
you're like, damn it, I enteredthis new person and I got to pay
this new person.
Damn it.
No, I know, that was always thehardest thing for me to figure
out.
Yeah, and I think for mostentrepreneurs we're always
trying to figure out how do wegrow it?
I mean, that's the whole reasonwe're in business is to grow
For sure.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
If you're not growing , you're dying right.
Exactly Some of these guys I'vemet over the years clients,
friends, whatever.
They get to a point with theirbusiness and they're happy,
they're content, and you startgetting complacent and you're
fucked.
I mean there's no because,again, if you're not striving to

(07:50):
grow it, somebody's going tocome in and fill the business,
or you're just going to getlaxed, or no, that's true,
because you're right.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
If you're not out there doing it, then you start
to disengage For sure, becauseeverything's kind of just
running itself.
You're making enough money thatyou're relatively happy.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
But you're right, you're not helping the business
and someone else will come inFor sure, you'd be starting
another one in two or threeyears because that one's going
to go out of business, exactly.
So what Did you?
Sell the business and retiredno.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Actually, timing-wise , our largest account was bought
out.
We didn't get a new contractwith the company and so it kind
of worked out because it wasalready at I was at the
retirement age.
I would have liked to have soldit, but during the last couple
of years trying to get it'salways good to find people to-
grow the business.

(08:39):
That's the hardest thing and Iwish there was some magic way to
do it, because I've triedhiring people with management,
sales, management sales, andapparently I was paying them too
much in salary plus commission,because they seem to be very
happy not selling, sure, andI've always said this and it's
true, and because I've gone toso many sales trainings and that

(09:02):
if you, even if you're not goodat selling, if you just do the
numbers, you're going to makemoney for sure and it's.
You know it's hard to get thatacross yeah, and I think it's
it's.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's always a challenge to find someone that's
going to care about yourbusiness as much as you do.
Well that's true too, yeah andthen they're not going to manage
it the way you do and exactyou're gonna, you're gonna end
up fighting over that and it'sjust not going to work in the
end.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
I've seen it happen.
The other part was, you know,in the industry there's usually
a non-compete.
So you hire a sales managerthat doesn't have a non-compete,
and then you find out whyBecause no one else wants to.
No one else wants to Exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
So what drew you to Medellin?
I know you did some travelYou've done quite a bit of
international travel before youcame here, right?

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, I've really started traveling in my 40s, and
when the kids were little, Itook them to Mexico, dominican
which still has the mostbeautiful beaches to me, sure,
but we started traveling.
The more I traveled, the westarted traveling, the more I
traveled, the bug hits you, themore I want to travel Right here
.
Then I had a friend go toRussia.
I went there a few times and itis eye opening.

(10:15):
I think everyone should travel,because when you come back to
the United States, you'll stopbitching For sure, because,
except for Europe and the unitedstates government doesn't do
anything for you.
And here, you know, in america,everybody wants.
That's right, I should get this, I should get that.
I went to russia and once youget out in this town called
egesk it's a military town, soit's like one of the last ones

(10:36):
to open up to the west, and sonot many people spoke english.
But when you saw how thesepeople lived, they all lived in
dorms and it's just amazing tome that that's how the whole
population lives.
There's a few people that had ahouse.
They had a two mile stretch ofroad that they had just paved.
They called it five minutes inamerica, literally because it

(10:56):
had a paved road because theyhad one people, not holes
everywhere.
Oh it's crazy.
Yeah, I mean we see everyonesees tv and they know they want
to be in America, but I justthought it was so funny.
That's, that's what they allcall.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, for sure.
You know, travels opened up myeyes to see the things that the
United States does well and alsothe things that we do bad.
Right, because as many thingsthat that you see abroad that
these countries do poorly, theway they treat their citizens
and they you know all all thenegative you see almost as many

(11:29):
things that they do well, right,I mean carl, exactly, and
columbia the perfect example ofthat.
I think everyone thinks thatyou know that's columbia, so all
they do down there is, you know, it's just killing each other
and drugs and all that stuff.
It's just not true, right, youget here and you're like, oh my
God, the Rappi service.
There's one thing that I justyou know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
You turned me on to that.
You said it would belife-changing.
It has been.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
I've seen so many things here, as you have in
Medellín, colombia, thatliterally I just have never seen
anywhere else, and a lot ofthem are things that when I'm
not in Columbia I miss them.
I almost can't live withoutthem, and one of those is a
rapid delivery service.
They deliver absolutelyeverything you want to your door
, anything, day or night, doctor, nurse you need a doctor.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
That is the one thing here.
I got food poisoning last yearand I had somebody call up and a
doctor came here, gave me an IVin this room and it was just
amazing.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Here in your house, right in your house.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah right, it's fantastic Because with the food
poisoning I couldn't leave thebathroom for too long so I
couldn't go anywhere For sure.
But that's incredible.
The other is the medical and Ihave people back home go because
I had my eyes done, I hadcataracts.
I had my eyes done, I hadcataracts, came down here.
They did it.
They put a trifocal lens in andcheaper than I would have paid

(12:47):
with insurance in the Stateswhich is another issue that
we'll get to later but I doeverything here now.
Fantastic.
And people back home can'tunderstand.
They go.
What are you crazy?
It's a third world country.
I go.
I have news for you theirmedical is a lot better than a
lot of places in America.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I one time I got sick on salmon.
I have many of these stories.
I won't do into all of them,but I was deathly sick on salmon
and it was my own salmon.
By the way, I have never, I'venever been sick.
Take that back.
I got sick on fried chickenhere one time.
But Colombians are so clean ingeneral, they're just clean
people In South America, mostcountries.
Brazil is extremely clean,colombia is extremely clean.

(13:25):
But if you're from the Statesand you don't travel, you hear
about Colombia and you're likeoh my God, this you know my
brother-in-law at one point.
He was like I thought Colombiajust had a bunch of potholes and
dirt roads and I'm like, oh man, colombia is incredible, the
infrastructure is incredible,and especially for a third world
country.
But I got sick on my own salmon.
I left it out too long and Iwent ahead and cooked it, ate it
, stupid.

(13:45):
The next day I wake up deathlyill and my buddy John, who had
been here for about eight yearsor something, a couple of years
before me, he said Matt, don'teven pass, Go, go directly to
the emergency room.
I'm like the emergency room,can I just go to the pharmacy
and get a pill or something he'slike no, go directly.
That's what people do here.
They go directly to theemergency room and at that point
I had signed up on theirprivate health insurance through

(14:06):
SORA and I go directly to theemergency room.
There were probably six orseven people in the line in
front of me, but I flashed mySORA private health care card
and literally skipped the line.
She says go over the otherwindow and pay your copay.
The copay was the equivalent ofabout 13 or 14 American dollars
at the time, right.
And then she said just wait inthe chair, we'll call you.
Literally, my ass hit the chair.

(14:28):
And she says Mr Chambers, comeon back.
And I could see these otherpeople were just deathly sick.
And I'm like wait, I'm skippingthese people.
How can we do that?
Because I had the privatehealth insurance.
They passed me right back intothe emergency room S emergency
room.
Swear to you, within fiveminutes I have ivs in my arm.
Three hours later I'm out ofthere.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
I feel I'm 100 you know, and I and I've done that a
couple times I have a driverwho speaks both english and
spanish obviously I'm not,unfortunately, fluent like you
who gets heads turning when theysee you talk in a restaurant
because you sound like atrombone.
But uh, I've worked hard forthat, by the way.
Uh, yeah, but it wasn't easy,no, without a doubt.

(15:06):
But I went in there.
I go in this little room at theER I'm the only one there and
as they're doing x-rays, I lookout and I see, oh my God,
there's another waiting room.
I'm in the American paying cash.
They like that For sure, andI'm like I went right in.
It was amazing.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, and you know I tell people back in the States
they're like, oh, I need to getthis dental work done or that
dental work done.
And I'm like, well, you just godown to Columbia, you know, and
here's my dentist, I'll giveyou a dentist, Go see him.
And people turn their headslike I'm never doing that.
I've heard too many horrorstories and the experience I've
had with medical here has beenabsolutely incredible.
I've had surgeries here.

(15:45):
I had my dentist.
I've gone to every six monthsfor the last six or seven years.
I see no difference in what hedoes and what I get done in the
States.
No, they have the sameequipment.
It's just as nice.
My teeth cleaning costs $25 outof pocket, right?

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I have a little heart issue that goes back in that
they're supposed to check everyyear.
Checked it last year.
Well, I get back to the States,I call them up to check it.
No one ever contacts me andthen I kind of forget about it.
So now I'm coming back andspent a year and a half and I'm
like this is my heart.
I had my gal call up who speaks, and you'd met her, speaks
English and Spanish.
On a Friday, calls a heartdoctor.

(16:21):
They get me in Monday afternoon, unlike the United States.
I'd have to wait two months.
Yeah, yeah for sure, gets me in300 patients.
75 months, 300,000 patients aswell.
Yeah, 300,000 patients.
But I was like God, that's theone good thing about here.
You rarely ever have to wait,you just get in, you can get
everything done and it's greatcare.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
They take health serious here, I mean, and that's
just a.
It's a beautiful thing.
I actually saw a few years back.
Someone showed me where the UShad fallen In terms of the
overall health care system.
The US had fallen to around 34on the world level.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
I tell people 17.
Yeah, no, I tell people to lookit up I.
Yeah no, I tell people to lookit up, I go.
They have a better health caresystem.
It's much faster and it's muchcheaper.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Now, that said, I don't think people should come
down here and just see whateverdoctor, right, I mean you could
see a bad doctor here moreeasily than you could in the
States.
But if you're going to the tophospitals I mean most of these
guys have been educated in theUS, europe I mean they come back
here.
They're absolutely incredibleand you know they've done their
internship and stuff abroad andmaybe worked abroad for you know

(17:28):
, x years.
So you're getting US quality atthese better facilities for a
tenth of the price.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
No, and that's an excellent point.
You just don't want to goanywhere.
But fortunately, now that I'vegotten to know people here, they
have directed me to the bestplaces and yourself, included,
has helped me with that, and youknow.
And now that you know, we eachhave a group of people that we
go to and I had my eyes done.
We went to the one clinic.
I didn't, I had no idea, Ididn't know I was going to do it

(17:56):
here.
Yeah, but it's amazing, it'sbeen, it's been Once you and
once you're here and people andthey you're right, because
they're like it's third worldwhy would you ever trust an
industry?
I go?
You have to be here to see itFor sure.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's another reason , I think.
Going back to your point thatpeople should travel Because it
is easy to sit in Kansas has anexample, or West Virginia, or
even wherever.
Atlanta right, there's peoplethat don't travel all over the
United States, so it's easy tosit back there and say oh,
columbia, all I've heard aboutthat is narcos, and you know but
then you come here, thebuildings are freaking beautiful

(18:31):
, the mountains are beautiful,right I mean.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I have one of my best friends, lawyer, in town and he
goes have you seen the crimethere?
I go.
Have you seen the crime inChicago?
You go there, don't you?
I go.
You don't go to the band park.
I mean, you know you got to besomewhat smart, but I'm like
Chicago's worse.
They're killing everyone there.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
No, I mean, and not just Chicago, but all liberal
run cities in the state.
So the state's a savage youknow, that is shit.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's gotten worse since pandemic obviously Much
worse, and you know, with allthe hey, let's let these people
out, there's no repercussions ifyou're a criminal.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
In Colombia.
It's easy to sit in the Statesand I've done it myself.
I'm not here full-time, I spendtime in the States all the time
and it's easy to go away fortwo or three months to start
looking at all the crime statsthat you see on Facebook or you
see on Instagram and then think,oh, my god, what's going on in
Medellin right now?
Right, because it's the onlyperspective you have.
You're not down here walkingaround the streets every day and
seeing the realities of it,you're just seeing.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Facebook.
Oh you know what?
That's an excellent point,because what do they report on?
It's all negative news.
It's all the negatives.
I mean you should mention everycountry.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
They're all reporting on the majority of these guys,
I would say high 90%, right,just to be conservative.
Most of these guys are puttingthemselves in those situations

(20:00):
just like they do in the States,right?
If I go to the south side ofChicago and just decide to go
walking around, well, there's ahigh chance that something's
going to happen.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
You know that is an excellent point in which I tell
people I haven't had anythinghappen to me Now, granted low
luck, anything can happen.
I've had my house in KansasCity get broken in two.
So I mean it happens everywhereand obviously I'm in a nice
neighborhood for sure.
But the other thing is I tellpeople but I don't.

(20:28):
Also, as you just said, whichis the best point, I don't put
myself in that position.
I'm not out drunk at four inthe fucking morning, exactly.
I mean, that's when you'regoing to get into a situation
where you're not thinking aswell as where you should be, and
that's where people when doesmost crime happen?

Speaker 1 (20:44):
There's nothing good happening after midnight, right?
Exactly, I mean for the mostpart, and you know, I think
another thing to point out inColumbia is that the rules are
different here.
You just simply can't come downhere and do the exact same
things that you can everywhereelse, right?
I mean, if I come down here andI can go to Miami and I can get
on Tinder and swipe right ahundred times, I'll get a couple

(21:05):
dates maybe.
Maybe you come down here andyou swipe right a hundred times
on Tinder, you'll get a hundreddate, right, but they're not
going to be the hundred that'swon, right?
It's not the good.
People aren't on those appshere, and so these are getting
in trouble.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
No, you're right, we do have to be careful.
And the other thing is I knowyou have seen a lot of stuff.
I may be wrong, but I think,because one, you're so fluent
and you're so comfortable herethat you can go anywhere, that
you stay in different areas thatI have not been able to reach
out into yet because I'm notfluent.
So you're in more local areas,so you probably have seen more,

(21:45):
which a lot nicer areas.
I would like to get theresomeday.
So I think probably some of thecrime you've seen in there.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Well, yeah, I mean again, I've seen crime in
Atlanta.
I lived in Atlanta for years,right, I mean they robbed my
neighbor's Lambo in Buckheadwhen I was there, literally
Walked right in the garage andstole it.
They broke into our garage,which is a really high-end
building in Atlanta with 24-7security, broke in multiple
times, stole six, seven cars outof there.

(22:13):
I mean I've seen it everywhereand I don't want to paint the
picture that you know Medellin'sperfect and you should come out
down here and do whatever thehell you want, because I don't
think that's true, but you knowyou need to.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
If you want to travel , though I have been in many
countries and I would suggestfinding this one at least to see
it.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Absolutely Beautiful place, great people.
People are so friendly.
It's just amazing, for sure.
And you've invested in severalproperties here, right?
Yes, and wouldn't you havethree or four, three, three, and
you were looking at more atsome point, yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
You know it's nice, steady income and, to be quite
honest, we have a mutual friendwho helped me do that Yep and
he's you know, I don't know Iwould have done it without you
know he had properties.
He was telling me, you know youshould do this.
I started looking at it and he,you know, mentioned me through
it.
And, of course, everything inlife, we all need help.

(23:07):
We're not born with anything.
Learning from yep, right, so weall learn from someone, and so
that's worked out really well.
I was, you know, the only thingfor people who want to invest
and this is the same as inEurope too they're not going to
give you a mortgage.
You got to be able to have cash.
Yeah, absolutely.
But you know, if you find anice place with you know, it's
got a track record and for meit's worked out really well

(23:29):
because you have managementcompanies.
I don't do anything, I just geta check every month.
So it's worked out really well.
I've been very happy.
At first I was a little nervousbecause they elected a new
president who was a little moreliberal than I wanted to think,
but it appears most of hisagenda hasn't gone through the
place and now that COVID's overthe place looks like it's

(23:50):
booming more than ever, for sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
No, I agree, you know , I don't know what the real
estate market's going to do here.
I know that the guys likeyourself who bought pre-pandemic
, for sure, and I have somebuddies that have bought all the
way back to like 2011, 2013.
I bet they're happy as hell.
Oh, for sure, you know, themarket's doubled, I think, since
2011 or 12, something like that.
The yield, your yields, havebeen really high, right 12, 13%.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yep, You've been up there and you know, just
recently I was looking at theproperties.
They're up, you know, 40, 50%and value, yeah, value Right,
wow, and I'm like, which isincredible.
I was just happy with theincome, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
You know, when I first started coming down here.
I came down here just onvacation in 2015.
I found this place by accident.
I had gotten invited to awedding over on the coast in
Cartagena by one of my neighborsin Atlanta.
Really, yeah.
He was like let's go, I'm goingdown to a wedding in Columbia,
you want to come with me?
And at that time things weregreat Just got out of my

(24:49):
furniture business, all thatstuff, and so what else do I
have to do, right?
So I bought a flight like lastminute.
He asked me like the day before, and I was like fuck it, dude,
I don't have anything to do,let's do it.
So I ended up in Cartagena andI stayed 10 days and I had heard
about other parts of Colombiaand I'm like fuck it, I don't
have anything else to do.
I stayed and traveled throughthe country.

(25:10):
I went all over and the verylast city I found was Medellin.
Really, I was going to stayfour days.
I'm staying four days andthat's it Bought like a Thursday
to Sunday type deal, and forthat weekend I went to migration
and asked for extra time.
I was like I'm going to extendmy stay and then I just kept
coming.
And then 2017 to 2000,.

(25:30):
What 2022,?
I was here pretty muchfull-time, oh yeah, and that's
just.
It was incredible.
Now I'm not here full-time, butit was an incredible experience
.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know it's funny.
I was traveling around I saw agroup.
It was foreign brides lookingfor foreign brides.
Not that I wanted to getmarried.
What the hell were you doing onforeign brides if you weren't
wanting to get married?
Because I wanted to travel andit was a group, it was a good
excuse.
I am not like you.
You have traveled all overSouth America and I am very
envious by yourself.
I cannot do that.

(26:02):
You were like you're like hey,I'm going here, I'm going here.
Well, what's there?
I don't know yet.
I'm like extended my stay Firsttime I've ever done that in my
life.
Then they had another one herein Medellin and I just fell in
love with this city.
It's just the climate, thepeople, just everything.
I was kind of hoping to findsomewhere to go in the winters.

(26:24):
I didn't want to go to Miami,like everyone else, but I mean
it's just incredible.
As soon as I got here I didfeel like I was home.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean it was just amazing Of all my travels and
it's funny you're talking aboutme going random places.
But when I built my mattressbusiness, I flew to China
several times.
Every time I went I'd spendlike three or four weeks, really
, at first it was just Hong Kong, right?
So Hong Kong's first world, bigdeal, right, you can go to Hong
Kong land, you, you can go toHong Kong land.
You can speak English if youwant to, whatever, right, but
it's still freaking China, man,You're not in the States anymore

(26:56):
.
Oh yeah, first world.
But at one point I took a ferryto go to the mattress factory
where I built my mattresses.
It required a ferry from HongKong to Foshan City.
It was about a three-hour ferryride.
Geez, now imagine my obviousAmerican ass On a freaking ferry
for three hours.
Now, hong Kong is different,because I can you know menus in

(27:17):
English, all that stuff's alittle bit easier.
But I'm on a fucking ferryGoing up some random ass river
In the middle of nowhere, china,trying to find a mattress
factory.
Am I going to make it whole?
If you need any idea, man, allof a sudden you go from Hong
Kong To mainland China,everything fucking symbols.
You're not seeing any moreEnglish, it's all symbol.
I couldn't tell a pizza shopfrom a hospital.

(27:39):
But here I am wondering aroundin Boshan City trying to find a
mattress factory.
Even those no-name cities inChina have multiple millions of
people, so you're in just a seaof people.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
But that was my Russia was kind of like that.
They have all these words thathave like four continents in
their continent in a row, whichwe don't have in the English
language.
You can't figure out what thehell they're saying.
It can be intimidating.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
The only two cities.
My point I've failed to get tothe only two cities I've ever
flown to and immediately fell inlove.
I felt an energy that I've justnever felt before in Hong Kong
and an energy I never feltbefore in Medellin Very
different places, obviously.
Right, but there's somethingabout landing in both of those

(28:25):
cities that just gave me somekind of weird energy immediately
.
I land still today in Rio Negro, here, and I'm like I've been
here 100 times, right, but Iland and it's just something
comes over me when I get to thisplace and the same happened to
me in hokong, a different.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Oh, it's incredible and besides speaking the
language, you've also culturallyingrained yourself.
You know, in a lot of differentthings here and, uh, you know
you're in groups.
I'll show a dance which I'dlike to do someday.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
I've embraced it, for sure I've.
You know, I definitely I'm nota pat myself on the back guy,
but that's one of the thingsthat I'm pretty proud of, I'll
tell you what and I've said thisto other people about you, I
mean MDS is how well you've done.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
It's been good.
It also gives me something tostrive for so I like it.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
I'm glad I could be a little bit of an inspiration in
some way.
So how are you balancing yourtime now between the States and
Medellin?

Speaker 2 (29:19):
What I'd been doing and I may change it up a little
bit, but I've been doingbasically about six months each
and the time in the States.
You know, I have a lake houseand go back for the summer
months by Branson, missouri,which is a big touristy area.
It's a big If you've seen theshow Ozarks, it's not that lake

(29:41):
but one just like it about thesame size and the kids.
So I go back see the kids, thegrandkids, my friends, and
obviously enjoy the weatherthere and just have a great time
, get on the water and play.
And I don't really fish a lot,but surfing, wake surfing's now
the big thing there.
Are you doing that?
Well, I was before my surgeries.

(30:02):
They put me down for aboutthree years.
I'm trying to get back into it.
My kids are very good at it Now.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
they just let you drive the boat and buy the food
and the beer.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
When COVID hit, I had a bad knee and a bad ankle and
they couldn't do replacementsurgery because it was
non-essential.
And I was like, fuck doc, whenis walking non-essential?
And he knows he goes.
Michael, I didn't make therules up, I go, I know, but it's
bullshit and it was For sure.
So two years of suffering,watching the boat go out,
sitting on the dock or sittingon the deck.

(30:32):
So now I'm back trying it.
I think most everything'scoming, coming back and you know
, like my kids, who are young,you know they can, they're,
they're surfing behind the boat,they can catch a beer and drink
it.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
I'm so proud catch a beer and drink it at the same
time while she's while she's mydaughter.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
I'm not sure I'm getting out of the year, but
that's my daughter what do theysay?

Speaker 1 (30:58):
the carrot doesn't fall far from the tree.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, exactly but so hopefully, uh, I will get back
and do that.
And then winter, and I noticedit this year when I left it was
about 37 degrees in november andI'm inside and I'm walking down
the steps and I'm having to goone step at a time because my
joints hurt.
So I'm reading about it.
They say the barometricpressure and you know the

(31:20):
temperature as soon as like nowI know why us old people go
South and why people go toFlorida and Arizona.
I mean, my joints just work.
So I've been coming here in thewinter, which has been a godsend
, because what I also love hereis I'm more active.
You know, you're outside,you're walking, you're going to
the gym yeah, you don't have acar here, so you have to walk to

(31:40):
a lot of places, but it's sobeautiful you want to be outside
, otherwise you're huddled in.
So what I've been doing, that'show it's been working.
And actually thank God becausehere I'm actually working out
even more in the winter here,because it's so nice and you
know everything's so cheap, youcan afford to have a trainer and
all that and.
And then you know when I gohome for the other half.

(32:02):
But yeah, so I get the best ofboth worlds is all I can say.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's.
That's another thing that'sbeen amazing about just South
America in general, not justMedellin, but Medellin for sure.
You know you could have accessto so many things here that you
can't have anywhere else, and Ithink we talked about this the
other day.
You've learned a lot and done alot here, but there's so many
health things you still haven'ttapped into.
I mean, trainers here are cheap, like you just said.

(32:29):
A nutritionist, if you want anutritionist.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
That you mentioned and I definitely want that,
Because you're the second personthat mentioned that last week.
Yeah, I mean that you can havethat.
It's so easy.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Everything in the States is commerce right.
Everyone is trying to make ashitload of money off of
everything.
And it's interesting herehealth things they don't really
look at like a profit center.
I've noticed health things theydon't really look at like a
profit center I've noticed.
I mean I had a gym over inValdez, by the stadium, and I
was paying about 20 bucks, Ibelieve, for the annual
membership and then $20 a monthfor the monthly.

(33:02):
So there was like an annual feeyou had to pay of $20 and then
$20 for the monthly.
Then it came with a trade andnow I'll still be training two
or three people at the same time, but who gives a fuck for $20?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I mean, after a while , my trainer's like okay, we're
doing this circuit.
Well, now I know what thecircuit is.
Every day is maybe a littledifferent.
But the other thing and this isthe guy I met at the gym, which
is where I meet most peoplewhen I'm traveling and I'm
talking to a guy and he's yourage, he's a young guy and he and

(33:36):
you know, he's got a driver,he's got a nutritionist, a chef,
he's got a personal admin forsure, and you know it's just
amazing because everything is socheap here.
You can afford to get so muchstuff done that you can't do in
the states, and and I just lovethat about this country.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
It's stuff that you wouldn't do if you had the money
now.
Even even people that that thatcan go get a butler and can go
get a private one-on-one trainerevery day to come to their
house they just won't do it inthe state, not part of the
culture most of the time.
But you come here and it's ano-brainer not to do it.
Oh God, they make everythingfreaking easy.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
I know, I was like on it and I've worked out my whole
life.
I played college sports and Iwas like, yeah, I'm in pretty
good shape.
First day I went in there Ipassed out.
I was like lightheaded.
I mean, we're going machine tomachine.
And my son, when he was out ontour he had a trainer.
He told him the first day he'dpuke.
And I'm like going oh my God,that's going to beat me.

(34:30):
We had to like stop, I go.
Okay, having a trainer makesyou work out a lot harder.
It's also I also swim.
Swimming on a team makes youswim at a whole lot different
pace than you're ever going todo on your own, for sure.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
So, and didn't you do ?
Did you have stem cells here?
Because I know Medellin isfamous for stem cells now, they
have that bio-accelerator to.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I spent $36,000.
It's just right down the streetfrom us, right?
Yeah, we were running Well it'sright by that.
It's in that mall Down byClinica Medellin, right?
No, no, no, no.
What's that mall you went towhen you were at that apartment?
Ah, the Soto Mall, it's inthere.
That's where it is.
Yes, it's inside there.
So I stayed it.
The other day I go oh, this isthe hotel we were in, because we

(35:12):
went up there to see a doctoroh, see my heart doctor.
But yeah, $36,000.
They're like, hey, we can putit in this, it'll do your joints
, it'll do, you know, it can doyour hair, it can do this and
this and this.
$36,000 later I didn't getanything out of it and you
didn't.
It didn't work for you.
Now somebody must be, because Isee videos of professional

(35:35):
athletes going there.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
No, Mike Tyson comes down here.
I think Rogan comes down here,if I'm not mistaken.
I know that Rogan talks aboutBioAccelerator a lot on his
podcast.
Oh, does he really?
Yeah, he talks about it a lot.
And I think Mike Tyson.
I know Mike Tyson confirmedthat he's been here.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, so it's got to work.
I asked them afterwards becauseI wasn't very happy, obviously,
but they say, yeah, it's like80%, I go I don't remember you
saying that before Like an 80%chance it'll work.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, so you got the 20%, I'm the 20%.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Now I'm not happy, obviously because I think you
should have got us ready on it.
Yeah, I'm not real pleased, buton the other side I do
understand.
Not everything works foreverybody, but I do think they
were overselling it at the timeFor sure For doing everything.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Did you price shop that in the States, just to
compare?
Well, $36,000 a year.
What would that have been inthe States for what you got done
?

Speaker 2 (36:26):
At the time.
No, because they were doingstem cells here which are in the
States.
I've had some stuff done, butthey use your cells.
I don't want a 66-year-old'scell stem cells they're not stem
but cells.
But so down here, you know, thestem cells are the golden woods
.
That's the ones you wanted.
So that's why I came here.
And when you can't walk You'lldo whatever.

(36:46):
You'll do anything to be ableto get up and move around.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, and so that was my pandemic life, Absolutely.
So let me circle back a minute.
I want to pick your brain asmuch as we can on the business
side, obviously because of yoursuccess back in the state.
But what advice would you giveindividual looking to invest or
start a business down here?
Would you even recommendstarting a business in South

(37:13):
America?
Is there any point to it?

Speaker 2 (37:15):
There is, I think, but obviously you need American
dollars and you need to earnAmerican dollars.
That's hard to do here but, asI mentioned, what I do see is
real estate management.
I mean, look at, you know, cashflow yeah, basically started
like 2012.
I was probably managing like2,000 units, for sure.

(37:37):
You know, 15% off Airbnb.
You make 2,200.
Yeah, 2,200 dinners a day.
Yeah, so it's.
You know.
I think you know, because youonly need a few to get started
that you can survive here, sure.
And then you just keep addingevery year and the person
managed some of mine too.

(37:57):
She's got like 10, so she's andshe's columbian, so she's happy
as hell.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
No real estate, so it's been good for the last 10,
12 years.
I mean, you see that they'rebuilding new buildings all over
the place when I go in there, ohmy god, they're building stuff
everywhere.
Yeah, it's crazy no, it's, andsomebody's got to manage them
absolutely and I and I don'tthink tourists are going to stop
coming here.
No, this place has already beenfound and it would have to go.

(38:20):
I don't see it happening, butthis place would have to go back
to what it was in the 80s forpeople to stop coming here.
People love this place.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
No, yeah, I don't see that happening and I don't see
them wanting it to happenbecause they're bringing in too
much money.
And yeah, no, this is probablywhat Mexico was like 30 years
ago.
I don't know, but it's justbooming, growing like crazy.
And if you were starting abusiness, labor is cheap, which
is why I say, like real estate,you can hire someone to clean or
fix something for next year ornot, but otherwise I see a lot

(38:52):
of people who are workingremotely.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
And obviously investing has certainly paid off
for you big time here.
Yeah, I mean just in a shorttime.
You've made a lot of money onyour properties, as have many
others down here, Right, so Ihope it keeps going that way.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Makes two of us.
I think it will.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
I think it certainly will.
But yeah, I mean, columbia's ahard place.
Some of these guys that comedown and start restaurants, you
know to each his own for sure,but I just never saw a point.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
I was going to say I don't see a point doing that.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Well, because you're still working the same freaking
80 hours.
You work at a restaurant in theUnited States, or 100.
Right, and you're bringing homelike $1,500 a month.
I'm like, what the fuck are youdoing?

Speaker 2 (39:31):
You could teach English on a lot of things, and
if you're bringing all the$1,500 here, that's a good month
.
You're still working your buttoff, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, you're putting in the 80 hour, you know,
whereas if you had a successfulnot that I recommend the
restaurant business, no one Ifyou're putting in your 80 hours
and you're successful, you're atleast going to get some.
You're getting some money foryour efforts, whereas down here.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
it's a little bit of a challenge.
Even in the States, 80% ofrestaurants grow out in the
first two years.
I mean, it's just, it's a wholelot of money which, if you're
off and up a restaurant, youbetter not be buying new
equipment, you better be jumpingon a place that somebody else
went out and already has allthat in there.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
To me down here it's real estate in some form.
I would agree with that, youknow, to really make money, or
you just get some work online orsome kind of business.
That's what a lot of guys do,well yeah, I mean the ones you
know.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
They had had it when I was younger.
It's probably a great idea.
My business would have takenoff.
But you know to work remotelyand have American dollars and
living down here which you know,for even one to two thousand a
month, like a king here, forsure, and a couple grand a month
.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
You're doing everything you want to do.
Oh hell yeah, easy Hell yeah.
And so if you're making even amediocre what would be
considered a mediocre Americansalary, you know, your money
just stacks up.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
And I've taught people like me that are retired
I go, you don't.
You know you won't even spendall your Social Security money,
let alone touch any investmentyou have or anything like that,
not at all.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
I have a friend who for some reason, shared his
financial situation with me afew years back.
Just in terms of what he'sbringing in every month in
Social Security, no-transcriptin total is what he brings in.

(41:18):
He was living in a penthouse,oh really.
I mean this thing was likethree bedrooms, massive, big,
huge floor plan, 180-degreeviews.
That's a beautiful area.
I think he was paying $1,200 or$1,300 a month for his rent
right In Miami.
That place would be $10,000 andall.
So about $1,200, $1,400 a monthin rent, anyway, he's he's

(41:42):
literally 10 times over.
His total expenditures were$2,500 a month, right.
So just off that small littlebit of $3,500, he was putting a
grand a month just accumulatingin his checking account.
And then all the money he hadsaved.
He had a successful company,they sold and he invested the
money well, his money that hehad invested in the S&P mutual

(42:03):
funds, all that stuff had morethan doubled in the first seven
years he was here, because itwas during the Trump, roughly
that 2015 to 2022 thing.
Oh, I miss those days, but yeah, yeah, we're fucked on that,
but anyway.
So 2015 to 2022, his moneydoubled and the money he had
saved, and then he has thisrandom little thousand bucks

(42:25):
that he's saving every monthfrom his little $3,500 salary
because he lived here, and sohis words to me were moving here
.
For many people like myself isalso a financial decision.
Oh yeah, without a doubt,because he'd be drawing out of
that retirement, spending allthe $3,500.
Easily.
His money would be going downinstead of up.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
No, that's why I try to get across to people.
For people to leave, everyone'ssituation's different.
Obviously, family's the biggesttie, but if you can get away
and people get away to Floridafor six months of the year, get
somewhere like here.
Florida's expensive as hell.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
It's so expensive and you'll have more fun here, man?
Oh, definitely.
How many times have you leftyour house to hang out with
somebody and you get home at theend of the three or four-hour
period and you're like, damn, Ispent $10 a day.
I've done it and spent zero.
I've literally gone to dance,events that were in parts and

(43:21):
things like that, where theygive a free class or whatever.
I get finished and I'm like Ijust had three hours of fun for
$0.
I spent nothing.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
There was a little place where I used to stay, over
by Hotel DuPont.
I found I went there every dayfor two weeks.
A bunch, two empanadas and abottle of regular Gatorade,
regular size, $2.
I mean, my brain just couldn'tcomprehend how cheap some things
are.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
You know what's interesting.
I'm not trying to one-up thatstory by any means.
If you search in Medellin, youcan find a whole meal for $2 or
$3.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Well, I was about to say if anybody can one-up it,
it's you because you haven'tbeen everywhere you know am.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
I am in the touristy area, though I don't my my
stories can't be, yeah, you'regetting screwed, but two dollars
.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I'm out in the country man, where it's like you
know, they, they, uh, they'veonly seen three or four guys
like me where I live so I'm justand you know, I noticed when I
went with you to that area theydon't have a lot of gringos and
we're standing out andeveryone's staring.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
I go.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
I feel like a rock star.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
For sure, for sure.
But I like that.
I mean it keeps me out of theriffraff, it's a little quieter
yeah definitely.
You know, I know my little.
Everyone out there knows me.
I know them.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
At this point it's kind of nice, I know it's even
let's look special and it's, andit's a beautiful area it is.
They have everything out thereand someday I'm gonna be there
with you.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Let's do it, man.
I need some neighbors, I needan.
I need some neighbors I canspeak english with.
Yeah, exactly, and you know,even though I, uh, I speak
spanish pretty well at thispoint, I sometimes I need a
break.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
You can always use.
Use a new wingman.
You know we always need them.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, Use a wingman, that's for sure Always.
Well, hey, let me ask youanother business question.
What advice would you give, youknow, young guys or individuals
that are trying to get theirown businesses launched in the
States Not here, but in thestate at this point?

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Well, obviously it's multi-level, which a lot of
people push in and depending onthe industry.
But you know the others, likemy business, was a service and
back in the day I was dealingwith, you know, fortune 100,
fortune 50 companies because Icould.
I think that's a lot harder nowbecause even looking at to

(45:42):
start a business like mine, youwould have to have so much
insurance, so much revenue.
You couldn't do it like youcould.
But you could do it to themid-sized companies and that's
where I think most people shouldbe looking service those types
of companies.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Mid to smaller, is it ?
Yep, you gotcha.
And what do you think that thekey considerations and
strategies for success in thatwould be right now?
I know you told me a story whenyou were little and I no, you
weren't little, but you werestruggling to get off the ground
right and you had a businessthat failed and you didn't know

(46:21):
what to do.
And I think your dad said I'moh god, yeah, go ahead and tell
the story.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
I was 30, bankrupt.
I'd started a couple businessesand, uh, you know, didn't work,
couldn't get traction, and Iwas like what am I doing wrong?
All my friends are married,they have houses, you know,
they're, know we can see thepath forward for the life and
I'm like you're treading water.
Yeah, I'm losing it and he goes.

(46:47):
It's just and it's really notthat much, but he goes.
You were never one to work forsomebody.
He goes.
This is where your passion isand I think that passion is a
key word, because even my son inthe country music that was his
passion, it's the only thing hecared about.
But anyway he said just keepgoing, something's going to work
.
And also, to tell you kind ofrelate to that, with my son, he

(47:12):
left about halfway through thenine years when he was trying to
make it in Nashville.
He left Nashville, came home.
I didn't say anything for acouple of weeks and I was like,
well, what do you want to do?
Maybe go back to school.
I, you know, don't work thatgreat at it.
You are in school, that's notit's a I'm old now, but but you
know, what I said to him waskind of what my dad said to me.
It kind of fell along and it'slike the only thing you care

(47:32):
about is music.
That is your passion.
So I said go back.
I don't know if you're gonnamake it or not, but what you
don't want is years down theroad to have regrets over it.
And that's kind of what I gotfrom my dad and China, what I
pushed into him.
And he did go back and thankGod it worked out.
But yeah, you got to havepassion for something.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
That's what I've felt for myself.
I sit around and think aboutthose things all the time.
I'm like when I get to 80,right, because I speak with a
lot of all my friends are older.
Almost all my friends and Ilove speaking to older people
and I've spoken to a lot of guysYou're referring to other
people, not me, right.
No, you're not there yet.
You're not there yet.
But I've spoken to a lot ofguys that are at that 75 to 85

(48:17):
range in my life and they justseem, you know, a lot of them
just seem like you know, you canjust see it on their faith.
They're just not, they haveregrets, they're unhappy about
whatever it is Right, and I justdon't want to get to that age
and say, damn it, don't haveregrets.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Don't be bitter.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Because, at the end of the day, you know, unless
you're Elon Musk, unless you'reSteve Jobs Because, at the end
of the day, you know, unlessyou're Elon Musk, unless you're
Steve Jobs, you know you'regreat.
The chances of people actuallyremembering what the fuck you
did when you're here are likezero, right, correct.
So most of us are scared to dowhat we really want to do
because we're afraid our buddiesare going to make fun of us.
Right?
That fucker's going to be dead,just like me in about 30 years,

(48:59):
right?

Speaker 2 (49:00):
That's an excellent point, because you know it
doesn't, in the grand scheme ofthings, none of that does.
And you know the problem and wetouched on it before is being
in the state you know we'realways like, no matter what we
have, somebody's always got more.
Well, I'm not Bill Gates, well,I'm not Elon Musk, and it's
like we're just on thistreadmill like a mouse.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
A hamster wheel?
Yeah, a hamster.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
And it's like get off and enjoy it a little bit along
the way that brings me toanother point.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
My buddy said this the other day.
He made the same point you didin a different way.
He says and if you're in theStates and you're not a mega
billionaire at this point, he'slike a multimillionaire at this
point gives you no status, right, thought, millionaire at this
point gives you no status, right.
But you have to be like a megabillionaire now to get any
status.
But the minute you land insouth america not just medellin
or a country like this, it couldbe the far east, it could be,

(49:50):
you know, eastern europe, a lotof different places around the
world oh exactly, you getimmediate status.
Yeah, right, because your, yourmoney goes further.
You go to miami right now, itdoesn't matter.
You oh, you5 million, I don'tcare, the neighbor has 10.
His neighbor has 50.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
And, by the way, I can burn through half of it
pretty damn quick down there tooin a few years.
But yeah, no, that is one ofthe joys of traveling, and
everything comes down to me.
As I've gotten older I'verealized, because I didn't
before, we were all chasing adollar.
And there, because I didn'tbefore, we were all chasing a
dollar.
And there's nothing wrong withthat, we need it, you got to

(50:24):
have it.
But everything's experiences.
What you know like, what allcan you see?
There's so much in it Like youhave a great vacation, I'm going
to go back there, but then yougo.
What else is out there?
What else is just as cool, youknow?

Speaker 1 (50:36):
For sure you go back to the states I noticed this all
the time is there's so manypeople that just have nothing to
talk about other than whatthey're doing in business and
their they have and the moneyright, and I, I think I was that
person when I was in thefurniture business.
Sure, I was making great money.
I was doing other stuff on theside and I had you know, had you
were a couple different incomestreams and this and that, and

(50:57):
all you thought about was money.
And I don't get me wrong, I, Ilove that, it was fun, it drove
me and it still drives me tothis day.
But at the same time, whatreally fires me up is when I can
talk to somebody like yourselfthat's done well in business.
And then you have some fuckingstories.
You've traveled, you've seenstuff all over the world.
These guys that just work untilthey're 80 and all they can
talk about is what they're doingin business.

(51:19):
I'm like ew, that's tough.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
You know, funny.
You said that, though, becauseI was so focused on working and
I started probably, like I said,in my 40s, and business was
good at that point.
But I had one of my bestfriends I go, yeah, I'm going to
take Madison to Disney World.
He goes.
You know, I've been hearingthat forever.
You going to wait until shegraduates high school and he
tongue school.
And he was right.
I did it and it was like and,and then, once you do it, you

(51:44):
catch the bug and you want tokeep doing it for sure.
But he was right.
All I'm doing was talking.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
You know, you got to get out and do something.
Yeah, and you know I get peopleall the time they're like hey,
I want to start traveling, likeyou.
I mean, how do I do that?
And I'm like well, you need tostart by leaving mississippi and
going over to georgia, right?

Speaker 2 (52:03):
You don't need to go from Mississippi to.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Hong Kong or Tokyo tomorrow, but if you do that
small trip from Mississippi toGeorgia I'm making that up
randomly, obviously, but if youjust start somewhere and start,
then you get that bug thatyou're talking about.
You just keep going.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
And then you're right , once you have taken even these
small trips, you have somethingto talk about For sure.
I have a friend of mine I tookinto Costa Rica that, I think,
is coming down here in February.
He had never been out of thecountry.
He goes.
Well, that's not what we do,meaning his family and I was
like you know, I go.
You're going to be the mostinteresting person now when you
go back at Thanksgiving andChristmas, and it was the first

(52:37):
time he'd ever done it, and nowhe loves it.
You know, of course and that'sthe other thing is, it is so
eye-opening.
If you've never done it,there's a little fear, there's
hesitancy, but once you're outthere, you're going to want to
keep doing it.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
If you've been watching CNN and they're telling
you about all the people thatare dying in Mexico City and you
know, and then yeah, of coursethey were dying in Mexico City.
That Mexico City, that's realSure, but you plug it.
Mexico City is so big.
I mean something could happento you four hours away.
You know, something thathappened in Mexico City could be
four hours away from where youare Right.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
It's so big and that's Chicago.
Every weekend there's a dozen,20 people shot and killed and
it's like do you not go toChicago?
Well, you just care for whereyou go and you know where we
stayed here.
You know very nice area and,like I tell people I go, I see
cops everywhere.
There's a cop on the corneralmost everywhere.

(53:29):
So the chances are more remote,obviously, but it's a safe
place to be.
But I'm also not going crazyand going out in the barrios and
seeing what I can do there,because I wouldn't be dead.
Yeah, going crazy and going outin the barrios and seeing what
I can do there, so that wouldn'tbe dead.
Yeah, because because thisgreat gold face, I can't walk
down the street without peoplegoing.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Hey, I can.
I can understand that I don'treally blend in too well myself,
but which is why I'd like toget out to your area, so that's
a goal of mine.
Any memorable experiencesbefore we wrap up?
Tell me, tell so that's a goalof mine Any memorable
experiences before we wrap up.
Tell me some memorableexperiences you've had here that
you think would resonate withpeople.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I think you know, I took a picture today and sent it
to somebody back home andthey're like and it's, you know,
this is a city.
And they're like look how greenit is and this is a city of
eternal spring and it's abeautiful city, and just things
like that that you just don't.
You know, when you go intoanother city in new york, you

(54:28):
don't even see the sun.
Those bills sometimes it'sgreat and um, but here the thing
that for me, the climate isbasically the same all year.
I'm, in short, short 70, 75degrees every day right, and the
people go out of their.
You know what I'm?
I am from the midwest, and themidwest people kind of in your
area, because my world too,people are friendlier and but

(54:50):
here they're always friendly,you know, and for as little
money as they make, they'realways smiling, for sure,
they're always happy, and Ifound that in many countries.
So it's just to be able to getout there.
People will take the time toshow you something or to help
you, because you're lost and Ican't speak the language, so

(55:11):
they've got to say it 50different ways to see if
something resonates in my head.
Yep, but they, but they'rehappy to do it but you've been
learning the language.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
You've been spending some, some energy on that, huh
that's my number one goal onthis trip.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
I have a tutor and again a teacher.
Again, it's easy to hire peoplehere and inexpensive, three
days a week, two hours a day,and just in the last few weeks I
can now put phrases together,whereas I've used Duolingo for
two years, which has helped meto understand words but couldn't
talk.
But now I'm getting into theconversational piece, so I'm

(55:46):
kind of excited.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's an exciting, excitingjourney.
I spent years on it myself andyou definitely get a different
experience once you speak thelanguage, and some positive,
some negative.
It's not all positive, but itcertainly helps you from the
taxi driver driving you allaround the city and screwing you
around right, which reallydoesn't happen here, but it

(56:08):
happens in other parts of theworld.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
But the other is it does make it.
You know, what do I like mostis a culture, so you get to,
you're able to enjoy the cultureand the people.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
I think if you respect these people and it's
the same anywhere you go in theworld, right?
I mean, if I go from WestVirginia to Miami or Miami to
Kansas, wherever I go if Irespect the people and I'm nice
to people, they're nice to meand it's for sure that here
exaggeratedly nice here they'reso nice, you know but at the
same time, if you come down hereand act like an idiot, no, I

(56:42):
totally agree.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
That's one of the things, and that's it.
Like you said, in America too,no one is beneath you.
And yet I've had a couple ofpeople here, one of them I will
not go out to eat with.
I wasn't even there, but theybrought him French fries he
didn't ask for and, who knows,he doesn't speak the language.
He might have asked for it,yeah, but he went off on him.
I go.

(57:04):
Why would you ever go off onanyone?
Why would you ever treatsomebody like that?
Because one they're trying todo their best and you know he's
just and he was just a jerk andI said I will never go.
I will never go eat I, becauseI will never treat someone like
that absolutely.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
I'm the same way.
I mean, and I'm exaggeratedlyso in another country, but I
can't tell you how many timesI've been out with people down
the air that you know.
There's just these guys thatthat I think just have some
serious insecurities and theycome here and they're able to
feel like a big timer, causethey can do whatever they want
to do, and and um, when they getthe opportunity to treat
someone like shit and show themthey're above them, I think they

(57:41):
, they do it.
Yeah, I have a guy that I usedto go out and eat with three or
four times a week over inlaurelis when I was living there
, and and um, and he was alwaysbitching at the waitresses.
I finally had to stop stophanging out.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
You know what that's an excellent point is.
It is the in uh insecurities,because the one guy that I'm
thinking of offhand he does allright, but he's.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
In the States.
He's a regular dude right Inthe States he's average.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he comes down here.
But you're right and I thinkthat is it.
It's just the insecurities andhe gets to now be the big man.
But I don't think that's beinga big man, no, it's being a
small man.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Right, right, absolutely no, I agree.
I've seen that several timeswith Americans down here.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Well, the American, the traveler, you hear this shit
.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
I think I've told you that.
You know I have such a smallcircle and it keeps getting
smaller, and most of it isbecause I've built a reputation
here and I have friends here andyou know I'm pretty
recognizable.
With the Spanish skills youbecome pretty recognizable
because most people have beenhere 10, 15, 20 years and they

(58:44):
speak none of the language,especially foreigners, and
there's very few Americans inthe city that speak the language
to a high level, and so I'mreally just careful who I hang
around with, because I know howI treat people and I don't want
to take the chance on bringingsomeone along with me that
doesn't treat people well.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Well, just your language skills, but you have
the most knowledge of anyone Iknow.
I mean, you have goneeverywhere, as I said, by
yourself, the differentcountries and when you go to you
don't sit in a tourist area,you get out and see the country
and see the culture.
Yeah, and I think you knowthat's that's why you helped
mentor me, because there aretimes I need help or need you

(59:23):
know.
I'm always having to asksomebody something and your
knowledge is just amazing.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Well, I appreciate that but I have to give credit
on that to when I first camehere, I at least understood a
decent amount of the languagebecause I had experience in the
past and a lot of taxi drivers alot of people in the past and a
lot of taxi drivers a lot ofpeople in the city took me under
their wing once they realized Ireally wanted to learn language
.
I was really doing a good thing.

(59:48):
A lot of people took me undertheir wing and they taught me a
lot of things about the citythat I probably would have never
learned otherwise.
So the knowledge I have is isone because I fell in love with
the place and people understoodthat I was in love with it, so
they started feeding meinformation.
But yeah, I don't know.
I think if you're nice topeople here, they're going to be

(01:00:09):
nice to you, and on the otherside of that, if you're bad to
people, they're going to be.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
I pray.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
There's a problem if you're bad, Exactly If you're an
American and you come toanother country and you act like
an asshole.
I hope there's karma.
Dan, we're out.
I do.
I feel strongly about that.
But hey, man, appreciate youcoming on the show.
Hey, thank you so much forhaving me Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
I love talking about this.
You know traveling in this cityand it's really been phenomenal
for me and people.
If you ever get a chance, stickyour head in, look around.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah thanks,man appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Thank you.
Maybe we'll do it again soon.
Yep, all right, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joiningme on this episode of matt
chambers connects.
Stay tuned for upcomingepisodes where we'll dive deeper
into these two fascinatingworlds.
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