Playa del Carmen NOW

welcome to the Playa Del Carmen Now podcast all right so today's topic is going to be your new office in the Caribbean Caribbean office Caribbean office working in Playa del Carmen at today's topic is about co-working play playa del carmen how can you work from the beach not the beach it's actually but from this beach My name is Ken Schmidt CEO of condo Hotels Playa del carmen my sidekick is Javier resendiz all the way to everywhere in Jurassic Park every where can you please help me to reach everyone reach everyone yes and I'm here and let's talk about
this amazing guest we got here with us sure I'm just going to say her first name cuz I don't want to destroy her last we have Monica hear Monica and I know a little bit about Monica but then I'll hand over to Javi I know Monica because I was two rows back from the tedx talks in Playa del Carmen this amazing woman put this together and what was amazing about it and she put it together for Gringos it was an English yeah it was really a lot of people ask why in English and I believe really open to different kind of people not just the locals that we need to be able to talk about the local but it bring a lot of foreign people in play Cameron is with a lot of foreign people it was amazing so amazing shows she put together and I'm one of the speakers on the show was a hobby are you do you think Monica yeah it's a lot and I didn't know what it was an amazing show Monica think it was great so what else do you know about this amazing purse LOL I know about Monica that she's actually
Nest co-working Play yes well that's something big and she has a lot of experience with foreign people because she work in this place she also is quite into Inspirational vibes say she like to make people feel good and she share that knowledge and are or not knowledge except the way two people get confident on their self when was some great stuff but she will tell us better of course but before we get into all of that thousand and sixteen so that's like 6 years now it's yours and where you from originally and Mexico in the center State Gutomato is really beautiful as well so we always ask all our amazing guess the must-do Torso you know who this is this podcast is about visitors and people come in the playa del carmen so what is it you know you bring friends or family or colleagues coming to town what is the must-do or what's the first thing you you direct towards no alternative activities I am like Javier said that in the world of personal growth and Community work and group work so I try specially to the members of Nest which is my business now I try to help them approach something that I love a lot of people love about the flier which is this movement around health and healing and in my personal case I love to take them or invite them to join activities like the sun rise yoga with you I think it's a very creative way to practice that like activity employer there's yoga everywhere but the fact that this dude your license of each which is a natural resource that it's there all the time if you haven't seen as unworthy Bleier you haven't been employed like it's the most astounding thing you can watch it's one of the some some people from the user sickness tell me like it's like that this guy employer it's really remarkable I've seen as guys all over the world and the sunrise especially it's like something out of this world will Xavier Xavier knows I like the sunrise here because I keep telling him all the time if you're going to take the greatest pictures cuz it takes pictures for us cuz you're going to take the trash out of bed and get out there early early bird gets the worm and and yes I agree with you a hundred percent my wife is out there every morning as she post I mean doesn't get out of bed and he looks at my wife's post every morning from Debbie so I guess sometimes I don't know if I'm going to get through my day if I don't see that yeah it just sets the tone that you see the sunrise and it's so beautiful and it fills you with this hope and joy and possibilities you know you see this and then you ready to do whatever like you're ready to crash it you're a hundred percent right so now let's move on to restaurants okay so what is your your go-to restaurant when you get the food and my go-to for that is slow see who's oumar I really love the style in which they develop the representation of the sea food and I also love cochinita pibil which is a local species of the sound of Yucatan I think I don't want to throw some fake news but they caught you looking for me to go to because it's cheap is Alicia's the location is beautiful if you want to where do you get that at I bet 1010 I Street I think it's between 5th and 10th Avenue there's this pink like Pakistan but if you ask for a table they have this Secret Garden which normally people don't know about those weird things at the hospital it's cheap it's delicious the location is beautiful it's Centric also if you listen to this you have to go well that's great so now let's go let's move on to the topic of co-working in Playa del Carmen I have a little bit experience when I first moved to Playa del Carmen I went to the Nester one version of the Nestor I don't know if it really was the nest at the time but I would go there because
I'm a business development guy and I'm also the developer of a software developer and I always I was always looking for somebody to help me so I was going to the school working places cuz it's a typically a place where developers go and although I wasn't successful I did meet a lot of people and it is this is why I say your your new office in the Caribbean because you go there and I don't know what it's like now this is what we're talkin many many moons ago so Monica tell me what the daily life co-working in in Nest Well normally people arrive around 9 then 9 a.m. we start working and then by noon we kind of take a break and there's people in the kitchen making like a Serial or serving the second coffee and then we have the opportunity to exchange a little talk on how is your day how is everything going and I think personally that school working is about those little moments because you can have your desk at your place and you can have internet and you can have your own space and sometimes we need that but I feel like people especially here in Playa attempts to go working spaces because Playa is actually one of the top three destinations for digital Nomads worldwide and it's partly because help help me help help explain the digital Nomad because it's a word everybody used on step in when I was in a word that's used in and people may not exactly know they might have this vision of a nomad you know what I mean so what did he explain in your best words what a nomad is crazy I think we're coming back to the roots like before we meant the like Eric culturing we have to settle in one place to produce and to leave we used to go from place to place hunting and developing like a transient kind of version of a of a community and then we move to the next one we ended up their resources Teresa we're doing the same thing. That's what makes it so so what's up are you walking this in the nest you walk in the building
what's available out there to work obviously you like the group concept with everybody working I'm a little different is there a place for me to be in the corner and just work and you're giving me internet and you're giving me tell me what what's what's offered at the nest so when somebody goes in there they know what to expect we have two sides of the space we have one floor for a calls because everybody if you have a business you have to deal with negotiation with brainstorming with three with Team meetups and obviously you will need to make a call from time to time so we have one side for that and we have another side separated from that side that it's for the blue what what do we call Deep work or deep focus so in that site we advise people to not take phone calls or don't talk even with each other if they need to talk they can come outside how about the rest where they can like call me talk there and so we started laying out the space in this way to cover like the needs that you may have as a person who needs to work and we have private offices we have private cubicles and we haven't have everything a full-screen so we kind of try to understand over the years where the needs of the of these people and try to equip an a place that its share but where you can find pretty much everything you need to and you do have the sense of home but shared with other people which is something that you are so neat as a as a normal because you're moving so fast and so often you don't have this time to do the veil of like this meaningful connections right so we try to facilitate that through community events like yesterday we had this barbecue but these are days are game nights where people can gather and join not only around professional like stuff without so much as a human you know it just just playing with her a place to meet people as well do so if you come to come to Playa de Carmen in and you're working and you're just like a a single for newer you know like a person is just a computer guy or or are working remote working from their gringolandia later he's going to explain gringolandia just so I know I don't like calling myself an American like I said in the previous technically a brace the Gringo as a positive thing Golan.
so that's that's where I come in so we got people of the town is filled crazy filled I'm sure you know that crazy field so the town is filled with gringolandia is people and they come there to work and they're going to meet other gringos and other Mexicans people from all around the world I cannot
do Canadian people from New Zealand people from Europe so it's of this big Clash of cultures which permits very interesting and that's one of the reasons why I love working at nest because I feel that enough central point I get so explain that by just talking with these people and their standing how they live how they understand certain things different and that gives me this perspective that there's so much in your mind to to get expanded and so that's why for me being flexible we might believe she is very very important and I try to spread the word about that with all the people you know that's great that's just how it was great having the day and a lot of experience of working with a lot of people in in this kind of places for co-working but maybe you can tell me an example of a know-nothing example what's the most popular digital Nomad job I've seen a lot of developers and marketers for me those are the two most common digital like jobs but I will also touch base on a campus of collaborations that I've seen happening from people that comes from all over the world with people that lives here locally and how many businesses and your venture's has happened from that introductions that happened inside the co-working space because for me that's one of the most interesting interesting things to do watch so these people that are working so if you're working and you're coming from Greenville and you and you want to go to the nest obviously in this is going to be one of our topics talking English in Mexico it's going to be too much in it but they're going to be able to go into the nest and they're going to be able to speak if they don't speak Spanish there going to have absolutely no issues at all correct at the beginning 95% of the users are we're friends because the co-working culture started in other countries and then we embrace it here in Mexico and Mexican Freelancers wearing as used to it as the fall rains so it basically style is that it started like that as an offering for people from all over the world is digital Nomads that work in the computer while traveling and then Little by Little Mexico started like joining into that movement and now we have a little bit more of Mexicans which for me and my goal will be that we are like 50-50 eventually that's great so they have no issues coming down so
what's what's involved in becoming nest if I come from the states and I come to Playa de Carmen and I want to talk to Monica Nest what's involved what do I got to do you just have to show up like we are from 9 to 5 Monday through Sunday you basically just need to show up you are you tell us what you need if you need just a single day you can get a day pass if you need a weekly pass you can get a weekly bus or a monthly pass so we have this flexibility because we understand people stays here for different terms in one day it's the whole day just give me a give me a rough cost I know it could change and I want to make sure everybody is aware as it can change it anytime the town is super busy yet so I'm assuming it's if you know the prices can go up and down based on the season although I don't know man there hasn't been a season this year we've been since September we've been the town is just been packed solid so right now we're Prices range from 12.5 us for the day pass to 185 us for a monthly pass that's actually great I mean I think if you get internet right stable connection and Flores is very important that we give that is not just internet and um all I ever get a background of being a software developer so I mean even if we have Viber because I'm the kind of guy that just wants to connect to the internet and want to fly I don't even want to fly I don't want to get things done and there's nothing worse
for me because I I handle a quite big files alright if I have to deliver for example a folder so it's quite difficult to upload it most of it the problem is to upload not of course of course it's mostly the uploading speak like that equip Furniture like a chair you know it's very important sometimes you were here for a week and you're not comfortable chair not like the one I gave you I had to give her a little pillow because our chairs are so freaking uncomfortable and they can't reach the microphone I have to give them a call they are getting better I'm glad we have a quick coffee break with coffee cereal fruit cookies water so basically you have everything you would need and we take care of managing the office for you and you shared with other amazing people so any to bury affordable so for me it's a very very good deal Anastasia from the community so let's say if you want to share something like this is Q's shirt element maybe I can teach this car back to the community that I like help me like
escalate my my business then you can tell me I'm only a one organized dad on Wednesday is it available the meeting room and then we facilitate you all the process for you to share that so evens organized by Nest or two a month and then leave the community wants to organize x-ray events that's up to them do you have a conference room so like if I have a group of guests that want to have a meeting in and they made a conference room with good internet and maybe a TV or something like that you have all that right into like I just a meeting room table for 8 people with a white board and a screen or you can turn it into like a hall for 16 people with a white board and a TV she knows everything and I never left
It's Your Nest is it and then I started getting involved in this thing called community building which is basically the science behind human connections and I serve you coming so I know not to let it get that then the owner or kind of told me you know you you made like I made them for structure but you may survive happened and the network effects happen to and I think there's no better fit for me to have a partner than you and I was like yeah you're right and I could see it too cuz I went to the tedx talks in the end it was I wanted to know if you knew me I was right there in front of you for and you know I have a big yes because you were so excited over I mean because you were like
it was your on the spot this is something you would like you said in the show you this is something you wanted to do something I don't remember who told you to just do it you mention the show somebody told you to do it and just do what I wanted to do it then then when I got the licence permission I was like I don't know how to do it and by talking with someone about it he told me I know someone that I already did it and she told me it's super easy and then I believe her and like barking through the whole process it wasn't easy but it was worth it in your mind and then he's not as tough as you imagined I can imagine it was like 2 months maybe 3 months of preparation for that right yea thank you
really really good event and thank you for it
Monica thank you so much and this was amazing and you made this 20 minutes go by in like 5 seconds and then I didn't have to say much at all and you come in with some amazing material you I'm sure you have an amazing place in and if anybody that wants to come and stay at the condo hotels and come take advantage of this time I can send you right down to the car where is it located next to Coco Bongo which is a good reference it's in the 12 Mi between 12 and 4th and the 10th Avenue between 12 and 14 and maybe someone comes and mentions that listen to the like about last through this podcast I can offer them a 10% discount
so there's the promotion we don't even need a promotion she's putting it out there so anybody that comes to condo hotels and we have to put an expiration on this or we have to have some kind of limitation as long as she has something available she's going to give anybody 10% off to the nest so I don't have to go ding ding ding on the Bell she's got it covered thank you so much Monica that was great information and is there any Mexican song that you love
woohoo that's a lot of Mexican songs that I love but I think I will go with Alejandro Fernandez in this moment use at the exit to exit the podcast thank you very much and thank you Javi that Monica and thank you for Nando who is all together for us have a wonderful day

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