The Life in Mexico

21 years of fashion design in the USA...ten of those years were spent watching businesses fold as clothing and fabric production continued to go to Asia. When the countries largest cotton producer went down, I started to be concerned. I knew nothing about world economics. My focus was design and production, hindsight in my career has taught me big lessons. Offshore living has really opened my eyes and given me time to reflect on my past and watch the global economies in awe.

Mineral de Pozos is so far removed from my normal big city reality and then throw in a new language, a new country and I have myself a big bubble to shift my existence. Reflection is a daily activity probably consuming at least three hours of my time in between doing laundry, watching my grand baby, making lunch, washing dishes and my ordinary bootcamp of activities. The only other time I remember so much quiet time is during my elementary years spent living on Cinderella Road on Lookout Mountain. I built a forte in the woods behind our house and sat in it by myself wondering how my life would turn out. Of course, this only took place on days when my friends were not available to raise havoc in our niche. Pozos could be like Lookout, I think, if you add in alot of dogwoods, creeks, and finely mowed lawns. Those were the days and it seems I am back to it again. Youth has its place in my transformation.

Since childhood, creation and apparel were my daily fascinations. I built a sewing room in our basement from a closet with a window, paint, and some wild graphics to state my intent. The word SEW was in three foot letters in royal purple and an arrow left off the 'W' to trail around the room. I loved it! Occasionally, I would surface upstairs for a meal and sunlight. Maybe even interaction with my annoying brothers or to mow the lawn for spending money at the fabric store.

Fabric stores and sewing, a major morph. I learned to sew at age 8 and started making my own clothes at 13. Almost my entire high school wardrobe was crafted by my hand and my very slow Singer sewing machine from Sears. As I write, the point continues to surface. Ask anyone these days in the younger generation if they know how to describe fabric or fiber content. And then ask them if they know how to sew. No to both in most cases. As I see it, the American Dream of entrepreneurial designers started shifting when cotton left the scene in the US. Fabric stores are small and filled mostly with polyester fabrics made in China. Cottons are expensive and really, why would anyone spend the time making anything when they can buy it for pennies on the dollar, 'made in china' or 'made in vietnam' has had its impact. The youth are on computers not learning or knowing what it is to meditate, create and produce. I have four children and while they are artistic, they could not mend a hole or fix a seam if their life depended on it. My son has recently learned to whip stitch because his gramma makes stitched lavender pillows and he finds it fascinating.

Now more to the point, how I have tackled the shift from designer and production manager to international entrepreneur? Grueling and upsetting in places but quite remarkable, again, in hindsight, I started off really trying to fix myself and make myself something that did not involve creation, my biggest mistake. I continue to see, when I create, I thrive. Getting up to snuff, taking my baby boomer self from successful designer to ? was riddled with mistakes. The tarot cards with my daughter, the daily numerology, the many books I rely on, and hours meditating....be the best, give it all you got, and expose yourself with authenticity....oh, and don't concern yourself with the outcome or peoples' reactions. Be happy, be genuine, listen for the messages and rely on miracles.

I live in a tiny town in Central Mexico and I love it! I spent two and a half years marketing real estate in a questionable market, in a tiny town, with desert dust and church bells and the whole negative rap on Mexico in the mix. In the last two months, I started to apply 'be genuine, be happy, be creative', and marketing real estate shifted to: market the town, show the people, tell the story.

I should remark on a shift here too, no apologizing for Mexico, Mexicans, dust, poverty, animals roaming the streets. Allowing for the whole thing, the big picture. Authentic and agricultural...when I see the contrast of elegant against rustic, I see that is Pozos. Only 1% of the land mass is being used in Mexico so when you look at it like that, many things have to take place in a town to make it sustainable. People, schools, veggies, donkeys, buildings, ruins, commerce. There really is not a 'correct' place for everything the way more developed cities and countries exist.

I find it refreshing and feel like I am back in the Wild West and lo and behold, take your horse out for a cocktail at the local cantina and NEVER enjoy an outing to the Mac Store. The really big leap comes when I come back from a walk and get back on my computer.

This is my creation. A new and wildly beautiful, ultra responsive website for Pozos Real Estate showcases my ideas about marketing research and the hospitality industry, how a knowledge economy can apply to Pozos, and highlighting the international community in International Living. Inviting everyone in town to participate regardless of how they see me cutting into a piece of their pie....it continues to work out.

I am constantly making videos, learning the ropes on iMovie, building a Youtube Channel for MineralPozos, building a campaign on Linkedin, and doing market research in Guanajuato to create a customer for Pozos, and last but not least, writing about my experience and sharing my adventure. I am most grateful to have this life, this quiet community, to slowdown and smell the cactus (no roses around). My mother always said, 'if you do nothing in life, TRAVEL!' and 'you will always have an open mind'. I trust when I am up against it and willing to play big, big things will come to me. Change always requires trust, it is not always easy to play with change.