Latest / Workplace Confessions: Behind Closed Doors / Meet the Founder of Glo Health Center in Nicaragua

Transcript

Meet the Founder of Glo Health Center in Nicaragua · Workplace Confessions: Behind Closed Doors

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Workplace Confessions Behind Closed Doors.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Elsa Barbie.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm Don Andrews.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: We have been friends since sixth grade.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Somewhere between a car wash job, a few questionable boy choices, and 40 years of friendship, we became the kind of people who always want to know what's really going on, including at work.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don spent 25 years as an employment lawyer digging into workplace drama from the inside out.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I built a long career in the beauty industry as a brand educator with a few TV cameos sprinkled in for fun.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: We came up in very different industries, but we have the same passion.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Meeting new people and asking how they got their jobs, what they love, what they can't stand, and what happens behind closed doors.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Every episode, we talk to a new guest about their lived experience in the world of work.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And because our guests stay anonymous, they can spill the truth without the fallout.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: We get into the choices they made, the tiny cruelties, the surprise kindnesses, and some of the moments that never make it into human resources reports.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Equal Parts Informative and Tiddling.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: This show serves up all the tea while honoring the incredible, complicated, often messy work people are doing across the industries and across the map.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Workplace Confessions Behind Closed Doors.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: We'd like to introduce to you Grace.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: She is the founder of Glow Health Center in Nicaragua.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Grace, for joining us.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And as we always start every episode with what was your first paying job?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for having me.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm excited to be here.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And my first paying job was McDonald's, which is funny because I am in the wellness business and nutrition and health.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny that my first job was McDonald's.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now tell us what you do now.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then this follow-up question is always going to be tell us how you got from working at McDonald's to how you became the founder of your beautiful retreat.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a registered holistic nutritionist now for 20 years.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've also created Glow Flex Health Center in northern Nicaragua, and I'm going on year 10 now.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I built my place from absolute scratch.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been quite a journey of adventures and construction and also creating a space here for people to come and heal through food and through lifestyle practices.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Also, throughout these last 10 years, I took my dad out of an old age home who had Alzheimer's and I took care of him here.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a caregiver for him for the last eight years with Alzheimer's.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he got off all his meds, improved his memory.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: He just recently died in the last, I guess it's been about seven months now, but that was a journey as well on top of building and running my business here, was taking care of him and watching him improve and the stories I have about him.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, my intention here in Nicaragua is to create a space that was safe for people to come and heal, a safe place for people to come and reconnect to themselves and not only to learn about nutrition and infuse themselves with nutrition while being in beautiful nature, but just really to have more clarity on their lives, you know, where they are, where they're going, what they've done, what they've accomplished, what they want to do more, and just kind of be a healthy place where people could come and reset.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Was this something that you always dreamt of doing?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was very unhealthy growing up.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I actually grew up in very tumultuous environments.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because of that, I developed addictions at a very young age: sugar, food, drugs, alcohol.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So by, you know, that's a whole other podcast, but you know, I cleaned up my life in my 20s and nearly died a few times.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, part of my healing journey was going back to school to learn about food and how to use food to heal my body, because a big part of my health issues was not just, you know, the addictions, but I really didn't know how to eat and I was using food as a way to harm myself.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I went back to school, learned about food, became so passionate about, you know, how food gets to your plate, what it's doing to your body, how it affects your organs, how it affects your brain, how it affects just the trajectory of your life and how food can be, how can how it can cause disease or how it can reverse disease.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So after I graduated from school, I was like, you know, this information changed my life.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It healed my life.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we all know this?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we, why don't we learn this stuff in school?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like if this helped me, it could help the whole world.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it became my mission to help people understand that food is medicine and help people understand that they can take their power back just by conscious living choices and what they put into their body.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout the beginning of my nutrition career, I knew somewhere at some point that I wanted to build a center in the tropics where I could live in my bikini and walk barefoot and go to the ocean and eat food from the tree.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, the power of the mind.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had this vision in my mind and I was very set that this is what I was gonna do with my life.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So eventually one day I woke up very miserable in Toronto and I was like, I don't want to be here anymore.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's too cold, it's too fast, it's too stressful.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided I was gonna move to the tropics and break up with winter.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And never intending on coming to Nicaragua, it was gonna be Costa Rica or Panama.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I came here again, a whole other episode of how I ended up in northern Nicaragua, but found this piece of land and built my center, and it all happened very quickly and beautifully and serendipitously.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that I was on the right path.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I knew this was what I was supposed to be doing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, I I've always known that I just want to help people while living in a way that's really joyful to myself as well.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Could you describe for our listeners what your retreat looks like?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm in the middle of nature.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I first moved here, I had zero neighbors, just like cows, horses, pigs, chickens.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now I do have a few neighbors as this little community is growing more.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm surrounded by coconut trees, cactuses, fruit trees, the sound of the birds every day.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I can see the ocean in two places from my windows.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm close to six beaches, all within 10 minutes away.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I have lots of fruit trees that I imagine where I can go and pick fruit or go to my greenhouse and pick veggie, veggies.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have a little cafe on site that services the community and also my guests that stay on site for nutrition and detox retreats.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's sunny all the time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's hot and it's just beautiful.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I really feel like I'm situated in paradise in the middle of nowhere in Nicaragua.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we we cut short your career journey a little bit because we jumped from McDonald's to today.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: But what was in the in the middle of the story?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: The middle of the story.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, lots of different things.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I at one point I was training for the Olympics in competitive diving.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I was training hopefully to make the Olympics, but I was training on the national team.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then from there, let's see, I was a personal trainer for a while.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was a bartender for a while into the party and music scene.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started my own holistic nutrition business in Toronto.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: This was, let's see, 2010.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So 16 years ago.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, now nutrition's so popular, but at the time, nobody knew what holistic nutrition was.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone said to me, like, what?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a dietitian.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody went to hire me.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to work really hard to build my business, be passionate about what I do, be a strong voice for what I was passionate about to make a business out of it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's similar to what I do now.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me to build my business here in northern Nicaragua, I have, again, I have to be very passionate and strong with what my mission is to be able to get people to come here regularly.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about that.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: How how do you market and to what populations?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, anyone, I'm I'm everyone knows that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for a long time I was a plant-based nutritionist and a vegan nutritionist, and I'm not anymore.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, other podcasts.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: You've got like five podcasts when this is fantastic.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I'm very like a lot of people, I'm very passionate about helping people reverse diseases.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I do get a lot of people come who have cancer or other diseases, digestive health issues, who are looking to change their life.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people at the beginning of my career, a lot of people knew about my story.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was very vocal about my own story of healing.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, and you know, over the years now here in Nicaragua, I've been here on my 16th year.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't market anymore.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just word of mouth.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I do get a lot of repeat clients because they know what they're gonna get here.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: They know the environment, they know the menu.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my menu does differ.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I do a level one to level 10 cell health menu.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I put people in the right categories and people know that they can come here for different menus at different times.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I just now at this point in my career, it's all word of mouth.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: What what surprised you most about this journey of having a retreat?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that sticks out that has surprised you along your journey that you didn't expect.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was building this place to be all about health and all about nutrition.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I am.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a holistic nutritionist, and I thought I was just gonna teach people about nutrition, and I never realized how there were so many other factors that lead to health, you know, mindset, sleep, being in nature, calming the nervous system.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I always knew they were important, but I would say they're equally as important as health.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And more than anything, I would say is the community that builds here.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: I never, I never ran a retreat center before.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I never had so many people come here at one time over and over.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And every single retreat, I really realize it's there's a community that's building here that's so paramount for people's healing as well.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like other people that are on the same path, other people that are on the same journey, and other people that they can connect with.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something very powerful in that.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect for saying if you build it, they will come.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: What's the best part about what you're doing today?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, definitely the fulfillment and just being able to help people.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people come here really unwell or really unhappy.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not everyone, it's not always so somber, but you know, I do get a lot of people with serious stuff going on.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And just to watch somebody come back to life, almost like a wilted flower that's being watered, and to watch someone achieve such uh clarity and such become so inspired just in seven days.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: To watch somebody change so much in seven days and walk out of here with like a new hope for their life is it's really wonderful to watch somebody uh go through that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: What's the secret to your success?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's the secret?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm very passionate about what I do, but also I live this life.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very, I think ultimately there's so many people in the wellness world that can be good for a bit, but they don't necessarily live, like they don't walk their talk.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that you know, you really have to walk your talk for people to, they they feel it and they really know when you're you when you're authentic and you're real and they believe you and they trust you and they'll they'll go through the program more and trust the experience because they believe in, you know, what I'm saying to be true, which is really it's not, I'm not, it's not really me, but it's just getting back to basics, you know.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I'm teaching people how to live a more basic life, and that helps them to be healthier and happier.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, our world has become so quick and so full of chemicals and so much like go, go, go, stress, stress, stress.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really putting people in an environment where they have to slow down.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: They are being nurtured and taken care of, they're being fed, they don't have to think of what they have to do next.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that slowing down and that simplicity is what really helps them to reverse, you know, reverse how they're feeling and feel so much better.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what would you say is the hardest part about your job?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: The hardest part about my job is when people self-sabotage.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when I when I went on my own healing journey, I kind of educated myself.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was in school, I learned what are the things to to heal myself and get better, and I just did them.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my personality.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, tell me what to do and I'll do it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been interesting and challenging for me over the years, especially in the beginning.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm now I'm more experienced with this, but you know, just understanding that people are where they are and that everyone moves at their own pace and everyone is willing to put, you know, not everyone's willing to put 100% of effort into things for whatever reason.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, learning to have empathy and compassion for people, that we're all going to do things in different ways.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, over the years with challenging clients, it's sometimes hard to watch people self-sabotage because ultimately they don't they don't believe they deserve ultimate health or ultimate love.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: True.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: But if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the industry, what would that be?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wish that there were, you know, more people because it's so popular right now, I feel like there's a lot of frauds out there.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe there's a lot of erroneous information out there.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe that a lot of people are doing things because they want to make money.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I wish that more people would be more authentic with what they're the services they're trying to provide.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: How can people ferret out the the fraudsters from people who know what they're doing and won't misuse their funds?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to be honest, I'm thinking I'm specifically speaking more about like plant medicine and stuff.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of people doing plant medicine wrong, but they are part of the wellness industry.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that, you know, even in the nutrition world, there's a lot of people selling products that are not good for you, you know?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So people just have to do their due diligence, you know, and yeah, do their research on the person really.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, especially in the world of social media too, there's so many people out there talking like they're experts on wellness and nutrition, and it's not the correct information.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So people need to be be able to do their own, you know, background and research on other people as well.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just blindly follow people just because they're on Instagram doing reels and videos.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: What's a myth that people believe about your job that drives you nuts?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know if it's about my job per se, but I get so many people come here who are still all about calorie counting, and that drives me nuts because and and like they're still being inundated with that information from doctors, even and it's not about calories.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what I teach is so the opposite of calories.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the quality of the food you're ingesting and the quality of nutrition that's going to your cells.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, not all calories are created equal.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that I guess to me that's so basic because I've been doing this for so long now that when I get clients coming here still and talking about calories all the time, I just I can't believe that people are still talking about calories or like how much fat, you know, there's so many people who's still inundated with the information from the 80s, like how much fat is in this?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm, you know, I have to go through my whole talk about there's good fats and bad fats, and it's it's not that I have an issue talking about it, it's more that I can't believe there's still doctors and erroneous information being put out there that it's so so outdated.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so true.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: So true.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to pivot really quick before we get into the question.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Can you touch more about your journey with your father?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So my me and my brother and my sister in Toronto had fought really hard to put him into a home.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we finally, it took years actually, and we finally got him into a home.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I would go visit him all the time.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I couldn't believe like what they were feeding him.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as a holistic nutritionist, you know, that made me very upset.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, part of the reason why we had hired them is that they said they were gonna modify the menu to my liking, and they that's what they said.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when I was surprised visit, he was eating horrible things and I would get really upset when I go there.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it dawned on me that I was like, why am I building the center in Nicaragua?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I could bring him here for you know way less money and take care of him.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I built him a little house here, and my brother and sister were not on board, they thought I was crazy, but his doctor was.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So his doctor convinced them.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so my brother said only for one month.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: So and then I had to bring him back.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And anyways, I brought him for a month, and within 19 days, he improved so much.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't talk when he came here, and within 19 days, he and he came in a wheelchair.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Within 19 days, he was walking with a walker, he was singing, he was happy, his skin looked different, his eyes looked different.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I brought him back, and all the nurses at the home were like, What have you done?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, It was in nature and he was eating healthy food, no chemicals, and fresh food, and he was he went to the ocean every day.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I I did a lot of like physical therapy with him, and it just showed me how how resilient we still are at any age, you know.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And anyways, it was six months before I could bring him here full time.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I finally brought him back here, I built him his own little house and I got some local women to like take care of him.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he, you know, I was busy doing my retreat stuff, but he was living right beside me and he was kind of part of the retreat.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I always joked he was like the the true leader of the retreat center, and he just ate everything we ate, and he was surrounded.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think a big part of his healing was he was around beautiful women all the time, and you know, he was in nature and I had him drawing.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I he used to be a graphic artist and uh and uh like a painter, so I got him drawing every day.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: He drew for about four hours every single day for eight years, and that really helped with his healing to like ignite his creativity, and he was just so happy here.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I really thought he was gonna live like another year or two, maybe.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And my whole thing was I just wanted him to pass in nature and be happy, like not in a home.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he ended up living eight years, got him off all his meds, his short-term memory came back.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was uh such an amazing experience to like I believe in everything that I do wholeheart wholeheartedly, but to I never imagined that it would like prolong his life like this.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we're told that Alzheimer's is not reversible, and to watch with your own eyes what is possible.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And again, he was like a wilted flower that had been watered, and it was amazing, like and so powerful to see much life left in a senior.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's not beautiful.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: That is so beautiful.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody did a documentary on him, actually.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: So luckily it came out just before he passed, but it's on my Instagram if you if you want to see it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: And what Instagram is that?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: What where would somebody find you?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's Grace Van Burkam my name underscore.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and it's at the top, it's pinned at the top.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Also, my website.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody goes to my website, it's at the top.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which is what?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Gracevanburham.com.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if anybody wanted to go to your retreat, where how they do that?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, through either my website, gracevanburkham.com, and I also have a secondary site, glownicaragua.com.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's G L O without the W.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thank thank you for sharing that story.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Grace, is there a nutshell version of how you ended up in Nicaragua as opposed to Costa or Panama?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: How I well, I came here.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got a job offer for two months in Granada.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, I decided I was leaving Toronto and I sold everything I owned.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm I'm going on an adventure and I'm gonna find my new home.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And nobody believed me at my friends at home.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Yeah, yeah, when are you gonna come back?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I'm I'm not coming back unless I'm coming to visit.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going on an adventure.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up first in the Bahamas and I took my yoga teacher training.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then while I was there, somebody offered me a job in Nicaragua when I was done.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Nicaragua.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't want to go to Africa.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my friend was like, Grace, look at a map, please.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: But that's how little I knew about it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up coming here thinking I was gonna go through Costa Rica and then to Panama.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I fell in love with this country because you know, it's so beautiful and so diverse.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And And at the time, there was only five yoga teachers in the whole country, and I was one of them.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, this place would be amazing to do like these healthy vacations.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then no one was even really doing retreats in the world.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like there wasn't really a word retreat.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so I was like, healthy vacations.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started within one month.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And again, everything just kind of grew.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: My first retreat I did within one month for one person.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was a private retreat.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And my next retreat was a month later for 10 people because everyone was like, Where are you?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's so beautiful there.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I became a traveling business for seven years.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was traveling all over the world doing these healthy vacations for people.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I kept coming back to Nicaragua.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: So once a year or twice a year, I kept coming back and all over Nicaragua, from the south, Ometepe, Leon, like just all over.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And finally I was like, I think I'm done with Nicaragua.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's been five years.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: I and I want to find my home.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then one of my friends said, You have to go to the north of Nicaragua.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's so different from the south.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so beautiful.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the ocean is so warm.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, I'll check it out.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really what sold me was how warm the ocean water is here.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was like bath water when I came.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in the south, it's quite cold at certain times.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, oh my gosh, I have to live here.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how I ended up here.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: And did you how did you learn the language?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna assume that you speak Spanish now.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I I know enough to get by.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I always joke, I know construction Spanish, I know kitchen Spanish, I know lawyer Spanish, I know Mercado Spanish, I know taxi Spanish.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I know enough to get by.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really could kick it up a notch, but the problem is everyone can understand me.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I just learned from living here, really learning all the words that I needed to survive.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's so much misunderstanding about Nicaragua.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, even when Elsa and I were planning our trip there, people were like, is it safe?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious what your experience has been and in relation to what you hear in the news about it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I get a lot.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like people are like, is it safe?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So usually the people that come to me, they've done their research, they've been following me for a long time.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: They know I've lived here on my own as a single woman and with my dad here, you know.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, and they're usually adventurous people who want to come here.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: But what tends to happen is that their parents or their family are the ones saying, What?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to Nicaragua?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it safe?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's from the 80s.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, there's a lot of stuff that happened here in the 80s and and the war back then, and somehow it just still lingers.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I always assure people that, hey, I'm a woman on my own living here for the last 10 years, and I had my dad here, and I feel this is I feel very safe here.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course, you have to use your critical thinking skills.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I would not walk alone on the beach at night, but there are places in Toronto where I wouldn't walk alone at night, you know?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, I just feel very safe and peaceful here.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I've heard a lot of people say that Nicaragua is the safest Central American country because it's its tourism is lower.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And like a place like Costa Rica has a lot more stuff going on.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: The other question I have is and and this is something I struggle with a lot everywhere I travel.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes you're traveling to a place where the socioeconomic status of a lot of the people isn't as high as maybe it is here, and where some necessities are in short supply.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then you come in, you know, on the on an airplane with you know with your fancy passport and whatever.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it just it just gives colonialist vibes, if you will.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just wondered what your thoughts are about that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: I know you you employ local people and you interact with the community so much.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just share with us, if you will, kind of your thoughts on that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I do employ a lot of people.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: My, you know, I feel like I am a visitor here, and my mission in living here is to teach as many Nicaraguans as I can.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Any Nicaraguan that is interested in what I have to offer, let's say in my cafe, I I feed people for free.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I have supplements.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I have my own supplement lime.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I, if people want it, I give it to them for free.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: The problem here is that a lot of people don't want it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of like it's a very unhealthy culture, actually, in that a lot of people don't they don't want to eat vegetables.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been part of my challenge to try and teach people not how bad, you know, Coca-Cola is.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I I offer scholarships here for my retreats.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Any Nicaraguan that wants to come comes for free.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I offer a Spanish week, you know, once a year, where everything I do here is free for Nicaraguans.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And anyone that really, yeah, I do lots of free classes where I teach people how to cook with the local leaves.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's so much food that grows here that people don't know is food.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and that's a big part of what I do is teach people like how the leaves are edible and squash leaves and noni leaves and mango leaves, and they're everywhere and nobody eats them.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, they're very poor here, you know?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: So anything that I can do in terms of my service or offering education or offering food or offering a week here where they can reverse their health, it's all I do it all as a gift.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just love the community there.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: When we visited, everybody was like, a brother, a cousin.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: So and so is gonna take you up the volcano, and then their brother's gonna come make you food, and then their cousin's gonna do that's what I love so much about Nicaragua was the community of of all the family there.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're gonna go ahead and pivot on to the question that we love.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is the juicy part.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: What is the wildest, weirdest, or most unforgettable thing you've witnessed in what you do?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, because you know, I am a health center and a lot of people come to detox, I do get a lot of people who but they don't realize how bad their addictions are.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I always say, if you're not ready to come to my place, it's not gonna work.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have to be mentally ready.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Although I think it's a beautiful experience here, you have to be mentally ready to say no to your addictions, whether it's sugar or gluten or alcohol or whatever it is, like someone has to be wanting to come here.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I do get a lot of wives dragging their husbands here because the wife wants to be healthy and she wants the family to be healthy and she wants to share it with her husband, but he doesn't want to be here.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or I do get, you know, people bringing their sister-in-laws or or whoever it is.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So those tend to backfire.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've had people escape here and then like a local escape, I say, but like a local surf resort call me who and say, I think one of your clients is here, like who just ordered six margaritas and six plates of fries, you know, like, or you know, that has happened.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've had people show up here absolutely wasted out of the taxi, thinking, you know, they're coming here to detox.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean I've had people, yeah, it's just really it's the addictions that people are not necessarily ready for, and it's too challenging for them.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I just now I have like a proper, like really tight client intake forms and waiver forms in place, but that took me a few years to kind of realize that people are either lying to me or lying to themselves.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I am three hours from Managua, you know, that and I'm not a rehab center.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people do think of me as a rehab center, though.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to be careful with that.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: How do you handle any medical emergencies that might happen during retreat?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, knock on knock on concrete here.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't had one right on site.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we've had some some minor ones.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: There is a clinic down the road.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: If something's super serious, we would have to get an ambulance, which is kind of hard, or a taxi, emergency taxi to Managua, which is three, three and a half hours away to go to the private hospital there.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we do have epi pens here.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if I feel that somebody's situation is too serious, because I have had people with serious cancer issues, or you know, or maybe they're too old, but they want to come here.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or now a lot of people know about my dad's story with Alzheimer's.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of people wanted to bring their Alzheimer's parents here, but yeah, I have to draw the line somewhere, and I am off the beaten path and and far away.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I let people know that I'm far, and I've had to say no to some people and say I'm not the right place for you.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Was there ever a moment in your journey thus far where you thought to yourself, maybe I'm just not cut out for this?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I know with all my heart and all my all the cells in my body that I'm supposed to share with people what I've learned from healing myself.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I do feel that is the meaning of life, actually, is that we are to triumph over our own obstacles and challenges and pains and whatever we learn, we're supposed to share with others.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that I'm meant to be doing this.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do I feel that sometimes I need a bigger team here?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm working on that.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So as my business grows and I am getting more and more people coming here consistently, I'm growing my team as well.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that I it's not just me, you know, because I I do a lot of it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: I am the chef, I am the yoga teacher, I am the host.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm growing my team to be able to support others throughout their transformations as well.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it seems to us or to me that you give your heart and soul to those that come to your retreat.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: How do you fill your cup?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, that's been an interesting part of the journey, just being an entrepreneur and being in a my business is giving, and then also having my dad's here.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been very challenging for me these last 10 years.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And people often ask me that question.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I really believe in everything that I teach, so that fills my cup, you know, being able to eat well so that I have high energy and being able to do the practice of yoga and meditation so that I can calm my mind and being around others, you know, even if they are my clients, there are others that are part of my community as well.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, it's been hard too, because my business has been growing, which is great.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I like these last eight years, 10 years, I'm always working as well.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm working on boundaries and saying no more, and I'm going on my first ever retreat next month.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just yeah, just taking time for me more now that I I can because my dad has passed, actually.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, just learning how to receive and take care of myself more.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Here in California, so many people I know are dabbling in plant medicine.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just so curious to hear what you think about all of that.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have a hard time with that.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that people are using it as a shortcut to do the work.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of frauds out there.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've witnessed with my own eyes that a lot of people have been hurt mentally from people who are not the right people to be holding space for things like this.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot of science saying that it's it can be good, but I just feel like a lot of people have not done the work properly or for long enough, and they should not be holding space for others to do that work, and they're not, there's not enough integration time.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think people are overdoing it, and I'm seeing a lot of people doing things every single day that I don't think is necessarily a good idea.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen a lot of people around me do bufo.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bufo is like frog DMT, and they smoked it.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've seen a lot of bad things with my own eyes.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like they just did too much of it and it made them crazy.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's hard.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's all a shortcut.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the true way to really do your work is I'm not saying there's not a merit in it or it can be used as a tool, but I think a lot of people are doing it too much, like it's too excessive.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I just think that it's like, you know, it's become all the rage, and people are doing it a lot on retreats and doing it at raves.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a very pure thing that shouldn't be screwed around with, you know, like I don't know.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think people at the end of the day are need to look at themselves more and sit with themselves.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think the true answers come from that.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: One more question for you, Grace, and then I'm sure Elsa has some.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to share with our listeners some of the really cool food that you offer at the cafe?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my big thing is utilizing foods from nature and creating them without chemicals in really easy and delicious ways.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I love, well, I always teach my clients and students, like utilize what's around you in nature.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I'm in the tropics.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a lot of like tropical leaves and tropical fruits and veggies.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, what's really popular in our cafe is our tropical pokey bowl.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we take the leaves of a noni fruit tree and we saute it really crispy and coconut oil and we saute papaya with garlic and onions.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we have like make a turmeric coconut sauce with coconuts from my tree and drizzle it on there, and that's super popular.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have cactus on our property and it's a nopale cactus.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's really good for digestion.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we make a chashuka, which is cactus and tomato base with poached eggs over a garden rice.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: We make a lot of really cool and delicious protein smoothies with tropical fruits and again aloe vera cactus, a lot of things that are really medicinal and healing, but we make it super delicious.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: I make a lot of protein powders with seeds from uh really interesting trees like pikaro seeds and chia seeds, and I use a lot of fresh cacao.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also really famous for my desserts.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I make gluten-free, raw, all natural, chemical-free protein desserts.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: So all super high in protein, but all super creamy and decadent.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I make this really yummy chocolate mousse cake that's people love.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like people who are not healthy, they love it.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's how I know things are good when like unhealthy people will have and be like, oh my God, this is delicious, but they don't realize how healthy it is.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: As well, we make this like vanilla cream cake that I make with chickpeas, actually, and a really, really yummy like cacao crust.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, just making things super healthy and really like intentional with the ingredients and how they affect the body and how they can help to heal and energize the body without any chemicals.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: We make every single thing from scratch.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you have a cookbook.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say, if we have listeners who can't get down to Nicaragua, how can they cook like you?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, I have all my foundational recipes in uh one book that you can get that on my website and it's made to order.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also have tons of, if you go through my archives of like nutrition articles and recipes, I have like hundreds of free recipes and articles on there.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, my cookbook has been really popular.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: I it came out last year.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's predominantly raw, so it's not even a lot of cooking required, but it's a nice, it's a whole collection of recipes that can be used to like help you reset and energize.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I also say you don't have to be raw or you don't have to be plant-based to enjoy this book.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: It will complement any style of eating, whether you eat meat or or what however you eat.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nice way to get more nutrition into your diet as an add-on or also as a reset.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, we'd like to thank Grace for joining our podcast today.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: We've learned so much.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: You've officially joined the ranks of the brave and the bold.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's it for this week's confession.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: We've laughed, cringed, and maybe questioned our own career choices.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Big thanks to our anonymous guests for keeping it real and reminding us that behind every job title is a story worth telling.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got a workplace confession of your own, we're all ears.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hit us up at our email address.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and share.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Your support helps us keep the secrets flowing.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, keep your badge clipped, your coffee strong, and your stories wild.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is Workplace Confessions Behind Closed Doors.