161. Reclaim Your Path: Why I Left A Job, Chose México & Am Building on My Own Terms

In this solo episode, I'm giving you the life update I've been meaning to share and I'm keeping it real. From accepting a corporate job out of desperation (and quitting nine days later) to deciding to stay in México for another year, and finally announcing the new business I'm building from scratch.

This episode is for every first-generation mami who's ever felt like she had to prove herself, restart, or choose between stability and freedom.

What You'll Hear:

• The first-gen mentality that almost kept me stuck in a job that didn't align with my values
• Where we are with our life in México and why we're committing to at least one more year
• My big pivot: launching a new business built on 12+ years of professional experience

Transcript

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I'm just here to remind you that even though things can get in the way, or life can be scary, or you just don't know which direction to go to, I'm here to tell you that you just need to trust yourself and trust the process. There are other ways of what success looks like. And for me, at least- Our success story is that we made this move to Mexico and we're making it work, right? Like that is my most current success. Whatever it is or whatever will be, like I just know that this experience is like a once in a lifetime experience. Hola, hola. Welcome to the Viva La Mami podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Cuevas, it has been a while since I've done a solo episode. So this is going to be a very quick one, just to give you a little bit of more of a life u- update and that is because a lot has been going on. And so if you are new here, my name is Jessica Cuevas, and I am the founder of Viva La Mami, where I get to share my experience living in Mexico as a Latina mom who was born and raised in the United States. And I'm here to help empower the Latina mom to redefine the meaning of motherhood so that she can create it in her own way. and so this podcast was essentially for that, to give you the tools, the knowledge, and essentially the wisdom for you to choose your own path. So that way you don't get to do this alone. There is a community of Latina moms out there, and my platform is one of them. And so on today's episode, I'm going to share a little bit about three big things that have been going on the past several of weeks, and that is why I left my full-time job. And if you haven't seen on Instagram, I will share what this update is. Also, our life here in Mexico in terms of whether if we're going to stay here or not, because we're about to make a year since we moved to Mexico. And of course, what's coming next for Viva La Mami and my own personal business ventures. So I hope you stay tuned because I think that hopefully one of the three topics can kinda resonate with you and I hope we can kinda do this together because I definitely don't wanna do this alone. So the first topic that I wanted to share with you all is my new job that I had. if you don't follow me on Instagram, I highly encourage you to do, by the way. But a couple days ago, I shared on Instagram that I was hired, um, and this was a, like a traditional W2, nine-to-five full-time job, okay? This was my very first, like, full-time job ever since my littlest one was born. And the last time I had a traditional nine-to-five was back in 2023, okay? Right when I went into labor, that was my last day of employment. And so it was very strange kind of like going back to this full-time job just because I didn't realize how much time you are literally spent, like, in front of a computer and essentially how much time is dedicated into this corporate America type job. Now, yes, we are still living in Mexico. And yes, I took on a US remote job. And I didn't tell the employer where I was living. In fact, they didn't really ask. Um, all what they wanted to know what my home address was, and I guess that's how they verify probably. But it's funny enough that when I got hired, I was in Chicago. So technically, I was in Illinois by the time that I received my equipment, and, and it just kind of worked out. And also my parents who are living in Mexico were in the States and my grandparents too, and they also helped me bring the equipment here because they just delivered a bunch of equipment. And I kind of did it on the hush hush. I don't know if they know, and if they do, whatever, I'm no longer employed by them. But you, you might be asking yourself, like, why, why were, why was she even looking for a job? Like, why was she-- why did she even accept a job? And so I think there's multiple reasons why, right? Well, first of all, I've been desperate to find a job to just make money. Um, unfortunately, what I have here in Viva La Mami, it is not monetizing at all, and I'll explain that a little bit more as far as with my business ventures that I wanna do, and I'm literally manifesting it out there. But, uh, just because I have been in dire need of making money, I thought that finding a traditional nine-to-five would be the solution. And, and I was very specific in looking for remote opportunities because I could do it from home. I could do it from anywhere, even though in the job descriptions, you know, it says that you must be living, residing in the United States. And while many employers could find out if you are living abroad, a lot of them might not vet you. Um, now, I just don't wanna give promises, right? Because I don't want you to End up finding a job and you move outside of the country and then you end up getting caught, right? Like it's all a risk. You're just taking a big ass risk. And for me, I was like,"Well, I'm willing to do this. If I get caught, I get caught," because at the end of the day we're all disposable. And so yeah, I kind of did it on the hush-hush. We do have a VPN to kind of show that our work is coming from back home in Chicago, but in reality IT could find out, right? Uh, if they, if the company is very nitty-gritty and they do wanna go through this whole ass vetting process, like they can catch you. there's no joke with like IT and cybersecurity and all of that, like they know where everything comes from. So, but at least during that time when I was employed, like I was, yeah, I, I, I was working in the United States. And, it just felt strange telling my colleagues like,"Yeah, it's still cold out here," when in fact it was hot. Or the fact that the time difference, uh, was different. You know, Mexico right now is an hour behind Central Time, and so I had to like be diligent in making sure that I wasn't waking up late or that I am telling someone the wrong time, right? So that was that. Um, but Even though I've been desperate to find a job, like it just didn't work out in, in that way. But also, I don't know, part of me it's this first generation kind of like ambitious way of thinking that I need to prove to the world that I am fully capable, that I need to contribute to society, that I am not lazy, that, you know, I worked my ass off to get here. And mind you, I have a master's of education, you know. I am a fully well-educated woman with 10 plus years of... My professional experience comes from higher education, college counseling, college, access work and admissions. And so, you know, I always wanted to prove myself in a certain way. And by me searching for jobs and finally getting one, and mind you this was the only job for the past two years that I've been on the market looking for jobs, um, after Mateo was a year. I went back to the job search to look for jobs, and this was the only job That had offered me a position. And I was contemplating. I w- was talking to my husband, Alex, I was talking to my sister, who's, um, out of that 9:00 to 5:00 traditional W-2 job. She's a realtor, and so she's kind of her own boss, right? And I was just, like, trying to gather their thoughts and, I mean, ultimately, I made the decision to accept the offer. And again, I think it was part of me f- for being kind of desperate to actually get offered a job, and to provide for my family, but also the other part of me is to kind of prove myself that I need to be back in the workforce and kind of contribute in that way, right? So this is still this mentality and mindset of what the US kind of molds you to be, right? But in reality, I am living in a different country. Uh, we are living a little bit differently when it comes to, like, um, costs and all of that, even though, yes, uh, Mexico can be expensive. You still need to hustle. You still need to find ways to make money. But I would say that I don't feel as pressured to be that desperate. And, and not to mention, the job was just not for me. Again, I accepted just because, I don't know, it, I almost had this, like, veil on me without really realizing and, and kind of, like, appreciating where we're at in Mexico and, and having a different lifestyle and having a whole completely different life than in the US. But I don't know, I just decided to accept the, the job offer and, and then it came down to, like, a couple realizations, First of all, this is an institution of higher ed, but it's a whole different monster. It's a for-profit, uh, university. It's a corporate sort of entity. It is a publicly traded company. So it is nowhere near- Like the type of institution that I am used to. And you can call me a traditionalist, whatever. Um, at the end of the day, I do believe that everyone can have a chance in getting a higher education, you know, whether if it's a technical degree, an associate's, bachelor's, master's, PhD, whatever it is, right? Like, I do believe that people have that chance, and I'm glad that institutions like for-profit, you know, colleges can provide that to students. But I would say that the way that it's kind of functioned, it's very different than what I'm used to. And this was basically like a call center kind of like position, right? Very like entry-level. Like I should be the one managing. I should be some kind of like director level, verdad. But those are the consequences of like, you know, making a career pause to raise your kids, and then everything else that was in your past is kind of like thrown out in the trash, and you kind of have to restart all over. Let me know if I'm wrong, but that's how my whole experience has been. Like I literally had to start from scratch. And now that this opportunity came to be, like, you know, I was like,"Okay, I guess this is the only thing that I am given." Entonces pues, you know, I, I started with the onboarding process, um, and I did realize that there were a lot of things that just didn't align with my values. The way that people were kind of like treated in this kind of like call center type thing, um, not only was like the way that I communicated with prospective students was like scripted in a way, but My calls would also be recorded, like audio calls, but also the visual part would be recorded. So like my activity on the monitor would literally be recorded, and all of that is kind of graded and judged upon, like the, the way that you work. And, and coming from higher ed... Now, if you work in corporate America, this might be pretty normal for you. But for me, working in education, like higher education and K through 12 education, because I used to work at a high school, and even non-for-profit, like I've had all those types of jobs and I would never been micromanaged in that way. And, and that just wasn't for me. I, I was like,"This isn't for me," and I kind of gave it a try. The first week went down, and then the second week I was like... By Monday, I was like,"Okay, I'm gonna give it a shot." Tuesday, I was like,"Ugh, I don't know how I feel." Wednesday, I was like,"Ooh, this isn't for me." And literally nine days into my onboarding, like training, I quit. And, and yeah, you know, I'm pretty sure that for those of you who are listening and watching, like I'm pretty sure that you've have had this experience. It's just that we don't say it, we don't share because it could be an embarrassment, we could feel like we're not professional or whatever. But now I'm admitting what I did. And so I, I hope that you take this into consideration that it's okay to leave a job even if it's been like months after, you know, you started, um, or weeks or days in my case. I think it is okay. And especially if you kind of assess where you're at, whether if it matches with your values and your professional goals. I know that at least for me, like I have all these multitude of layers, right? That I'm a first gen professional. No one really taught me how to negotiate. No one really taught me how to really fully gauge on what the, um, position is about or what the employer is about. You know, we all have to be humble and accept whatever is being offered without fully analyzing it, and that's how I've been taught, right? Like, that's all what I know. But on top of this layer, it's also the fact that I was returning back from like mothering 24/7, you know? And even though it was mothering is still a 24/7 job, it's this added layer of like having a, a paid job, right? And how that looked like. And honestly, it would've been impossible porque aqui en Mexico the school system is very different. In a way, there is this expectation for parents to be v- very involved in their kids' education. Like for example, um, during my onboarding, you know, there were events that were happening in school, like during the school time, and I missed out on that, and then Alex was also trying to find, ways to have that flexibility as well. So now I see the red flags. I didn't see that because again, I was basically, I had this veil on me that I didn't realize the impact that it could make. And now I'm back to just not being employed full-time, and that is okay. I'm okay with that. And yeah, if you've left your job before a year, share that in the comments and say why. Say, tell me why. Why did you decide to leave? Was it because it didn't fit well? Was it because of pay? Was it because you found other opportunities? Let me know. But let's normalize this so that people can feel okay and if in case they wanna leave their job. So now let's transition to our life here in Mexico. If you haven't known this, uh, we have been living here for almost a year. It's going to be a year in late July. So just to give you context, which is wild. And when we were planning our move to Mexico, we thought to ourselves that we would be living here for a year. We thought that it was very easy to move back. But in reality, we, first of all, we love it here, and second of all, we need to take more time to figure out what is next in line, and that decision will depend on where we're at. Right? But I would say that we wanna make a decision to live somewhere long-term, and that can be either here in Mexico or back in the US. We still don't know that yet, but all what I have to share with you is that, yes, I mean, we, we wanna stay here. I think that the way that our kids are adapting here has been working out really great. It has been working out with us pretty well when it comes to, like, money and things like that. Even though I do wanna make more money to have more cushion and, you know, to have more savings, like, we have been able to survive more, like, realistically than compared to how we were a year ago in the US. So yeah, we're going to be here for another year, and during this year we're going to assess what we're going to do in the next five years. So we wanna set, like, a five-year goal, right? To feel a little bit more stable, to have a clear vision and, and see what's up, you know? I feel like if we would leave México, like, this summer, I think that we would have a lot of unfinished business, because there are still parts of the life here in México that I wanna get to be a part of, that I wanna get to know. And not necessarily travel all around México because first of all, that's impossible, even though that's a goal. But, you know, we're also working, our kids go to school, uh, kids' summer vacation is very short. And so yeah, like we, we just wanna be a part of this, like, life here in México, and we feel that if we were to leave this summer, like, we wouldn't meet all of those, you know, kinda like goals that, that we have in mind. So, so yeah, so I'm very excited to be living one more year here at least. Y a ver cómo nos da. You know, we'll see what happens. But in terms of the housing and stuff like that, uh, we are looking for a new home to live, just because the one that we're at, it's just been a little, uh, it's been very complicated to say the least. Uh, the landlords aren't as proactive, they're not quick enough with, like, certain repairs. We've talked about having repairs, like, ever since we moved in, and they have yet to do them. For example, the window in this very room, it is so hot right now and the window cannot open. And we told them ever since we moved in. I was like,"Why isn't this window opening?" And they're like,"Oh yeah, we'll fix it," and they never did. So that's just to give you an example of, like, how uninvolved these landlords are, so we call them the slumlords. And now, you know, we're proactive in, in searching for housing, and hopefully we find a house real soon. So I'll keep you posted on that. And then finally, the last topic is the business, and kinda, you know, just trying to figure out ways that I can make money. I mean, let's just face it, right? Right now with Viva La Mami, I'm going to be honest with you, things are not kind of working out the way that I expected, and I get it. You know, right now the economy is horrible. It is just not working out for many families to simply, you know, buy my products, uh, which are how to get dual citizenship in Mexico Or my one-on-one support that I offer so that you can start planning and making the move to Mexico, and so I completely get it. I am looking for opportunities to grow through sponsorships and all of that, but I do not wanna solely depend on that because I consider that as, like, an extra source of income. But as far as with my own, you know, business ventures, I am planning to pivot and add a secondary business. So I am just manifesting it out here because I feel like that is important. I need to speak out loud so that way I can make this a reality. But I am planning to make my own college consulting business. And I will be sharing that more if you follow me on Instagram and all of that. so more info to come, but I am very excited to be doing this because I realize that if I wanna be living in Mexico, I have to find something where it's, first of all, sustainable, achievable, and for me to utilize the skills that I already have. I have o- over 12 years of college admissions experience, including college counseling experience, and I'm like,"Why haven't I thought about creating my own college consulting business?" And so I will be sharing more on that, but just to give you a little sneak peek of what I am intending to do, that will be kind of like what I'll be doing for the rest of the year in addition to Viva La Mami. and we'll see how that goes, right? Like, I really want to make our life here in Mexico work, but it's also ways in how I can essentially hone into more entrepreneurship than just waiting for the traditional nine to five and, and then it ends up not working for me, right? Like, I just don't wanna repeat that cycle. So yeah, so I just wanted to share those little updates. But I'm just here to remind you that even though things can get in the way, or life can be scary, or you just don't know which direction to go to, I'm here to tell you that you just need to trust yourself and trust the process. And it's been very difficult to not feel settled. Like, I have definitely had very bad days where I'm like, why do I still feel like I am like a recently college graduate student when in fact I should be successful, but we shouldn't measure success based on what we perceive of success, right? There are other ways of what success looks like. And for me, at least- Our success story is that we made this move to Mexico and we're making it work, right? Like that is my most current success. Whatever it is or whatever will be, like I just know that this experience is like a once in a lifetime experience. And we're going to figure out how we can make it work this year to then create a five-year plan. So that way we can feel at least a little bit more settled, a little bit more secured when it comes to like stability, if that makes sense. So, I, I'm just curious, what's one decision you've been putting off that you already know the answer to? And so let me know in the comments, feel free to DM me on Instagram, whatever it is, I'm just here to remind you that it's okay to kind of reassess whatever is going on. It's okay to put things off or to start all over. Like it's okay. You know, I think at the end of the day, as long as no one's at harm, you know, everything else is fine. I know that for some of my mommy friends, like they see our move to Mexico as a way to create chaos and instability for the kids, but I also have another group of mommy friends that they're like,"Yes, this is their new normal. This is their, their childhood is so different." So for me, I just know that we made this decision to have a different experience for our kids to be fully immersed in the cultura here in Mexico, to meet new people, to have a different life really, and I hope that we can make this work. And if not, then I can at least say that we lived in Mexico for X amount of time, and that in itself could bring so much, joy that can add into people's life, I, I would say. Because I remember when I would talk to people and they say like,"Oh yeah, we lived in Germany for a year," or,"Oh yeah, we lived in Mexico for a year," and I was like,"Oh my gosh, that is so cool," you know? And I kinda wanna be that person. But also in the current state that I'm in and that we're in, you know, even though we are trying to figure out what is next in line, I don't let that get in the way. I am trying my best to be present with my kids, with myself, with my husband, with my family that is around me here, and with my new community and village that we've built here. And I think that's all that matters. And so my piece of advice for you is to just, like, take it day by day, and You already know the answer to what you're putting off, and I hope that this episode kinda helped. But if you have any questions feel free to let me know. DM me on Instagram at Viva La Mommy, or you can send me an email at podcast@vivalamommy.com, and if you're watching this video, you can just comment below and I can literally reply to you. So all right, amiga, well, this was a quick episode, but I hope it was a good one, and just to kinda provide you with my life update. but as always, thank you so much for listening. Hasta la próxima y nos vemos in the next episode.