Nathan Wakeford called to Tulum to create a new way of living & a Regenerative community
Nathan Wakeford, the owner of Todo Bien Cafe and various ventures in Tulum. Nathan shares his intuitive journey to Tulum, where he founded a regenerative community project called Mother Tree, focused on connection and healing. He also discusses his work with a men’s group, Kings of Integrity, and the importance of creating safe spaces for personal growth. The conversation reflects on the impact of the pandemic as a catalyst for Nathan’s commitment to his vision. He addresses concerns about safety in Tulum and emphasizes the opportunities it offers.
TRANSCRIPT:
Yoli: Everyone I am here at Todo Bien Cafe it’s a beautiful coffee and matcha experience that is owned by Nathan Wakeford who I am here to meet… excited to have a conversation hey Nathan!
Nathan: Laughs
Yoli: All right everybody welcome back to Tulum magazine. This is the episode where we talk to movers and shakers in Tulum those who are making an impact in this part of the world and hear their stories, their Journeys – today I’m interested and excited to introduce you to Nathan Wakeford who wears many hats here in Tulum he is the owner and founder of Todo bien which is where we are we are right now he’s also one of the founders of Regenerative community Mother Tree which hopefully we’ll get to talk about and also runs the Tulum Business Club which I’d love to get an update on welcome to the show Nathan. So I always start the show asking when was the first time you heard about Tulum and how did you come to find yourself living here.
Nathan: Well I had an intuition that I was going to open up a community in…somewhere in Mexico and at the time I was at Burning Man and came through one evening very strongly that this was going to be very soon, we’re going to open up the community here and I started to say hey I think I’m into the opening up a community in Mexico I started to put it out there yeah and then people kept saying oh interlude and I’m like yeah in Tulum and this happened like continuously every person started saying clue and I’d never been to bloom I didn’t even know who to win was but I already knew within the intuitive feelings that I have in my body yeah that Saloon was gonna be the place but I didn’t know how it was going to happen but I have a certain intuitive gift you could say and I knew it was going to need to learn like interloom somewhere into the jungle of it yeah and so whatever ended up happening was I was doing a day Aya in the Amazon rainforest with the Kunta Nawa tribe in Brazil the Brazilian Amazon rainforest not far from Accra and there I did some healing work as well I was at the end of the day at uh and a woman named Kumiko was filming a documentary about the continua tribes efforts to protect families on rainforests here in the deforestation that was taking place an intuitive way we got connected I did a healing session with her she then connected me with a guy that was working with the Mayans and selling plots of land on behalf of the Mayans here and that turned out to be into them and so that’s how the land came to me and then I remember touring a land and immediately I knew that was the land that we had to do that is and I didn’t at the time I had I had built a global food company and so I didn’t know sorry at the time I felt the shift coming and that was further accelerated you could say from the Ayahuasca Journeys yeah and so I made I didn’t have enough money at the time to buy all the land there’s a significant portion of land and but within a few weeks I expressed my business partner that I was going to make a shift I didn’t know it was going to be permanent but I needed to make a shoot I wanted to buy land and focus on family and whatever and within a few weeks I’d sold a quarter of my company and that gave us the money to pay for the win wow so yeah life leads us in interesting directions what do you think like now that you can look back on it what do you think it was about you or what you were doing at the time or what people perceived about you or what you’re expressing of the idea that made them say oh Tulum like why wouldn’t they have said no I I it was there was just a message for me yeah yeah I don’t know I think you could say at that time he was um the dates 20 we’re in 23 20 yeah it was it was at the time um was pre-covered I think when I first came yeah um but it’s just the universe guiding me so you feel like you were called without question I think many people are called to learn probably if you’re listening to this in some level you’re called to Tulum and doing vision for everyone yeah and it tends to receive people push people out depending on that person’s path and journey we absolutely hear that we hear that a lot yeah it’s very common to be spoken about you know it’s like a little war Direction you could say yeah so tell me about your first impressions until then when you first came why did you feel home to learn straight away for sure and sometimes can be quiet abrasive and confronting a little bit when you first get here because it’s a very it’s there’s a lot of Western influence here but it is still you’re a mixture you’re in a different country and there’s a lot of construction here and there’s a lot of chaos here and there’s things that aren’t so easy to organize you know things that we take for granted from a convenience level in places United States and Europe and in Australia and what have you those aren’t so convenient here yeah but then you just get get over it you know and Tulum is just a place where you can’t really control things you have to allow that there’s a certain flow to the way things happen here maybe even a beauty and intelligence then so I think a lot of people depending on how hard you try to control things and how much resistance you’d have to just the way things are will create the challenge for yourself but if you just let go and flow then to whom sort of welcomes you in you start to move with a group of to learn yeah which and acquiring land maybe we can start there you know maybe tell us a little bit about your project and why that project what’s the current status what’s your vision for it so the Project’s mother tree it’s located in Francisco my about 30 kilometers from Tulum it’s about four kilometers into the jungle it’s a regenerative community and Circa economy but also what’s connected to Toyota at um and it’s intended as a replicable model that other people could see and be inspired by the way that we’re creating a new way of living that’s intense like when I say regenerative it’s not so much it includes the environment the way we do farming but it’s more about regenerating the human Spirit reinstalling Community doing healing together bringing back Dance Connection healthy authentic expression growing our own food having you know and really healthy food that’s nourishing truly nourishing so in education and entertainment that’s provided from the community for community so you develop a much closer Bond and but it still gives you the model that we’re giving still allows the opportunity to be independent to have your own house and your own area not living on top of each other but to come together in a communal setting as well so mother tree is 16 hectares of land at the moment and it’s broken up into different regions there’s a commercial region so it’s intended to be commercially independent an agricultural region to bring our own food a ceremonial area an entertainment area to run Retreats and performances and workshops and whatever um and then it has a residential area the idea is it was as I mentioned inspired a little bit of the time of lockdowns yeah um so that we could have everything that we could desire in a community but also still be able to function in society yeah and then jump between the two at our discretion I think that there are a lot of systems societal models which I think it’s inherently unhealthy the human Spirit to well-being and that create that aren’t conducive to Prosperity they don’t introduce you to connection so for me then what we’re wanting to create is an alternative for that you know something that despite its very nature is nourishing to your spirit that you feel a deep sense of Clone and safety when you’re there and you also have freedom freedom of expression and you have all like authenticity yeah that’s it’s such a safe space that it supports nourishes authenticity and communication expression with others so yeah I just think that we want to stand for something that’s not available a synthetic reality is being formed and I just want to restore what is organic and natural to the human spirit so that when when you have an animal that’s in its natural environment it’s going to thrive and prosper I think if you can put humans in a natural environment that’s very aligned with our true nature then I believe that we would want another good throne so actually a good segue to you know a thought that I keep on sort of running into a lot of people have this perception that folks that are here in Tulum are kind of just either partying their brains out or floating in this sort of Wellness Community which there are but what I find the irony is that there’s a lot of business people who are building legitimate businesses how do you sort of juxtapose that you know the perception of Tulum versus what’s actually happening here like do you find you that you’re working harder than you have or are you working in a different way in a different way I want to answer one I
just want to give a little footnote I think people come to learn why they come to lose himself or find themselves and it’s a very different pop I think Tulum when you have it’s one of the fastest growing it’s not the fastest growing city in Mexico so but it’s incredibly seasonal right so we have a huge amount of people and we have very little people in terms of expats and it is there’s this big Ebbs and flows that happen because of that so I would say even despite having built a global food company it’s one of the most challenging areas to do business because when the tourists are here it’s actually relatively easy yeah a lot of things are stuck in your favor you know there’s even if you pay above wages and you’re supporting um you know employment and whatever
that’s great when there’s people around yeah but if you’ve got that this might be from November to say March from March
to November it’s there’s very few people if you’re pitching for the Western Market it’s just not a big Western Market here for
you and so then you’re either going to fall into providing an offering which is a low socioeconomic class offering
versus the quality offering for a higher socioeconomic class and so just balancing balancing yeah to
answer your question about no I think it attracts a lot of entrepreneurs very smart ones there’s a
lot of people involved in technology around crypto there’s a lot of people that are involved in property
development but there’s also a lot of people that in some way have similar aspirations to what I I do because there
is Mexico does offer more than anyone else because it’s relatively
relaxed again it comes with wrist but relaxed
approach to construction and Land Development and especially with the hedo
lands of other things again there’s a certain risks that come with that yeah but there’s a there’s a high degree of Freedom that’s also possible
so there’s a there’s a tray you know embracing more risk and uncertainty and more volatility and more chaos
but also allowing more freedom in creativity and I think that’s where having some
groundedness in business is really useful and you have to be incredibly Savvy here I think if you’re going to go
for a western audience as opposed to the Mexican audience the Mexicans don’t well cater for the Western audience yeah and
the Western audience don’t well cater for the Mexican audience and they have because they have different values different things that are important a
lot of the nutritional needs or preferences I should say of the Mexicans is one let’s just say a particular type
of food that if you’re a Westerner that’s very specifically very keen on High nutritional low fat low oils
whatever it might be then there’s a disparity there so that when you open up a business for westerners it almost will
not attract any Mexicans right right so there’s there’s just things to be considered with that so then you need to
be considering well can you endure significant amount of time very low
turnover and a very small audience so yeah it’s a multiple multiple streams of
income seem to be a theme yeah for you community seems to be a theme maybe just
talk a little bit about why we started the business Club and how sort of community sort of weaved
into your other initiatives we’ve also opened up a men’s circle called Kings of
Integrity swim Business Club is on hold right now it’s simply because there
aren’t many people around yeah so we wait until November and think if we open it again but the idea of
community well it’s my business Club idea came from the fact that when you do come and if you are an entrepreneur
you want to find other business owners that have solved the problems that you’re already going to encounter yeah everyone pretty much meets a similar
like there’s a diverse and you know broad range of challenges
you might meet when you come to Mexico and or specifically to him but I think it that was part of it because with
Mother tree I had a lot of people that would buy land would sell their house move their families whatever it might be
come here but they’re not having employment so they have Capital employment so filming Business Club was
in part to provide solutions for people that are migrating here that were connected within my community
uh and then then with the whole with the whole men’s group that of kings of
integrity and whatever that also came about because I was like wow there’s there’s there’s a need for me with the
community to create a safe environment and that involves men I mean that’s think in a similar way
they can protect provide and serve the feminine and so that was also part of it so what I’m coming to realize is you’re
in a foreign country where you know I do have Mexican friends and
they’re already entrenched here they’re already settled here their way of being they speak the language and I didn’t
come into speaking really in Spanish yeah or very minimal Spanish I should say so yeah I think the role of community
becomes even more important because if you’re when we did the values from other tree I thought people would be seeking
freedom and things like that yeah an adventure and that’s why you come into this part of the world what most people
are seeking is a sense of home and seeking security that is very
um I resonate with that because you know obviously I connect with a lot of the
black community that are maybe like leaving Canada America sometimes the UK
and it’s interesting you say that because a lot of the things that they’re looking for is a place to belong where
they may not have felt like they could so in the U.S for example for some obvious reasons some
reasons not so obvious you know they might be looking for um you know in our community you mentioned
nutrition for example just the prevalence of GMO
um do most particularly in the U.S I know has been something that
um or are kind of like where am I going to have food Security in the true sense of
the word but also in the sense of like I don’t even know what I’m eating so I
loved when I first met you hearing about mother tree and the fact that you were growing your own Foods
so I can definitely rest and resonate with that but with the men’s group so
um feeling like they have a place where they can talk safely
without the presence of women tell me how that sort of evolved and is there a is there a broader theme that you’re
kind of tapping into I’ve been working with the masculine and doing men’s work
I was 16 years [Music] what it comes from is you just have to
look Society there’s a there’s a saying I can’t remember who said it uh
weak times sorry easy times create weak men Hard Times create strong men right and we’ve been in Easy times you think
it’s like at the time then when you can make a lot of money relatively easy yeah it’s like so much as convenience and so part
of it is there’s also there’s a lot of confusion right now what are the roles of men and women yeah they’re even
trying to be there’s even some in some people’s minds confusion about what is a mineral yeah and so for me it’s just like especially
I just traveled around seven countries around Europe and you can unmistakably feel the masculine energy when you know
masculine energy you need to be a clean way so I’m not here to debate people’s
gender labels yeah for me there’s just an inherently masculine energy of feminine energy
and true masculine energy protects it provides it serves
and regardless of gender yes right so
for me there’s something that with all this
labeling trauma Collective societal trauma that gets projected out yeah
victimhood perpetrator these Loops that continue play out and people don’t realize when they take the perpetrator
role they’re disempowering themselves yeah then they they claim the victim role they’re disappearing themselves so
for me it’s just more like how do we restore a healthy connection between the masculine and feminine where the
masculine understands their role in providing safety for yes their partner
yes but their Community you know their family all that sort of stuff what does that look like because a lot of men
haven’t been raised by men yeah a lot of men have never had the example of what it is to be a healthy masculine and so
often we talk about masculine is bad and and for me it’s no it’s the lack of masculinity healthy masculinity it’s bad
the mosculinity we end up seeing is often a distorted masculine is that healthy masculine role model was never
present yeah and instead we see a lot of trauma that exists in families secretly because they don’t know
playing but it’s more you don’t know what you don’t know and parents going to typically Express the examples that
their parents gave them and then they pass them to the children and then you get a generational traumas that get passed down so what I’m interested in
is helping men to find clear purpose in Direction in their life to become strong
leaders in a way that’s um it’s healthy to truly understand
um and have good examples of what healthy masculinity is and then to be able to
give that to the world so more than anything I want to be surrounded by really strong beautiful
men yeah so that they hold me to a higher standard I hold them to a higher
standard there’s an upward spiral and that requires a degree and willingness to have some uncomfortable
uncomfortable conversations to look at what we’re hard repressing and denying in our shadow to see where
we’re seeking comfort as a method of avoidance or we’re not
moving into life with courage and having conversations that we need to have when we’re not Integrity you know when we’re
being seduced into behaviors or patterns that we know are not serving or healthy
for us or the people around us so ultimately it comes to we ask questions and we get to the core of why
behaviors are present and to be really aware of the impact when we’re coming from a December distorted Place how that
negatively impacts everyone around us including the woman that might be in our lives so it’s about becoming healthier
in our beliefs in our in our mentality and our behaviors for everyone around us
I’m I’m curious what you know now that we’re like a year or two out from the
pandemic sort of at its peak what what do you think like what do you
take away from the pandemic and like as I think about all of the themes in your your life
um was the pandemic a good thing bad thing a thing don’t think about it
yeah it’s how you respond to it that makes it good or bad sometimes the most challenging circumstances of our life
could be our most liberating if we choose it to be I think for many people it was a travesty
if I can look at it in Australia many people’s businesses suffered depression skyrocketed suicide skyrocketed yeah
um there’s a vast majority of people I would say it was a highly traumatic and
very very difficult experience that will be mainly
it’ll be passed on to future for future generations and even when bables but with all the
masks wearing the babies couldn’t even you know they’re in their Learning System slowed down because they couldn’t see their mother’s facial expressions
and so there’s just there’s just so much that we won’t know for a period of time yeah and traditionally when you I mean
if you such great separation from people that’s that’s when we we’re we’re a race
humans man man woman need physical connection and intimacy and I’m not
talking sexual understanding we need to be close to each other we need to hug each other yeah um and it’s part of a really healthy
interaction and that’s not made possible in those environments and it creates this fear like so much fear yeah the
reactivity that people make decisions from a disempowered space there’s
now there are majority there are a minority I would judge that it’s saw
that as oh wow that’s an interesting experience how would I want to create my life if
you’re someone who truly values sovereignty and freedom how would I want to create my life in a way that’s really healthy that might be independent of
uh or at least highly resilient to ever that situation ever happening again
then that’s people like myself right so I can honor people’s preferences their what they choose to experience if they
think that was a good thing a bad thing that’s great you you do you yeah for me like I don’t see it as being healthy
personally and I don’t think that putting yourself into a small small cage
is is is is a is aliveness it’s like you can be safe in a cage but
you’re never going to be truly alive you’ve got safety for me I go take away the safety and give me a liveness yeah
and so for me is how Mexico offers that ability to create life more in your
terms for that reason especially egudo languages Community only yeah
so for me I believe it was a highly transformative but also highly challenging like that everyone
experience only I’ve chosen to see to make myself stronger in relationship to
it and not and to more be more articulate in the world
that I want to create more committed to it so for me my result is more steadfast commitment to my vision that became a
lot more crystallized so my my mission is to bring strength to
weakness ordered to chaos and to create safe spaces for people to deeply experience home
so and that really came out of that I’m like okay this is very clear what I’m here to do you know to create safe
spaces to bring that order right so if everything’s chaotic around you know
that you can be in this pace and feel very much at peace who are very safe and at home
wow so that’s which ties in the men’s work it finds in the whole circular
economy that’s connected to both mother trees (Regenerative Community) so
um feels like for you the pandemic was a bit of a catalyst or helped you
crystallize you know what you already sort of were about yeah
um talk to me about sort of the next few years what do you envision happening
coming out of um everything that you’re working on here
and um for those who are you know I don’t want to present all the all just a
Rosy literature because we know that everything is as you mentioned Ebbs and
flows Peaks and valleys victories and challenges
um you know what are some tips you would have for somebody who’s thinking about either making a radical change in their
life maybe considering Tulum um maybe considering a different way of
living well I think it’s important if you’re going to make the move um
really commit and if you’re going to really commit like come here first visit see if it’s
sort of a good feel you feel if the land’s calling you in or it’s not yeah
I think it helps a lot to find local community experts it also helps you really want to find some Mexicans as
well then you really be a friend to me close with as well so a lot of the early like I became highly relied I highly
relied upon you know my Builders Mexican few others when I first arrived here yeah because one I don’t speak the
language and it just there’s a Mexican way of doing certain things you know that will happen a lot easier if you’re
not foreign yeah so I think having having the Comforts of
someone who has sent shared values and you know Western ideals or whatever might be might be appropriate to expats
that are already here but you really need to find and connect with locals as well a bit of trustworthy reliable because
they will they know in places like Tulum there isn’t just a store you go to get
everything yeah often you need to go here and there’s that guy and there’s a mechanic and then he’s not trustworthy and he’s trusted ready and you know
there’s those sort of things which help a lot um
and just know that for me at least from every from the majority of the people that I meet it’s going to be a
challenging experience that if you meet the challenge you’re going to discover a lot more about yourself and you’re going to become a lot more empowered in life
but it’s probably not going to be that comfortable so be okay with a lot of discomfort and if you are then and that’s why the
commitment’s so important yeah I’m here I’m doing it I’m doing it during the bridge again I think you’ll endure this the
initial discomfort which I don’t think it gets any easier I just think how we relate to I guess we just get a lot stronger and better yeah
um and so yeah I don’t I don’t like I’m meeting things right now on a level that I don’t really want to convey through
this um for this interview of profound things that are affecting
all levels of security and so what really needs to happen is you have to be so at least for me my learnings so
non-attached to anything and so not trying to control anything because the moment you do that there’s there’s going
to be a correction that’s going to take place where you’ll learn to be a much more at
peace with your surrounds and once you can get that then you tend to flow to your truly aligned path and it all opens
up and it’s very beautiful super well set I was just talking to someone and we
were we were talking about the expression you know we make our plans and God laughs or
something like that it’s like sometimes it does feel like that I want to address two common uh narratives really quickly
negative stereotypes of Mexico and Tulum and just get your own personal
experience so there is the always a question of you
know are you safe in Mexico uh what about the cartel are you safe I think it’s incredibly
safe here and to learn a blanket statement
I think there’s always in life going to be places that I’d say that’s what you’re willing to accept is your level
of safety so I can point to places in the U.S then I would judge incredibly less safe than
here in LA and other places yeah do you go to the middle of those places and put yourself In Harm’s Way no
and I think to some extent things don’t happen to people people attract those experiences to some level
so I have had a high degree touch wood no
one even said that I’ve had a high degree I think of safety here yeah because I just perceive it and experience it as a safe space
yet there are people that make decisions that I think would create unnecessary
withdrawal or create unnecessary risk for themselves or towards themselves like if you have certain illegal
practices you’re going to be closer to those people that support those electrical practices
I didn’t do any of that I’m not into drugs I’m not into I don’t go to nightclubs I don’t yeah
I’m not into those space I don’t get a raise I don’t do any of it so for me I just don’t see any of that I haven’t experienced that I’m not interested in
saying that yeah um I’m interested goes home most nights by 10 a.m so at 10
pm today so if if anybody up for any reason it’s going to be with friends and houses and stuff but as a general if
you’re walking in the street here I would say you’re going to experience it as a very safe space so
so the other theme that we hear a lot is this notion of us visitors
in this country um the topic of gentrification the
topic of how things change for the locals when a lot of foreigners move in and I
think pandemic having sort of accelerated that what are your thoughts
on that like how do you rationalize you know wanting to be a good person and
you coming here um versus the
the I guess the things that happen as a result of people who might move into an
area with more money I mean I’ve seen that in San Francisco I’ve seen it happen in New York yeah I think there’s
two distinct economies here yeah there’s a western economy in this Mexico that’s part of the win you know it makes
sense don’t come to these places so if you’re talking about the impact then of
land and things like that there’s whole areas that westerners
won’t buy houses or properties in or anything like that I think there’s going to be with with the general migration of
Mexicans and westerners alike there’s going to be increasing land prices um
I need to I don’t know that that can be prevented even if it was a noble desired too
but what I can say is that I think there is a greater
role that people invest in there this area could play in providing amenities
that would support the local communities you know there’s good there’s kind of good community
programs there are many people that are doing that from people us collecting up plastic and
waste and there’s different you know recycling programs and there’s dog you
know managing the dog problems so I actually see a lot of solving problems here and to be frank what I see is
certain opportunism also that isn’t westerners that’s happening here yeah
[Music] which is is part of it so I mean chicken
before the egg I think westerners who come here and support a local legal practices is definitely not helping mate
so if you come and get a party and take drugs and stuff like that then you’re definitely part of the problem right in
terms of social consequences if that happens um
balloons such an interesting place in that regard all I can say is that’s I
don’t make that as a general statement I say it’s more like individual how you show up is how you’ll impact and that’s all that you can really manage and
hopefully that’s an example to others to try and follow that all right well thank you so much Nathan
um a lot of people who will be watching this may be coming as Taurus and may be wanting to experience sort of like your
best of so what are some of your favorite restaurants your favorite
things is obviously okay and what’s total bien’s uh Instagram handle
okay um so for restaurants I mean the ones
that I would frequent or whether it is Asian Bodega there is uh kokoro for Japanese there’s
um Akuma tiger there’s some Japanese place there’s
um mezzanine for Thai there’s habitats which is a good restaurant there’s
um to
such an a um Accra our ARCA ARCA yeah it’s a great
restaurant I mean it’s this there’s so many different ones here and there’s like negro hotel for tacos and there’s a
lot of cool places potty for cacao um if they must do a beach club one or
two faves uh I would go to Nevada or to another
city that’s a Thursday night typically or on a Sunday I go to happy place or
you go to tree house yeah that’s a Friday typically not um favorite Cenote or Lagoon
I think uh Lagoon is the one I can’t even remember the name of it now
is it close by it’s about half 45 minutes half an hour 45 minutes Drive
South um is it Nick Nick for a lagoon and there’s numerous
sonatas around but once I go to a private so I wouldn’t even know the names of them so yeah there’s a lot of
those but it’s of course not days and you’re going to go to vesica it’s not a bad little one for to have a party environment as well as a Sonata and the
music and whatever food okay Nathan thank you so much I think you’re definitely somebody who
embodies Community Living Community (Regenerative Community) giving and to lose lucky to have you oh
thank you so much and uh so how can people support what you do how can they
connect with you where can they connect with you so yeah you can follow me Sovereign wealth on Instagram you can
follow that has links to Twitter bien has links to Mother tree regenerative community um
if you’re curious in men’s work if you’ve got someone in your family then you’d reach out to me directly
I run men’s Retreats at mother tree could call it the Wilds um
yeah I think it’s uh if something resonates the best thing is just to reach out over to yourself you can
connect us or if you’re interested in a mother Tree project and there’s a mother tree uh Instagram as well and uh you can
also Google mother tree regenerative Community and find our websites yeah thank you thank you