what's up and welcome into another episode of
vision pros live my friends i'm your show host
jackson callum founder and ceo of first class
business and i got mike bob in the house Mike
Cobb has a website. I hope you go check it out.
ECIDevelopment .com. That's ECIDevelopment .com.
And he's building these lifestyle resort experiences,
investing in land. I'm talking Belize, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, and Portugal.
That goes right in line with my vision to bridge
the economic gap between North America, South
America, and the rest of the world. And he's
doing just that. So we just got to know each
other briefly right after an episode with Mike
Deaton. I got to introduce the two of them. We
also got... him introduced to my friend Robert
Gaines, who's on the process of moving down to
Nicaragua right now, where Mike spent more than
a decade. And just, I can't be more excited about
the things that he's talking about. So I'm putting
him on the spot. He didn't know I was going to
go live right away, but I was like, man, this
guy's got it. We got to make this happen. So
Mike Cobb, welcome in to Vision Pros. Jackson,
good to be with you. Like we're just chatting
and all of a sudden, bam, the intro's rolling.
I'm like, all right. I like that. We're hitting
it. We got it, man. You've already built an amazing
legacy. The vision's easy to see. And of course,
I can tell you the type of guy who's not retiring
tomorrow. So what is your vision moving forward,
Mike? What are you building right now? You know,
you know what? I like to say that we're building
wonderful communities for people who have an
adventurous spirit. That's really what we do.
We work in Central America. You mentioned the
countries a moment ago. And really, we build
communities because I think so often, I know
for me, in my neighborhoods, the places I've
lived over the years, like I didn't really connect
with the people around me, my neighbors, my colleagues
at work, because I just always had this like,
I want to do something a little different, you
know, like a spirit of adventure. It's rare,
but now we get the opportunity to, I hate to
say collect folks, but we collect folks. We give
them the opportunity to join a community where
they're going to meet other people who share
this spirit of adventure and just really enjoy.
being out you know overseas in some place new
and exciting and different it's uh it's wonderful
yeah so you were saying you collect people and
i was saying i want to be collected for this
i'm like this is the perfect thing to get collected
for so i'm cool with that and my friends i'm
working on this uh this proposal if you will
this process of we're going to be looking to
build a hotel for entrepreneurs specifically
down in Paredes, Colombia, in Cusco as well.
This, I know this number is not fair. This is
what we were looking at when we were going to
build a small boutique version, but we're probably
going to move to like between two and four million
for what it is we're up to. And so I just, I
want to share with all you visionaries, like
you don't have to be in the hotel space to do
this stuff. By the way, Claude helped a ton with
putting this type of proposal together. And you
do want to work with people like Mike. That's
one of the reasons I'm bringing this up. I'm
not like, hey, I'm going to replace Mike in Central.
out there but no not at all um like if this thing
gains uh gains the traction that we want then
i want people like mike to be involved in this
to advise me to help me realize like man what
am i What do we get into? What types of challenges
might exist there? But at the end of the day,
my friends, I want to create a place where we
can have a permanent co -working space where
we can, of course, have other hotel guests in
there as well. But we also have locals who work
with us on all things first class business who
would love to help run this hotel and this operation.
We want it to be a full, inclusive experience
where entrepreneurs can come. Use it as a retreat
experience for their company. Get involved in
perhaps an expo process. Meet the virtual assistants
who work with them and see how we train and recruit
in person as well. Like this thing could be so
cool. And I have a feeling, Mike, too, because
of the local connections I have. We also have
moms, for instance, in our group who when they
built their house, the HOA or rather the builders
said they would take care of certain things like
pave the streets and put the lampposts and all
that. And they didn't. Right. And so mom went
and she didn't have any money. So she couldn't
hire an attorney. She went and she learned what
she needed to learn to go get petitions signed.
And then by doing that, she was able to get them
to finish the sidewalks, get the light post put
in, put in the playground, et cetera. And I was
like, whoa, if we have somebody like that, we
could take real estate from down there. That's
next to nothing. transform the area win grants
from the government probably uh but get some
publicity on how we're making changes in these
in the lives of the people as well in the lives
of the community there's so much potential with
what could be here but I'm out of my league when
it comes to real estate. So what do you think
about the idea? Well, no, I love the idea, by
the way. And just, there was a Gallup poll in
December, 2025. So a couple of months ago. And
the number in 2008, there was actually, there
was a survey done by the Zogby company. 103 ,000
US citizens were surveyed back in 2008. That's
a huge statistical sampling. 11 .6. So 10%, roughly,
you know, one out of 10, 11 .6%. of those folks
said they were seriously considering a move overseas.
Gallup just did a poll a couple months ago in
December. It is now over 20 % of US citizens
are serious. Actually, the Gallup poll was different.
Would you move to a new country right now, given
the opportunity? 20%. So, Jackson, I mean, like,
there's room for you, me, and like... A hundred
more is 200 or 500 more of us, right? Like this
is a monster service opportunity. And I look
at it as a service opportunity. I love that.
What you just described is a service opportunity.
Bring people down and get entrepreneurs together,
create that brain trust, that we work space.
You know, I mean, so like when you put people
together, creative. We put the excursions as
part of it. So that's already planned out. We
put the causes so that people can get involved
in service and local community. Absolutely. it
would be it would be so easy for minds like you
and i to be able to pull that together for people
and then allow people to have that experience
and then catch fire and say whoa i want to do
this too all right i want to get involved and
so i'll say pareda too what's one of the the
fun thing about pareda is nobody can pronounce
it from america um and so because they can't
pronounce it they don't really know about it
but so many people have already traveled to the
seven world wonders and instagram and the online
world They want to go places that people haven't
been. You don't want to share the same pictures
everybody else has shared. And so I think that's
one of the reasons why it's state of hidden gem.
This place, Mike, looks like the Grand Canyon,
but green. It is so crazy. I have not been. Oh,
it's so much. It's amazing. And they just, their
tourism lasts. It's a city of 600 ,000. Tourism
is up 25%. There you go. Last year. And they
just put another 18 million into the airport.
Rather, they just announced a project for that.
So that's one area out of many. But what Mike's
talking about, the opportunity to go and live
a little bit further, have experiences, be part
of communities, give back and enjoy your life.
Like all of that, you can have your cake and
eat it too, can't you? Absolutely. And one of
the things that we talk about a lot is this paradox,
right? I think in the US, Canada, if we think
about having a higher quality of life, we realize
that we probably have to spend more money. Just
one easy example, right? If you want to eat healthier,
you get in your car and you drive down to Whole
Paycheck. That's what I call Whole Foods, Whole
Paycheck, right? And if you want to fill up your
cart full of organic fruits, vegetables, free
range, hormone free, I mean, you're going to
spend your whole paycheck, right? If you move
like you are to Ecuador or Colombia, or I lived
in Nicaragua for 14 years, right? The organic
free range, hormone free stuff is so inexpensive.
And so all of a sudden you're - And it's all
you can find. Unless you go to the Walmart, right?
And then you're going to buy all the super, super
processed stuff at supermarkets. More expensive,
more expensive than in the U .S., right? Yeah,
yeah. So I think it's counterintuitive that you
can have this higher quality of life and it costs
far less because that's a paradox. We don't see
it that way. My friends, my apartment right now,
this is fully furnished. I didn't have to pay
for anything that's in here and in the bedroom
and in the bathroom. All of that furnished, plus
utilities, plus water, $130 a month. Bam. Right.
$130 a month. Right there. Yep. Right. I want
a burger. Burger, $2. I want a burger and fries
and a drink, $2. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right. And
until somebody comes and experiences it, it's
hard to imagine it. Like people aren't going
to believe us. Jackson, people just make, ah,
we don't believe you enough. Guys, you go to
the pharmacy and you ask for ibuprofen and they're
not going to give you a bottle. They're going
to pull the packet out and they're going to say,
how many pills do you want? And they're ready
to cut it. And you're like, two, I guess. And
they're like, oh, that's 10 cents. And you're
like, oh my God. This is too funny. Oh, wait,
we need, we, we need the, Oh, what's that? The
saline bags. We had a friend needed to get saline
and get antibiotics and all that right there.
You just go right at the pharmacy, you get all
that. It's like five bucks. You're out the door
and you administer at home. You know, it's totally
fine. crazy right exactly right and and this
is and and one of the things that i love is the
freedom as well right that you have the freedom
to go buy the antibiotics if you think you need
them the saline bag you don't need to pay a doctor
but if you need to pay a doctor they would probably
come to your apartment for thirty dollars they
would make a house call for what 30 40 bucks
maybe i don't know yeah probably fortunately
i haven't needed one but if i did you're right
like that's that's what it is i went and got
my teeth cleaned the other day though um that
was that was a whopping sixteen dollars there
you go right so yeah yep so absolutely there's
a lot there's a lot of great things about this
and in this vision my friends i hope that you
when you have the opportunity to do it as mike
talked about as well not only is it is it fun
and freeing and there's opportunities with that
There's so many people that you can help down
here and make such a massive difference, even
if it's just helping somebody or passing on the
street or getting involved in a local organization
or doing what we do and working with us through
the opportunities for Latinos. There's so much
there. And so between that and also, I would
say AI, helping the individuals understand how
to utilize AI for their own benefits. And we've
got the AI marketplace. And one of the big pieces
of that is to help professionals and business
owners solve their own challenges related to
AI. And then also. help our counterparts in Central
South America. Most of my team members only speak
Spanish and they work on English projects all
day long for our clients and deliver at a world
-class level. And my clients often ask me a little
bit afterwards, we used to not reveal it. Now
we get them involved a little bit faster to it,
but we used to not reveal it for fun. And then
three weeks later, my clients would say, Jackson,
how come I only ever talk to you? Like, when
can I talk to Marie Victoria? When can I talk
to her? So I want to meet him. I want to talk
to him. And I go, Oh, you speak Spanish? And
they go, no, wait, what? I'm like, they don't
speak English. What do you mean they don't speak
English? They've been working for me for three
weeks doing all English projects. And I'm like,
that's right. They're capable of doing the work.
I was like, but they don't have to speak English
to the work. Let's change our mindset and open
the doors to people that have great opportunities
who are loving, patient, persistent, consistent,
reliable. and teach them how to do the work and
build the processes and they can do it. So we
can empower so many people. Mike, you know all
about this. I know I went over a little bit.
Can I get you to come back for 40 to 60 minute
session with me? Absolutely. We're scheduling.
We gotta dive in deep on a specific topic. We'll
make that happen, Vision Pros. In case this happens
to be the last time that I ever get to talk to
you, Mike, and you got other busy plans, you're
collecting more people for those wonderful, awesome
projects you're doing in Central America, and
you say Jackson's in South America. He's got
to wait until he comes up a little bit more north.
In case that happens, if this is your last chance
to give advice to visionaries out there, what
would your advice be? You know what? I hate to
be so trite, but... Just do it. Just do it. It's
so trite. But I think so many people get into
this analysis, paralysis to analysis thing, right?
Shoe dog. You just shoe dog us. I love it. Just
do it. Get out there and do it, my friends. And
we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward
to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.