Kay Walten – Loco Gringo Inc.

Our guest today is Kay Walten, who runs Loco Gringo Inc, a company that creates local experiences for travelers in Mexico.

Can you share a little bit about how you ended up in Mexico?

I am from Western New York, I graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and I have continued my education over the years at Cornell.  I moved to Mexico in 1992 to explore under water caves and was one of the pioneer explorers of the region.   In an effort to pay the rent, we started the first online reservation service back in 1996.

What is your current business?

Loco Gringo Inc. – we turn tourists into travelers by creating customer local vacation experiences for the Riviera Maya and Yucatan Mexico.

What got you into it?

We had to pay the rent.

You’ve had some significant media coverage – can you share a few notable ones?

For cave exploration I was featured in Smithsonian Magazine, I have been involved with several films with Discovery and Nat Geo.  When it comes to business, we were in the WSJ in the early days of the internet, NY Magazine last year, and the Huff Post so far this year.

What are some challenges that you have experienced – and what have you learned from it?

Having a business that started in Mexico has infrastructure that was and still is a challenge in terms of connectivity to the internet and sometimes even to have electricity.  But because we are used to these types of challenges it best helps us serve our clients and make suggestions that are going to meet their expectations because we know the lay of the land and the potential challenges they could face.

What does success look like for you? How do you measure it?

It’s the comments from a guest who have said they had a trip of a lifetime or that they tried something new and expanded their horizons — customer satisfaction you would call it.  I define also success in that our staff has been with us for years and I am happy that our business helped them develop a good life for themselves and their children. There are ways to measure success if it is a dollars and cents, quantitative thing, but for me it is a feeling, a sense of satisfaction, and that is a little more elusive to measure.  Can I look in the mirror each night and know my actions of the day were my best and that I did right by the people I encountered that day.

What do you want our audience to learn from you?

That vacation and travel does not have to come out of a box.  Too much of travel has gone the way of packaged up pre-fabbed trips, where people hide in a big resort and the most culture they see is what’s out the bus window between the airport and the resort.  People, places, activities, culture, and the environment are all out there, and it is beyond the walls of a resort.

What is your best piece of entrepreneurial advice?

Find balance.

What is your proudest personal accomplishment?

My discoveries in cave exploration.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
My company has been operating for 20 years and it is still as exciting as it was when it was a start-up.

What is on your wish list that you have yet to accomplish?
To travel more. I have dreams of owning my own boutique hotel.

How do you achieve balance between your professional and personal life?

Unfortunately I don’t know how exactly but I try every day.   Self-care is the first step.

What are your hobbies?

I really don’t have any. I do enjoy cooking and yoga but I don’t do enough of either to call them a hobby. Basically, I’m a workaholic.

What are you most passionate about?

Discovery and exploration, on every level.

How do you maintain your focus?

Well I have been told there are gerbils on a wheel in my head that run one way and then turn and go another. I have lots of ideas, and get distracted. To help with the focusing I am a big list person and always have a notebook with me.

How do you build and motivate a team?

I wish I could say I know how to build a team. I have good gut feelings about people and I have been fortunate in going with my gut. But because I am a people pleaser (which is actually a great attribute for the hospitality industry) I have problems saying no. I have had people on our team who I just wanted to give an opportunity to yet they were not a good fit.  And motivation?  Well, I would never ask someone to do a job I was not willing to do myself.  I think my passion, hard work and excitement is infectious and I genuinely love my staff and would do anything for them and they in turn go out of their way for me.

How can our audience be a part of what you are doing?

Visit our website: locogringo.com

How can our audience get in touch with you for more information?
askkay@locogringo.com

Kay Walten and team