Stupid question, but right now I'm deploying my Kubernetes cluster inside a VM. Is there a way to deploy it directly onto my machine?
I'm sure there has to be a easy fix but many of the docs I've read have been focused on deploying it inside VM.
I am assuming you are using some flavor of Linux; otherwise the information below won't be useful to you.
The easiest way of bare metal deployment ("onto your machine") is by using kubeadm. The documentation for that is excellent.
(If you need help with then reply with your exact OS flavor and version and I can edit this answer to reflect that specific situation.)