Adventure Travel with Vanessa Gordon - East End Taste

Vanessa Gordon
CEO and Publisher
East End Taste

Vanessa Gordon is not just a name; she’s a powerhouse in the world of culinary travel and lifestyle!

As the CEO and Publisher of East End Taste, she curates a digital publication that dives deep into sustainable and international culinary travel, all with a refined focus on seasonal coastal destinations. Her passion for food and travel is palpable, making her a go-to expert for anyone looking to elevate their experiences.

In 2018, Vanessa launched the Hamptons Interactive Brunch, an annual summer event series that has become a must-attend gathering for food enthusiasts and notable personalities alike. With her finger on the pulse of the Hamptons lifestyle, Vanessa is frequently sought after for her insights on travel, personal finance, and parenting, making her a trusted voice in these areas.

Her expertise has graced the pages of prestigious outlets such as the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, BBC Radio, and many more. Whether she’s sharing her insights in Success Magazine or contributing to Parents Magazine and Psychology Today, Vanessa’s writing resonates with a diverse audience, inspiring them to embrace a life filled with adventure and mindful living.

With a Master of Arts degree from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education and enriching experiences at the University of Oxford, Vanessa combines academic excellence with real-world expertise. She’s not just a writer; she’s an engaging storyteller and on-air talent who brings her experiences to life.

https://eastendtastemagazine.com/the-secret-recipe-behind-the-yucatans-famous-huevos-motulenos/

summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Vanessa Gordon, CEO and publisher of East End Taste. They discuss Vanessa's journey from teaching English abroad to founding her own culinary publication focused on the Hamptons and beyond. The conversation explores the importance of events in marketing, the role of food in travel experiences, and the unique culinary adventures Vanessa has encountered during her travels. Listeners gain insights into the value of East End Taste and the diverse cultural influences that shape the culinary landscape of the Hamptons.

takeaways

• East End Taste is a publication founded in 2016 focusing on culinary experiences.
• Vanessa's journey includes teaching ESL and freelance writing before starting her own business.
• Events play a crucial role in marketing and building brand recognition.
• Traveling internationally has expanded Vanessa's culinary perspective.
• Food is a central theme in adventure travel and cultural exploration.
• Vanessa emphasizes the importance of being a trusted source for local experiences.
• The Hamptons has a rich history and diverse cultural influences.
• Unique culinary experiences can challenge perceptions of food.
• Vanessa is planning trips for her audience to explore culinary destinations.
• Engaging with the audience through social media is vital for building community.

Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Transcript

Jason Elkins (00:03.695)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we've got Vanessa here, Vanessa Gordon. She's the CEO and she's a publisher for East End Taste. Vanessa, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.

Vanessa Gordon (00:18.306)
Thank you, Jason. I'm so happy to be here with you.

Jason Elkins (00:20.493)
Well, we're going to have a great conversation. Any of our listeners know that we don't generally talk too much about what you do until kind of near the end of the conversation. We kind of normally start at the beginning. But I want to just give our listeners kind of the 30 second elevator pitch of what is East end to taste, and then we'll come back and discuss a little bit more later in the conversation.

Vanessa Gordon (00:41.005)
Sure, yes. East End Taste is a publication that I founded in July of 2016. So East End Taste encompasses a digital media marketing and event production company. let's see, so we cover mainly the eastern end of Long Island, which encompasses the north and south forks. We cover that during our high season. So we cover different events, restaurant openings,

food news, food trends in the region and such, chef profiles and the like. And then in the off season, if you will, or say around October to April, we do a lot of internationally focused coverage and destinations throughout the world that are perhaps like or similar to the Hamptons in the sense that maybe they're seasonal coastal destinations or destinations that perhaps someone who lives on the eastern end of Long Island may be drawn to or want to visit.

Jason Elkins (01:38.897)
Okay, got it. And I appreciate that because that gives our listeners kind of an understanding, you know, this is not all about the Hamptons. You know, there's an international culinary type of part involved as well. So I wanted to give listeners kind of a little bit of a taste of that. But more importantly, I want to hear your story. I want to kind of understand how did you get from wherever you were to where you are now, to what you're doing now?

Vanessa Gordon (01:54.762)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (02:04.524)
And I don't know how far we need to go back. Sometimes we go back all the way to early childhood. It's completely up to you. How far back do we need to go for our listeners to kind of get a feel for you and how you got where you

Vanessa Gordon (02:09.61)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (02:16.267)
I would say let's go back to when I was in graduate school. was teaching English as a second language abroad. I was teaching in London and Oxford. And then I came back to the United States. I was teaching ESL in Connecticut and in New York City. And so I got my degree at NYU for teaching. it was, was, it was, and it is wonderful. So when I say that is, would I ever go back to teaching? Yes, I would. It just perhaps wasn't the right time. I was also starting a family.

Jason Elkins (02:45.051)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (02:45.298)
At the time, so soon after my daughter was born, the school that I was teaching ESL at out here in the Hamptons closed. It was a charter school. And then I was just what's called pushing into different schools in the area to help or support with ESL and for tutoring. But I was continuing to expand my family with my son was born a few years later, but I really wanted my own entity. So to say I wanted my own business or to be.

you know, at the helm of something that I loved. And so I did.

Jason Elkins (03:16.047)
Hey, hey, real quick, just because I want to ask now while I will I remember when you said I was teaching ESL teaching English and then you said I went to London to teach English. Honestly, that threw me off a little bit. I was expecting I went to Germany. I went to Japan. I went to China. So I think this is kind of interesting. Tell me a little bit more about teaching English in in London, teaching English in the US. What?

Vanessa Gordon (03:24.541)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (03:33.361)
Right. Right.

Jason Elkins (03:46.107)
Just tell me a little bit about the students and what was that all about?

Vanessa Gordon (03:49.629)
Definitely. So in London and Oxford, so it was a mix. So I was still in graduate school. So it was more of an experience driven, you know, you know, teaching opportunities. So I was in Camden in the North of London and in Oxford. with that, we, one of the, remember the name of one of the schools, it was called Primrose. with the mainly, so the population that London has an incredibly diverse international population.

And so I was teaching mainly students from at the time, this is going back to 2011, 2012. I was teaching mainly students from Bangladesh, India, Romania and Russia at the time. So was an interesting mix. So it was,

Jason Elkins (04:35.937)
okay. I'm imagining you running into your British counterparts, maybe other teachers, but British people, and you would tell them, I'm here teaching English, and I'm imagining the response that you would get from, because a lot of people I know in England think that we as Americans don't really speak English. Did you get any grief around that? Did that ever come up?

Vanessa Gordon (04:45.895)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (04:53.863)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (05:02.939)
That actually did it, but what I really appreciated teaching over there was their style was so perhaps, at least this is what I experienced, to the United States, it was more of a laid back, but down to earth approach. So for instance, I went to a place to learn to take some courses called the Writing Institute. And I always if they, I assume they still exist. was a phenomenal, intimate,

group of educators and scholars and they were absolutely phenomenal with how they would take a book like Where the Wild Things Are and make it into this incredible creative learning process. And we literally spent two hours dissecting that book, analyzing that book and creating a full, almost unit teaching plan just on that book alone for teaching.

Jason Elkins (05:55.654)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (05:57.314)
English but through a creative approach. That actually was what my master's thesis focused on, was teaching ESL through a creative, fictional approach and to teach them how to utilize their creativity to help to go deeper in learning the language.

Jason Elkins (06:02.585)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (06:17.105)
Okay. And I'm also curious about, I can imagine that perhaps your students with a wide variety of students from places all around the world, what kind of impact that might have had on you? Do you think that has any impact on your desire to travel and to get more involved with these international things?

Vanessa Gordon (06:25.668)
Mm.

Vanessa Gordon (06:36.388)
That was exactly it. So that was my first time spending any significant amount of time abroad. When I was in undergrad, I did not study abroad because I was on the fast track. Well, that was one of the reasons I graduated a semester early. I could have graduated a year early if I really, really pushed it and took some summer classes. But I honestly just wanted to save money. I didn't want to rack up more student loans and stuff and through room and board. So my last semester, I think I needed like nine credits.

Jason Elkins (06:58.598)
Hmm?

Vanessa Gordon (07:06.316)
literally there one day every other week. And so I didn't have the many opportunities to travel. I think I didn't leave the country until I was 19, and that was to Antigua in the Caribbean. And then since then, I've visited in the short amount of time that I've been traveling actively, which is about five, six, five years now, almost six years, I've visited 35 countries. Yeah, so at that, but that I'll tell you.

Jason Elkins (07:30.672)
Wow.

Vanessa Gordon (07:33.75)
Me being in London and being not only there, but immersed in all of these different cultures and meeting people from every corner of the world really drove my interest and catapulted to travel.

Jason Elkins (07:45.937)
Do you remember the first, maybe the first student or the first, I'm imagining a student that you met that you connected with and you thought, I want to go there. Like, do you remember the first place that kind of came onto your radar as a result of this teaching job that you're like, ooh, I want to go there someday?

Vanessa Gordon (07:54.391)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (08:06.101)
Yes, was when I was meeting students or people in their late, how old would they be? about five years younger. They used to be in their early 30s now, but they were at the time maybe 17, 18 years old. were from the Philippines. man, the way they sold the Philippines to me was quite something because I ended up going to the Philippines and that was my first long haul. I mean, it took me.

Jason Elkins (08:26.936)
You

Vanessa Gordon (08:34.53)
took a day or so to get there. And that was quite an experience in and of itself. And I loved it. I have not been back since. It's been many, many years, but I would love to go back and visit Borahae, Cebu, Palawan, et cetera, all of the cool places. Cause I was just in Manila. I was in the capital there and I went to Quezon city as well. So that was, that was quite an experience, but it's real. That's what's really cool is when you put yourself in a whole new desk, you know, you're in a whole new place. It's incredible.

Jason Elkins (08:36.336)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (08:53.041)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (09:04.001)
people that you meet and the people that you foster these solid relationships with. And what's so interesting is all throughout my years of traveling, it is the people I have met in other destinations all over the world that I'm still in, that have stronger bonds with. It's fascinating.

Jason Elkins (09:19.259)
Yeah, yeah. I think that a lot of people that listen to this show, I know that a lot of the people that we've had on the show as guests would absolutely resonate with that. This is a conversation that comes up quite often about the connections. And I'm imagining you in London with all these people from all these places and making these connections and like, ooh.

The Philippines, I don't really know much about that. And then that kind of that sticks with you. mentioned Bangladesh, that you had Bangladeshi students. I have not been to Bangladesh, but I met somebody that was from Bangladesh and it's always been on my list. And it's just kind of that's what's fun. And I mean, I guess you get it a little bit and maybe did back in the States when you were teaching as well, because you had students from other places around the world as well. So but I think if you were teaching English to

Vanessa Gordon (09:47.103)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (09:53.215)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (09:59.648)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (10:04.808)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (10:09.773)
English speaking kids, know, English as a first language, you might have missed out on that opportunity. So that's pretty cool.

Vanessa Gordon (10:18.783)
It certainly is. You know, I'll tell you too, as someone now, trying so hard to learn Italian. I'm getting there. I'm getting there, I'll just say. But you truly have to be fully immersed in the language. I don't understand right now, like my son, for instance, in a dual language program learning Spanish, but he comes home yesterday and he goes, Mom, I need this translator website to do my homework. I said, no, I'm not allowing that. His teacher allows it. They said, no, it's fine. I'm going,

Jason Elkins (10:41.937)
you

Vanessa Gordon (10:48.521)
What is the point of this? I don't-

Jason Elkins (10:51.089)
It's an interesting thing. And I think I'll share my perspective on that because I started communicating with people. I remember I had a girlfriend in college that was Japanese. And I don't know how she passed the test, the English test, to come study in the US. Because every conversation we had, she had her little dictionary. And we would

Vanessa Gordon (10:57.705)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (11:17.627)
For one sentence, it would take a long time. She'd be flipping through her book and then she'd hand the dictionary to me and we were communicating like that. And it was painfully slow. I have fond memories of it, but it was painfully slow. And now that we have access to Google Translate and I'm living in Latin America and I've been learning the language. I can communicate with people in the street, but I'll tell you, I've actually used Translate as a tool to learn, believe it or not, because oftentimes you're like,

Vanessa Gordon (11:27.578)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (11:44.955)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (11:47.663)
I'm pretty sure I'm not saying this right. And if I had to go find a teacher, if I had to go find a textbook, if I had to go sit through a class to figure out how I'm saying this particular sentence wrong, I'm just going to keep saying it wrong. But I can pick up my phone and can do a quick translate and I'm like, OK, I get it. So then I can, you know, convert that and use that. So I actually I actually have found that the translation tools, as long as you don't rely on them.

Vanessa Gordon (12:03.047)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (12:17.649)
You know, as long as it's not just I'm going to copy and paste for my homework, but I don't know. So anybody that's listening, just my take on it as a translator, tools are great, but I but I also encourage people if you're going to go somewhere, try and learn some language, try and communicate without the phone because who wants to be that person? Like I pretty much live in Latin America. I don't want to be that guy sitting at the at the table in the restaurant.

Vanessa Gordon (12:27.138)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (12:37.745)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (12:45.093)
handing my phone back and forth between my dates so can communicate. But anyway, is Italian, is this your first attempt to learn a foreign language?

Vanessa Gordon (12:55.26)
No, so I took French in high school, or no, excuse me, in middle school and high school, like a fool, I'll be honest. I quit French because nobody, did not have, I'll tell you, growing up, I did not have a lot of, I'll just say educators around me or people really, you know, I should not have quit, I should have just kept going. But I went and switched to Spanish, did very well in Spanish, got all the way up to level three.

Jason Elkins (12:57.617)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (13:02.821)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (13:09.745)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (13:14.16)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (13:18.723)
Okay? All without the translator. that's great. probably because you actually teach and you took classes. And I'm speaking as someone who's never sat in a class to learn a language. So yeah, that's the difference.

Vanessa Gordon (13:23.609)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (13:27.258)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (13:33.25)
And then I switched in college to Latin. So I gave up on Spanish and I wrote Spanish so well. Switched to Latin, picked up Latin pretty well, but lost it just as quickly. Why?

Jason Elkins (13:45.317)
Why? I have to ask. I've always wondered why people take Latin. I mean, I understand it's connected to a lot of different languages, but tell me why.

Vanessa Gordon (13:53.339)
Sure. Why? So the reason was because as I knew that I wanted to either teach, not necessarily teach, but I wanted to go deeper with English. I was concentrating on British literature, old English studied as well. And I want it was more to learn and to understand how languages were formed and to have some sort of to it, so to say. And, you know, people that, you know, it speaks, but they could understand Latin very well, Italian, same thing.

Jason Elkins (14:03.633)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (14:13.114)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (14:22.127)
Mmm, okay.

Vanessa Gordon (14:23.406)
so they're all the romance languages. there I actually minored in classics in college. Then I did take an Italian course in college and I picked it up very, very, very quickly. Did super well with that. But then I didn't start trying to learn Italian until about two years, gosh, my gosh, it's only three years. But it's that joke is, I use Duolingo, but there's a few other apps that I really need to delve into and get started with.

Jason Elkins (14:31.313)
Okay.

Vanessa Gordon (14:53.145)
But there's that joke about the app Duolingo, like, oh, you've been learning on Duolo for five years, then you go into the French restaurant. You know, see if we play. Done. They just freeze, and I can totally relate.

Jason Elkins (15:00.017)
You

Jason Elkins (15:05.169)
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Elkins (15:11.225)
I think, yeah, you're right. My mom was doing, when she starts something, she's very tenacious and she was doing Duolingo. And I think she was on like a four or 500 day streak.

Vanessa Gordon (15:18.701)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (15:23.126)
Yeah, I was, lost my streak. Yeah, I think I was like 300 and some odd, yeah, or more.

Jason Elkins (15:27.629)
And she's never been anywhere. They speak Spanish. She lives in Arizona, so there are some Spanish around, you know, and but she's got a landscaper that comes over. She cannot communicate with him at all about what she wants. You know, she's pointing picture, you know, pointing to things, and she just cannot communicate at all. And if she's listening to this, she'll appreciate it. She she knows it. And yeah, so it's I think being surrounded. It's the only reason I learned any Spanish.

Vanessa Gordon (15:39.158)
Yeah, I relate.

Jason Elkins (15:56.081)
I had traveled quite a bit. I'd been to Spanish speaking countries, Latin America, Central America, all around. But when I started traveling full time and pretty much, you know, I'm living here in South America now, it's like, okay, I need to learn Spanish. There's a lot of motivation. I'm pretty outgoing. And if I didn't learn Spanish, I would be very, very lonely. Cause it's just, you know, so you've to put yourself in a place where you almost need to use it. So, so when are you going to go to Italy and

Vanessa Gordon (15:57.686)
Yeah.

Mm, great.

Vanessa Gordon (16:08.129)
Nice.

Vanessa Gordon (16:19.34)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (16:25.509)
immerse yourself.

Vanessa Gordon (16:27.489)
Hopefully, so I am going there in April of this year. I am headed to Switzerland in a weeks. It's so funny, is my girlfriend who is in hospitality, she booked the flights and she just texts me, she says, I booked a one way. And I go, girl, that it? I said, you killed me. You killed me.

Jason Elkins (16:43.778)
Awesome.

Well, you mentioned kids and family earlier. I don't know if this would be a good time to talk about that.

Vanessa Gordon (16:53.494)
We both, I went to my ex, we both have, I'm gonna send it to Alyssa, she's gonna laugh so hard, but she has two children, we're like the same predicament. She has two kids, I have two kids. She's separated from her partner. I'm in the middle of a divorce. So we're having this moment together. I don't know if it's good or bad, but we feed off each other. She texts me, she goes, Vanessa, let's go to New York City and party until like 4 a.m. and I'm like.

Jason Elkins (17:08.401)
technologies.

Jason Elkins (17:19.195)
You

Vanessa Gordon (17:21.653)
Like, I was so good my whole life! Don't do that!

I'm having a moment. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (17:26.545)
All right, interesting. Let's change the conversation before we get to the point you do not want to share this episode with anybody. That being said, I divorced about three years before I bought my first one-way ticket. So it took a while to get the nerve up to go do it. So maybe you're ahead of me. But you probably want to take the... How old are your kids?

Vanessa Gordon (17:33.397)
That's right. That's right.

Vanessa Gordon (17:48.213)
Yeah.

No, my daughter actually celebrated her birthday yesterday. She just turned 11 and my son is 7. No, I do have to be.

Jason Elkins (17:58.209)
they'd love to love Italy, I'm sure.

Vanessa Gordon (18:00.817)
I'm gonna be, well, I'm working on bringing them there with me. That's a whole other story for another day. no, I have to be back. think I leave the 29th, but I have to be back by February 5th, because we have New York Fashion Week here and I'm involved with some projects there. I... Right.

Jason Elkins (18:05.809)
All right.

Jason Elkins (18:18.609)
Yeah. It's it's hard to just pick up and move and and travel with that one way ticket thing. Sounds really romantic. It sounds really exciting. And then the realities of life kick in. mean, I'm still happy with my choice. I've been doing it for almost three and a half years. I'm still happy with my choice, but there are downsides. I have no place that I call home where record I'm sitting in an Airbnb as we're recording this. Everything I own is in my suitcase right over there.

and I have no anything back home family. But when I go back to the States, I stay at my mom's house. I'm a 51 year old man staying at my mom's house. I do not want to identify that as my home. As as as probably any anybody could imagine. So anyway, if if you get ready to go do that at some point, let me know. I can give you some tips and tricks. So we got we got a little bit sidetracked on the conversation around the teaching.

Vanessa Gordon (18:57.651)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (19:12.088)
I appreciate that.

Jason Elkins (19:18.161)
You mentioned you kind of got out of that because you wanted your own thing. You, you know, we're starting a family. So I want to make sure we don't miss anything. So let's go back and kind of figure out kind of where where to next to start the family. You wanted your own thing. What did that look like?

Vanessa Gordon (19:33.458)
Definitely. So while I was teaching, I was also freelance writing for a number of the local publications out here and in the city. So one, perhaps people may recognize Thrillist, Psychology Today, TripAdvisor, many, think some still exist, some don't exist anymore as the way of media now. So I was, you know, being very, very proactive.

with bringing in a solid income, because all of my income is pretty much just going to pay it off my student loans, because my husband at the time was, he was a resident physician, so we were literally living, not on much, but we were getting by. And then in addition to that, was also teaching fitness classes, so it was more of, loved going to the gym, I was always very motivated in the sense that like, well, if I love doing it so much, why not make some money from it? And so with that being said, I said, you know, I really,

feel like I have something here. have a lot of knowledge in the region. I'm in touch with so many different restaurants, just through all the coverage that I've already done going to many of these high profile events out here, functions, just learning the map, so to say, of what to cover and what to do. So with that being said, I started as a passion project, you will, East End Taste.

in July of 2016. But then at the time I was also teaching fitness classes at the local, one of the local resorts out here. And I sat down with the marketing director and he's like, what have you been, what's been going on in your life? Just having a casual conversation. So I started this website called East End Taste. He goes, let me take a look at it. And he was looking at it he goes, you've got something here. And this is a guy who's been doing marketing. He was living in.

Jason Elkins (21:13.265)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (21:21.094)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (21:25.156)
He's working at all these different resorts and hotels and such. So he had a really solid background. And he says, you've got something here. says, you could be bringing in a solid income with this. This is very, very strong content. He says, you should do something with this. said, you can make money. This is literally what I said to him. You can make money? How?

Jason Elkins (21:47.87)
Hmm?

Vanessa Gordon (21:49.911)
And he was explaining, he explained it all to me in the fastest way, in like 15 minutes. And just said, go do this, do this, do this. You could be, you've got something here. You could be hiring people to write, you don't need to be writing all of that. He was just feeding me all this information. And it was a lot to process at first, but I was motivated. I figured it out. And I said, let's do it. So that's how East End Taste went from me just.

you type of writing all these different articles and i was working extremely hard realizing that i don't know i needed to work it is important to work hard by the idea to work more smarter not harder so to say. And with that being said i connected with a with a very good friend of mine still in touch to the stay actually he's a digital nomad himself and he was saying no i've got someone for you to help you with web developing he help to help build my website so that's how.

And that guy was based in Pakistan, so that's how that all transpired. And then boom, I got the website running full speed. But then interestingly enough, I became pregnant with my son about six months later. So things took a pause for pretty much the whole 2017, because I had something called hypermesis, which is just severe morning sickness throughout the pregnancy. Knocks completely, when I say knocks you out, you can't function. It's horrible.

Jason Elkins (22:59.377)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (23:05.947)
energies.

Vanessa Gordon (23:14.094)
But anyway, with that being said, brought it all back and that's when I brought back, brought or created my annual summer event series, the Hamptons Interactive Brunch, which is me thinking, you know, how am I going to market East End Taste? How am I going to market myself as a media, know, a budding media company? What do I do? So I figured throw a solid event. Now, events are not necessarily money-making platforms, however,

Jason Elkins (23:32.869)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (23:43.018)
What it will do is, say you have, with budgets, the first thing usually cut is the marketing budget. However, if you're able to work in a smart way where all the expenses are covered, you have sponsors, you create something very, very solid. And of course, in a prime location, that is the Hamptons, I attend all these events, I know exactly how they're run, I know exactly how they're put on, where to get sponsored, how it all works, which is no easy task, I'll say.

So as I was building these sentais, I also built up the event component of it. And that's how the name got out there. And yeah.

Jason Elkins (24:21.005)
It makes sense because I can imagine a magazine or a media company just sponsoring an event like that to get their name out there. And they've got all these people coming there. If it's a good event, it's associated with the magazine. And you basically just kind of sponsored your own event in a sense by putting in the time and effort to make it happen, getting some other sponsors and some other revenue to help cover those expenses. It sounds like a brilliant idea.

Vanessa Gordon (24:26.697)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (24:40.073)
Exactly.

Vanessa Gordon (24:43.851)
Exactly.

Vanessa Gordon (24:50.987)
Exactly that that's exactly what it was because I you know we could pay you know nothing you know pay but you're you have to and you there's some sort of a solid investment why do that into another when you could do it for your own and you have full control over everything and the fifth the one that we I just put on this past June the larger event I put on a couple of events last year but the larger one that was such a success in the sense that I seriously I still look at this day like I cannot believe.

Jason Elkins (24:59.909)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (25:04.687)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (25:19.274)
I did that and you have these moments where you're putting these, like that was a 400 person, three 400 person event. You're putting something ongoing. The week before, like I don't even know how I'm physically doing this. How am I functioning? I'm, you know, every single thing is going through your mind and you just do it. And that's since how I built East End. I had no, I almost had no idea what I was doing, but I had the right people around me and I wasn't afraid to ask questions. I wasn't afraid to sit there. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (25:37.478)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (25:43.823)
Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes it's just taking action. Yeah, and action could be asking questions or just deciding I'm going to do this. I don't know how I'm going to. Well, you and I are sitting here participating in my project that I had no idea how I was going to do a year ago. I'll do a podcast. No frigging clue.

Vanessa Gordon (26:01.449)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (26:05.174)
I love it though, that's it's all... I love it, we have to, we don't know. People think that I was an expert, like, yeah, I know exactly what... But that's why I think what was so empowering in this strange sense was I was not afraid to admit I had no freaking clue what I was doing.

Jason Elkins (26:22.511)
Yeah, and I will share with you that most of the guests, know, because we, every conversation I have, we discuss how did you get from where you were to where you are? And the underlying theme there is curiosity. You know, people that work in this type of environment are generally curious. They're risk takers, probably in a lot of places in their life. And that's what I enjoy about.

Vanessa Gordon (26:36.285)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (26:44.104)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (26:48.987)
people that work in this space is it's my tribe because I'm the same way. I mean, I wish I had some other skill sets that some of them have. But the underlying theme is that ability to just reach out, connect with people. why I started the podcast, to connect with people. Because I wasn't sure what I was going to do as I got back into tourism. And I was like, I'm just going to have conversations with people and I'll figure it out along the way. So we're still doing that.

Vanessa Gordon (27:06.366)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (27:18.021)
So I'm curious, so now you've got the events that drive a lot of name recognition, a lot of exposure. What does the typical person that goes to your website, what are they consuming? What's the value that your website brings to your users? What are they looking at? What are they doing?

Vanessa Gordon (27:36.378)
Sure so it's a really nice gateway to perhaps in in see so for speaking specifically for the hampsons the north fork they know it's a trusted source in the sense that i live like it's not a publication just flew over here from new york city so we have a lot of these just being really a lot of these people that call themselves you know experts in the region or this that and i'm going. Your cover like i sometimes look at these listicles are these.

Jason Elkins (27:50.491)
Hmm?

Vanessa Gordon (28:04.135)
You know, it's funny and I and people love my people like this You should do these like reaction videos to like when people like talk about the hamptons It would be like the funniest thing because it's so how people like oh the best place is my favorite of the those You know, don't have tiktok, but when people send me the link you could see it on the desktop like these are the best hidden spots in the hamptons for photos and you're going It's the same places like oh and I think that was if that's you have to do a reaction video

Jason Elkins (28:12.785)
Mmm

Jason Elkins (28:20.283)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (28:29.414)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (28:33.062)
to all of this and just make fun of this. going back to, so people know that I'm a trusted source. I've been here my entire life. My grandmother went to school out here. My dad owned one of the famous nightclubs back in the day out here that still exists. My grandfather was the building inspector of Sag Harbor for many years. So anyway, I'm so rooted here, but I also don't come across as some, I also admit too that I'm learning.

Jason Elkins (28:34.001)
you

Jason Elkins (28:47.269)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (29:02.725)
a certain degree, specifically as I travel, so to say. there's also, it's know, play where I'm rooted here, but also have that curiosity to learn about all of these different places. though I'm able to bring solid content from the East end of Long Island, I'm also like, oh, wow, guys, you know, I discovered this destination, you know, in Ireland, this coastal region that's very, very similar to this. Like I recently discovered, you know,

Jason Elkins (29:06.129)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (29:30.34)
Bowen Island in Vancouver, like, wow, this is really, cool. If you love a combination of maybe the mountains or that escape that when people go, like Montana, but then you have that really cool coastal hidden seclusion, like shelter island here. It's really, really cool how I'm discovering places along with everyone. So people love that continuous curiosity that I have.

Jason Elkins (29:51.908)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (29:55.867)
So is it mostly, would you describe your website still as a blog site? I mean, there's blog articles. I don't know if you like the word blog, but it's articles. They're going, we should touch on that. Cause I saw the look on your face when I said, I don't know if you like the word blog. I got a little bit of reaction there.

Vanessa Gordon (30:02.658)
Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I was... Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (30:11.171)
It's funny, did. Well, that was what's interesting is when I was speaking with this Joe who worked in marketing for many, you for different hospitality companies, he, the one thing he looked on there, forget he looks up at me from his laptop and he goes, don't call it a blog. It's not, don't call it a blog. Just get the word blog out of there immediately. Cause people, think it's more than what is by technical, a blog. It's what people, I mean, this is going back almost 10, you know, 10, 15 years ago, what people.

thought a blog to be.

Jason Elkins (30:44.143)
I'm curious what, because I've never thought about this, but even immediately in my mind, I'm going to share what comes up for me. It's in my mind, it's a blog. I've been around long enough to blogging was like kind of a hobby thing, kind of like, want to, wouldn't it be cool? like to write and wouldn't it be cool if I just want to write about whatever I'm interested in. I don't care if anybody reads it or not, but this is my blog. that, is there a connection there?

Vanessa Gordon (30:47.745)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (30:58.977)
Right.

Vanessa Gordon (31:06.369)
Right.

Vanessa Gordon (31:09.822)
Yes, exactly. that's how people would purchase. mean, instance, Huffington Post is technically a blog. But what sets us apart, do have, and also other writers write for Huffington Post, that's technically still a blog. But I think what I'm setting myself apart from is that I do the event production, there is the digital marketing side in the sense that I...

Jason Elkins (31:15.568)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (31:24.496)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (31:37.056)
partner with our local radio station, partner with other entities as well, and do more experiential marketing events and functions and partnerships and such. So there's a lot more to it. I'm not just a digital presence, so to say.

Jason Elkins (31:55.301)
You know, what's, what is coming up for me is I'm thinking, maybe I need to drop the word podcast because there's a little, it's, we're at a stage in, in the evolution of media right now that every, lot of people have a podcast and some people make money with their podcasts and people haven't quite got there. but I think of like Joe Rogan, it's, we kind of sometimes say it's the Joe Rogan podcast, but it's not, it's the Joe Rogan experience, right?

Vanessa Gordon (31:59.819)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (32:10.112)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (32:21.247)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (32:23.557)
He's got a specific name for it or it's the such and such show. So maybe I just, I appreciate this conversation because I'm thinking about rebranding already. So, huh, interesting. Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (32:31.135)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's how people, it's the market again, that market, how people, you know, tune, you know, and can relate or how they're drawn in. It truly is. It's an incredible learning more and more and more of the power of marketing and what it does. Exactly.

Jason Elkins (32:49.329)
Yeah, all right. So that's the other reason I do this show. Not this podcast. The show is to, like I mentioned earlier, I just want to have conversations that I learned from every one of them. So thank you for sharing that with me. So when did you decide and how did you kind of get to the point where you're like, OK, I've got a big audience of people. I have a pretty good feel for what they're interested in. They've.

Vanessa Gordon (33:02.616)
you're welcome.

Jason Elkins (33:16.753)
feel like they know me and probably do they do they probably a lot of them have met you at these events and how did you decide okay I really want to do some international stuff the last the first conversation I had with you it sounded like you're kind of in the works of taking some groups and actually traveling with people so tell us a little bit more about that

Vanessa Gordon (33:36.901)
Yes. it starts. So the travel component started when I first, I went out to California to go to the expo West convention, which is a natural foods, specialty foods and such in Anaheim. And I started getting invited on different press trips and opportunities through DMCs and tourism boards. And I said, well, this is a great

opportunity to expand my readership. So I was really, really pushing very, very hard, you know, know, network, you getting out there, going to a lot of tourism events and DMC events in Manhattan and getting my name out there. And that year, 2019, my gosh, where I went everywhere, California, Australia, Aruba. And then I spent six weeks in Ireland and England. I brought my then five-year-old daughter there.

with me and my cousin and we stayed there and literally traveled around both countries and got a full experience there. And then what's interesting is I noticed the reception that I got from now publishing those articles from where I was there and publishing them on the website and the readers, the curiosity soared. The readership that was based here, they're like, wow, Vanessa is now traveling. Vanessa is going to this one. Then there was that curiosity.

Jason Elkins (34:56.955)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (35:04.122)
of where I was going next and which destinations. But I had to make sure that those destinations aligned with the quality and where people just be in the hamptown, where they would want to visit. They're not going to be certainly not camping in the middle of, you know, or doing the van life, know, or there's certain things, they're not looking for budget-friendly properties and wherever destination they want.

Jason Elkins (35:06.277)
Hmm?

Jason Elkins (35:24.975)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (35:31.79)
Right.

Vanessa Gordon (35:34.234)
very curated high-end experiences. the more, so there was that, I don't say pressure, but I had to make sure that though I was being invited to all of these different places, I couldn't accept them all because I had to align with my readership. that's something that you have to be very, very careful with is the one thing too that right now I'm working with is though, I mean, for instance, I was in...

Jason Elkins (35:49.585)
Right.

Vanessa Gordon (35:58.364)
Puerto Rico recently and I went on a Virgin Voyages cruise. was the guest of my friend Tiana Ibrahimovic who has an amazing website and platform called PopStyleTV. Though different for me, she's more celebrity, pop culture driven. I wanted to make sure that everything aligns. So when we got to Puerto Rico, we were hosted at an embassy suite property, though not necessarily the whole...

In terms of that high-end boutique, five-star experience, it is still a great property to know if you're looking to just go stay there for a night or two and you're on your way to a cruise, for instance. But anyway, being mindful of that, I've been invited to a lot of larger chain properties. have to do my homework, do my research, and make sure that they still...

in some way, a line. can't just take, you know, anything.

Jason Elkins (37:00.005)
Right. Let's touch on because, you know, I trust that lot of your followers will be listening to this podcast and they may even say, Vanessa's on an adventure travel podcast. What's, what's this all about? Where, know, you mentioned Virgin cruises. If, the CEO Virgin came to me and said, I want to do a podcast episode. I'd have to really think hard long and hard about that and figure out how do I tie that back to the adventure? The reason I thought that.

Vanessa Gordon (37:24.281)
Yep.

Jason Elkins (37:29.743)
you know, there was a good fit that we should have a conversation is because I think that there's a lot of different ways to define the word adventure travel. For me, interestingly for me, I'd say it's easier to say what it's not. For me, it's probably not cruise ships, large cruise ships, maybe small expedition boats. It's not large cruise ships. It's not chain hotels. It's not all-inclusive beach resorts.

Vanessa Gordon (37:46.574)
Right, Yes.

Jason Elkins (37:54.949)
And I recognize that some of your followers may be interested in an upscale cruise or an upscale beach resort, and that's fine. But I also think the food element is something that is a common thread throughout most of the conversations I have and most of the people that adventure travelers, to be honest with you. think that food is such an important part of it, which is what drew me to having this conversation with you. So I'd like to...

Vanessa Gordon (38:05.966)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (38:20.909)
I don't understand the demographic of your audience. I've never spent any time in the Hamptons. I know virtually nothing about it. But I suspect that when you mention hidden places, know, unique discoveries, you use the word discovered, you discovered this, not like you discovered it like you're the first person there, but you discovered it and you found a connection. And I suspect a lot of that has to do with food, interesting places, maybe cultural exchanges that

Vanessa Gordon (38:38.071)
.

Jason Elkins (38:49.869)
I personally find adventurous. like, I can imagine an excursion into Italy and learning how to make Parmesan cheese with maggots in it and think, that's pretty cool. That's pretty adventurous. Maybe your audience doesn't want to do that. I don't know. So let's touch on the part, your definition of adventure travel and why you were intrigued by joining me on the show.

Vanessa Gordon (39:05.931)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (39:10.773)
Definitely. Yes. let's see. With that being said, what I love too, and what I think people just, you when I say people are, you know, people that I meet at different, you know, properties and just along the way, they always appreciate that I'm so open to new experiences and to, you know, as I, they always, like, for instance, I did a cooking class recently in Tuscany at this property called Rosewood Castiglione Del Bosco, which is actually rated what the best hotel in the world.

2022. But with that being said, as I go there and we start cooking, I had no idea what we were going to make. And it was funny, he goes, do you want to know what we're making? I said, though the curiosity exists, I want to be surprised. I wanted to be surprised. we were here, we had just gotten truffle hunting. Not only was it my first experience truffle hunting,

Jason Elkins (39:59.353)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (40:09.749)
I had no idea what that was, that the dog could be picking up something that perhaps looks like one, you could tell how good it is, the differences between white truffle and black truffle, and the time of year, and where to look, and how they actually find the truffles is by the scent.

Jason Elkins (40:14.095)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (40:35.921)
Absolutely fascinating. It actually didn't take long to find them. I thought this was gonna be like a few hour expedition, know, search deep into the woods. No, was not. It wasn't too bad at all. But... I was like...

Jason Elkins (40:46.353)
Are you sure they didn't go out and plant them? I hope we've got a group going out. We've got this travel writer coming. We need to make sure she finds a lot of truffles.

Vanessa Gordon (40:53.087)
Bye.

Holy moly, that dude just dawned upon me.

Jason Elkins (40:59.441)
Can you tell that I was a guide in the past? I was a fishing guide and people often would joke, I think you knew these fish were here. Yeah, I did. But anyway.

Vanessa Gordon (41:09.589)
It was just so funny because we literally just walked maybe maybe 30 40 feet away from the road. Holy moly. I hope

Jason Elkins (41:16.497)
I don't want to dash your story, but no, I know nothing about truffles. I just say that jokingly. But I'll tell you, one of the best trips I ever had was in Namibia. We were with this group. We were doing a familiarization trip with a group of people in the industry. And the tour operator is like, OK, we're going to this new camp.

Vanessa Gordon (41:28.028)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (41:37.352)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (41:45.489)
We're thinking about doing some work here. We've never really worked here. But so they set up this camp and they take us there. And then like the first night at dinner, the guide comes to us and says, OK, a couple of people on our team were out scouting today and they found something really curious. We don't know exactly what it is. But so what we're going to do is we're going to take you guys out there tomorrow. We're going to go out to this place and see if we can figure out what it is and da da da da. So my gosh, this is so exciting.

So they load us up the next morning, they take us out and then we walk and we walk and we walk. Probably didn't actually go that far, but they took us on a route that made it feel like it was really far. And then we get to this place and there's these mounds of rocks and it's like, okay, we think it's a burial site and this and that. And they're like explaining what they think. And it's like, we've never seen this before. And it's like, we were all so excited. And these are a bunch of travel professionals, right?

Vanessa Gordon (42:18.827)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (42:40.561)
And then at the end of the trip, was like, oh my gosh, that would be an amazing itinerary. They could do that same itinerary every week for their guests. And every week, the guests are going to feel like they discovered burial mounds that have never been seen before. And it was just so amazing. So anytime I hear of a cool experience, wonder, Anyway, I don't know. It has nothing to do with truffles.

Vanessa Gordon (43:06.371)
It was fun.

Jason Elkins (43:08.347)
But it's about that excitement of just kind of seeing something new and exploring something new. I would love to go travel hunting. And that's I could see absolutely would resonate with your audience, right, or with your followers.

Vanessa Gordon (43:21.297)
most definitely. was so funny. I remember now as we were getting ready, I remember my girlfriend who I was with at the time, says, aren't you going to change your shoes? You're wearing white sneakers. And I said, I thought we were walking along a path. I had no idea what this involved at all.

And then, and then I go to change and I put on like my, hiking gear and I go to get my backpack and then I go from one extreme to another. And then I had these, trekking, you know, cover on your shoes that actually help like you have to climb rocks and. And I had my glove, I got my hiking gloves pretty much. I get, and yeah. Yeah. I get, I get that. And I had no, I, cause it was cold.

Jason Elkins (43:58.427)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (44:07.205)
climbing Everest. I think they're called crampons for climbing on the ice. You're ready.

Vanessa Gordon (44:19.184)
They had a frost supposedly the night before. I have my gloves on. said, what are you doing? I said, well, I thought we were deep into the water. And I said, what are we doing? And then she had me put on rain boots. And I'm, oh, okay. I had no idea. So it was really funny. So I said, I'm just gonna follow your lead and wear whatever you tell me.

Jason Elkins (44:19.353)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (44:44.177)
Do these tour operators or guides or just people in general tease you when you visit these places as, she's from New York? You know?

Vanessa Gordon (44:51.887)
I get, my favorite is, my goodness, I wish I had a dollar for the amount of times they start belting out New York, New York by Frank Sinatra. Every single, they start like serenading, I had one, few people serenade me. Few times. What? It's funny.

Jason Elkins (45:01.029)
Yeah, yep, yep.

Jason Elkins (45:07.537)
It's such an it. love new. I love New York. I love New Yorkers. I grew up. I spent five years in Syracuse when my mom was going to school and then lived in Vermont. I love the Northeast. And I remember when I was I was managing a scuba diving and fly fishing resort in Belize and we got this new guest. He gets on the boat and I asked him, where were you from? And he's like. Third Avenue.

Vanessa Gordon (45:35.554)
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Elkins (45:37.627)
Third Avenue. There's a lot of third avenues and he's like, no, Manhattan. Like obviously, duh. When you're in the city and people ask you, you when you're from the city and people ask you where you live, it's the neighborhood, maybe Staten Island or whatever. But it's just this interesting, there's such an interesting response. And then I think he realized, I'm in Belize. I'm 2000 miles away. Why would this guy just assume?

Vanessa Gordon (45:39.039)
Yup, that's they talk. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (45:56.622)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (46:07.269)
the, you know, I was an upper upper lower Manhattan. I don't know. Anyway, so I suspect that, yeah, you run into that sometimes. and you know, another, just another thing that if you haven't already done it, and one of the coolest things I did that definitely would resonate with your audience is I say your audience, your, your friends, your followers, your connections, your tribe, let's use the word tribe. I love that word. I don't know if that's a good word for people, you know,

Vanessa Gordon (46:10.808)
Right.

it's coming.

Yes.

Jason Elkins (46:36.805)
kind of in the Hamptons. don't know if they identify that with that word, but I'm going to use it. I visited a place called Ashford Castle in Ireland. have you been there? Yeah. It's pretty cool. Pretty cool. And what I did there that was fascinating was we did what they called a, I think they called it a hawk walk or something. It was falconry.

Vanessa Gordon (46:44.704)
Yes, yes, yes, very familiar. I was supposed to go there. Very familiar, it's still on my list.

Jason Elkins (46:59.537)
And they take you out and they introduce you to a falcon and they let you walk with the falcon on your arm and they send the falcon out to get little treats and this and that and you feed the falcons and I just thought that was super, super cool. So make sure if you haven't done that somewhere, yeah, that's a.

Vanessa Gordon (46:59.648)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (47:06.06)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (47:12.876)
Yes, I haven't done it yet, but I've seen it and I've got to pet the little baby, this little baby owl will have from time to time with the Falcon. What I thought was interesting was in 2021, I was at a resort at a Grand Veles resort in Mexico, just south of Cancun. And I was walking around the property and noticed this woman walking around with a Falcon or, yeah. And it would go and...

Jason Elkins (47:20.25)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (47:37.083)
Probably a falcon of some sort or maybe a hawk. Yeah, they call it falconry, but it could be a hawk. Yeah, most likely.

Vanessa Gordon (47:42.635)
And it would swoop down to the pool that it would come back. And and I was playing, think I was the only one following this woman around with not, actually I didn't have my phone. Actually no, I did not have my phone that day. And just watching and just fascinated with, you know, with the whole process. And I love how people just sit in the pool like, oh, it's no big deal. There's just like a Falcon swooping down every now and then. And I'm walking around and I'm going, how fascinating. And I finally found someone that worked there. I said, what is this?

I said, what is this going on? And they said, it's a way of keeping the mice away or to, you know, or to catch them or any road or to keep them away. And I said, that's such a great sustainable approach. Because that's one of our fundamentals is sustainability. But I don't call myself at all an expert. I tell people that I'm, again, learning as I go along and discovering. So that's an example of

Jason Elkins (48:19.857)
Yeah, that makes sense.

Jason Elkins (48:30.085)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (48:41.702)
wow, that's such a great way instead of spraying perhaps pesticide, is to use the keep them away. And so every resort, said, did you know that this resort does this? You might want to look into that if you can. again, just spreading, again, we're all about just spreading the word and showcasing just different ways and approaches to use sustainable methods.

Jason Elkins (48:46.021)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (48:56.048)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (49:04.069)
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good. There's so many different ways. I think anything that opens up your curiosity and gets you a little bit excited or something that's just the novelty, I just throw that all, lump all that in with the adventure. If you look at the list of guests I've had on, it's pretty much anything that I'm interested in that triggers my curiosity because that's my thinking. I'm curious.

Vanessa Gordon (49:10.74)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (49:30.297)
because there is such a food connection and because your tribe that's listening to us right now might want to know. Have you run across an opportunity to eat some stuff that maybe some other people would kind of like, ugh, that's disgusting. I mean, I suspect you've had those opportunities. So maybe share a story. What's the most interesting thing that you've had the opportunity to try during your travels?

Vanessa Gordon (49:46.279)
Yep.

Vanessa Gordon (49:56.168)
Sure, yes. So there were two. So the most recent one was in Guanajuato, Mexico, and they were dried crickets. And they just put them on the table. I just ate like a bowl of chips. And there is a video as a reel that I uploaded a little over October of 23 or thereabouts in and around the content when I went to Austria.

Jason Elkins (50:04.785)
Mmm.

Jason Elkins (50:09.861)
Like a baguette, like a bowl of chips, just reach in and eat the, okay?

Vanessa Gordon (50:24.936)
Yeah, no, just just didn't think about it. just picked it up and ate it and There wasn't much to it per se as far as taste. It was more of a texture component if anything Let's put it this way if there's a bag of you know of Lays chips and that you know, obviously I'm gonna go for the Lays chips

Jason Elkins (50:35.547)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (50:43.889)
Says the girl from the Hamptons.

Vanessa Gordon (50:48.072)
was the good email. I'll just be real, you I'm not really exactly what I'm like, oh my God, you know, you're looking, you know, it. Another one was cuttlefish that I remember that my roommate in the Philippines was eating like dried cuttlefish, like almost like like potato chips again out of a bag. And she goes, Oh, you should try them.

Jason Elkins (50:57.617)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (51:02.564)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (51:07.781)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (51:11.078)
And she had gone off to a meeting and she left the bag on my bed and I'm sitting there, I know what the heck I was watching, but I I started eating them like, and I went, oh, and I just, could not, no. I had to say that did not work.

Jason Elkins (51:21.169)
Really? But isn't it interesting because I suspect that you've maybe even served calamari at some of your events, right? like that's no, know, calamari is kind of an East End taste type of thing, right? But the cuttlefish, I don't know, they kind of look the same. Before you eat them. Well, the dried thing is interesting.

Vanessa Gordon (51:32.675)
Yeah. yes.

Vanessa Gordon (51:38.444)
Yeah, exactly.

Vanessa Gordon (51:43.75)
It was just the way it was dry and the flavor element.

Strange.

Jason Elkins (51:49.883)
I used to, when my son was young, we'd quite often go to the Asian supermarkets and just buy what like we'd see like, Ooh, what is that? That looks weird or different or interesting. And we'd buy it and bring it home. And my son is now a very adventurous eater. And so you mentioned the dried cuttlefish. That was one that actually we kind of decided we really liked. If it's, you know, got some seasoning on it, but then there was also like they'd have little cans of, little jars of

Vanessa Gordon (51:56.644)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (52:01.764)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (52:19.995)
like dried fish, just like a variety of different dried minnows. And sometimes they'd have little crabs and stuff and little shrimp in there. And I remember we bought this jar of those for him because he was intrigued by them. And he took them to school because he sometimes he likes to share things, but sometimes he's not too savvy on what maybe other kids would really want to share. So he took this jar to school and was eating them at lunch and he got teased.

Vanessa Gordon (52:26.341)
I'm sorry.

Vanessa Gordon (52:43.589)
Thank

Jason Elkins (52:49.617)
Pretty hard. so yeah, the next day is like, you're going to take the fish and he's like, Nope, Nope, never going to do that again. So it's our attitudes around different food. Things are interesting and it gets challenged when we travel. Is there anything that you've eaten that you maybe surprised you that was like, Oh my gosh, that was, and it doesn't have to be something that falls into that gross category, but just some food experience that you've had somewhere that was just like, wow.

Vanessa Gordon (52:54.454)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (53:06.86)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (53:18.459)
That was amazing. didn't expect that or that I'm sure you maybe would have wrote it probably would have wrote an article about it.

Vanessa Gordon (53:22.197)
gosh.

I actually did. I was just north of Guanajuato. This was in different... No, no, no, was in Guanajuato, excuse me. This is in Merida, Mexico. And it was a dish, we were outside the city. We go to this famous place with this older woman who's been there for many, many years and she's famous for her huevos motilenos. And it was so delicious. I went there not once, but I made sure that on the next trip when I was there again,

Jason Elkins (53:27.089)
Thank

Jason Elkins (53:36.944)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (53:54.779)
I had them again, they were absolutely, they were fantastic. And it's actually a dish that I've since made at home several times over and they're absolutely delicious. But the way she makes them, it's absolutely excellent. The sauce base, semi-spicy, and they're so, so good. It's pretty easy to make at home, but it's just the way she makes them. And I highly, highly recommend if you're outside Mary to.

Jason Elkins (54:03.451)
Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Gordon (54:22.595)
Look up huevos motulanos and I'll send you the link separately if you want to take a look at the article

Jason Elkins (54:27.653)
I'm definitely interested and I'm happy you mentioned. So I guess the question is anybody that's listening that doesn't have any sort of connections with the Hamptons has no plans to visit the Hamptons. I really wanted to have this conversation to help them decide it's, you're talking about a lot of other places as well, a lot of interesting things. So what would you say to somebody that has no connection with the Hamptons?

to invite them to visit your website and sign up for your emailing list and all that good stuff.

Vanessa Gordon (55:00.787)
definitely. I'm just going quickly tell you, was in the, the huevos motulenos are in the Mercado Municipal in Motul, Motul. And it's about 30 minutes away from Merida. And so again, they have even a huevos motulenos fair and they're celebrating the Yucatan cuisine.

Jason Elkins (55:08.218)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (55:18.021)
So motelenos, motelenos. must be like eggs in like a, motel. Is it just the sauce is the motelano? is?

Vanessa Gordon (55:20.35)
Yes.

Vanessa Gordon (55:26.645)
the sauce yeah yeah it's a pop it's made with tortillas eggs ham green peas and habanero sauce

Jason Elkins (55:36.177)
okay, okay, that sounds good.

Vanessa Gordon (55:38.399)
Yeah, her name is Dona Evelia and she began her business in Motul in 2000 and it's one of the best places to go for that. So definitely guys check them out. And she also serves it with a cafe de Oya and it's made with cinnamon. That's like a coffee drink made with cinnamon and dark sugar and the ingredients are all boiled together. And I'll send you this article.

Jason Elkins (55:45.349)
Alright.

Jason Elkins (56:01.809)
All right, very, cool. Yeah, I'm going to look at that. So and so there's a good example of something that somebody would come across on your website that has nothing to do with the Hamptons. But so all right, very cool.

Vanessa Gordon (56:09.056)
Yes.

Exactly. Yeah. And it's cool. You know, it's again, Pete, but there's also there's such a strong Latin American presence here in the Hamptons too, in that culture as well. It's really, really, you know, a nice tie in there too. Cause again, locally discovering so much. So I mean, why, you know, again, so the, you know, why, you know, why East End Taste and why, you know, people, a lot of times, again, they have this

Vanessa Gordon (56:44.992)
people see that the Hamptons has all of these different, they think how high-end luxury, top tier, this, that, and the other thing, but it's truly not. There's such a strong presence in terms of the local population out here. The people have been here for many, many years. They draw back all the way to the seafarers back in the 17th century even.

So there's a lot more to it. The Hamptons didn't start really building up until about the 19, the, you know, I would say the 70s or late 70s, 80s, perhaps. So there's so much more to discover there.

Jason Elkins (57:29.196)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (57:33.283)
Right. So it sounds like, I mean, the question was like somebody that has no desire to go to the Hamptons, would they give value to the website? We got that answered. But then I also realized, yeah, maybe we should have that conversation. You basically just invited some people to come check out the Hamptons. So that's great. Can you hear that we've got a guy walking down the street outside my room here in Medellin, Colombia with his little music player, and they just walk around and serenade people for money.

Vanessa Gordon (57:57.599)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (58:01.093)
I don't know if anybody can hear that, I'm just mentioning it in case they can. It's pretty cool. I love it here. anyway, Vanessa, we've discussed a bunch of things. I guess I want to ask you one more question for sure. Have you gotten to the point, like if I was listening to this, was like, Vanessa sounds pretty cool. I'd like to go somewhere with her. And you know, she's getting into taking groups and maybe she's traveling a lot.

Vanessa Gordon (58:03.732)
Wow.

Vanessa Gordon (58:08.286)
That's awesome.

Vanessa Gordon (58:22.405)
Bye!

Jason Elkins (58:26.939)
Do you have trips currently on your website? What would you say to somebody that's thinking, she sounds like a fun person to travel with?

Vanessa Gordon (58:34.897)
Yeah, so let's see. So in terms of how to connect with me.

Jason Elkins (58:39.077)
Well, we're going to have the link to your website. yes, I mean, I guess the question is, if somebody's thinking, I would like to go take, you know, take maybe actually go on a trip with Vanessa when, you know, is that like, do you have trips on your website? Is there are there plans in the works or is this something that they just need to get on your mailing list through the website? So when you get ready to go do something, they'll make sure to hear about it.

Vanessa Gordon (58:57.753)
Yes, definitely get. Sure, yes, definitely get on our mailing list, because what I'm doing now is I'm working with some other industry professionals and we are going to be creating trips. think one of our first trips is going to be to Tuscany and Florence. So please, yeah, definitely sign on to the mailing list and we're going to keep you all informed. So this is that's in the very early planning stages now. But the trip is going to be based on properties that I've personally visited and have grown to love. And I can't wait to go back.

Jason Elkins (59:08.849)
I'm

Jason Elkins (59:28.207)
And I think I'll be speaking with your partner in this endeavor as well on the show here at some point, I hope. So we'll learn more about it there as well. So all right, very cool. We discussed a bunch of things. think we could, well, actually one thought that came up, I'm going to mention it now. East End Taste podcast, we're not going to use the word podcast, but the East End Taste something. could you, I feel like you.

Vanessa Gordon (59:36.658)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (59:56.485)
I don't know if maybe you've already thought about this, maybe it's something you're doing, but I feel like you probably have a network of people that would make for interesting conversations to provide similar content, but in a different way. So have you thought about doing a podcast?

Vanessa Gordon (01:00:11.474)
Everyone has been telling me to do one, but again, I guess one step at a time for sure. have some. Yeah, but it. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:00:18.481)
I'm not trying to push it on anybody. It's a big investment of time. yeah, I was just curious.

Vanessa Gordon (01:00:26.426)
Yeah. No, yeah, no, no, sure. It is something that people have truly asked me over and over again to please to do. So perhaps in the foreseeable future.

Jason Elkins (01:00:38.427)
So anybody that's listening to this that's part of Vanessa's tribe, it might be time to come back around and ask her to do a podcast if you enjoyed this show. if you've spent, we've been chatting for an hour, so if you're still here listening, then maybe that's the proof that Vanessa needs to see. So if you hear this message and you reach out to Vanessa and say, I heard you on the podcast, heard when Jason was talking about you should do a podcast.

Vanessa Gordon (01:00:46.34)
Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (01:01:04.12)
Mm.

Jason Elkins (01:01:04.281)
Now Vanessa knows that she's got at least one person to listen for an hour and reached out to her. So anyway, no pressure and has no pressure. We that's all joking. Vanessa, we've discussed a bunch of things. I'm curious, what did I forget to ask you? What else should I have asked you? Or what do want to make sure that our listeners know about about you? The Hamptons East End taste or just any general thoughts before we wrap up?

Vanessa Gordon (01:01:08.952)
Mm. Yeah.

Vanessa Gordon (01:01:30.756)
Sure, yes. So we're going to be starting up doing some smaller events for 2025. So if you're interested there, we'll be doing them in New York City and the Hamptons. And I'm also looking at some international markets too. So that's all in formation. And so I look forward to sharing that all with you. Other than that, definitely jump on our mailing list, eastendtastemagazine.com. And we're found on most major social media.

platforms at East End Taste and then my personal Instagram account is Vanessa P Gordon and I'm very responsive to messages and stuff if anyone has questions.

Jason Elkins (01:02:06.993)
All right, very cool. Well, anybody that's listening to this can, I want to assure you that just look in the show notes, you'll see the link right to Vanessa's business website. And you can definitely connect with her through there as well, in case you weren't able to take any notes while she was mentioning that. So Vanessa, what a treat. Thank you so much. I look forward to connecting with you on future projects. Congratulations on all that continued success with your website and your business. And I learned some.

Vanessa Gordon (01:02:26.179)
Thank you.

Jason Elkins (01:02:35.633)
some things to apply to my business during this conversation as well. So thank you so much. I appreciate you being here.

Vanessa Gordon (01:02:40.138)
I appreciate you having me. Thank you. Bye.

Jason Elkins (01:02:42.725)
Bye.

Vanessa Gordon (01:02:49.335)
Yes, thank