Adventure Travel with Aiste Stanley - Trabeona Travels

Guest Bio

Aiste Stanley is the founder of Trabeona Travels, an award-winning boutique travel agency specializing in meaningful, immersive, and highly personalized travel experiences. Born and raised in Lithuania, Aiste brings a global perspective to her work as a luxury travel advisor, helping clients move beyond surface-level vacations and into journeys shaped by culture, connection, learning, wellness, cuisine, history, and adventure. Through Trabeona Travels, she designs custom itineraries, small group experiences, luxury cruises, expedition travel, and corporate incentive trips that invite travelers to see the world with more curiosity, confidence, and intention.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Aiste Stanley, founder of Trabeona Travels, about what it means to create travel experiences that feel authentic, personal, and deeply connected to place.

Aiste shares the story behind the name Trabeona Travels, inspired by Abeona, the Roman goddess who watches over people as they leave home. That sense of care and guidance runs through her entire approach to travel planning. Rather than simply booking trips, Aiste focuses on understanding each traveler’s personality, comfort level, dreams, and reasons for exploring the world.

The conversation also explores Aiste’s journey from Lithuania to the United States, her perspective on culture and curiosity, and the realities of running a professional travel advisory business. She and Jason discuss the difference between transactional vacation booking and high-touch travel planning, the importance of trusted local partners, the value of small-group connection, and why meaningful travel has the power to change how people see both the world and themselves.

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Some guests support the show through paid production features, cross-promotion, referrals, or other partnerships. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast 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 (00:01.323)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here today. And I’m very excited to have my guest with us to share her story. We’ve got Aiste Stanley, she’s the agency, and agency owner, I guess I should say, and luxury travel advisor of Trabeona Travels. Aiste, welcome to the show.

Aiste (00:24.856)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m really thrilled to be here.

Jason Elkins (00:28.629)
First question I’m going to ask you is, did I pronounce everything more or less correct?

Aiste (00:32.716)
Yes, you’re very, very advanced in all the pronunciations of my name and my company name.

Jason Elkins (00:36.769)
Well, if you go back and listen to some past episodes, you’ll notice that sometimes I stumble, which is why before I hit the record button, we had a conversation and you helped me with the company name by kind of explaining the meaning behind it. And I thought that this, was a really good place to start. So Trabeona, where does that, where does that name come from? How did you land on that name and tell us a little bit about

Aiste (00:51.278)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:00.406)
Yes, thank you so much. That’s a really great question. And my biggest goal when I started the company nine years ago was to create meaningful journeys for my clients. And I believe that that started with the name of the company and giving meaning to the business. I didn’t want to call it ISIS travel, Delaware vacation something. was…

Very important for me to give meaning and Abiona, so the company name is Traviona Travels and Abiona is a Roman goddess that oversees people leaving their homes. So whether it’s a child, you know, taken off to college or a traveler going overseas to explore the world. And I thought that was very fitting because that’s what I truly do.

is oversee my clients and help them explore the world and make sure they have a safe passage and a safe journey. And I added TR for travel and that’s how Tribiona Travels was born.

Jason Elkins (02:06.081)
vehicle that had ever occurred you’d go to actually officially like change your first name you could just be a biona

Aiste (02:12.47)
So people call me Trabeona sometimes. I’ll have suppliers email me, good morning Trabeona.

Jason Elkins (02:18.921)
Maybe they think it’s easier than ICE, though. I don’t know. I think it’s a brilliant name. I love it. I’m just, and I’m curious, have there been moments, have there been moments where you…

Aiste (02:22.697)
yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Jason Elkins (02:35.147)
wish you’d picked something different. Not that I think you should have. This is not a criticism or advice or anything. It’s just have you had moments where you thought, geez, maybe I should have picked something that people could remember a little easier or actually pronounce? Or are you just full on board, happy with what you did and no regrets?

Aiste (02:39.917)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (02:53.741)
So I’m overall very happy because I do have a distinction with my personal name and the business name. When clients talk about their travel advisor and they say, ISTA plans my trips. How many more ISTAs are there, especially in Delaware? I would want to, I confidently can say probably zero. So it’s…

Jason Elkins (03:01.781)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (03:10.689)
You

Jason Elkins (03:15.892)
You

Aiste (03:17.897)
like marketing within itself, you know, my travel advisor is also ISTA, you know, and it’s just, it’s great for people to remember me by that name. And same with the Traviona Travels. The only time I ever regret it is when I have to spell my email address to, you know, the suppliers when I’m booking. That’s, you know, an adventure in itself. That’s the only time, but that’s just an admin, you know, glitch.

Jason Elkins (03:20.118)
Uh-huh.

Jason Elkins (03:46.109)
Yeah, I get it completely. And I know I’ve obviously you and I have communicated by email, but I’m not at the moment. Do you use your first name and your business name in your email address? so you spell the whole thing. You have to spell out the whole thing. All right. For those of our. For those of the listeners that just started, just clicked play without.

Aiste (03:59.275)
Yeah, so it’s Ista at TrabionaTravels.com. That’s the only time that I’m like, I should have picked something a little easier.

Jason Elkins (04:13.909)
reading the show notes or without noticing how our name is spelled first name is AISTE just to kind of put it into into perspective why we’re having this conversation about spellings and and on all that stuff so all right very cool so now now that we’ve dug into your naming and your name and all that stuff let’s discuss what Trabioner travels

what you do. Obviously, your travel advisor, some people think they know what that means, but not all travel advisors dabble in the same type of travel. So I want to get into kind of before we get into your background and why you ended up doing what you’re doing, we’re just going to explain to our listeners, you know, kind of what’s your specialty, what’s your niche and what gets you excited.

Aiste (04:52.023)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (04:58.029)
Sure, definitely. And it’s great, you know, there are so many travel advisors in the United States and all over the world. And we, think most of us have a niche and most of us do something that we’re passionate about. And we work on different types of trips, which then helps the client, you know, to make sure they find the right advisor to help them. So Traviona Travels, our purpose is to help people see the world in the most meaningful and authentic ways.

And that’s done through cultural connections, through immersive learning experiences and scenic discoveries. So anything from a cooking class with an Italian Nonna to hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, to expedition cruises in Antarctica. I think the key and the biggest key is meaningful and authentic type of travel that brings you home rejuvenated while rested.

Educated, you know, we learn a lot through travel. We connect with the rest of the world. We learned that the world is actually, you know, a great place and people by nature are kind and helpful. So that’s the biggest, you know, goal of the business that we run. And we do different types of travel because, you know, some clients may want to see the world by train. Others love small ship luxury cruising, river cruising.

different types of individual itineraries where we plan everything super geared just to that traveler and their family or whoever they’re going with. So a lot of different ways to travel, but the main theme is to see the world in the most meaningful way.

Jason Elkins (06:48.735)
You just explained why I invited you to come on the show. Because what I heard and I think what the listeners hear is, there are travel advisors that specialize in…

Aiste (06:52.973)
Hahaha!

Jason Elkins (07:00.897)
You know, big ship cruises, resort hotels that and I’m not knocking anything. I think that if people are getting out there doing stuff, that’s good. Maybe the first trip is a Cancun resort hotel or something like that. But then maybe they want to connect a little bit more and they, you know, so maybe that’s a gateway drug to travel for some people. I don’t know. So I guess I’m saying all that to say I’m not knocking it. But it’s the the authenticity and just what you just described is exactly why after you and I spoke a few weeks ago, it’s like,

Aiste (07:04.215)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

Aiste (07:20.833)
Right.

Jason Elkins (07:30.803)
we need to come back on and have a conversation. So thank you for doing that. And the very first question I have, I used all that to preface my first question. Do you find yourself in situ? I’m not even sure how to ask the question. I’ll ask it and then you can tell me how I should have asked it. But I guess the question is, if you’re completely dependent on working as a travel advisor, I suspect every once in a while people come across you and.

Aiste (07:34.325)
Awesome. Yeah.

Aiste (07:48.887)
Sure.

Jason Elkins (07:58.335)
and call you and say, hey, can you help us book a Caribbean cruise or something like that? Or maybe you have past guests that come back and say they wanna take their grandkids on a Disney cruise or something like that. So I guess where I’m going with the question is, do you do it? And I would expect that you would, but I don’t know, you can answer the question I guess. And then number two is, is it painful?

Aiste (08:03.693)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (08:24.149)
It is painful in a sense that I am not passionate about certain types of travel and that makes it less exciting to plan for me. And I think it does not do justice for the client as well when you’re working with someone who’s not passionate about Disney, let’s say, or the Caribbean, large, loud resorts with a lot of fun and theme park, know, water parks and things like that.

Jason Elkins (08:35.606)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (08:54.155)
So because I’ve been doing this for a long time, I’ve solved the problem to where I’m happy planning the trips that I love planning and my clients are happy working with advisors that are passionate about Disney, passionate about the Caribbean, or you know what, all those types of trips that I personally don’t plan. So I do have a team of seven advisors currently and actually two more on boarding and we are specialized. So as an agency,

Jason Elkins (09:21.633)
Okay.

Aiste (09:24.321)
we are able to service any type of requests because I don’t want my client who, you know, goes to Europe every year and wants to do a family reunion in Mexico to go to another agent, you know, to another agency. And I am knowledgeable, but like I said, I’d rather have them work with someone who’s really passionate about that product and give them everything and more to make it perfect.

Jason Elkins (09:35.327)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (09:50.189)
because I do that in Europe, I do that on expeditions, know, type of journeys. And so we were very specialized, which is very helpful to make sure every client gets, you know, the best experience.

Jason Elkins (10:02.685)
That’s very cool. And I suspect well just I guess the way to say that you keep it in house but but maybe you don’t do it maybe someone on your team that that enjoys that type of thing and Is it if you set aside your own interests and Passions or whatever is it easier to do? Like a resort hotel or a cruise ship than it is what you tend to spend your time doing I would guess it is but I don’t know

Aiste (10:08.695)
Yes.

right.

Aiste (10:32.301)
I think the easiest thing is when you know one area really well. So whether it’s Europe, for me, I know it really well. Or whether it’s Mexico resorts, let’s say, or the Caribbean resorts that you’ve visited many times, you know the brands really well. When someone comes to you and asks you for a family reunion,

and the resort must have these things, because you do it so often, it will take you a few minutes to pull a quote together. Because you know, yes. And you know, the same for me, if someone comes to me and want to go to Italy, I mean, it’s just seconds for me to tell them, you know, to have a good conversation and pick through the client’s wish list and put that together. So I think that being a specialist, an expert in a region or a country,

Jason Elkins (11:03.905)
Okay, that makes sense.

Aiste (11:26.783)
That’s what really makes it easier to work on different requests.

Jason Elkins (11:30.923)
So it’s easier if you know it. Basically is what I heard is if you know it, if it’s kind of your bread and butter, then that makes it easier as opposed to, that makes total sense. I’m really fascinated by this and I hope you’ll bear with me. Hopefully our listeners are as well. so, because you’ve got a team and you mentioned specifically that you had a couple people onboarding. I don’t wanna discuss the specifics of.

Aiste (11:33.313)
Yeah. Yes.

Aiste (11:40.949)
Yeah, definitely.

Aiste (11:45.524)
Yeah, of course.

Jason Elkins (11:56.959)
Well, maybe we’ll discuss the specifics of your team, whatever. But I guess the question is, there’s a lot of, you you look at social media, you see a lot of, hey, be a travel advisor, you know, no experience necessary. Just, you know, just apply here. And I honestly, I just want to kind of ask you a little bit about how that business works.

because I worked in real estate for a while. And when I got my real estate license, it was like, it wasn’t hard to find a job. I mean, any broker would take you on because you only got paid if you sold something, number one. Number two, the expectation was that your clients, your first clients and maybe a lot of your clients are.

Aiste (12:19.159)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (12:29.035)
Right, right.

Jason Elkins (12:38.923)
friends, family, people in your social networks. So it’s like, so if they bring you on and help you with the paperwork or whatever to be legal and maybe teach you a little bit on how to write a contract, they didn’t necessarily have a lot of skin in the game. was like, okay, now go talk to your parents, your siblings, your everybody that you know and tell them you’re a real estate agent.

Aiste (12:40.855)
Sure, of course. Yeah.

Aiste (12:59.383)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (13:03.681)
I went a little too far into that. How does it work and why do I see so many postings on social media, come be a travel advisor, travel the world, get discounts, all this stuff. What insight can you give us? Because I know you have a team, so you recruit people. So you know more about it than probably a lot.

Aiste (13:11.477)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (13:17.867)
Right. And it’s a great question. Yes. And it’s a great topic to bring up in general because life is not that easy to where you just become a travel advisor and start traveling the world for free. You know, it sounds great. And I do it after nine years of, you know, busting it, but it’s not that easy. And when I

Jason Elkins (13:34.687)
Yeah, sounds real good, yeah.

Aiste (13:46.613)
We are a small team for a reason. You know, I believe in quality over quantity and it goes all the way around. Same, you know, with clients, with suppliers, with anyone I work with, I believe in high quality of work, high quality of the relationship that we have and things like that. So the team is small for a reason. I, I, you know,

the goal of the agency and of our business is to help clients see the world, not to travel for free, not to have a flexible schedule and work three hours a week, you know. All that sounds great. you know, once you’re established, it truly is a very rewarding, you know, a very rewarding job. But to get there takes a lot of work because we do work on the commissions.

Jason Elkins (14:17.631)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (14:41.517)
Primarily, as advisors at Traviona Travels, we do charge fees upfront in addition to that to be able for that quality time for our client to secure the time to work with them exclusively and not just be picking up the phone, taking any order, all orders and you know.

just flipping through the book, it’s very, important for me. So what I’m trying to say when I am adding team members, we do have multiple conversations in terms of how they’re envisioning their job. Why are they wanting to be a travel advisor? If it’s to travel the world for free, it’s the wrong reason because it’s not easy, you know? We do run into issues and we do have to solve problems. And if you’re not loving your job, you’re gonna…

You’re not going to be happy. The clients won’t be happy. you know, primary purpose is to determine why you want to be a travel advisor. How do you envision your day to day? How much can you work? You know, is this a part-time career for you or retirement career? Is this a full-time, you know, where you just want to be the top of the top? And just having those conversations really helps me then communicate what type of agency we are.

You know, my clients have access to me, you know, Monday through Friday, and they know that I’m a full-time advisor. I travel the world to experience different things that then I can come back and sell it and offer it to my clients. And, you know, just setting those expectations, I think is key all the way around. So hopefully that answered your question.

Jason Elkins (16:25.825)
It does it as I was listening to it, I was realizing pretty much anybody that is considering joining your team from here on out after this, after we published this episode is probably gonna listen to this conversation. Cause I assume they’re gonna wanna learn more about you, more about the agency and they’re gonna go listen to this. So that it’s like, okay, so is this gonna help filter out some people that are not right?

Aiste (16:43.105)
Yeah, I hope so.

Jason Elkins (16:49.715)
Or is it just gonna prepare them to know what to say when you ask those questions?

Aiste (16:49.717)
Yeah, I hope so.

Aiste (16:57.363)
No, I think, you know, just having a deep conversation, you can filter things out. And when I say I hope so, I mean, in a way, I mean it in a way to where I don’t want to waste anyone’s time either, you know, because I have certain expectations. And when you do sign up with the agency, you know, those expectations are there. So why waste any, you know, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time either if that’s not what they want to do. because there are other ways to set up, you know, they can go directly to a host agency and.

and self two trips a year, you know.

Jason Elkins (17:31.297)
And just try and figure it out on their own is what I was hearing you say under.

Aiste (17:35.091)
Well, and that’s exactly it. You won’t have a close mentor systems and place and different types of support that we offer.

Jason Elkins (17:48.385)
to say this, but it sounds a lot like how real estate sales work. And I know some people, I don’t like real estate agents, so therefore, but they don’t like real estate agents maybe because they had too many people knock on their door over the last 20 years and they didn’t want to sell their house. And every few days someone knock on the door and say, you want to sell your house. But other than that, let’s set that aside. It sounds like a similar model. And I remember it was, you when I did recruiting for the team for a while and

Aiste (17:52.173)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (18:14.335)
People say, well, why do you want to do this kind of work? Why do you want to be a real estate agent? Well, I love houses. I’m like, that’s the wrong answer. Because it’s not about the houses. It’s about the people. And generally, people that like things don’t necessarily. If houses are your favorite thing, probably means people are a couple steps below that. Just, you know, that’s a story in my head. So I hear you say if you like, if your idea is I want to travel, then.

Aiste (18:18.829)
of you.

Right, right.

Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (18:44.341)
That’s kind of the same thing. You know, it’s similar. And are there a couple others you mentioned kind of flexibility? I imagine a lot of maybe people that are caregivers that have children in the home that don’t want to leave the home and think maybe being a travel agent’s a good job. Are those the top two things? I want to travel and I want to be able to stay home with family and work. Are those the top two or is there something else in there?

Aiste (18:57.709)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (19:03.287)
Sure.

Aiste (19:11.437)
I would say yes, you know, be my own boss, work as much as I want, just that type of flexibility. And these are legitimate perks of being a travel advisor, but they shouldn’t be the goal on why you’re choosing to be a travel advisor because you can be a real estate agent to your point and have the flexibility and only work on Fridays or whatever, you know, your schedule offers. I’m not sure.

Jason Elkins (19:25.857)
You

Jason Elkins (19:30.995)
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Elkins (19:38.335)
Well, you say that, but as somebody who formerly worked in that, it was like horrible for me. was like gouging my eyeballs out with ice picks. I love the people part. anyway, but there definitely, you know, there was a lot of idea, I can work when I want. Yeah, no. Well, you can if you only want to do two deals a year and end up, you know, when your license expires, you’re like, well, there’s no point in renewing it. But because…

Aiste (19:50.548)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (19:55.927)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (19:59.647)
Exactly.

Jason Elkins (20:07.147)
There’s always like there’s reality and then there’s the doesn’t this look like a sexy thing, you all real estate agents have nice cars. They work whenever they want and da da da da da and they don’t realize that when you are getting ready to walk out the door on a Friday night to go have a dinner date with your partner and somebody calls and says, my gosh, this is the house. We got to look at it tomorrow. And by the way, here’s three others that we got to look at tomorrow morning or we want to make an offer. And it’s really hard to have a personal life.

Aiste (20:17.579)
right.

Aiste (20:28.215)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (20:37.121)
or at least manage those boundaries. You said you work Monday through Friday. I thought, that’s pretty cool. Does that mean you don’t do anything on Saturday and Sunday? Or let’s put the reality, like what is your reality? And is that because you’ve been doing it long enough and you have a team?

Aiste (20:54.091)
Yes, a lot of different things are coming together at this point. In general, I’m a huge believer of boundaries in personal life, work life, whatever life you have. Call me if you need a little talk on boundaries.

Jason Elkins (21:08.734)
well then, then you and I after we’re done recording this, we’re going to have a talk because I am not boundaries are what is a boundary.

Aiste (21:16.779)
huge on it. And it’s so important when you’re running your own business to have those boundaries or you will be working 24 seven, you will be working on weekends and then you’re miserable because you have no time for hobbies, no time for rest, no time for family and friends. And it’s just chaos. So when I say, you know, my client,

Jason Elkins (21:24.79)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (21:35.573)
Did you, before you go on, is that something you learned over the last several years? When you started out, was it like that where you were just working all the time and I just curious, or were you good with that right off the beginning, right off the bat?

Aiste (21:50.291)
It’s definitely a process, you know, as the business grows too, you get different types of boundaries that needs to be in place. You know, when you’re just starting off and you’re taking any, you know, requests you can take and learning, and I call it an internship phase, you know, you’re kind of all over and you’re open and take and try different types of requests and, you know, travel styles and things like that. But once you’re starting to settle in, you know,

you have to determine how much, like I said, how much you want to work because it can be a profitable part-time position. It doesn’t have to be a 40-hour or more a week type of thing. I think since birth, I’ve been with a boundary type of person. from Europe. Northern Europe, where people are a lot more serious and rigid with rules and expectations. So I think it’s engraved in me culturally.

You know, if it’s not an emergency, it can wait. It truly can, you know. Will we solve the problem if I answered to you at 10 p.m.? It will probably.

Jason Elkins (22:49.569)
Thanks

Jason Elkins (23:00.449)
For a that’s coming up in four months.

Aiste (23:03.841)
five months or can I wait till tomorrow and have a clear head again benefit to you as a client, a clear head, high energy, great response to versus, you know, versus talking about it at 10 PM when I’m exhausted and it’s just not fair to anyone.

Jason Elkins (23:22.623)
I think that it’s really important and I was, that was actually kind of the follow-up question I was thinking about was what is the benefit to the client? Because if a client hears, I only work Monday through Friday, nine to five, some clients might think, you’re not very available. The reality is, yeah, and that’s okay. Yeah. So what’s the benefit to them with the weight? Cause here’s, well, I’ll throw out what’s coming to my mind and you can help clarify it, but I’m thinking, okay, I can work with somebody that’s.

Aiste (23:37.737)
Right, right, and that’s okay. You’re right, sure.

Jason Elkins (23:52.543)
true professional that shows up with high energy and very focused on what they’re doing. Or I can maybe try and book through some company where

If I want to talk to somebody on a Saturday afternoon, I can, but it’s going to be someone I’ve never talked to before because that’s how they do it. And maybe you’ve got your primary advisor, but every time you pick up phone, you’re talking to somebody else. And that can be good. That’s called leverage. That can be a good thing. But from a client perspective.

Aiste (24:06.249)
Mm-hmm. Mm, exactly.

Jason Elkins (24:23.201)
I think I’d rather have somebody that I can connect with fully that’s really invested in what I’m doing than just kind of luck of the draw. I’m dialing an 800 number, see who picks up and I try and explain everything and they look in the notes and well, I don’t see that here in the notes. Is that the reality?

Aiste (24:25.773)
Mm.

Aiste (24:37.121)
Yep. So, and you know, that’s the, that is the really the strong suit of our business is being a boutique travel advisory and high touch. You know, when I say boundaries, I don’t mean I’m going to ignore a client that’s having a stressful meltdown over not finding their travel documents, even though they’re traveling in two weeks. You know, if I send someone being upset, you know,

Obviously, I’m not gonna say I’m not working. Emergencies, that type of situations, you have to be available in this position. And that’s when I say, these are the hard times when you have to be available in the middle of the night. Once I had a group of 80 with canceled flights all in one night. I’m not gonna say it’s a Saturday night and I am spending time with my husband and my kids.

So like there’s always, always an exception and customer first, client first, unless they’re being disrespectful of your personal time over things that can wait. And I can tell you all my clients, our clients in general, they’re very, very nice and respectful. I think because we’re so close on a personal level, you know, and we work so closely and they know you and you know them.

Jason Elkins (25:48.491)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (25:59.681)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (26:05.933)
to where there is a mutual respect and they know you’re off on weekends. They learned that, you know, and they’re okay. And they’re okay waiting. If someone is really, really, they really need that high touch. Like you say, I need to call someone on a Saturday morning and I don’t care who answers the phone. I just need an answer. That’s great, but that’s not going to be us. And I’m okay. I’m okay with that because it’s not paired to you and it’s not paired to me. It’s just not going to work. So I think that’s the boundary I’m talking about.

Jason Elkins (26:26.557)
might not be the right fit.

Aiste (26:36.173)
is figuring out the relationship before you even have it. Is this gonna work? I gonna help you most importantly? And then does my work style, does that suit you? Because it is a small agency and there is a wait for me to answer your questions. And unless it’s an urgent question, of course.

Jason Elkins (26:40.371)
Right, right, right,

Jason Elkins (26:54.475)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (26:59.265)
Right? Just it, we can use the word boundaries or we could, it sounds like we could use the word expectations or, or fit, you know, are we a good fit for each other? Because if you’re not a good fit, and I learned that in, I don’t want to keep speaking about real estate. wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but yeah, you learned that, like set the expectations. It’s, it’s kind of why you and I did a call, you know, a few weeks ago. Like it’s now, we’re just not going to show up and hope it goes well. And

Aiste (27:05.547)
Right.

Aiste (27:11.906)
Yeah.

Aiste (27:23.787)
Right.

Right.

Jason Elkins (27:26.965)
You know, we sit down and, okay, can we, you know, is it a good fit? We’re gonna, here’s what’s gonna happen. You know, we’re gonna go through this process. We’re gonna come back. You’re gonna have your lighting and sound sorted out. I’m gonna have mine sorted out and we’re gonna chat for an hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (27:31.7)
Exactly.

Aiste (27:38.987)
Right. And we click, you know, we can have a conversation and you want to click with your client and for the client, for, know, any listeners that are on the client side, you want to click with your travel advisor big time, you know, so you can get that perfect service, perfect, you know, itinerary planning and on-trip support. And, you know, I’m checking in with my clients when they travel as well, you know, and it’s just

Jason Elkins (27:51.777)
yeah, yeah. It’s,

Aiste (28:08.213)
We are in high communication, but when I say boundaries, when I am done with work and some days it’s at 2 PM, know, some days it’s at 7 PM. There is no office hours, know, office hours. When I’m done, I’m done. I’m going to enjoy my life. So when I come back tomorrow, I’m excited and thrilled to open my emails. That’s the state that I want to be in, you know.

Jason Elkins (28:16.829)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (28:33.067)
Well, and I think anybody, even your clients.

Presumably, you they’re going on trips that are probably not cheap. You know, they have jobs. understand that when they respond to a text message at 10 o’clock on a Friday night, they know they’re not fully invested in it. Maybe they’re three glasses of wine in, and I’m not suggesting that’s what you’re doing on Friday night. But you know what I mean? You just know that your answers are shorter, just not quite as helpful. Maybe, yeah, not.

Aiste (28:43.371)
Right, exactly.

Aiste (29:00.94)
Right.

Aiste (29:04.789)
Right. It’s just not valuable to anyone. And you know, when you said people don’t like real estate agents, there is the mixed rep for travel advisors as well, because not everyone treats it as a professional business. Some you’ll see using Gmail address, you know, not having a website. And then when you come to a professional agency,

with hundreds of Google reviews, with great reputation, lots of testimonials, professional email address. This is a business, it’s not a hobby. It overlays a bit to me personally because I love travel and I love planning. I’m this organization planner, crazy person. That’s truly my strength, so it aligns with my profession. But it is a business.

Jason Elkins (29:44.821)
I know, I know.

Aiste (30:01.997)
The biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten from someone is that they thought I worked for a large agency, for like a big business, you know, and they didn’t know it was a small boutique agency, you know, with just a few advisors and just kind of me leading it. So it was a big compliment to me because I want to come across as, and we are an established business.

Jason Elkins (30:11.233)
Okay.

Aiste (30:28.737)
you know, with different types of services and travel and it is not a hobby. And we are here to support our clients and then of course, build, you know, professional relationships with the industry. So we have excellent guides and drivers and interesting excursions and interesting, unique properties and things like that.

Jason Elkins (30:40.843)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (30:49.621)
Yeah, I get it. And however, if you know, if your email address ended in gmail.com, you wouldn’t have to spell it out as often. Maybe you should. But I think the trade off is I think the trade off is maybe that’s why they’re doing that. Maybe their company name is really long and they just say, I don’t know. But no, I hear I hear what you’re saying. And I know our listeners hear what you’re saying. And it reminds me of.

Aiste (30:57.131)
That’s true. So maybe I’ll have to switch. Good point.

Jason Elkins (31:16.373)
when I was in an industry, I’m not gonna say, you know, it’s the same industry I’ve mentioned a few times. I don’t know why I see the connection, but I remember colleagues, you know, if they were struggling or had a bad day or a bad month, they would talk about, well, I guess I need to go get a real job now. And that was, and you’re like, and anybody that kind of knew what was going on, especially the team leader, like, well, if you treated this like a real job instead of…

Aiste (31:20.875)
Right.

Aiste (31:33.979)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aiste (31:42.669)
That’s exactly my point. Yes, it is a real job. You know, I come from a corporate background and maybe that really helped me continue in that mindset. know, business is a business. You run it and pay attention to your sales, your marketing, your bottom line, your softwares and systems. You know, that’s the only way you’re going to grow.

Jason Elkins (31:46.497)
Yeah.

Aiste (32:10.81)
and build credibility with clients that you want to attract and help.

Jason Elkins (32:15.785)
Yeah, yeah. Okay, I think we’ve created a video training workshop for anybody that wants points and tips on what they should know before they go into real estate, into either real estate, into either real estate or travel. Probably the same tips in a lot of way other than the travel advisor is a lot sexier, I think.

Aiste (32:23.617)
Yes.

Aiste (32:28.809)
into or becoming a travel advisor.

Aiste (32:38.093)
And so it’s a lot of fun. It truly is. I don’t want to make it look like we work really hard. We work hard and then we truly play hard. It’s a really great job.

Jason Elkins (32:46.143)
Yeah. But you’re also from my, you know, I’ve worked in the tourism business. I mentioned real estate, but that was just a short period of my life that left a mark, a few bruises and scars. But most most of my life has been in, you know, in the travel and tourism business. And it’s pretty damn cool that that we’re helping people have experiences. We’re helping put together experiences for people with maybe.

Aiste (32:59.192)
gosh.

Aiste (33:08.223)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (33:14.293)
parents that they’ve never traveled with, parents that have never been out of the country and their adult kid takes them on a safari in Africa or the other way around, either way. It’s like these are really important things and really cool things that we get to, even if we’re not on the trip with them, it’s pretty darn cool.

Aiste (33:32.767)
It’s like you want to. When I put a trip together, it’s so incredible to me that I want to come along. And I joke sometimes, I’m like, you’re going to meet me at the airport, you know. But another really cool thing, you know, when you’re talking about bringing people together through travel, one of the big things we do as well in our business is working on the corporate incentive travel.

Jason Elkins (33:39.658)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (34:00.237)
So it’s not the business trips from Texas to Chicago and a plane ticket and a car rental, which to me is really boring. Personally, nothing against it. But creating a group of 150 employees traveling together and maybe doing that cooking class together or some sort of a team bonding activity and then hanging out. And same with leadership retreats.

Jason Elkins (34:04.884)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (34:29.299)
working on strategy in an incredible place versus, you know, in your office in a conference room right here at work where you work, you know, locally. So bringing people together on different levels is not just family and friends. It can be coworkers. It can be really anything, different types of, you know, golfers. mean, different types of hobbyists and activities. I’m passionate about groups. Groups is…

Jason Elkins (34:36.691)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Aiste (34:58.061)
One of my favorites. So I wanted to yeah highlight that I love working with groups and the more complicated the better It’s like I told you I’m crazy with

Jason Elkins (34:59.808)
Really? Okay.

Jason Elkins (35:08.961)
Have you figured out, here’s why I’m gonna ask this, I’ll tell you why I’m gonna ask this first, is I started out, my first job in tourism, I was 12 years old. My dad was a balloon pilot and we would travel the country in the summers and my job was, every weekend we were in a different town for some sort of balloon festival and my job, I had a t-shirt that said ask me about balloon rides and I would walk around the field, the launch field.

Aiste (35:18.924)
my god!

Aiste (35:28.396)
amazing.

Jason Elkins (35:36.309)
balloon rides, balloon rides, anybody want a balloon ride? And my job was to go find people that wanted a balloon ride. I would find them and I would walk them over to where my dad was and he would handle the, know, he was the closer. He’d work out, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was, my job was prospecting, so I was a prospector in the tourism business at 12. So anyway, where I’m going with that is I worked at tourism staff most of my life.

Aiste (35:43.296)
Awesome.

Aiste (35:50.869)
Right, right. You were the cold caller.

Jason Elkins (36:05.215)
And at one point I had an opportunity to go through some exercises about figuring out what your values are, that type of thing. Most of us have been through workshops or whatever. I can’t remember exactly what was going on. But I came to the conclusion, I came to the realization that my highest value has always been shared experiences. And that was such an IO, I…

Aiste (36:11.041)
Mm-hmm. yeah.

Aiste (36:23.159)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (36:25.459)
No kidding, maybe that’s why I’m drawn to tourism and adventure travel and it’s shared experiences and it’s everywhere in my life. That can be just, that could just even be going out on a date with my partner or going on a hike or whatever. It’s so, so important to me that it just made sense. And I suspect that if you looked at, so where I’m going with this is.

Aiste (36:29.451)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (36:40.384)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (36:50.263)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (36:50.783)
Have you got, like, what do you think your highest values are and how does that tie into, I love groups. The more complicated, the better. Are you able to make that connection?

Aiste (37:00.845)
100%, you know, personally and professionally, think my biggest ask and what I’m looking for every day is intimate connections. So not necessarily being, and my family will speak, would speak to this if they were here on this podcast. I love small dinners with just five of us, with just, you know, a few of us and having that intimate connection.

Jason Elkins (37:12.745)
Yeah.

Aiste (37:31.393)
versus a giant group, family reunion, I get overwhelmed. So that’s just how I’m personally am. So when I’m saying this, I do take groups abroad, travelers that are intimidated by international travel or they’re single and don’t have anyone to travel with. They spouse, passed away and things like that. And I always keep it at 10 to 12 travelers.

Jason Elkins (37:37.313)
Okay.

Aiste (38:01.035)
I could easily take 30, you know, more. I keep it intimate and small because of that quality experience, quality connection to where it’s to me personally is a lot more meaningful. So back to the values, shared experiences at a small group level. That’s my personal, you know, and

Jason Elkins (38:20.939)
Yeah. Well, because it’s hard to have that. I mean, I guess you could go with 100 people and it’s a shared experience. But the valuable part is just ends up being you and the five people that you tend to be closest to in that group. You know, so but but you’re right. Like I led a lot of group trips and they were all.

Aiste (38:36.191)
Yeah, they’ll break into smaller groups. Right.

Jason Elkins (38:44.289)
I think the largest was more of an event. It was 50 and that was too much, but it was typically eight to 12 people. And you could, over the course of a week, you could connect with all of them and they could connect with each other and it was beautiful. But let me ask you this, because I also heard you say, and the reason that started this whole line of questioning is.

Aiste (38:48.332)
Mm-hmm.

Right, it’s a good.

Aiste (38:56.117)
have dinner together, yeah.

Aiste (39:03.53)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (39:04.629)
You said, I love to put together big groups and the more complicated they are, better. And then you kind of came back and said, you like the intimacy of traveling in the small groups. So help me wreck reconcile that. So when you’re going, you like, you like a small group, but it sounds like you enjoy putting together the large groups. So what is it that you enjoy about putting together the giant groups and how does that feed your value and your, your desire for intimacy?

Aiste (39:08.087)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (39:15.059)
me personally.

Exactly.

Giant groups, yeah.

Aiste (39:34.861)
I think two separate things. Yeah, it’s two separate things. The giant groups, it’s the accomplishment that I’m able to piece it together. It’s like putting the puzzle and you’re done. You’re like, yes. And everyone had a great time and they did their activities and the team building and the strategy meetings. you have so many pieces. It’s very hard to plan. You know, if you’re not.

Jason Elkins (39:34.964)
Or maybe it’s some other need. I don’t know.

Jason Elkins (39:42.911)
I thought you might say that.

Yeah.

Jason Elkins (40:00.705)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (40:01.805)
They can’t have an in-house unless someone is an actual planner, but some HR person is very difficult. You have to really, first of all, be passionate about it and enjoy piecing things together and all the deadlines, organizing, negotiating, booking, communicating. There’s just a lot. And that’s my personality in terms of accomplishment.

putting things together for others and presenting a finished product, go have fun, enjoy the destination, the activities we have planned, the resort is excellent and things like that. So planning group travel and being a part of group travel are two different things for me.

Jason Elkins (40:48.157)
Yeah, yeah, I get that. And I thought you might go that direction with the response. I think a lot of us in this business, I don’t know, I don’t wanna speak for everybody, but I know that especially when I was planning trips and putting together trips and leading trips and all that stuff, I would get kind of probably a dopamine hit or some sort of hormonal hit. And for me, it was…

Aiste (40:52.001)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (41:10.06)
Right.

Jason Elkins (41:13.727)
I still don’t know exactly why, but for me, maybe the same as that sense of accomplishment, I would get the hit right after I said goodbye to the guests at the airport. Like, you know, we’ve been out at a bone fishing lodge somewhere in the Caribbean for a week. And it’s when I got him back to the airport.

Aiste (41:22.785)
Right?

Jason Elkins (41:32.245)
We gave hugs, we said goodbye and they got on their plane and whoosh, I would just get this like wash of probably dopamine or whatever it was, relief, I’m not sure what word to, it is. And I would be like, my God, I love my job, this is amazing and da da da da da. But sometimes during the course of the week, I’m like, this is stressful and da da da da da. But I don’t think I let it, I think I was.

Aiste (41:42.869)
Right, right. It is. It’s euphoric. You know.

Aiste (41:51.137)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (41:58.197)
It’s a lot, yes.

Jason Elkins (42:01.109)
maybe that was where the relief came from is I’m pretty good at masking my stress because I want them to have fun. Yeah, I don’t want them like Jason is everything. Like if a client walked up to me and said, geez, Jason, is everything okay? I would feel like a total, I’d be like, my gosh, I’ve ruined this trip for them. And then at the end when literally everything was okay because they’re all happy and they’re going home with good memories, does it hit? I guess the question is.

Aiste (42:05.675)
And you have to. Right, you have to.

Aiste (42:13.965)
No, no, yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:29.055)
Does it hit you at the same time or do you have another high spot during the process?

Aiste (42:34.925)
think there’s a few. I get really excited when I nail down the itinerary that I want to promote. That’s usually like, yes, I got this and this is what I want to do. Then the next time I would say when I fill the group, you know, when I do get…

Jason Elkins (42:54.336)
yeah. That’s a good moment.

Aiste (42:54.381)
12 travelers and the sooner it fills, more exciting it is. It’s like, yeah, I picked a good itinerary. Everyone wants to come, you know, and I love these people. And it’s just like, you’re pumped and then it dies down again because you’re waiting now. You’re doing the boring work of collecting payments, booking flights, all the admin stuff. And then once you’re ready to go and you’re having the maybe dinner before travel to discuss and go over everything over with the group.

Again, you start getting really excited, you know. So I think it’s almost like a roller coaster to the end. And then to your point, the final hit is when everyone had an incredible time and everything went smoothly. And this is a giant accomplishment because we touch other people’s lives through travel. And that’s really fulfilling to me personally. It is a legacy, you know, that you’re leaving and impacting other.

Jason Elkins (43:28.929)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (43:37.011)
It’s…

Jason Elkins (43:42.208)
Yeah.

Aiste (43:52.557)
travelers’ lives. And then to your point of keeping your cool, you know, during the trip, we were recently in Cuba in February, I took 10 of us and you know, the fuel situation on the island and the guide would be like, we have literally no fuel and I’m going to try to get some more tomorrow. You know, we’re good for tonight. Obviously I’m not communicating that.

Jason Elkins (44:09.726)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (44:17.439)
Yeah.

Aiste (44:20.749)
to my group and I’m trusting, you know, my guide who I’ve traveled with many times before he’ll figure it out and next morning we’re good. We got more fuel. However they accomplish, you know, that’s the beauty of working with trusted partners and trusted suppliers. And I know you interview some great ones on your show. I wasn’t, I’m not worried because I know they got this and that’s who you want to work with because

then you can confidently sell these trips to your clients and trust that they’ll have the best time and they’ll be taken care of when they’re in another country.

Jason Elkins (44:59.521)
Yeah, it’s really hard to, I think for people like you and I and others, probably anybody listening to this show, is that we really, really care. You don’t work in tourism if you don’t care about people, or you don’t last long. So we really care. So it’s really hard for most of us to…

Aiste (45:10.475)
Rhyme.

Right.

Jason Elkins (45:22.283)
present an itinerary or to propose, I can use the word sell, because that is the word. Yeah, it has some connotations to it, but if you’re selling something you’re excited about and you believe in and that you know is gonna deliver the value, then that doesn’t feel like selling, it’s just really delivering value. And it’s really, really hard to do that if you don’t.

Aiste (45:28.737)
We are sales people, yes.

Aiste (45:44.011)
The value, exactly. Yes.

Jason Elkins (45:50.407)
Really know what the outcome is gonna be if you’re just like I found this on a I found this trip on a website Somewhere and I’m a brand new travel advisor and it looks cool and they’re offering me a really big commission But they can’t sell it It’s and it and it’s

Aiste (45:54.701)
It’s terrible.

Aiste (46:04.011)
All right.

disaster.

Jason Elkins (46:09.781)
can be because, it looks great, great commission, whatever, but I don’t really know, I don’t really feel confident. And that’s gonna come across in your voice, it’s gonna come across in your actions and all that stuff. Where I’m going with that, I have no idea. it’s, yeah, and part of it is fixing problems, hopefully before they happen, or getting ahead of things, and especially when you’re leading a trip, because it’s just…

Aiste (46:18.465)
Yes.

Aiste (46:24.685)
I’m sorry.

Jason Elkins (46:39.487)
I don’t know if you’re like me, but it’s like throughout the whole trip, like I know the partners are great. I know we’ll figure it out, but I also know things happen. know vehicles run out of gas. know things break. know guides guides don’t show up sometimes, believe it or not, you that type of thing. But having the faith in your ability to figure it out is one thing, but also just. Not putting that burden or that worry on your clients, you know, another comparison real quick.

Aiste (46:48.567)
Yeah.

Aiste (46:55.414)
Right.

Jason Elkins (47:10.015)
Yeah, exactly. it’s, and sometimes at the end of the week, like, wow, Jason, that was, that was amazing. Everything ran so smoothly. You guys had everything worked out from the beginning. And you’re like, you have no idea. I’m not going to say it to him, but I’m like, have no idea how many, you know, things came up that needed to be addressed that were not planned, that were not part of the itinerary. But the fact you didn’t notice.

Aiste (47:22.701)
Right.

Aiste (47:33.163)
Right. Right.

Jason Elkins (47:36.647)
is like, wow, that’s really, really cool. And I know that you’ve had the same. Yeah.

Aiste (47:40.728)
That’s the goal, you know? And we get anxious clients, but that’s why they come to me, because they need someone to make sure that it goes well. They’re not just finding things on Google. They’re working with a professional with great contacts in many different regions of the world. And then back to the previous topic we touched, if you can’t handle the stress that goes behind the scenes.

you cannot do this job well and keep the clients, I don’t want to say protected, but protected from the stress.

Jason Elkins (48:09.781)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (48:20.481)
Well, yeah, that’s where they’re that’s why they chose to go with you. You know, you know, I just going to take care of all the stuff.

Aiste (48:23.721)
Right. And if you just want to travel the world and, and, you know, work three hours a week, again, these are just the perks. You have to be compassionate, you know, passionate about the industry, be able to solve problems, be super creative because every client comes with a different wish list. And how are you going to meet those needs? You know, there’s just a lot of different skillsets.

Jason Elkins (48:46.753)
Yeah.

I suspect because you’ve done team building and you’ve worked in corporate as well, but you’ve done the team building. When you’re looking to recruit, instead of just like, well, I want to travel for free or I want to be super flexible and only work when I want. But the other part of it is like, if I were to ask you.

If you could only recruit from one industry to maybe find somebody that would be a good travel advisor or trip leader or work in this business, is there a particular industry that pops into your head? Because I’ve asked this question a few times and I’ve seen some patterns, so I’m curious, what type of industry or background work experience would probably be the one you’d go after?

Aiste (49:37.885)
I anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. So whether they were in sales previously.

Jason Elkins (49:47.359)
Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Steve Jobs is an entrepreneur, was an entrepreneur.

Aiste (49:53.355)
Right, right. Well, so I’m in a different sector, very technical. I mean, he’s just like, was incredible. I could talk another hour just about him.

Jason Elkins (49:55.627)
So what kind of entrepreneur?

You

Jason Elkins (50:04.609)
But I heard he was kind of a jerk though. I don’t think he’d be a good trip leader.

Aiste (50:11.167)
Well, yes, you definitely cannot have a short temper. When I say entrepreneurial spirit, as the first thing that comes to mind is just being driven, self-driven, self-motivated, creative, passionate, and then interactive with people, obviously people-friendly, people-person, which again goes back to the sales.

types of jobs.

Because we as independent travel advisors, this is not AAA, this is not a big agency that they’ll pay you salary to put these trips together and things like that. We build our books of business from literally zero clients. So to build your business, you have to be able to sell, even if we don’t like this word, it is a sales job.

Jason Elkins (51:04.385)
Okay, I got it, yep.

Jason Elkins (51:12.961)
Mm-hmm. Great.

Aiste (51:15.189)
At the same time, it’s a people relationship job, which goes hand in hand with sales. And then, like I said, just being self-driven, I’m not going to stand there and monitor your performance and how many trainings did you do this week and how motivated are you to go out there and attend networking events? All of that is on you. But I think the biggest thing is being people’s person.

Jason Elkins (51:18.453)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (51:44.695)
teachers, would say, like I said, insurance agents, even waitresses, waiters, people, connection, and being able to sell. And I’ve done all of it. I’ve been a waitress and I’ve many years through college and I have no problem upselling because you’re offering a better product that suits your clients’ needs.

Jason Elkins (51:47.585)
That’s the one, that’s the one I was expecting you to say. We got, I was just curious.

Teachers and, teachers and bartenders. Teachers and bartenders, yep. What I hear the most often, uh-huh.

Aiste (52:13.163)
And if you’re embarrassed to do that, you’re doing a disservice to the client to begin with, because you’re not offering, you know, a product that’s going to make their vacation better or their meal better, you know? And you have to be a people’s person to be in this industry because all I do all day is talk to clients, suppliers, partners via email and phone. And if you don’t enjoy that…

It’s going to be torturous because you’re going to have to communicate and interact.

Jason Elkins (52:48.737)
I get that completely. And it’s interesting, I realized something as you were sharing that, because everything you said makes so much sense. There’s definitely the entrepreneurial side because you’re all kind of independent contractor types and if you’re not entrepreneurial, that’s an issue. And then what I realized as we’re discussing that though is there’s a bit of a difference. If you were just hiring trip leaders, maybe they don’t need to be so entrepreneurial, maybe good problem solvers, but…

Aiste (52:58.669)
Mm-hmm.

You have to, who’s gonna motivate you?

Jason Elkins (53:17.065)
I realized that there’s two possible responses there depending on what we’re talking about. Being an advisor is definitely the entrepreneurial thing. You’re probably, if you’re not traveling with groups, you’re probably dealing with one guest at a time or one potential client at a time. Whereas the trip later thing was actually more where I was going with the questionnaire, I thought I was. But then when you mentioned teachers.

Aiste (53:22.018)
Right.

Aiste (53:40.737)
got you. Now that’s a really small part of my business. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (53:44.723)
I get that and I realize that as you were saying that, was like, yeah. If you were hiring trip leaders, you’d probably like teachers is a, the two that I hear the most often when this conversation comes up is who would you hire to lead trips if you couldn’t hire someone with tourism experience? It’d be like, yeah, teachers, bartenders is another one that actually I spoke with someone that spent a couple years bartending before he got into tourism and he’s leading trips and stuff.

Aiste (54:08.279)
Mm-hmm.

They’re so fun. Right?

Jason Elkins (54:12.641)
Well, that and you, if you’re a bartender, you got to keep a bunch of people happy. They’ll have different moods, different attitudes, different needs, different states of inebriation, which sometimes happens on group trips as well. Yeah.

Aiste (54:18.253)
Happy.

Aiste (54:24.033)
Yes. And you’re an entertainer, ultimately. You know, a lot of people come to the bar to connect with others.

Jason Elkins (54:33.405)
Every, mean, maybe a huge nightclub’s a different story in a sense, but like a good bartender is gonna make every single person in that bar feel like they’re their friend. Like, right? And you know that when you, I mean, not that I, yeah, maybe I spend some time in bars, but when you go in there you feel like the bartender is your new best buddy, maybe it’s the first time you got in there, you’re like, I’m going back there. Yeah.

Aiste (54:46.283)
Right.

Aiste (54:54.833)
Right. It’s like your safety zone right there by the bar.

Jason Elkins (55:00.445)
And it’s like, that’s this guy’s pretty cool. And a trip leader is kind of the same thing. Like if you’re on a trip, as we talked about, kind of the smaller trips where you can get to know people. In my experience, it was like if I could befriend everybody, if I could befriend everybody on the trip by the end of the week, they feel felt like I’m their new best friend. And if they’re asking me, OK, where are we going next? You know, Jason, where are we going next? It was like, OK, I accomplished something.

Aiste (55:25.377)
That’s the biggest compliment. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (55:27.861)
Yeah, yeah. So I’m going to just interesting moment. I’m going to share that. I don’t know if you can even hear it. And for those of those people listening, I’m in Bogota, Colombia, and there’s a protest walking by right outside the window, which is I think it’s a protest. There’s people holding banners and I’m in downtown Bogota, Colombia. And before we started this conversation, I was worried about maybe the road noise. I didn’t quite expect that. So.

Aiste (55:42.559)
I was wondering if it’s like a soccer game. Where are you?

Jason Elkins (55:57.907)
Anyway, that’s kind of kind of charming. So like this is an adventure travel podcast. So we always have some adventure mixed into it. So anyway, absolutely. So let’s let’s do this because I definitely we’ve talked a lot about kind of what you’re doing, the things you’ve learned. I really want to figure out how the heck you got here. As you mentioned, you’re kind of northern European. Your accent’s a little different than mine. You do live in the US, though, right? OK.

Aiste (56:03.969)
Yeah. Life is an adventure.

Aiste (56:23.211)
Yes, in Delaware, Delaware State.

Jason Elkins (56:25.417)
So how far back do we need to go into your story to figure out, know, like all the traumas and all the crazy stuff that went on that caused you to decide to work in the tourism business? How far back do we definitely want to go back to Europe, but how far back should we go?

Aiste (56:32.982)
Ha

Aiste (56:42.455)
Well, we need to open a bottle of wine and extend this show two more hours.

Jason Elkins (56:46.836)
We come back and do another, we do another episode on, know, I, I used to trauma and what, what, you know, caused her to go into tourism. So anyway.

Aiste (56:50.485)
A follow up.

So yes, I am from Lithuania, a small country in the Baltics in Eastern Europe. And we are somewhat similar and have a great influence from the Scandinavia. And that’s why I say North, you know, in that perspective. I think being from another country has set me up for having…

a better understanding and passion for different cultures, different upbringings, and curiosity as well. Each country has so much to offer, no matter how famous they are in social media. Everyone knows Italy, how many people know Lithuania? But if you go travel in Lithuania, it’s incredible. So I think just being from another country,

country and having to have to adapt in a new country. You know, I moved to the United States when I was 20 years old. So I’ve been here for more than half of my life now and having to learn a new language, new culture. There’s still some days when I get a little culture shock in certain things. There’s some things just won’t, you you’re just so engraved from your upbringing that it’s

Jason Elkins (58:11.659)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (58:19.989)
it’s interesting to hear a different perspective. But again, I think that’s what helped me promote travel and then comfort my clients when they are going overseas. It is not scary. We’re all different, but it’s interesting.

Jason Elkins (58:37.779)
Do you think the fact that you have an accent, it’s kind of obvious that you didn’t grow up in the States. I mean, it’s not a strong accent, but there’s enough. And maybe the spelling of your name. Do you think that comforts people? Does that give you an advantage? Not just from the standpoint that you understand the world, but do they think, well, she’s from overseas, so she must know more about travel than I do because I grew up in the US. Do you think so?

Aiste (58:46.935)
Right.

Aiste (58:56.481)
I think it does.

Aiste (59:07.341)
think it does give comfort and not only because I grew up in Europe, but because I travel so much. I go each year, I visit 10 to 15 countries a year. That’s usually my travel schedule. So I’m constantly immersed in different cultures and I am able to tell clients, you’ll be okay. They speak English.

Jason Elkins (59:29.749)
Yeah, they believe they just believe you but but okay, but I want to I want to definitely stay and I apologize because I kind of shifted the direction but I want to stay and like so I’m a gentleman so I don’t ask age questions. You’re younger than I am. But when you were growing up

Aiste (59:38.261)
No, no, it’s okay.

Jason Elkins (59:48.715)
how much of an influence was former Soviet Union? It’s probably still on some levels an influence with the older generations, but I’d love to hear kind of your story around that and how you think that might’ve impacted your life or your family or your trajectory.

Aiste (01:00:04.141)
Sure. So I was born, yes, in the former Soviet Union. And I was seven or eight years old when it ended. And I was old enough to remember things. I’m like the youngest of the people who remember how different life was in that setting. We didn’t travel.

Jason Elkins (01:00:24.233)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:00:29.279)
Right, yeah.

Aiste (01:00:34.413)
And post the independent Lithuania in the 90s was getting it together. The country had no currency, no jobs, no future. A very sad times. No one traveled. We didn’t have money for vacations. We did road trips. My family is very curious. All of us are very curious and we found ways to explore with…

no jobs and no money. So I think that engraved that curiosity in, you know, visiting like old, we would visit even like cemeteries where famous people were buried. That would be our weekend, you know, curiosity trip, vacation, you know, having picnics, you know, on a famous hill of Lithuania. We don’t have mountains.

Jason Elkins (01:01:08.427)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:01:19.553)
Hmm?

Jason Elkins (01:01:23.445)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (01:01:32.813)
Swimming in the lake, know, things like that. But I think because we were active, regardless on how much life was given us, it created that personality where I want to do things like this, you know, on a much larger scale, obviously.

Jason Elkins (01:01:40.502)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:01:48.521)
Yeah. Do you think your parents were naturally that way? Or do you think that they were making some sort of effort to make your lives a little bit more enjoyable during difficult times? Or I guess what I’m saying is if the finances were stable, because I understand that things really changed a lot. And I’ve I’ve heard people say that the four years before the fall of the Soviet Union was a lot better than the four years after.

Aiste (01:02:01.997)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:02:14.761)
You know, so I’m wondering if I was a parent with young kids going through all that, I might even be concerned about their mental wellbeing as they grow up because the age, you know, that’s an age you can leave some marks, right? So do you think that they were intentionally making an effort to distract you maybe, or was it just part of their nature to just go explore and stuff like that? Do you have a feel for that?

Aiste (01:02:37.365)
Yeah, I do. think that culturally Lithuanians and Eastern Europeans, they’re very curious people and very active. When we go home and visit, and I still say go home even though my home is here now, I just always say I go home. I do feel home because after dinner, everyone is out in the city walking.

talking, meeting, you know, that culture, that European vibe at 10, you know, 10 PM still light out because we’re very close to the North. In summertime, you know, families gathering again, you know, kids playing basketball. It’s very active in general, you know, I’m sure there were a lot of stress for the adults during that time, but you still want to have fun with your family, even if it’s, you know,

Jason Elkins (01:03:12.191)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:03:33.227)
something simple like a picnic and swimming in the lake or visiting famous people, know, the graves of the famous people and learning literature through that, you know, learning history by visiting certain manners and castles and, you know, each, like I said, each country has so much to offer. But I think that naturally the culture is like this. And that’s where I have it so much too that I love.

Jason Elkins (01:03:40.265)
Yep, ma’am.

Aiste (01:04:02.781)
active weekends, active evenings and learning through travel is so much more fun than going to, you know, I don’t know, certain, even tuning into a webinar. It’s cool. But if you’re actually in Italy doing these things and learning and through locals and interactions with the locals and food and songs and music, and it’s just, you know, really beautiful in that.

Jason Elkins (01:04:05.525)
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:04:32.171)
Do, and it’s not about politics, neither one of us are able to change the past. doesn’t, know, the past is the past. And do you remember feeling like your parents were more on the optimistic side of where things were going? Because I was in Georgia not too long ago, a little less than a year ago, and it was interesting because I spoke with some young people that are of.

Aiste (01:04:37.569)
Right.

Aiste (01:04:50.391)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:04:57.193)
very kind of westernized, they want to be part of the EU. And then there were some of the older generations or even some of the younger people I spoke with, their parents or their grandparents kind of still miss the Soviet Union. Honestly, they just felt like that was much better and probably because of all the the the crap that happened during the transition. But do you remember feeling like your parents were?

Aiste (01:05:00.503)
course.

Jason Elkins (01:05:18.847)
Like this is a good thing, it will get better or we or boy this country really made a mistake or the whole not just Lithuania. But do you remember a sense of that?

Aiste (01:05:25.335)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:05:29.741)
I remember that everyone that we knew, you know, were obviously for freedom. I think my parents and adults in general did a good job to just not maybe scare the children and only share the things that matter like patriotism, you know, like my grandparents were very passionate about that as well. Patriotism, the love for your country.

Jason Elkins (01:05:44.683)
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.

Aiste (01:05:58.125)
And yes, the times are hard and that’s it. You didn’t know that maybe they have literally pennies in their wallet. You knew times were bad, but you never knew how bad. You knew you had a roof over your head and food on the table and you were able to walk to school. And I sound like I’m 80 years old, but…

Jason Elkins (01:06:12.043)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:06:22.113)
And well, yeah, I get it. You went through not just you, obviously, but a large portion of the world went through some, has not just the fall of the Soviet Union, but a lot of things have happened. But I mean, you’ve got an interesting perspective compared probably to a lot of your guests that travel. I’m just guessing, you know.

Aiste (01:06:42.797)
Right, right. Well, and back to, you know, why I’m so passionate about different cultures and offering, you know, different experiences is there’s so many stories. And, you know, I have so many friends that came to the United States during the same time, you know, looking for a better life. And we all have a different story. We joke sometimes on how much money.

we brought with us, you know, I’ll be like, I came to America with $500 and my friend will be like, well, I only had $300, you know.

Jason Elkins (01:07:12.767)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

someone else times in, well, I only had it 100 and somebody. I, we hear that we hear those stories. Yeah.

Aiste (01:07:21.429)
And it’s just, you know, so many different stories. Yeah. So my story is not different, you know, special is just different and it’s unique to me. And the love I think for travel comes from the love for history and different cultures and different experiences and active engagement on your free time.

Jason Elkins (01:07:43.457)
Do you remember the first non-Lithuanian person you met or the first, tell me about the first non-Lithuanian person that you remember meeting. Maybe that’s a better question.

Aiste (01:07:56.055)
So growing up in Soviet Union, our borders were closed, so we didn’t get a lot of foreigners and we couldn’t go places either outside of Soviet Union to the Western world and things like that. But I remember seeing Americans on the street, in the city in Lithuania, and we knew they were Americans because they were dressed very simple and they were…

Jason Elkins (01:08:18.721)
They’re wearing t shirts, t shirts and flip flops with a can of beer in their hand.

Aiste (01:08:23.455)
like sneakers, know, and, and, and yeah, just simple and comfortable, normal. To us, it was interesting. And they were smiling. And like seeing the smiles was so interesting to us as kids, you know, I don’t know how old I was, a teenager, we’ll be like, look, Americans are in the city, know, Americans are visiting. And we knew because they were warm and smiling.

Jason Elkins (01:08:28.566)
Yeah, yeah.

Aiste (01:08:50.389)
and simple, you know, those were my first and not even direct interactions, but just seeing foreigners, you know.

Jason Elkins (01:08:57.139)
I gotta ask, you specifically mentioned, used word smiling two or three times just now. And when I hear that, think Lithuanians don’t smile. I mean, you talked about going out, doing experiences and stuff like that, but do Lithuanians not generally smile during those times?

Aiste (01:09:10.349)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:09:15.589)
so no, it’s a great, it’s a great question. They don’t. and I think a lot of countries still are culture shock to Americans when they go visit you. I mean, we talked about, you know, your experience as well. It’s different now because it’s Westernized and we do have quite a bit of foreigners, especially in the capital, different cultures starting to mix together and Westernize.

Jason Elkins (01:09:16.627)
as much as the Americans did.

Jason Elkins (01:09:31.457)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:09:43.929)
Eastern Europe in general, I believe. And someone smiling is not as crazy. But you know, when you walk by on a street and you make eye contact 20 years ago, you just turn away and keep going. But now you might be a bit right. It’s cultural and no one is mean to you. And I always say this, you know, to Americans here, to my friends. No, it’s not about you. It’s the culture.

Jason Elkins (01:09:45.025)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:09:57.663)
Yeah, yeah, it’s still like that in some places in former Soviet Union. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (01:10:13.421)
And you’re a guest in this country and you truly don’t have a say. You just absorb it and learn and admire some different cultural differences.

Jason Elkins (01:10:23.839)
Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder, cause maybe if there’s not a lot of smiling going on culturally, but then maybe somebody does show up smiling ear to ear waving Mr. Friendly, Hey, how’s it going? it’s not, maybe it’s not that they are upset that you’re smiling, but they just don’t know how to respond. Or they just think you’re weird. It’s like, wow, that guy’s weird.

Aiste (01:10:38.605)
You

Aiste (01:10:45.803)
It’s very interesting.

It’s just a disconnect between cultures because there is not something similar and some cultures are just more reserved, you know? And I thrived, I remember, you know, arriving to the States for a summer job. I loved how warm and friendly and sunny it was. That’s what I remember. It was sunny, it was, you know, friendly and happy. And these emotions worked for me. For others, maybe it’s overwhelming. I don’t know.

Jason Elkins (01:10:53.215)
Yeah, yeah.

Aiste (01:11:18.733)
You know, when you grow up in a reserved country and where everyone is a bit more serious and express, you know, emotions differently, it might freak you out. Right.

Jason Elkins (01:11:26.561)
They have boundaries. We discussed that, they have boundaries. So, was there a moment, like you mentioned, you kind of were always kind of going out exploring, you were curious, even if that meant you were going to a graveyard or whatever. Do you remember the, I asked you about the moment when you noticed Americans or people from the United States or North America, whatever.

Do remember the moment when you thought I am leaving Lithuania? I want to leave Lithuania to either temporarily to travel or do you remember that moment?

Aiste (01:12:06.497)
Yes, definitely. It was the first time I’ve ever been on a plane. was 20 years old. I’ve never been on a plane before. that was alone. That alone was really exciting. And yes, I mean, it was just a moment of my life, you know, to go see something completely different, to meet people from all over the world. You know, we were the students working at different

Jason Elkins (01:12:16.651)
That’s exciting, yeah.

Aiste (01:12:35.305)
shops like subway or waitressing jobs or you know I was a lifeguard at a pool you know different fun things and then I just it was the biggest adventure of my life and all I remember was just how excited I was. I didn’t think of it as like a new future I wasn’t planning on staying it was just a summer adventure to to have fun you know you’re 20 years old you should be having a lot of fun while

earning some money, you know, that was a work and travel program throughout university and seeing the world. That was my first see the world type of, know.

Jason Elkins (01:13:13.281)
And that was the trip to the US or was that something different? Was that a different one? Okay. So it was through a school program, kind of like a summer work program. Like how long was it?

Aiste (01:13:17.121)
Yes, it was exactly my trip here.

Aiste (01:13:26.189)
Work and travel, yes. So the visa, I believe is four months. I can’t remember now, it was so long ago. It’s just for a summer, so you would come back to the university and continue your life in Lithuania. And that was my plan originally.

Jason Elkins (01:13:43.369)
So you were, were you traveling with other students from the university you already knew or?

Aiste (01:13:49.399)
So we got split up, know, the United States is giant and we had to have a job before we came. That was the way to get a visa. You had to have an employer. So my employer was in Ocean City, Maryland, about 30 miles from here. And it was the lifeguard at the pool, at the big condo building.

Jason Elkins (01:13:59.361)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (01:14:10.625)
So did you have other Lithuanians or any of the other students around you?

Aiste (01:14:17.901)
There were just a few we met. I mean, it’s crazy when I think about it now, I would have not signed up for anything like it at this age, you know, being over 40, early 40s. But when you’re 20, and this is the first opportunity to experience the world and America, know, especially in those days was the dream country and it was just mind blowing to be here.

Jason Elkins (01:14:36.683)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:14:40.363)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:14:48.385)
Okay, did you, had you learned some English? Where were you at in your English level when you did that?

Aiste (01:14:55.553)
I would say two out of 10, maybe, at the best. And then I could understand certain accents. You know, we were taught British English and then you come to the countryside, you know, you have different ethnicities. I just couldn’t understand anything. You know, I remember this bus driver tried to explain it to me where to get off and I just kept staring at her and had no idea.

Jason Elkins (01:14:58.097)
OK, all right, awesome. Awesome, all right.

yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:15:15.125)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:15:21.833)
I had no idea what she’s talking about and she just had to point fingers, you know? And I always tell my clients, nothing, I didn’t have a phone actually. And that’s my point. I tell my clients all the time, of course it’s great to prepare for situations and think about things, but you will make it. People will help if you don’t speak the same language.

Jason Elkins (01:15:26.465)
Yeah. And you didn’t have Google Translate on your phone, did you? Exactly, yeah.

Aiste (01:15:51.373)
you’ll point fingers, draw pictures, it becomes a team bonding activity between cultures. You know, I just had that in China in March. We couldn’t understand each other and I wanted to buy something. And naturally they want, you know, people want to help each other. And it’s funny because you’re laughing at the same thing. You’re like, I have no idea what you’re saying. And it’s just, it’s so fun, I think. And you have to be brave or you won’t experience certain things.

Jason Elkins (01:15:56.467)
It does, yeah it does.

Jason Elkins (01:16:19.818)
do you so as a European, so now we’re gonna discuss the typical person that grows up in the US or just maybe some differences and there’s no, I’m not talking positive, negative, anything like that. I just, recognize that a lot of Europeans have access to other countries very close that speak different languages and have different cultures and if you grow up in Des Moines, Iowa or even Delaware or you know,

Aiste (01:16:41.143)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:16:49.821)
I don’t know, Oregon. You got to go a long ways to find a different culture or language. I mean, maybe different kind of barbecue, but that’s about, you and so I think that a lot of Americans that haven’t traveled or a lot of people from the U.S. that haven’t had the opportunity to travel, it can be kind of scary, whereas a lot of Europeans, you know, backpacked around, they took their gap year and they’ve they’ve been to 14 different countries and it’s no big deal. So that’s part of it.

Aiste (01:16:55.437)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:17:12.172)
Right.

Jason Elkins (01:17:19.251)
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but that’s part of it. And then the other part is, but what we do hear sometimes are stereotypes or what we do see is the news of what’s happening in Africa at any given time or South America or we, I think every person that goes up in the U S that has thought maybe they’d like to go to Paris has probably heard the stereotype that if you don’t speak French, they’re going to be mean to you. Right.

Aiste (01:17:26.881)
Right?

Aiste (01:17:31.373)
course.

Aiste (01:17:46.445)
You

Jason Elkins (01:17:48.125)
So, so do you see that? you think that that’s part of it is this? Well, it is part of it. guess it’s the stereotypes and also it’s just the you don’t know what you don’t know if you know if you grew up in the States.

Aiste (01:17:59.895)
Yes, and you know, the states are more isolated in the term, you know, we’re surrounded by two oceans and then we’re surrounded by two countries. That’s it. And in Europe, like you mentioned, you’re at any given time, you can drive to multiple countries and experience a completely different culture for the weekend. You know, we can drive to Poland, we can drive to Latvia, you know, from just Lithuania.

Jason Elkins (01:18:21.077)
Yeah.

It’s so cool. Yeah. Well, and also the US is so big that it’s well here I’ll compare it to New Zealand because I’ve been in New Zealand. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people from New Zealand. It’s super common for them to take a gap year and go to Europe or wherever, you know, it’s because it’s such a small island or a small country. It’s not it’s not one island. It’s a relatively small country.

Aiste (01:18:42.092)
Right.

Aiste (01:18:46.7)
Right.

Jason Elkins (01:18:51.553)
And it’s like, if you really kind of want to go see the world, you got to get on a plane, you know, where if you grow up, yeah, where if you grow up in Iowa and you want to go see the world, that might look like New York City or Los Angeles, but in New Zealand, you know, and Australia is not quite different enough, I guess. So they’re more likely to to get on a plane, get on a plane and go. And it’s it’s very interesting. And just my travels, I travel full time. I’m I’m in Colombia right now. I’m.

Aiste (01:18:56.319)
far away.

Jason Elkins (01:19:18.015)
way more likely to see someone from Europe in a hostel than I am someone from the United States, even though the United States is so close.

Aiste (01:19:25.303)
Right, right. I think, you know, naturally people are focused on things that are familiar. So again, back to Italy, it’s my top, you know, top country that I plan travel to. Italy has a lot to offer, obviously, but it’s also something very popular and common and feels comfortable. if food and then just, you know,

Jason Elkins (01:19:48.245)
Because of pizza, because of pizza and Olive Garden probably, right?

Aiste (01:19:55.801)
knowing others who’ve been to Italy. know, like how many people do you know? Like I said, you know, you’re not seeing Americans in a Columbia, but there are different types of travelers. You know, the first timers, they go to Italy, they’ll go to UK because they speak English, you know, in London, things like that. But then those travelers become experienced travelers. They become more comfortable and it’s not scary. You get on the plane, you get off the plane. You know, it’s just like here, right? And,

Jason Elkins (01:19:57.738)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:20:19.529)
I didn’t die. Yeah, exactly, right.

Aiste (01:20:24.041)
Then they’re like, okay, now we want to go to Colombia. We are now ready to go to different continent. And it’s just that trust builds over time. And I think for me, I think I’m brave on just a normal, basic personal level, moving to a different country. I’ve been through a lot of different situations and everything worked out. So my tolerance for danger is different from someone who’s never been abroad.

Jason Elkins (01:20:45.921)
That’s very brave.

Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:20:53.485)
And that’s why I think it’s comforting for clients to be talking to an advisor that’s experienced in travel and has seen different continents and then kind of easing people into. And you get hooked, you go to one continent, one country and you wanna get out again and you’re planning the next trip as soon as you go home because travel is, it is addictive in a good way. It brings so many different emotions.

Jason Elkins (01:21:05.387)
Yeah.

Aiste (01:21:23.255)
positive emotions and it’s a learning experience and it should be a part of therapy, you know, for people to travel.

Jason Elkins (01:21:29.941)
I, wait.

I individually, but also just socially, culturally, like globally, which is actually why I named this podcast Big World Made Small. It was about getting people to go to these places, because when you go have these experiences, it brings us all closer. It almost can’t. I’ve been traveling. I traveled a lot in the business before, but I’ve been traveling full time four and a half years. And this past year was the first time I ran into somebody while traveling that clearly had some

Aiste (01:21:48.127)
Exactly.

Jason Elkins (01:22:02.909)
issues around racism and was just a problem person. He had problems. And I met him in a place. I met him in, I can say I met him in Vietnam and he was from Poland. And just his like, I was so shocked.

Like, what are you doing here? Like, because people that travel outside their home countries tend to just be super open to meeting people from all different races and cultures and all that. And it was such a shock after four and a half years to meet another traveler that I thought was missing the whole point. It’s like, why are you here? But yeah, it’s.

Aiste (01:22:27.681)
Yeah, right.

Aiste (01:22:38.967)
Yeah. But you know, to your point, it’s a minority, thankfully. Like I always say, know, 99 % of the world, people are happy to see other people. It’s interesting, you know, like bringing back, you know, my travels in China in March. want, locals want to take pictures with us, you know, they don’t see tourists that often. We were like celebrities and everyone is laughing and no one can speak the same language. And it’s just like…

Jason Elkins (01:22:44.374)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:23:00.445)
I know, isn’t that weird?

Aiste (01:23:08.951)
To me, that’s what it’s all about. People are naturally kind and they will help you during travels and they wanna strengthen those relationships with other cultures. We are curious and we want to see and learn different things.

Jason Elkins (01:23:26.441)
It’s, it’s, it is, it’s very interesting. And they’re, they’re curious by nature, but like you take someone from outside, you know, like you in China or me. And I remember the same thing in Thailand. The first time someone came up and asked me to take a picture with them. thought, I thought, who do I look like? I’m like, am I so big that they think I’m a football player? Like I need to, I need to start eating less. I thought, I had no idea. I was, I could not figure out why they thought that.

Aiste (01:23:44.749)
You

Yeah

Jason Elkins (01:23:54.059)
they should take a picture of me and then it happened a few more times and I started to kind of connect the dots and it’s like, now I just, yeah, I’m just.

Aiste (01:23:58.797)
It’s just you’re unique, you’re different. And it’s crazy that, you know, to them that there is a stranger in their country and friendly, smiling and nice. then, you know, the news show a lot of the bad things and create that anxiety. I wish they showed, you know, a more balanced world that we actually have.

Jason Elkins (01:24:08.149)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:24:19.443)
And you will not wreck. I suspect our listeners, like they were preaching to the choir here, but people, you will not know how biased the news is until you leave your country. And then you’ll be like, wait a minute. This is, know, I mean,

Aiste (01:24:31.063)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:24:35.969)
Italy, probably people have, I don’t, I’ve never been to Italy, so I don’t really know what to expect, but I have ideas in my head because I grew up with Italy as a cool place. You know, you’d see TV commercials, I think it was Perillo Tours or whatever his name was, I remember. And it’s like, oh, okay, yeah, go to Italy with Perillo or whatever. And so that seemed kind of safe, but, but Colombia, you know, when I was growing up, you didn’t see anything positive on the news about Colombia.

Aiste (01:24:49.793)
Yeah, they’re still on.

Jason Elkins (01:25:02.977)
And even to the point when I first came here four and a half years ago, my family was like, why are you going there? You shouldn’t go there. And I have not seen anything even close to anything I saw growing up. And I know things have changed. Things are I’m not saying they were fine all along. There weren’t the people here went through a lot of drama, a lot of crap. But it’s like, man, you know, here are so many other places like people are people.

Aiste (01:25:17.857)
Right.

Jason Elkins (01:25:31.201)
people are excited to chat with you and not everybody in the world hates Americans. know, that’s a big thing. Yeah, that’s a big thing that I think, like a lot of people haven’t left the US, they’re like, oh, the whole world hates us. Everybody hates us. So if I go somewhere, they’re gonna wanna kidnap me, hurt me, rob me, whatever. I’m like, every time someone says, where are you from? And I say, I’m from the state. I’ve never.

Aiste (01:25:37.717)
Majority don’t. Yeah. Majority don’t.

Aiste (01:25:49.633)
true.

Jason Elkins (01:25:55.809)
In four and a half years, I’ve never had anybody look at me with any look of disgust or disdain or anything. It’s like, they want to, oh, I have a cousin who lives in the States or they want to create a connection or I…

Aiste (01:26:04.962)
Right.

Or people, they’ll even share their compassion, because they also see news that may not be true about America. Because I have family in Europe and they’ll be like, my God, everyone is shooting each other, all this politics, and then all the hurricanes are destroying the country, and we had like a hurricane in one state. It’s all exaggerated. then, so what I’m trying to say is I’ve had

Jason Elkins (01:26:16.939)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:26:24.244)
I know.

Jason Elkins (01:26:30.762)
Yeah, yeah,

Aiste (01:26:36.683)
people ask me where I’m from, I’m from the States, they actually are compassionate and they’ll be like, how is it there? How are you doing there? Again, back to my belief that generally people are good all over the world. So I’ve actually experienced that and I’ve never experienced anyone being rude to me because I’m from United States.

Jason Elkins (01:26:48.214)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:26:53.909)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:27:00.993)
Yeah, I had, I think I had one other traveler. think.

think I was in Colombia and I think he was from, I don’t know, somewhere in Europe. And I did say something, like I just met him and he was asking, oh, what are you up to today? And I said, oh, there’s this really cool mall. And he said, oh, you Americans and malls. And I was like, I got offended, but that’s because I just like, what are you talking about? I like street food. I’m a good traveler. Well, but.

Aiste (01:27:22.107)
Aiste (01:27:30.189)
But hey, that’s a cultural thing. So yeah, we love malls, you know, that’s a cultural thing.

Jason Elkins (01:27:35.849)
Well, honestly, what I reflected on was he had just arrived in Columbia. He’d never been to a mall in Columbia because they like malls in Columbia a lot more than they do in the US. It’s like the mall, like it’s impressive in many countries, many countries even. Yeah, have these amazing malls with like street food, like the food court is like street food or whatever, or or they’ve got all these amazing restaurants and cool stuff. And it’s like.

Aiste (01:27:46.593)
Yeah, yeah, A lot of countries, yes, especially in Asia too.

Aiste (01:27:54.679)
Yes, yes. And it’s like multiple levels. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:28:02.561)
I care. stand by it. It was interesting. It was an interesting mall. So anyway, just real quick. Do you have did you grow up? It sounds like you maybe grew up with siblings. I’m curious if they kind of went similar directions or what what what are your observations about kind of like your choice compared and not I don’t even know if we want to bring this up. They might listen to this, but tell me more. I hope so, too.

Aiste (01:28:25.037)
I hope they listen to this. I’m very close with my family. We have a small, small family. I have one brother and one cousin. That’s how small my family is. And I have one aunt and uncle. We all are travelers, explorers, curious people. Everyone lives in Lithuania. I was the wild one.

Jason Elkins (01:28:35.808)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (01:28:49.575)
Okay, yep. Mm-hmm.

Aiste (01:28:53.367)
Who left? And again, I wasn’t planning on staying and just things unravel differently for the better, of course. But I’m the oldest from the sibling situation. And I think I saw the most of that dark period. when I was graduating high school, corruption, no jobs, crime, that was the theme.

I’m the next to be in the workforce, but there’s no job. You what am I going to do? My brother and my cousin, they were way behind. So by the time they graduated, things were starting to get better. And I think the motivation to stay was greater than, you know, I had. And then the borders opening up in Europe in general, you know, with a post Soviet Union block.

Jason Elkins (01:29:26.752)
Yeah.

Aiste (01:29:49.537)
They have more opportunities. Maybe in summer they could work in the UK or in Denmark picking strawberries in Norway at the fish factory. know, the jobs were closer and then you come home. It’s very different. Times just changed significantly. And now Lithuania is one of the strongest economies for the post-Soviet Union countries. It’s very Western. Like I said, a lot of different cultures live there. High quality and

Jason Elkins (01:29:57.185)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (01:30:17.505)
tech companies and different Michelin star restaurants is just really great place and still authentic enough because it’s not so touristy. So do I regret, you know, not waiting it out like the rest of my family? I don’t because I, you know, created a great life here and different opportunities were given to me, but they just did not have the same motivation. It was just a different time, you know.

Jason Elkins (00:01.917)
So with all the new things, we talked about Lithuania 20 years ago, what it is now even further back than 20 years. And you were kind of mentioning all the things about Lithuania. But I recognize that we didn’t really, I mean, I know you left, you went to the US, you worked for the summer, you said you were a lifeguard. But then like, okay, so you went back to Lithuania. Can’t speak now.

Aiste (00:22.893)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (00:28.983)
haha

Jason Elkins (00:29.981)
We were, I’ll just share that we were just, we were just discussing that I just cracked open a beer. Now I guess you can hear it. So anyway, so you presumably went back after that and then kind of walk us through how did you end up living in the U S and doing this kind of work.

Aiste (00:48.558)
Sure, so I actually didn’t go back. I loved it so much that I decided to stay and go to college here and still thinking, you know, maybe I’ll go back after college. Still, you know, I was so young, early 20s. And I, so my, finished college here in Salisbury University in a local college with a psychology degree.

Jason Elkins (00:52.069)
Aiste (01:17.734)
And I got a job at the corporate that I mentioned that I only had one real job. We won’t call it, know, obviously my job now is real. I went, you know, working for someone else. Right, right. I know that’s why I’m showing parentheses. This job is very real, but that was my first job at a corporate level. And that’s how I envisioned my life.

Jason Elkins (01:31.677)
We discussed that, remember that.

Aiste (01:46.056)
At that time, I got married with my previous husband and we have two kids. And that was kind of 10 years of climbing a corporate ladder, raising my kids, living.

Jason Elkins (02:00.607)
What did you major in in school? You said psychology. Psychology? Why did you, yeah, why did you, I’m just curious why you chose psychology.

Aiste (02:04.472)
So…

psychology, yes.

Aiste (02:11.958)
I love psychology. That would be, if something happened and I can’t do this job anymore, I would go back and get a PhD and have my own practice. It truly was a passion of mine and it is still, I think on a personal level, that’s where we start kind of digging, you know, and then you get fascinated with all the interesting theories and all the history and it’s just.

to me that’s a very interesting part. But you know how life is, doesn’t go as you plan it. I had kids, no time for PhD. How to focus on, mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (02:49.993)
What kind of work, the real, the real job. Well, what were you doing? What kind of work?

Aiste (02:56.238)
So I worked for a third party logistics company and it’s like, you you get placed into certain parts throughout your life to help you better in the future. So my eight years of experience at the third party logistics company, which is basically a logistics broker, transportation broker helped me, think.

in so many different ways in running a business because I did climb that corporate ladder. Like, you know, I call it, you know, from an entry level, a part time temp that was still in college to, you know, helping grow a new department as a director of logistic services. So the journey was very,

Very good. I’m very thankful for what I’ve learned there. The relationships that I built is, you know, the company actually is one of my largest clients currently. You know, it’s like they’ll never get rid of me. You know, it’s been now, I don’t know, 18 years that we know each other. So and it’s their top 20 broker in United States, a large company. So. I don’t remember where I was going with this, but it was.

Jason Elkins (04:00.775)
cool.

Jason Elkins (04:08.446)
you

Aiste (04:20.061)
an interesting journey, like I said, you know, and so I never use really my psychology degree directly, but I always joke that I am kind of a counselor for my clients, you know, traveling, keeping them calm and organized, listening to their, you know, anxious thoughts, talking them through the process.

Jason Elkins (04:36.307)
I, well that’s part of why I asked you why you chose psychology because it is such a natural fit for anything sales related probably, but especially I think definitely in tourism, like whether you’re leading a trip or dealing with somebody before they go on a trip or after the trip or even the vendors. mean, boy, that’s, we won’t even, we, that’s,

Aiste (04:43.581)
Right. Right.

Aiste (04:52.555)
Yeah, it’s people’s business, right? Right.

Aiste (05:01.301)
Yeah, it’s all relationships.

Jason Elkins (05:03.101)
That’s a conversation for all other podcasts is dealing with international vendors and the different cultural things and mindsets and just the way people do things. Yeah, we should come back and discuss that another time. So you said you were with the third party logistics company, which I honestly had no idea what you’re talking about. I was kind of guessing what maybe that was. And now I think I.

Aiste (05:06.462)
I’m

Aiste (05:10.636)
Yeah.

Aiste (05:20.301)
Mm-hmm.

Well, if you are a customer that needs to move a load of diapers from Pennsylvania to California and you don’t have your own trucks, you could call the trucking companies directly and try to choose the best and cheapest option, but then that would take forever. So you’ll call me and I have my contacts and get you a truck real quick for a good price.

Jason Elkins (05:29.897)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (05:39.091)
Yep, I got it.

Aiste (05:50.338)
That’s just a very basic explanation because we did trains, planes, mean, so many different things, you know. And it’s kind of what I do now as well, which is interesting. Yeah. You come to me, you want to go to Europe, you know, and then I have a pocket full of partners that I love to use. And I know that, you know, they’ll take really good care of my clients. And instead of doing your own research, you know, you’re utilizing my knowledge and my partnerships.

Jason Elkins (06:01.245)
Yeah, it is. You work with a bunch of vendors. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (06:17.811)
Right, right.

So that was your experience in the corporate world and you said it was your only real experience in the corporate world. So help our listeners kind of understand what happened, like where in that process did you decide, you know what, I think I’m more of an entrepreneurial type or I wanna do something different and how did you make it happen?

Aiste (06:24.919)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (06:42.093)
I think it was a perfect storm of a lot of things happening in my early 30s. I was going through a divorce with my children’s father, at the same time finishing an MBA, at the same time kind of reaching a ceiling in my career. And if I wanted to break that ceiling, would have been…

not what I wanted to do. It was like soul searching, middle life crisis, I guess. was pretty early in my life, you know? And you just, kids were little, you know, they were two and six years old. And I felt like I wasn’t there for them as much as I could because I was so devoted to my career and to the studies and like I said, some personal things going through.

Jason Elkins (07:12.391)
Yeah,

Jason Elkins (07:35.679)
Yeah.

Aiste (07:36.982)
It’s just all kind of broke down to do I want my life to look like this forever or, you know, how can I create something? Like I told you earlier, when I wake up in the morning, I’m thrilled to open my laptop. I’m actually really excited to see who emailed me and who wants to go where. So, you know, it took years to get here. You know, I’m talking about it like it was this, this, you know, easy road, but

figuring out what I want to do took me a year of just Googling, you know, we didn’t have AI then, chat GPT, all the helpers, modern helpers. I just really Googled my way into being a travel advisor. And like I said, took me about a year and I started this like a fun side project to kind of add something fun to do on weekends. And I did that for a year.

until it blew up to where I had to choose. Am I sticking with a safe job at the corporate or am I sticking with something very adventurous with unlimited opportunity and I get to control my life? It’s a huge risk.

Jason Elkins (08:51.199)
and some risk. Yeah, and some risk, but yeah. When you look back, imagine somebody in your same situation, which I know there’s so many variables, get that. I guess I should say, there moments since then when you look back and said, you know what, I wish I would have just jumped quicker and then I could have got my business up and running quicker? Or are you happy that you took the year to kind of…

get things built up to the point where it’s like, okay, now it’s a viable option.

Aiste (09:25.613)
Yeah, I’m happy with the process that I went through in terms of learning and experiencing my career, you know, at a corporate level and then taking my time because it was a huge change and I didn’t want to go to another, you know, get another job at a different third party logistics company. That wasn’t an issue. You know, the issue was I don’t want to be in a logistics industry.

I don’t want to work for someone else anymore. You know, I want to do my own thing. And like I said, that would bring so much value to my life, to where I enjoy my career until I’m physically unable to work, let’s say. And that was the big question for me. I really think I went through a midlife crisis. You know, it was like, how do I turn my life around to where I am fulfilled in my career and lifestyle, you know, which goes to love for travel. mean,

Jason Elkins (10:06.906)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (10:23.87)
I loved traveling forever. I don’t even remember since when. And people saw me as a travel expert without me owning a travel agency. know, people called me world traveler.

Jason Elkins (10:34.335)
I guess I should ask you, well, you know, I guess that begs the question, because we talked about your first time really traveling was to the US. You stayed in the US. You went to school. You started working for the logistic company. Were you able, and you had kids, were you able to travel during that time? Yeah, a lot of things were happening. But I hear you saying people were.

Aiste (10:55.306)
Lots, lots have happened.

Jason Elkins (11:00.804)
looking at you as the travel expert. So tell us a little bit about how you were able to to manage that.

Aiste (11:06.764)
Sure. So I think having family in Europe was, you know, kind of forcing me to go more than a normal parent with a two-year-old and a six-year-old. My kids have been on planes before they learned to speak pretty much, you know, because I wanted them to see, you know, family and visit other countries. And I think naturally it drew us, you know, to travel. And I traveled some for work as well, but mostly domestically.

Jason Elkins (11:12.338)
okay.

Jason Elkins (11:16.959)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (11:36.92)
but not many people go to Europe as often as I do. And I think that gave me that world traveler label, you know, because I’m often internationally, traveling internationally.

Jason Elkins (11:51.081)
When you, you mentioned going back visiting family, you wanted your kids to presumably see their grandparents, stuff like that. I guess I gotta ask, was your family kinda pissed off at you when you didn’t go back after your summer away? Yeah.

Aiste (12:05.322)
Yeah, hundred percent. Of course. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s still hard at times. You do question the decision, you know, especially when Lithuania is doing so well now, you know, it’s like, it’s hard. It’s hard to be away from family. Thankfully I have now built, you know, a life here with lots of friends, with my husband’s family that were very close. I have that support.

but I would give anything to just have this weekend together with my brother drinking beer on my deck. Casual, hey, stop by after work. We see each other a few times a year, which is still not bad, but it’s not the same. And that’s the probably biggest thing that I question, just being away from family in general.

Jason Elkins (12:41.331)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (12:50.451)
Yeah, that’s tough.

Jason Elkins (12:58.399)
You were talking about the kind of your age group, you know, like you were at the point where when you would be looking for work, there wasn’t any work and you left and you indicated that it sounded like a lot of people around your age range left. So I’m curious.

Aiste (13:13.286)
Mm Yeah.

Jason Elkins (13:17.417)
Do they talk about it in Lithuania, maybe other former Soviet Union bloc countries where there’s like a whole age group just missing, it sounds like. I can imagine it’s, yeah.

Aiste (13:26.994)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, truly. My generation, thankfully, a lot of that generation that didn’t move as far as I did came back. So we have a lot of people coming back, but I can’t imagine leaving my life here and moving back and starting again from zero. And, my kids are American. My husband is American. His family is here. It’s not fair to start demanding to live in Europe now, you know, when I…

Jason Elkins (13:37.074)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Jason Elkins (13:49.629)
Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aiste (13:56.129)
When we met, I’m an American citizen and I’ve been living here for many years.

Jason Elkins (13:58.202)
you

Well, I wasn’t suggesting you go back. was just trying to imagine what that what that does to a culture when there’s kind of a whole generation, you know, like you said, some go back. But like if in your is, you know, a person in your age group, if they chose to go back, if they were single, they didn’t have a family, they wanted a family. And this could have been at any point in the last 20 years. It’s like, well, geez, I would like to go back. Someone offered me a job there. I could go back. But if I go back.

Aiste (14:03.616)
No.

Aiste (14:20.491)
Ryan.

Jason Elkins (14:29.043)
There’s going to be very few people around my age there that are maybe, you know, for starting a family with or dating or whatever. So it’s just something I really hadn’t thought about before.

Aiste (14:32.457)
Bye.

Aiste (14:38.976)
Yeah, I don’t know the statistics. I don’t know if it’s that significant, but it was a more significant movement than normal, you know, in terms of immigration and things like that during that time.

Jason Elkins (14:50.185)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, yeah, it makes sense. So you started your business kind of as a part time thing. I’m guessing based on what you just said, I’m guessing it was not because you wanted to take free trips. You had other more important things going on. didn’t even know that. Yeah.

Aiste (15:06.42)
No, I actually didn’t believe they existed. thought people were, I’m like, why would someone give you a free trip? You know, and it truly doesn’t exist until you reach a certain level. You know, that’s when the partners are interested in bringing you over and showing their product, the destination. And that’s when you start getting those perks. So you actually have to produce quite a bit.

to start getting those perks. And if you’re not interested in working hard, you won’t get to that, you know.

Jason Elkins (15:39.143)
Yeah, I think maybe there’s this perception that, that’s just part of the training process. If I sign up and become a part of a network or join a team or whatever, that obviously they’re going to send me to all these places so can just see the people walking into it thinking, well, if you want me to sell it, I need to go experience it. Well, yeah, but if you’ve never been on the partner side of it where they’ve got, you know,

Aiste (15:46.188)
Mm-mm.

Aiste (15:56.178)
Right, of course.

Jason Elkins (16:05.951)
40, 50 people a month that are saying, I’m a travel agent. Here’s my email address is marytravels at gmail.com. Can you please, and I need to bring my family, of course, because I want to see how you guys handle family. I’ve been on the supplier side of it as well, so I understand.

Aiste (16:10.484)
Right, right.

Aiste (16:14.951)
Exactly.

Aiste (16:24.043)
Yeah, I hear funny stories. I have some suppliers that were very close and I’m just like, my gosh, I can’t believe these things happen, but they do.

Jason Elkins (16:28.863)
you

Well, and now we’ve got the influencer generation. I don’t know if it’s right to say the influence. We’re in an age of the influencer. And there’s kind of the same thing there. It’s like, I’m an influencer, so you should let me come stay at your resort, your hotel, take me on a tour. And it’s kind of interesting to watch the landscape around that. But yeah, but.

Aiste (16:53.151)
Yeah. And you know, as travel advisors, I was talking to one of the suppliers at some point, you know, we are influencers as well. I mean, we have social media and as you know, a serious influencer with an insane amount of following. I mean, it’s advertising and I actually see a lot of opportunities. I’ll never be that type of influencer. You know, I’m just influencing through my work.

Jason Elkins (17:01.395)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (17:20.959)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (17:21.289)
But it’s like at any job, know, there are many, influencers, but if you have 500 followers, no one is going to give you this free villa stay, you know, for the night. So it’s same here. If your sales are non-existent, you know, you’re not a travel advisor.

Jason Elkins (17:35.739)
It’s gotta be a win-win for both sides for sure. yeah, yeah, absolutely. So anything in particular that comes to mind when you kind of think about as you started your business, well, when did you meet your current husband? Is it okay to say current husband? don’t want to. Yes, that’s much better. Sorry, thank you.

Aiste (17:40.159)
Yeah.

Aiste (17:56.236)
Yes, of course. My forever husband, we met.

Jason Elkins (18:03.357)
That’s why I’m divorced twice. I’m not very savvy to how you refer to your spouse. I used to call my second ex-wife, I used to say, this is my second wife. And she’d look at me like, what the, what are you talking about? So anyway.

Aiste (18:07.657)
You keep calling them current.

Aiste (18:17.993)
Yeah, it can go definitely come out a wrong way and when you don’t mean it, you know, it’s just like, wow. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (18:19.007)
I never meant it that way. I just was trying to explain, you know, why I had two kids that were quite a few years apart. That’s all I was trying to do. But anyway, so you met him as you. OK, so while you were still working for the logistics company. OK. OK, well, we don’t want to go into all the details in the timing. I don’t need to know all that.

Aiste (18:30.443)
That’s funny. 10 years ago.

Aiste (18:38.507)
While I was going through my midlife crisis, I added a new relationship.

There wasn’t enough drama already.

Jason Elkins (18:48.799)
Be careful, he might listen to this. But anyway, okay. So what did he think when you’re like, yeah, I think I’m gonna transition into being a travel advisor and working in the travel business. I mean, maybe it was too early for him to have an opinion. But I’m just curious, how did that work out?

Aiste (18:54.492)
Right.

Aiste (19:07.883)
Bye.

So Adam has always been very supportive in anything I do and I’m very strong minded. I don’t know if I come off that way when I speak.

Jason Elkins (19:20.787)
We talked about boundaries earlier, so that’s usually an indication you’re strong-minded, yeah?

Aiste (19:23.185)
Right. So, you know, I do what I want in a good way. Like if I’m, if my, you know, eyes are set on opening and starting my own business, I’m pretty determined. Unless it’s negatively impacting, you know, family or lifestyle, something like that. But he’s always been very, very supportive. I think neither one of us knew what it’s going to look like.

Jason Elkins (19:41.801)
Yeah.

Aiste (19:49.42)
Like I said, at first it was more of a like side gig fun project to see if this is even the thing, you know? I really was just playing with an idea, like I said, for the first year or so. But I think he, you know, sees how happy I am with my lifestyle. He’s also…

Jason Elkins (19:54.527)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (20:13.747)
left a corporate job and has been working for himself for five years. So we both have been kind of running our own shows. I think we understand each other because our personalities and work needs are similar in terms of kind of that freedom to run our own projects and ideas and creativity, I think, is the biggest thing, just creating different possibilities for other people.

Jason Elkins (20:29.908)
Right.

Jason Elkins (20:42.077)
Yeah, and it’s good when you have that kind of similar mindset. If you’ve got one person that’s really all about the perceived, I’m gonna emphasize the word perceived security of working for a company.

Aiste (20:46.27)
Yeah.

Aiste (20:54.815)
Right.

Jason Elkins (20:55.377)
And then you’ve got somebody else that’s the entrepreneur type that’s like, I’m not going to, I don’t ever want to work for somebody else that can create some conflict. can. but I guess the other thing I got to ask is, does he like to travel? Is he, is he traveling with you? Is he excited? Did he ever say when you started dabbling with this, did he ever look at you and say, do we get free trips? Cause that’s what I would ask if I met someone that was, but anyway,

Aiste (21:03.882)
Right.

Aiste (21:15.977)
No, he didn’t.

He did not. That’s funny. No, he did not. It’s funny because when we met, he’s only been to Mexico and we were in our early thirties. So he did not travel much and he didn’t even have a passport because when he went to Mexico, they didn’t need passports apparently. So when we started to travel together,

Jason Elkins (21:41.609)
Yep.

Aiste (21:48.157)
And actually, that’s a really big thing for a couple. I recommend doing that before you decide to get married and go places together.

Jason Elkins (21:55.099)
especially if you like to travel. If neither one of you has it, but even then you still can learn a lot, right?

Aiste (21:58.461)
Right, yes.

Aiste (22:02.62)
Right, right. So thankfully we travel really well together and he loves the type of travel, you know, that experiential type of travel that I appreciate. And we both are foodies and we love history and culture and interacting with the locals and doing different things. He does not want to travel as much as I do, which I totally understand. would not, you know, it’s not like normalcy.

Jason Elkins (22:29.959)
not normal. It’s, it’s not you’re not you’re not normal is what I hear you saying. Yeah, I get it.

Aiste (22:31.216)
Yeah, how much I travel. I am not normal. He’s also traveling more than a normal person, but I’m the next level. So I bring him on fun trips. I let him choose. I’ll, you know, tell him about a trip. And obviously some trips I can’t bring anyone is for, you know, advisors only. But I know he loves like the,

Jason Elkins (22:50.355)
Yeah, yeah.

Aiste (22:58.524)
Asia, in the Southeast Asia very much. if anything pops up there, we’re definitely going. He likes certain types of cruising, like the more culturally focused, quieter ships, premium luxury type of service levels, more immersive into the destination, know, overnight stays and things like that. So I know what he likes and enjoys, and that’s what I offer for him.

Jason Elkins (23:27.603)
I sense, well, you started the conversation, but you recently said, suggested to couples that you go travel together before you.

decisions and then I hear you a little bit later well I know what you like so I pick and choose like I don’t want him along on some of these trips is what I heard you saying yeah

Aiste (23:49.183)
Well, and you’ll learn, you’ll learn through travel, you know, and I think it’s important to communicate. I don’t expect him to like everything I like, you know, but I think it’s healthy to communicate. You know, I don’t want to be on a trip where we’re up from 6 a.m. and going like, you know, from point to point until 11 p.m. Like that’s not enjoyable to him, you know, and that’s And thankfully we match on many different types of travel.

And that’s where we choose to travel together. And then some other trips just won’t work for him.

Jason Elkins (24:23.517)
I do have some experience with that with traveling while I was more or less working, you know, because you are. And maybe your partner is they kind of need, I guess, to understand that. But I guess the question is like.

Aiste (24:30.506)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (24:38.265)
Is that an issue when you’re there to work? You need to go see these things. You can’t just say, you know, I don’t think I’m going to take the afternoon off and skip the culinary tour of Venice or whatever, because that’s all been set up for you, that type of thing. And it can, I think sometimes it can make it not so much fun for a partner that just expects, they’re thinking we’re on vacation, you know?

Aiste (24:47.988)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Aiste (24:57.434)
yeah, and those are the trips. Exactly. Those are the trips where I mean, that’s an immediate, I won’t even invite, you know, I’ll tell him I’m going there and whatever, but it’s an intense itinerary gear towards advisors. And, you know, it’s just not fair to you because I won’t be available or I have to do these certain things and it’s too much for you. And he’s completely fine with that.

Jason Elkins (25:26.813)
And there’s also the kind of the scenario where like I, we had a young child when I was married and I was traveling a lot. So she wasn’t really able to go with me anyway, but it was what I remember is I would go, maybe I go to New Zealand for three weeks and I am working or I’m leading, I’m leading a trip to Brazil or I’m doing whatever. And you get very little sympathy from your partner when you get home and it’s like, you know,

Aiste (25:44.243)
Right.

Aiste (25:54.408)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (25:56.233)
you get home and they’re like, okay, I’ve been stressed out managing everything with the kid, the dog, the cat, and she’s working. And, thank goodness you’re home and here, you you take over all this stuff. I need some time off. And I’m like, I’ve been working my butt off. And she’s like, yeah, right. Uh-huh, sure. And yeah, yeah. And it’s just, I never got any sympathy. If I said, man, I’m working long hours on this trip, I never got any sympathy. I don’t know why.

Aiste (26:11.59)
like the time zones.

Aiste (26:22.834)
I think people don’t realize that naturally travel is fun, But when we go on like even fans, you know, for agent, for advisors to get familiar with a destination or a certain product, there is no mercy on these trips. You know, you fly for 12 hours, let’s say you land, your jet lag.

And you’re on, you’re going, here is a castle, here is dinner, now watch this dance. I mean, you’re barely functioning. Then, you know, you have the jet lag, like I said, and it is a marathon and many, most people don’t know that because they haven’t been on one. But if you talk to another advisor and it’s an immediate sympathy because you’re just like, yeah, these are no joke, you know, and especially if it’s free, they’re going to pack, you know, as much as they can to,

Jason Elkins (26:46.941)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (27:03.93)
I get it.

Jason Elkins (27:08.767)
Yeah.

Aiste (27:13.598)
help you see things and when you sign up, you have to be ready for that. And I would never ever invite my husband on anything like that. I think most normal people will never enjoy that. It’s very intense.

Jason Elkins (27:23.839)
They wouldn’t and because you’re literally on all the time, you’re not just trying to make sure you get on the bus at the right time or meet the transfer driver or whatever. It’s every single person you meet, whether it’s another advisor or whether it’s a transfer driver, a guide, a hotel manager, everybody you meet.

Aiste (27:37.116)
Right. Yeah, the social aspect too.

Aiste (27:48.873)
Right.

Jason Elkins (27:52.447)
You gotta have your game face on. You know, cause they are accommodating you. You don’t want your transfer driver going back, yeah, that one over there, she’s a real pain in the butt. then, you know, cause it’s such a thing. if there’s, of course we discussed earlier, if you’ve got clients there, you know, it’s your constant, you know, I don’t wanna say performing, but it kinda, yeah.

Aiste (28:03.953)
Right. Right. Right.

Aiste (28:16.413)
yeah, and then you get to your room. Yeah, you’re on your A game and you have to be and, but then you go to your room. When everyone goes to sleep, you have emails waiting for you and you know, clients and yeah, so those are tough. And, and it really, truly no one realizes how hard it is until they, know, it looks fun on social media. here I am on a great wall. here I am eating noodles, you know, and of course it’s fun, but it’s hard.

Jason Elkins (28:42.131)
Well, isn’t that the interesting thing too, because we do post photos of being on the Great Wall eating noodles because we do want people to perceive as look at all these fun, cool places I can help you go. It’s cool.

Aiste (28:49.117)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (28:56.541)
Well, and they are fun because you’re not going to do it at that level of, at that pace. You know, my clients will never travel at that pace. What I do in eight days, they would do in like 17 days. So it is fun at a normal pace, leisurely, you know, vacation type of pace.

Jason Elkins (29:03.507)
Yeah.

Right, you…

Yep.

Right.

Jason Elkins (29:17.983)
Cause you might, yeah, cause like you said, you might do 30 different events, visit, you know, 15 different hotels, do all this stuff. So just so that you can help them pick maybe four of those things out of the 30 that you, but anyway, yeah. People that are advisors that worked in the business are probably resonating with horse and everybody else like, wow. And for you, I’m so sorry for you. And I, and I get that. I get that. It’s, is a great job. It’s, it is very, it’s.

Aiste (29:26.075)
Exactly.

Aiste (29:30.663)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (29:41.266)
Right, right.

Aiste (29:47.081)
course.

Jason Elkins (29:47.601)
It’s it is better than sitting on a factory line somewhere if unless that’s what you like. I mean, yeah, so there’s benefits, but all right.

Aiste (29:54.696)
Right. It’s very fulfilling. And I think that’s the key, you know, and that’s what I was joking about my midlife crisis. I think it was just, how do I live a fulfilling life? And if, you know, it’s a job at a corporate for someone that’s awesome, for me, it was something different and I had to figure it out.

Jason Elkins (30:15.807)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh, we’ve we’ve been chatting for a while. And I want to be respectful of your time. And I also want to make sure we didn’t miss anything. So tell me what what do you wish I would have asked you? What do you feel like? I forgot to ask you or just in general, what do you want to share with our audience before we wrap up?

Aiste (30:35.881)
Sure. You know, it’s hard, especially when the conversation flows easily like it is for us. We could probably record three more hours because life is interesting and colorful and you have, you know, so many things happen and so many people in your life. You know, we barely touched my husband, know, barely touched my kids and all the personal stuff. Of course, you know, the podcast is about the travel industry and

Jason Elkins (30:42.737)
Nice. I agree.

Aiste (31:03.987)
how we truly change or impact lives through travel.

Jason Elkins (31:06.717)
Well, yes, but it’s, but it, this is also about you. That’s why we’re here because.

Aiste (31:11.27)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (31:12.095)
I mean, and I’m serious. It’s really I want to hear your story because I’m fascinated. That’s there’s a reason I ask like, does your husband like to travel? Like, how did you meet him? Were you already in travel? Because it’s these personal connections. It’s not just the connections with our clients. It’s not just the connections with our vendors. It’s just like people that do this are just always interesting. And it’s you know, and I tell many people it’s like we’re just sitting around at a table at a lodge or on a luxury small ship cruise or something.

Aiste (31:14.845)
Yeah.

Aiste (31:21.011)
Ryan.

Jason Elkins (31:42.049)
and it’s just the questions like how’d you get in this you know so yeah so so what do you what do you what do want to share yeah tell us about your kids do they like traveling

Aiste (31:45.587)
Right, yeah.

Aiste (31:51.502)
yes, they love traveling and they like that. That’s like, call that experiential travel to experience things. They get really bored at the beach. and it’s, know, I’m not against, Island travel, Island life. there’s a way to set it up and actually can quickly bring an example. I had a couple, in January celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and.

They wanted an authentic experience in the Caribbean. And when you think about the Caribbean, you’re thinking all inclusive, loud music, drunk people at the pool, know, loud water parks. Just like people talk about cruises, again, mega ships, know, casinos, shows, it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to go on a large scale. so…

Dominica was the island we looked at. One of my favorites actually, it’s like a Hawaii in the Caribbean. I don’t know if you’ve ever been, it’s just the most beautiful, untouched. Yes, not Dominican Republic, Dominica. Exactly, yes. And my accent might butcher the correct pronunciation. But the resort they stayed at was…

Jason Elkins (32:58.121)
So it’s Dominique? Not to be confused with Dominican rule. Yeah, I just wanted to, I kind of knew that, I…

No, no, I gotcha.

Aiste (33:16.617)
this eco luxury set up with serenity, jungle sounds every morning, your private pool, the hiking and the hot springs and just like this pure joy that you don’t think exists this close to home. So I think finding unique spots, not kind of just generalizing.

just like, Europe is so busy, you know, or everyone is mean in Lithuania, you know, or because you don’t smile. Just, you know, you don’t generalize, you should stay away from generalizing things. And I think, so with my kids, we go to places like this. And when I say they’re bored at the beach, we have a beach here 30 minutes away from home. We’re very lucky.

We just like to experience things through travel. So our days are not packed, but they’re eventful. You know, we’ll have things happening each day. There’s a routine, we go out, we see things, we learn things, we try things. You know, we interact with the locals. And when my son was 10, turned 10, I asked him, you know, let’s do a big trip for your birthday. Would you like to go to Disney or would you like to go to Germany for Christmas markets?

and my family will meet us, know, choose one. And he chose Germany. And I was just like, yes, you know.

Jason Elkins (34:41.247)
That’s the goal.

Why do you like, I’ll tell you though, there’s probably a lot of 10 years, 10 year olds out there that have been to Cancun six times or Hawaii three times and nothing against a certain Cancun or Hawaii. But I’m just trying to set the stage like the resort beach hotels and they’ve gone, you know, once or twice a year their whole life. And that’s just what they grew up with. And if you ask them where you want to go next time and they may say they want to go to Florida, I don’t know the keys or whatever, but your kids are different.

Aiste (34:58.161)
right of course.

Jason Elkins (35:15.175)
So do you think it, what’s the key? Like what did you do right? Or was it just, you just think it’s genetic? What do you think the difference is why your kids are different than other kids and you’re different than other people. So I, maybe that’s it. What do you think?

Aiste (35:26.952)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (35:31.005)
I think a lot of it is a lifestyle as well. Like, you know, things you do on weekends, like I said, we were being tourists in our own country with not much to tour at the time, you know, when I was a kid, but the mindset is you’re going to explore on weekends, you know, or you’re exploring during your vacation, you know? And I think through that mindset, you then crave it when you’re traveling. What are we going to do today? What are we going to see today? You know?

Of course, working and relaxation, few relaxing days, and we do this very often, I’ll have, and I don’t wanna keep bringing up Italy, but we’ll have an intense week of doing things and then four days on a multi-coast relaxing, eating, reading. I think it’s important to bring that balance to travel and not to…

proud your itinerary like what we do for work because it’s not enjoyable for a vacation. So I think when we raise our kids, we just have to ask ourselves, do we want them to be curious? Do we want them to see different contrast in cultures? Other cultures live very differently and it brings a different perspective. And especially when you go into teenage years and

Seeing certain things, I think it’s impactful, you know, and how you appreciate your own life and things that you want to do in the future. So I really think it’s a lifestyle choice. And some families are, you know, like you said, we’re all are different and others maybe are not interested in leaving the States or leaving the Caribbean region. And this is just a different type of traveler.

Jason Elkins (37:16.187)
And I joked about genetics. don’t think it’s genetic, but I think you’re right. think in the sense that if you’re sitting, if you, you know, a kid sitting around and mom or dad is talking about, can’t wait to go to the Bahamas or, I wish that we could, you know, go to Disney or if that’s what they’re hearing all the time, that’s what they aspire to.

Aiste (37:42.749)
right.

Jason Elkins (37:42.879)
If they’ve got a mom like you that just got back from Vietnam or China or wherever and is saying, I’m really excited about this or that. And they just, they just kind of pick up on it, but it’s not just travel. It’s everything in life. It’s how do we, how do we approach other people? You know, strangers, family, friends, how do we talk to each other? What, how do we behave? And, it just kind of makes sense. So it just, it just sounds like just be a, be a role model, right? If you want, you know,

Aiste (37:47.943)
right.

Aiste (37:54.353)
Right, yeah.

Of course.

Jason Elkins (38:12.904)
I don’t know.

Aiste (38:13.21)
Yes, you know, and there is some genetics. I’m, you know, I’m not a not an expert in that. I’m sure, you know, it’s still you have the genes in there. But overall, I mean, I’ve always taught my kids to also be brave and be bold, you know. And I think when you travel the world, you definitely become braver, you know, each time you leave the country and put yourself out of your comfort zone and figure things out and.

Jason Elkins (38:41.535)
Yep. Well, their mom moved from Eastern Europe to the United States and in a new culture and they weren’t there to see it at the time. But I think those things are powerful messages. And I’m not saying everybody needs to do that. You know, I maybe, you know, if situations were different, you wouldn’t have wanted to do that. But I’ve noticed I lived in Arizona for quite a while. There’s in my.

Aiste (38:42.266)
approach other cultures.

Aiste (38:59.079)
Right.

Jason Elkins (39:09.075)
I’m nothing bad about Arizona. But what I will say about Arizona is most people there didn’t grow up there. They weren’t born there. So you get a lot of people that move in. And one thing I noticed about Arizona and all contrasts with Vermont here in a minute. But in Arizona, most of the people moved there. They made a big move. They left their family. They grew up for generations in West Virginia or New York or something like that. They moved to Arizona. So what I just noticed was the people in Arizona are actually super friendly.

Aiste (39:15.964)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (39:37.607)
generally more curious. There’s just something about somebody that can pick up and leave their home. And it just brings a different energy, different interaction. Whereas like when I lived in Vermont, beautiful place, very beautiful place. But 90 90 % of people live in live in Vermont, or at least the area I was in Vermont, where you know, eight or nine generations in great people, great people.

Aiste (39:43.719)
Right.

Aiste (39:50.92)
Mm-hmm.

Aiste (40:00.54)
Right.

Jason Elkins (40:02.813)
but not super into adventure or curiosity or travel. You know, a lot of them had never left Vermont and it’s well, their parents never left Vermont and their parents never left Vermont. yeah.

Aiste (40:05.532)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Aiste (40:13.416)
Right. Well, and it’s exposure. Yes. And like, you know, I said that lifestyle, it’s exposure. And when kids are on the plane, when they’re three years old and on, you’re exposed to these things and it becomes normal to leave, you know, to go places. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (40:26.559)
It’s just, yeah, yeah, yep. Very, very cool. Anything else we should touch on?

Aiste (40:35.128)
Hi, think, thank you for providing the space for everyone to share their story. I love what you’re doing. You’re very, you know, fun to talk to. And like I said, I could probably speak for two more hours here, but I think, you know, the message may be to leave. And I say this to everyone, just being brave and going after things that you want in life, because, you know, life is gonna end. It is short and

Jason Elkins (40:41.983)
Thank you.

Aiste (41:05.07)
every day should be exciting if possible if we have the opportunities and in the states we do have that opportunity and you know to create the life that is great.

Jason Elkins (41:18.079)
Very inspiring and thank you so much for sharing so much of your story and so much time with us and your kind words and no, that’s why we’re still talking. I’m sure some of our regulars and listeners will be like, oh, this is kind of a long episode. But I guarantee that it’s just a fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for doing it and we’ll come back and do another couple hours at another time we can discuss, because I know there’s more in there.

Aiste (41:22.278)
Yeah, I hope you find it interesting.

Aiste (41:28.232)
Hahaha.

Aiste (41:36.273)
It’s fun.

Aiste (41:40.178)
Thank you.

Aiste (41:44.872)
Sounds great. I hope we meet in person one day. I’ll have to fly to Colombia for a beer with you.

Jason Elkins (41:47.465)
Yeah.

Let’s well, I do spend a lot of time here, but I’m but I travel quite a bit as well. So we’ll just have to align our schedules and and and meet somewhere. So absolutely. So I still thank you so much. Appreciate you for for joining us and we’ll chat with you soon. All right. All right. Thanks. Bye bye.

Aiste (42:00.316)
Destinations. Sounds good.

Aiste (42:07.378)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Jason.