Join Travel Curator Jesse Terranova on this week's Quest for New Inspiration Podcast episode. We discuss some of his favorite travel stories, the pitfall of comparison, and more!
Jesse is a widely recognized travel curator who has visited nearly 40 countries throughout 5 continents. With almost a decade of experience in professional services including consulting, one-on-one coaching and design in travel and tourism, he is dedicated in his service and passionate in his contribution. Jesse has completed three Ironman triathlons, multiple marathons and has developed a well-respected reputation as a resilient and compassionate leader. He is intentional in his belief that travel can be an expansive experience providing inspiration for your outer journey with a renewed perspective for your inner journey.
Jesse has significant results guiding groups through his unique and captivating experiences around the globe. He intentionally selects like-minded and value-minded individuals to join his epic adventures, creating an intimate and unforgettable experience for everyone.
Guest Links:
Transcript: (Autogenerated)
[00:00:00]
hello, and welcome to another episode of the quest for new inspiration. My name is KT Maschler and as always, I am sitting down with an inspirational guest and I am so excited to share with you, Jesse Terranova, Nova. He is a big travel enthusiast and just an all out inspiring guy And I hope he inspires you as much as he's inspired me.
KT Maschler: If you just want to get started, but telling me who you are, what you do, you're kind of a whole enchilada, as I like to say.
Jesse T: And we'll go from there. I'm more of a burrito. Uh, good stuff packed in there. Hard and hard to break in. No. So my name is Jesse Teranova and so originally I'm from New Jersey and I've actually [00:01:00] just moved to Portugal, like three weeks almost coming on a month now. it's been a really, really large transition in my life.
And just adjusting to it kind of navigating through the new terrain, like building community. And this isn't my first rodeo. I've lived in different places over the last three to five years. So it's definitely helped me. Emotional intelligence, just building my mindset, discipline and knowing there's going to be some obstacles along the way.
There's going to be some hard days going to be some easy days, but for the most part, it's pretty challenging at the beginning. And so the last couple of years have been tricky because I work in the hospitality space and travel and tourism. And as you know it's kind of been tricky for people who work in that space the last two years, for
KT Maschler: sure.
Thanks. COVID
Jesse T: well, I mean, there's positives to everything. I think I'm more of like a optimist and so I try and find the, the good things in life. And so I saw your questions cause you were communicating through Instagram. And then it's kind of wild, but a [00:02:00] couple of days ago, this was Monday night. I went to sign in and Instagram deactivated, my Instagram which I was like, that's like for no reason at all.
And I was just like, it just got a message, like your account has been deactivated. And I was like, that's odd. So obviously, like I went through the whole like system of just like putting in like an inquiry and trying to see if I can get it back. But, um, like at first I was like, well, that sucks. And then I thought about it and I was like, well, it's happening.
For me, not to me, like there's a reason this happened. And it's not the end of the world. Like I I've spent probably like seven, eight years, like putting together content, building a brand, I'm using it to drive traffic to my website and my business. And now it's all gone. Which, like I said, kind of sucks, but.
I have no problem building it from scratch again. You know, it is what it is. So things like this happen, but you know, what are you going to do?
KT Maschler: Yeah. Okay. So like let's dial back a little bit. What led to moving to Portugal before.
Jesse T: So I've always wanted to [00:03:00] live in. So I guess I've lived in many different places and so I've kind of been looking to grow roots somewhere and that's always been my intention in mind, moves by.
I just haven't made the right move, I suppose. And so I did like loads of research on places that ex-pats typically live like from America. And Mexico has always, you know, topical list Canada. And then obviously you have like interesting places like South Korea that make that list. Spain, uh, certain, certain places in the Norwegian countries, but Portugal was like always the top of the list for some random reason.
At the time I, I thought it was random. And then I've actually been here about three or four times in the past and absolutely love this country. It's so diverse. It's unique. Um, you have mountains. Islands, you have the beaches lesbians. One of my favorite European cities people are so welcoming and inviting.
So through my business, um, they have a really, really great program it's called, um, you know, a lot of people come here. It's called the golden visa. If you invest a lot of money in Portugal, you're able to acquire it [00:04:00] and. I went through something called the D seven visa. And so you just have to show business revenue, I'm filling a little bit of paperwork and typically you're approved you know, coming from America.
So I figured I'd go for it in five years. If I stay all the automatic, permanent citizenship in Portugal, and then I can live anywhere in the EU. My kids one day can live anywhere EU or the U S they have the option. so yeah, thought that would be. Just a cool journey for me to, to, to embark on, you know,
KT Maschler: that's awesome.
So you explained a little bit about your business, but do you want to kind of elaborate on what exactly it is you do and what your brand is?
Jesse T: Of course. Um, so I work as a childhood adviser and most of the luxury space. So I put together, um, unique and personalized experiences. It was originally for pretty much.
Like it was group travel. It was multi-gen trips. It was corporate travel. [00:05:00] Um, and couple of struggle. And then I decided the last few years just to focus on couples. And so it's, um, romantic, romantic getaways, honeymoons, milestone trips, things like this. And all over the globe. And so I have like a unique spin on it, where I, um, try and incorporate mindfulness and meaningful travel.
And then for me, I struggled this myself is like, I would go on all these extraordinary experiences. I've been over 35 countries and I love the travel and I come home and I'd like have difficulty to like, the word that I use is integrating it back into my life. Like, what do I do now? Like I just had experience of a lifetime.
What's next? And so. I put together a course. I'm thinking about putting an ebook together at some point as well of integrating what you learned into while traveling into your everyday life. And so. What I mean by that is I feel like people are more inclined to take risks. You know, get outside their comfort zones, do things.
They normally wouldn't do be more [00:06:00] adventurous, try new things while they're traveling, and then they come home and they kind of forget that that appetite that they had or that lesson they learned or the experience they had, it just kind of goes in like some memory bank that I guess comes back when they travel again.
And so my goal is I love personal development, and so I want to kind of. Integrate that back into your life to kind of help improve your life and show you that you can use that like new found knowledge in in your everyday life and in more practical situations.
KT Maschler: Yes, that is amazing. I that's one of the reasons I was so excited to.
Uh, one of the reasons I was so excited to talk to you is because I've had travel, just kind of embedded in my life. Uh, my family has owned a travel agency and my grandfather who lived to 98 years old and still traveled until the day he died, always preached, preached, preached. Always take the time to smell the roses.
And even though he gets to go see all these [00:07:00] like magical sites and he always brought back the lessons and memories and like really took advantage of being in bald, like being involved in somebody else's culture and soaking all that, like goodness in. So yeah, I really love that. That was so exciting to reach out to.
Jesse T: From what I read your grandfather was instrumental in like sparking this greatness in you. Um, and so that's really cool. Do you mind, I'm so curious. So was that when you were a lot younger or just through the years, or was there a certain point, you remember when you were. I'm going to have a podcast or build a business or, you know, go on my own.
Um, well,
KT Maschler: um, he kinda had like, um, just like a whole business mentality and just like being a businessman. And so, and then my mom has the same thing and so it was just kind of rooted in their life. Um, I don't know, I guess it was just kind of ingrained in my everyday [00:08:00] life. Just something I always wanted to do.
He always like pushed me to explore every opportunity. Um, When I got my first job, I was so excited to call and tell him, my first job was actually at a bank and he actually worked at a bank until he retired. So getting to tell him that I, he was so, so excited. And, but yeah, just that mentality was just kind of ingrained into.
Family, but, um, just also that hard work, but making sure that you take the time to spend time with your family and like grow that relationship as well is just those two things. So then, yeah, when I, I guess when I took the chance and starting a podcast, he was just the biggest inspiration in all factors of my life.
So I kind of just pivoted around him.
Jesse T: That's amazing. Yeah, he's got some good core values. They're family and positive optimistic mindset. And I mean, I'm [00:09:00] so close with my family as well, so I can definitely relate. Uh it's it's kind of all we have now, if you look, if you think about it,
KT Maschler: I know I miss him a lot, but he lived a great 98 years and I w it was a process.
So yeah, I hope I get the chance to even live up to that. And. The marriage that him and my grandmother had was just beautiful. So that was amazing. He amazing, man.
Jesse T: That's great.
KT Maschler: All right. So with all that, like travel and everything there, obviously, I guess you mentioned it earlier, when you get back, it's kind of a hard to enter.
Great. Back into normal reality. Is there kind of something that you. Do when you're kind of feeling down in the dumps or maybe you're not traveling at the moment, so everything's not so exciting or something like that.
Jesse T: Yeah. I mean, it kind of goes into your mindset, uh, for me at [00:10:00] least. And so kind of putting things into perspective and, and um, some of that I do, and I highly recommend, I know like, A lot of women already took up this practice.
And I know it's becoming more popular amongst men, but is journaling. And so I think it helps significantly. It's advantageous in many ways to just kind of get all your thoughts out on paper and it doesn't need to be like handwritten. You can type it up or write it in your notes. But I think in times of confusion and overwhelm.
Our mind can take over and thoughts can start out as like little seeds and then grow to these like giant problems. And so just getting it out there is always helpful. Um, I was, I have a big community of friends and so. You know, I also, yeah, it's a community, but also call it a support system. And so I know the type of people that I can call.
And so some people may not have that. Um, but I'm very blessed in the fact that I have like reliable friends where, or even family I can call it when I'm like feeling a little off or [00:11:00] whatever, to kind of help get me back on track. You know, there's also certain things that work for other people. So it's hard for me to say, like do this and this'll work.
Um, but you know, there's, there's yoga, there's moving your body. There's so much science backed into a good diet. I guess someone's doing something for their house. Like so much science backed up to like really good nutrition, eating good and kind of making sure you're not overeating or having too much junk food or sugar or whatever. So that's helpful. But to tie it all back into the travel is, um, something that really helps me is I love taking photograph.
And so when I look back at the photos I've taken, it really helps me to put me back in the moment and that place that I was, um, to maybe like, get a spark of like, oh, you know, this is how I felt. Or you know, this is, this is an experience that I had that really, I hold close to my heart, but again, it's.
It's kind of looking at your travel experiences and then [00:12:00] being able to say, you know, what did I overcome during this trip? Or what did I learn from this trip and how can I implement it into my everyday life? And it depends on your certain situation, right. But there's a lot that goes into it. And, uh, to give you the short answer, it's just, um, it's going to be unique to you, to the individual,
KT Maschler: on the journaling note, I actually sent them a podcast or I just do audio recordings, which is hopefully no one ever finds those. But I mean, same with the journal. Um, anyways, um, so we talked about my grandfather earlier, uh, who inspires me, who would be somebody that inspires you, whether that be like family or just somebody that their travel journeys inspire you.
Jesse T: Um, in life specifically, like my role model in my hair has always been my dad. Um, just how he like handles situations, his outlook on life. It's like a super simplistic endowment earth person. [00:13:00] And so I've always looked up to him in that, in that manner. And like just how he approaches life is just really, it's just different from, from what I've seen in.
Other people, I suppose, uh, like a man of integrity, very honest, like his life by like a certain, like, just a certain way. So I definitely say he would be my role model in a lot of like values and habitual things in my life when it comes to travel. It's a great question. I I'd like to say that I inspire myself through my travel.
And so when I go to new places, Or new landscapes or just go out to me in nature. That's when I'm at my best and I received these like really incredible ideas and inspirations, and I surprise myself a lot at that time, too. And so in the most humble way, like having child to as many places, I have it like kind of, you know, early twenties, early twenties, I got the opportunity to do that.
And my late twenties now I'm just really blessed to have done that. I [00:14:00] met so many amazing people along the way, and it's kind of hard to put my finger on one or two of them, but yeah, you just introspective view to the amazing things you can do in each place. When you meet locals are amazing people from different parts of parts of the world.
And lastly I say will Smith, like I he's, he's like, it's incredible. Um, ever since fresh prince of Bel-Air, like I watched that he supposed to be up, I used to stay up till like three, four in the morning, like on my couch when I was like, probably in like middle school or high school watching, watching it.
I don't know exactly, you know, and yeah, like all his movies just like move me and like, and like, Uh, way that I'd not move at other actors. Like I have pursuit of happiness. Like I carry the actual movie. Like I don't, it's like the disc in there. It's obviously 2021 to 22 now. So like, no one watches, I turn, no one uses it anymore.
They just, whatever. But I have the disc and I just, I have his book. And [00:15:00] so it's just so inspiring and there's so many other movies that people don't really know about that he's in that. Unbelievable. Obviously him and him and his new, um, you know, in the new Disney plus, Nat geo show. I haven't gotten to watch that yet.
I'm half it's out. And so my friend just gave me his Disney plus username password. I don't have it. And I'm like, dude, thanks so much for coming to watch this. And like at the time, and I'm halfway through will and I, I love mark Manson. Like what an honor. It must've been for him. Get the okay. To write Wilson's autobiography.
Like that's talking about a career maker there. So yeah, he he's just so inspirational and I don't know his, his outlook on life, the questions that he asks, like, cause we all, like, we all ask questions, whether we know it or not to ourselves or others. And I was listening, I think it was Jim quick or it could have been, could have been someone else, but I think it was just a quick and he was talking to a little snip and.
Is that something he was asking, he was saying, what [00:16:00] question do you ask the most? Like, what is your question? Because like I said, we all, whether we know it or not, we have this internal question that we ask and Willis Miz question was, how do I add more? Wonder to my current situation? Not, not, how do I add, wonder how to add more wonder.
So in everything that he does. He's always adding this, like all inspiring wonder laughter like incredible moment experience situation. Like he's just so good at, as you could probably imagine this movies. Um, so that was like, whoa, that's that's his question. That's cool. Then I got a rose level.
KT Maschler: Wow. He's amazing.
He's one of my favorites for sure. Um, so this might be a little bit of a harder question. What is like, what is your favorite travel story so far? If you can just pick one out of, I'm sure you have thousands of thousands, but pick one of the top 10.
Jesse T: Yeah, that's a great question. [00:17:00] Um, so that it asks me what my favorite country I've been to us because I get way too often.
I'm like, I don't have to answer this. Probably Iceland. Um, it was, yeah, cause it was earlier, earlier. It was like, it was in 2016 or 2017. So I graduated in 2015 from college and. Lived in New York for a couple years. And when I was living there, I had met this, um, really beautiful Icelandic girl. And so we, you know, one of my, a couple of dates when we were in New York, when she was in New York.
And her up, she was an all pair there. So she went back to Iceland where visa was up and she was like, do you want to come back with me? Um, and I was like, just to come visit. And at the time I was working at PWC, it's the world's largest professional services firms. So I was like, oh, it should be much easier to kind of make that take the time off now.
Like it's not like a small startup. And it was, I was on a project at the time was quite hard to get off, but my manager at the time. It was really cool. And let me go. So I went to Iceland [00:18:00] for 10 days, met up with her and just had the most amazing experience. And that's kind of when I learned that you can go online and.
Research for like days and try and find like the best places to go. But unless you go or even meet with somebody that's even as for a couple hours or a day, it's for someone to show you like the authentic part of where they're from. Um, you'll never get that similar experience. So for 10 days we saw the Northern lights many times We snowmobiled on the second largest glacier in Europe, we went on these Mo some of the most incredible hikes through waterfalls.
Uh, we drove the entire islands. Iceland is called the land of fire and ice. So there's volcanoes there, as you probably know, on the past two years, there's maybe it was, I think it was last year or earlier this year, the volcano erupted there. and so it was just this like, cause I have such as, uh, I don't know, my mom said this growing up, so you'd have some just like this.
Is it zeal or Zelle? The CAS, I think a zeal for life. [00:19:00] It's like somewhere. I don't know. I think it's, you know, but it's like, it's this passion, it's this just this love. And she always sort of had it for life. And so that time I was like able to kind of like, demonstrate like my adventurous side and just kind of like going out randomly, like meet this girl and Yeah, it was just such an amazing experience, like way different than anything I had ever experienced before.
And so I got a lot of inspiration from that trip to, to kind of show myself what I'm capable of. Like, I am able to travel independently to anywhere. It was such a beautiful, beautiful country too. I highly recommend Iceland. No one's ever
KT Maschler: been. Yes. That is definitely on the top of my bucket list for sure.
Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time, but, um, do you have any like go-to mantras or kind of affirmations that you've gathered as you've traveled?
Jesse T: I tried earlier this year, um, during COVID I was living a board, a superyacht, so we were doing charters in the Caribbean. We took it from Florida to Italy for a Mediterranean [00:20:00] season. So I was like an 18 day crossing the Atlantic ocean. Um, so I spent a lot of time at sea and just a lot of like quiet.
Very quiet times on the sea, but it's very peaceful. It's very tranquil. Um, you kind of get to learn a lot about yourself and the people who are on the boat, the crew. And so I kind of did this challenge where I was quite busy running the charters, but I put a quote on my story for a hundred days straight.
Um, whether it be listening to a podcast, reading a book throughout the day, if I heard something, I love learning and growing and expanding. So I'm always trying to learn new things every day. And so whatever I learned, I just shared with my followers or whoever wanted to listen, you know? And so there are a few that always stick out to me.
Um, and I find myself like really utilizing pretty often to help me, help me kind of overcome something that I'm going through. And so the first one that comes to mind is. Comparison or comparing as a thief of joy. And it's so simple, but it's such a really profound quote [00:21:00] because you know, a lot of times you'll catch yourself, comparing your business to another person's business or yourself to another, to another person.
And it's just, it literally is the thief of joy and it's like, it's so profound. That's like, oh, I'm not going to do that because it's gonna take my joy away. So I don't do it as soon as I find, as soon as I see myself going down that road or that. B for joy. So that helps. I think it's mark Twain could be someone else because when you're going through these quotes and posting them, like, there's like five different authors or people who said, they said it.
So I don't know if mark Twain said this or not, but, um, you'll worry less. What people think when you realize how seldom they do So that's super powerful and it also goes hand-in-hand with, um, I think it's Don Miguel Ruiz, the four agreements, one of his agreements is don't take things personally. And so, you know, that chapter is really awesome, but just that one quote is like, whoa, like people actually aren't even that worried about my appearance or how I look or how I'm speaking.
Like it does these things, these, these minor details that we worry about [00:22:00] so much, they're really not that big of a deal. So that helps. I'm trying to give you one more, let me think. Yeah. I don't know. There's so many and I guess it depends on like what area of your life, you know, I think some of my truths probably, maybe doesn't have to be a quote per se, but some of my truths I'll give you some of those.
The first one that I always always try and hold close to me is never take yourself or life too seriously. I think it's so important because we can get so. Caught up in like the nitty gritty of life or work or our careers. And we forget to like have fun. And like, this is within reason, obviously, like don't go out and have fun, like 24 7, unless you're me, but I'm not kidding.
I'm kidding. Uh, I work, but, um, Yeah, I think that's an important one. And you know, there's always different values that people hold close to them, but I'd say that those are the ones that I try and focus on, at least in this chapter of my life that are kind of help me get through [00:23:00] without you.
KT Maschler: Oh yeah. I can relate to all those for sure.
Um, but one of my favorite quotes is um, Patients' perspective and hope. So, just like those are three things that I wanted really to take into college with me, just having the patience to deal with like all the different, like things that, you know, college life would throw at you.
And then just also have. The time to take a different perspective than most people would, or even just stepping away from your own perspective and seeing what other people would see and then just having help in all of those situations. So that's my little quick. But I loved you. I loved your last one. I was actually talking to my coworker yesterday.
He was telling me, um, I could hear him down the hall. He was like, yeah, I'm going hunting in a little bit. But, um, and I'm not coming back to work afterwards. And I was like, oh wow, that's impressive for him. Cause he's just working constantly. [00:24:00] And we work at a garden center. But and then he came in my office and he was like, well, you know, I was just like working all day.
And then like in the tree and his hunting tree, he was on his phone doing emails. And I was like, you know, it's okay to like, not be on your phone and you don't answer those emails. Once the sun goes down, put your phone away. Like it's, it's going to be okay. So yeah, just giving yourself that break and knowing when that's okay.
So I love that. Do you have any last piece of advice you want to share?
Jesse T: Yeah, I think it's interesting too, because like a lot of happens throughout each of our days. And. I just feel like there's just way too much fear. It's like a negative energy loop going on around us, in the world right now. And it's, it's quite sad.
And I know like it's only temporary and I mean, I know that I, I feel like the majority of the world right now, [00:25:00] can't zoom out and see that it's just temporary. Um, what's going on right now. And so, yeah, there's lots of fear. There's lots of worry. And. You know, it's, it's temporary. So that's number one is that this soon shall pass and we'll get, we'll get back on track.
And the second thing is you don't have to listen to all the annuities whether it be from like news channels or people in your life who are negative and affecting you, like you have the ability to change your circumstances. Like you have that ability you can, like, you can do that right now. If you want to, you just have to make a choice and a decision.
Um, I know it sounds drastic and tricky and hard and challenging, but it doesn't know that you have that opportunity. And so something that I've loved to do through the years to just inspire people, to show them what's possible. And just whatever, maybe like physically, like mentally You know, you, you can pretty much do whatever you want to do within reason.
If you put the time in and the effort and you have a dream and you [00:26:00] manifest it. And so, yeah, I think it's just sad when I see people who don't reach their full potential, because we all have like an untapped reservoir potential. Right. And we all have it in us and it's somewhere in there. But yeah, I haven't had the, my advice is to just, you know, if, if you can dream it up.
And you can probably make it happen too. It may take time. You know, some of the things you have to have patience and it's not going to happen overnight. Sometimes it may, but it takes time. And so just see that vision and, you know, don't give up on it. I know way too many people who, who tell me like, oh my God, I wish I have did that.
Like, you know, people who are now maybe in the forties or fifties who look back on their life, It's never too late. And, and there's so many things, you know, you can do, there's so many ways you can live life, you know? And, and so maybe ask the question, like, instead of like, what do I do for a living or am I happy?
Like, how do I want to live my life? Like that? Maybe be a good place to start. And, you know, from there, maybe you can make some changes, [00:27:00] positive changes that you wanna, that you wanna incorporate.
KT Maschler: Wow. You're just full of little golden nuggets. That was, that was awesome. Um, if, if people wanted to learn more about you or maybe try planning a trip or contact you, where would they go?
Jesse T: So the Instagram was always the go-to. Um, I spent a lot of time on that through the years to kind of build a community. And some credibility. And obviously I had mentioned earlier in the podcast, um, fingers crossed. I'm confident it'll it'll come back. I have no idea why it was deactivated. Um, I went on some YouTube videos and apparently it happens to a lot of people.
So that would be where you can find me if not they spoke would be good too as well. Um, I had everything linked to my Instagram on there, so trying to figure out how I'm gonna get that back to like some some links and websites and stuff, but. Facebook would be a good place to start and, um, yeah, LinkedIn.
Perfect.
KT Maschler: Yeah. Thank you so much. That was awesome.
Jesse T: My pleasure. It's good to connect with you.
[00:28:00] And that is it for this week's episode. Thank you guys so much for tuning in every single place truly does mean the world to me. If you guys love the podcast, make sure you let me know by sharing the podcast, leaving review or a five star rating on apple podcast or your favorite podcast player.
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