Exploring Midlife Reinvention through Global Travel

🌍 “Reinvent Your Life at 50+: Andrew Motiwalla’s Inspiring Story of Midlife Transformation” Welcome to Age of Reinvention, the podcast exploring stories of transformation, freedom, and purpose in midlife.

🔑 In today’s episode, host Emily Bron interviews Andrew Motiwalla, co-founder of The Good Life Abroad, an innovative travel and living initiative for North Americans aged 50+. Andrew’s reinvention journey—from the Peace Corps to entrepreneurship—is a masterclass in: Embracing change Building global communities Finding purpose through slow travel

🚶‍♂️ What you’ll learn:
✅ How Andrew leveraged travel experiences to redefine his lifestyle
✅ His unique community-focused travel model for seniors
✅ Lessons in finding clarity and courage during midlife crossroads Whether you’re looking to redefine your lifestyle or seek inspiration for global travel, this episode will empower you to explore bold new possibilities.

📥 Subscribe now for more midlife reinvention stories!

🎙️ Available on Spotify, YouTube, and your favorite podcast platforms.

TIMESTAMPS:
03:15 Andrew’s Early Life and Love for Travel
07:52 Career in Cross-Cultural Engagement
14:54 Founding the Good Life Abroad
18:46 Developing a Community-Centric Travel Program
27:18 Future Plans and Expansion
29:05 Seasonal Travel Destinations
30:19 Personal Reinvention Through Travel
33:45 Building Community with Good Life Abroad
38:59 Technology and Travel
41:34 Leadership Lessons for Midlife Professionals
46:22 Balancing Family and Personal Passions
50:33 Advice for Relocating Abroad
54:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Emily: Welcome to Age of Reinvention, the podcast where we explore the inspiring stories of those redefining freedom, lifestyle, and purpose in midlife.

 I’m your host, Emily Bron, and today, we have a special guest who exemplifies reinvention in every sense of the word. 

At 50, Andrew Motiwalla co-founded The Good Life Abroad, a venture that offers upscale living experiences for the 50-plus-year-old community in Europe, iconic cities, travelling and enjoying the life.

Andrew’s journey from his early days in the Peace Corps to establishing a transformative travel experiences for older adults is a testament to embracing new path and possibilities at midlife. Join us as Andrew shares his insights on creating meaningful global connections. Balancing comfort with adventure and finding purpose through slow travel.

Whether you want to reinvent your lifestyle or seek inspiration, this episode is for you. 

Hello, Andrew. I’m happy to welcome you to the Age of Reinvention Studio. 

Andrew: Hi Emily. Thank you so much for having me today. 

Emily: Yes I found you and I was excited to learn about your new business venture. I’m looking forward to learning more about you and your company.

But as far as I learned through the research I did about you, your love for travel began during college. And was ignited by your Peace Corps service in Honduras. Can you share more about this period of your life and how these experiences laid the foundation for your career travel and entrepreneurship?

Andrew: Yeah, that’s great. Thank you, Emily. It’s interesting because, as we previously discussed, my parents are immigrants to the United States, one from India and one from Peru. So, as a kid we traveled a lot to see family. So people often assume, oh, you must have gotten into travel ’cause your family. And the truth is no is the opposite.

When we were kids, we would have to go to these countries. My sister and I and we didn’t really speak the language and we didn’t know these people and it was just going from one family’s house to another family’s house. And back then, plane tickets were much more expensive, so you didn’t go for a short period of time.

You went for a long period of time. And me and my sister would say, oh, this is so uncomfortable. We just wanna be back in the United States. So travel it came much later. That love of travel, as you said in the university, when I took a semester to go study abroad, and I studied in South America and that was very transformative for me because I, first of all, I was on my own.

My parents weren’t with me. I was part of a university, so I had some support from the university. I lived with a local family, which was a great experience, but I, Ecuador is a small country. Every weekend, I was able to hop on a bus and go to the jungle. I could go to the mountains, I could go to the coast very easily.

And it was liberating to say I could just get on a bus and go places and discover things. And it was during this time when I really fell in love with the local culture, specifically the indigenous language. And I became very interested in anthropology and that sparked a passion in me, this idea of anthropology and a love for other cultures.

And so when I went back to the university, I was now on fire for anthropology and ended up studying that. And so I think the beauty of travel, it can often spark a new interest in you, and you learn something new about yourself or some kind of, whether you like languages or you like cooking, or you like arts and crafts.

These are all things you can do when you’re travelling. And for me, it was learning about cultures. And then I actually eventually went on to study the indigenous language of the Andes Quechua. And that then led me to the Peace Corps living in the mountains of Honduras. That was a two-year experience really living abroad for an extended period of time.

And that really solidified for me the love of exploring other cultures. And that became the start of my career.

Emily: I can share with you love for travel. It’s happened to me from childhood even initially it was in the borders of the former Soviet Union all my life I have dreamed of working somehow close to travel, but I couldn’t do it as a profession, as a business. I immigrated couple of times, but with every opportunity, I tried to travel, to go to check, and I like cultural immersion to understand what the actual history of the people was ticking these people. 

Like I’m not an anthropologist by education, but I fully share with you this interest and this flame to understand other people and how people are interacting with each other and are actually interested in certain culture. 

I was not so close to the native cultures as you like, I don’t know, other than Honduras, what people you were living with, but. Yes, coming from Europe and I lived in the Middle East, and I live in North America and I have a great interest in Latin America over my last, at least seven years in travelling to Latin America now.

It’s yes, it’s so interesting, but sorry, coming back to you working with diverse cultures. So you work with, as you mentioned, the Peace Corps and I still only approximately understand how you contributed to this work and how you work with such organizations as the African Leadership Group and Latin American Leadership Academy.

It demonstrates a deep commitment to cross-cultural engagement, but could you provide a bit more information about what it was specifically and what this academy or service entails? 

Andrew: Sure. So if you, I. Look, in my career, there are a lot of different things, but there’s a line that connects most of those things, right? Which is you’re saying this cross-cultural commitment, this desire to work with people from around the world.

So you’re picking up on that throughline and that is one of the skills I realized early in life, one of my first jobs after the Peace Corps. I was with an organization called Cross-Cultural Solutions, and my job was to go around the world and set up subsidiaries of this nonprofit in different countries.

And I was really good at it. And I didn’t know this about myself because when you’re a kid, you don’t think, oh, I’m going to do this job setting up subsidiaries. It’s you don’t even know that many jobs exist when you’re a child. And so I learned that I. Could connect with people who are from different cultural backgrounds.

And I could explain myself in a way that could motivate them to do this common objective. Whatever the task was in this one job, it was around setting up nonprofit subsidiaries. But later, as you pointed out in my career, I ended up working with the African Leadership Group, which is a really interesting.

Group, it’s actually a few different companies under one group. It’s the largest IT training program in Africa. And the reason I was so excited about working with them is when you look at all the countries in the world and all the continents most of them are aging and not having a lot of kids.

Europe has a declining population, Japan, the United States. Africa is a young nation or young continent. And in Africa, the average age is somewhere around 18 years old. It’s a young continent. And it’s growing, and it will become a really major force in the world as other parts of the world start to decline.

And the whole concept was with this huge population of young people. How do we empower them to become part of the global economy? How can they benefit? Now, the founder is a man from Ghana originally. Really inspiring guy and he’s vision was that he we’re gonna empower these young people to be part of the global economy or we’re gonna have chaos on our hands with billion people without jobs, in poverty, but there is raw talent there. These are the one thing he always said is that talent is distributed around the world, but opportunities are not so equally distributed. And so we created this. To train people in skills that are in demand and currently have a shortage in AI development, software engineering, data science, Salesforce.com administration, cybersecurity, and other related fields, we set up small campuses across various African cities and offer a very intensive training program.

It’s about a year long. To get them certified, they could then go on to obtain additional certifications. That was one arm of the business. The other arm then was how do we then place them to work with the global business community? And they, there is now a, an arm called Sam’s Technologies that uses a lot of this African talent.

Plus, they have European talent and American talent from all over the world. But they are using that now. Mostly work on AI projects for global clients. 

Emily: So are you continuing to work with this? 

Andrew: No, I so that was a great experience. I was working primarily for the African training education arm and but I was based in California.

I have two kids, so the time zone eventually made it such that I couldn’t go back and forth all the time, and I left. That was a crossroads in my life. Okay, now what am I gonna do? I’m 50 years old. And that kind of led me to start the Good Life abroad 

Emily: and a Latin American Leadership Academy. It was this approximately the same just for Latin America?

Andrew: Yeah it’s similar. I was not a direct employee, but I was a board member on the advisory board for them. They focus on less technical skills and more on leadership development in high-performing students from Latin America. The idea is that what Latin America needs are ethical, principled leaders.

So many countries suffer from corruption and no matter what you do more in foreign investment, more foreign aid, whatever it is, if you don’t have ethical principle leaders at the top, none of that’s gonna help. The countries will likely continue to face the same kinds of problems they have had in the past. So the Latin American Leadership Academy is to work with high achieving young leaders and doing leadership training to make them more effective leaders.

And also help them propel forward in their own careers 

Emily: So, what is this organization based on? 

Andrew: Yeah, so there’s a whole curriculum. I don’t wanna bore your listeners on this, but around things like conflict resolution, mediation vision setting creating consensus to mo motivate groups to get things accomplished as well as some general ethical moral principles basically about being part of something that’s much bigger than you. A lot of the corruption often stems from selfishness I can get into power to serve myself, but want to serve others and serve the community that you’re in, whether that’s at a city level or at a national level.

Truly creating this is a network of leaders who have gone through this program and are across Latin America. 

Emily: Thank you. Thank you very much. Now we get to the very interesting and turning point in your life as you started to share. At 50, you founded the Good Life abroad. Company focusing on upscale living experience for older adults.

I understand Americans, but North Americans mostly, correct?

Andrew: Primarily. 

Emily: What inspired you after your previous experience to create this program, and how does it cater specifically to the needs and interests of the 50-plus age group? 

Andrew: So what inspired me was very selfish. I’ll be honest with you, Emily, I was thinking I was 50.

I would like to retire by 60 and what would my retirement look like? And I live in San Diego, California, and I love California. I love the weather. I love my friends and family that are here. But I also know that I would like to spend a few months of the year in Europe, probably a couple of months of the year, maybe in Latin America, maybe also in Asia or Africa.

But I also want to have my home base here. And I started to think, ‘ Look, exploring options and things like timeshares or buying a property – a lot of people want to buy a place overseas. ‘ And I said no. I don’t want that responsibility. I don’t wanna own anything. I don’t want to have a timeshare.

I don’t wanna have to pay taxes on a property in a different country where I don’t necessarily, understand the regulations. I just wanna have an apartment where I always go to that I like. That’s, and have someone there to handle my things where I could just show up and start living on day one.

And I’d like to have it in many places so I can just jump in and. Get that going. And so then I, so that was my initial motivation. I’m selfish, I want to have something for myself in retirement, 

Emily: but it’s not selfish. Many of us are thinking about the same. And you did it. I was thinking about the same. I had this like idea dream.

So kudos to you because you did it not for yourself only, you did it for others. 

Andrew: Exactly. So what I did is, and I started doing some market research. I had this idea, but I did some market research and I just started by putting something on my Facebook and said, who has been interested in living abroad for just a few months of the year, not permanently being an expat necessarily?

And had hundreds of my friends, oh, I wanna do this. I wanna do this. So then I sent them privately, a link to a survey. I said, okay, you said you wanna do this. Why haven’t you done it? What is stopping you? And we got and then I found some other friends to share this with their groups. In the end, we had about 500 responses, and we look, we consolidated them and summarized them.

And really there’s some pain points people are worried about if I don’t speak the language what happens if I have a medical issue and as who’s there? If I’m by myself and I fall and I can’t get up, like nobody will know. You’ll find my body. While I get lonely and as someone myself who has lived abroad, I know that it can be lonely because.

Especially if you’re not there permanently. People say, oh, okay, this guy isn’t gonna be one of us. He’s just here for a few months. Do I wanna invest my time in building a friendship with this guy? Maybe, but it’s not gonna be the same things around if I just go and they live somewhere else, what if I pick the wrong neighbourhood?

What if the apartment I see on the Airbnb is not exactly like the photos? So, there are a lot of concerns. We thought, how do we solve these concerns for people to make it very easy and take a lot of the risk and worry away from that? And that’s when we said, okay, the good life abroad, our secret sauce will be community living.

You have your own apartment, but you’ll have other people who also love travel and love cultural immersion, living in walking distance in the same neighbourhood. Perhaps some people live in the same building, so you can be independent. You wanna be, but you also know there are people around you. And we also have a staff person in that city who is there to support you and put on activities, events, and give you suggestions and help you plan out things.

Whether you wanna take language classes or do cooking, or you want some advice in terms of travel in the region. We have someone there to support you. So we have a community of people who become your friends. You have a community manager or staff person, and we have a. A network of English-speaking medical professionals in all the cities and travel medical insurance.

So,, if anything were to happen to you, you’re covered. You can get care and treatment that you might need. So suddenly, I should mention, of course, that we have work with certain property managers that have a certain standard, and this goes back to your question specifically, that meets the needs of people 55 and older, for example.

You are European, but, and so I’m assuming you’ve traveled all over Europe at different times in your life. We’ve all had that experience in a European hotel room where either you’re sitting in the shower and you can’t turn around because it’s so small, or you’re in the toilet and you hit your head on the sink.

’cause it’s, everything’s so tiny. That doesn’t work for older people, especially North Americans, we need a proper shower that you can go and you can turn around. You need space. Of course it’s not the same as an American apartment. This is different and it is a cultural difference. But these are vetted to be comfortable for North Americans, older North Americans who are gonna stay there for at least a month, if not more.

Emily: I remember from my experience again, you, you can find big apartments like in Prague and Budapest, like small, as far as I remember, in the UK usually. But in these countries, you can find comfort. There might be, I don’t know, in upscale areas, but they are pretty big. How you define and find the neighbourhood you would put people in to find accommodation in a city.

Andrew: That’s a great point. Sometimes, people come to us and say, for example, ‘ This is $5,000 per month for the apartment. ‘ However, we also include a variety of activities, meals, and tours in the program. But they said no. I saw on the internet I can get an apartment for $500.

And I said, sure, I’m sure you can. But what you’re gonna get is it might look great in the photos, but I can tell you that you as a 60-year-old American coming from the suburbs of Atlanta are not going to be happy. So what we do specifically in every European city for the most part. There’s the old historic center, right?

The very cute and charming, and the tourists are there. That’s where they all go. And the typical American, when they travel to Europe, two days here, two days there, two days there, right? And they’re just gonna flying through the place. So they in, if you have two days, you’re gonna sustain that historic center.

And that’s what gets very crowded with tourists, right? And you and the restaurants have tourist prices, et cetera. Usually in most European cities, you go one ring out from there and then you go. It’s a commercial center where actual businesses, the local businesses exist. Maybe there’s corporate buildings and local people start to live in apartments at high rises and that one ring out.

And then of course you keep going further. You become, it goes more suburban. Eventually you leave the city. But in, in most European cities, this is the trend in the urban historic center. And then you still have an urban center, and we go in that urban center that one ring out from the historic area.

Emily: How do you ensure that your programs in each city are adaptable and beneficial to all participants? Probably with slightly different demands and expectations? 

Andrew: Yeah. This is really one of the best parts of the program, and it also goes to the whole theme of this podcast: this reinvention is our program.

We think of it as a blank canvas, and we ask all our participants, ‘ What do you want to get out of this experience? ‘ What are you interested in? This is not a tour. We’re not saying every day you’re gonna do these things. Our community manager wants to learn what you want to do, and we often have people who have passions that they want to explore now that they’re retired.

Right now I have time and I think of a gentleman, who was a lawyer and he owned a law firm, very successful guy. And, but he always loved art, but he didn’t have time for it. He was a lawyer. Lawyers have to work and he retired and then he came with us to Florence,but he said, look, I am very into Renaissance art.

And in fact, he was so into it that part of his reinvention was that he went to college again for one semester to take a class on Renaissance art. Then he came with us to Florence, him and his wife, and he told our community manager, I’m really into this. Can you help me? We, our team gave him so many contacts to art events and Renaissance are things that he most people would not see.

All sorts of tips. And we took ’em to certain places that most people don’t go to. And it was great. And then, in, within the same group, we had someone else who said, ‘ Oh, I’m really into food. ‘ I like to cook. And we connected that woman to additional cooking classes, various types of restaurants, and chefs. So the idea is that it’s a blank canvas, and if you set your intention of, what do you wanna get out of this experience, our team will help you.

So you can have a very different experience than someone else in the group, simply based on who you are. However, at the same time, they all share a common love of cultural immersion. 

Emily: Do they have time to learn the language or maybe for some people it’s an opportunity, to improve Italian or Spanish or other languages?

Andrew: Yes, in all places. We can connect them to a more intensive language study. We’ll always do a crash course. Basic phrases. We think everyone should learn a few phrases, but if people have an intention to wanna learn the language. They have a minimum of a month. And so they can take language classes to help improve.

And we see a lot of that. People start before they go. Perhaps they use an app like Duolingo or Babel, practice regularly, and then come in for a month, maybe two or three times a week. They’ll do language classes. In the mornings and then they have time to explore the city or participate in activities with our group.

Emily: So do we have I believe, returning clients, people who visited one couple of countries? it’s from one month to three because it’s the maximum that North Americans can do by tourist visa in Europe, for example, and people coming after than to learn about different cultures.

How it works?

Andrew: Yes. We’re seeing a lot of returning clients, and a significant portion of them are individuals coming from the West Coast of the United States. They say, if I’m flying all the way to Europe, maybe I’ll do one month in Barcelona and then I’ll go one month in Paris. So they’ll combine two and then they say, oh, I really like this way of travel, because it’s a deeper way, like you said, it’s a slow travel concept.

And then now they say, okay, I wanna do this every year. I wanna pick some place and go very deep into place. And I know some clients personally who specifically picked the cities that now are, Spanish speaking, they wanna learn Spanish. So one year they did Barcelona this year doing Valencia.

They’re asking me when are we gonna open something in Seville or in the north. And so they wait to continue. 

Emily: Great waiting list. It’s always great. It’s push you to develop. So what are your future company development plans in Europe or maybe other continents? 

Andrew: Yes, in the short term,, we want to expand to a few more cities in Europe because we’re starting to establish a base, and what we’re seeing is people combining, such as if I’m in Paris and then I’m close to.

Spain and I’ll combine them. So we know that there’s people who wanna combine cities, so we need to get a little bit more. In Europe, for example we will likely be launching Rome sometime this year. That’s a big request and it’s a major European capital. We would like to do a little bit more, perhaps, in Eastern Europe as well, and a little bit in Scandinavia.

So that’s. Short term, medium term. And then you’re right, there’s a big question for us about just doing this in other regions of the world, but one of the requests we get is, especially from Europeans, can I do this to go to the United States? I’m retired in Europe, but I’ve heard about this amazing place called Palm Springs in California.

And can I would love to live for a month in Palm Springs, so we’re not sure as a company, I’ll be very honest. My focus right now is just continuing to develop what we’re doing in Europe with excellence as we grow, and then, at some poin,t we need to consider all the different possibilities for expansion.

Emily: So, you can do exchange programs, exchange properties. You know this model, I understand it’s not exactly, but it provides people the opportunity to live in a real home, actually in maybe better homes, to see how Americans, at least in Palm Springs, live. 

Andrew: Or Florida or wherever. 

Emily: Yes. And it, by the way, all year round, or you have seasonal destinations.

Andrew: Some places are all year round and other places that are seasonal, if, for example, in Florence, Italy, just because of the amount of tourists that come in the summer, we don’t operate programs there because and it’s hot and crowded and so it’s just better to avoid it. The summer. However, in Lisbon, we’re year-round for the most part.

And then other places, for example, in the Southern Mediterranean, like in Sicily, in Sardinia, it gets hot in the summer. So we’re, that’s more of a great place to go in January, February, March, April, or in the fall. 

Emily: I was in Rome in January. I so like it, all I was even booked in advance, like Vatican ticket – No crowd everywhere. Christmas sales after Christmas sales and different environment. It was my second time. I really like it. 

Andrew: So that’s a great travel tip. Many people don’t realize going on the very off-season is an entirely different experience. 

Emily: Yeah. And I was going to the market and it was still warmer than in Canada.

So really nice. And tell me, please, after all your previous experience, if and how your experience with Good Life Abroad influenced your invention or your perspective on business and life. 

Andrew: Yes. Like you said, I have reinvented or redefined myself in many different aspects, right?

Professionally as well as personally. And what you’re getting at is my reinvention. I think that what I’ve learned over the years is that I’ve come to know myself better. So as a young professional, I think many people feel this. You come out of university, you gotta go. You gotta get a job and build a career so you get something. It may or may not be ideally suited to you, but you get something.

If you work hard enough, often you can make some progress in it. Then I jumped from that job to another job. To another job. But I never really stopped to think who am I know what my skills are. Technically I know my degree in the university. I know, technical skills I have with certain types of software, but what really makes Andrew special?

And so when I was in this period of, thinking about the good life abroad, I wasn’t actually sure what if I was gonna do it. And I spoke with some good friends who helped me conduct an inventory of myself, such as what I’m really good at. And I think this is a good thing for people to consider because you don’t have, in your career, you often don’t have time to stop and pause.

And I knew that at age 50. This is probably the last job I will have before retirement, if this is successful. If it’s not successful, who knows, right? 

Emily: No. No, I don’t think so. 

Andrew: I’m hoping to retire by 60, but my point was, is that I had this luxury because at 50 I had some money in the bank.

My kids had grown up. Some of the pressure was off, right? I had some savings so I could take a few months and really think about what was next. And I, when I did that, my friends came back and said, look, you are a guy who really can work in any country. You’ve proven that you’re able to go in; it doesn’t matter if it’s a different culture, a different language, and you’re able to make things happen.

That is a skill. You also are really passionate about travel, and it comes across when you talk to people. You’re very enthusiastic. You’re a great spokesperson for this as well. And so as I thought about. Then you have this personal passion. I told you my selfishness. So as I thought about all of my options because I could have done something else, I could have gotten a traditional job at a company like anyone else, but I thought about really what I have to offer.

That’s when I realized the “good life abroad” is perfect and perfectly suited, deeply in my personality and my values, et cetera, to do this kind of work. And so I have more clarity. And I think that becomes, maybe the thing that has made this successful is because I, every part of me really believes in this and it’s and I’m well suited to, to talk about it.

Emily: I think the additional reason because you are clear that you are actually building the future lifestyle for yourself and people who like you.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. It’s personal. It’s personal. 

Emily:it’s not selfish, it’s just personal. And as you mentioned already, a couple of times,  wat is the place of community in the experience that you provide with a “good life abroad”?

Can you elaborate a little bit more about it? Because, again, people are different, and now I’m thinking about my community, like to unite people with different actually interests. And expectation, no, this travel is possible, but still to get the community that might be not just for the months together, but we’ll have connections later on.

Are you working on this one somehow? You start with people, and it’s up to the group; I don’t know, 10, 20 people. What’s the format? 

Andrew: So it’s, yeah, it’s between 10 and 20 on average. Our groups are about 15, 16 people, and you’re right, it’s. Answer you in two parts. The first part is just as you get older and especially in retirement.

Your community changes, right? Who are your connections? Who are the people in your life when your kids are little? Maybe it’s the other parents at the school, right? And so, now you suddenly have a group of friends because you share something in common, which is the school. So we’re friends.

And then the kids get older and off and then your workplace. The workplace is something you have in common. So you make friends with people in the workplace. But what happens when the kids are gone? The workplace is gone. You’re retired. And then who’s that community? So for many people it’s the neighborhood, right?

People in my neighbourhood. However, what happens often in retirement is as the kids get older, grand grandparents might move to be closer to the kids and to be closer to the grandkids. So now they’re living in a place where they don’t actually have a lot of friends yet because they move there for the, that.

It could be a faith community. Maybe it’s a church or a synagogue. Okay. That’s one community I. But our people who come on the Good Life abroad, the thing that they’re really passionate about is cultural immersion and travel. So when you put a bunch of people like that, and these are well-traveled people, our people who come with us, they’ve been at, minimum, 10 countries.

I just spoke to a gentleman this morning, been to 80 countries. These people really, truly love travel, and it’s almost a core value for them. So when you meet other people, it’s almost like we share this core value that’s sacred to us in our lives of travel that supersedes anything. And right now, I’ll tell you, it’s 2025.

I live in the United States. It’s a divided country, right? People are divided in many aspects. But what I love about visiting the Good Life Abroad programs is… People leave that back in the United States, their politics, their religion, it is, it’s just about let’s love Italy or Portugal or France or whatever it is, and it’s about that exploration and those passions.

I, I honestly believe that people get all angry and riled up online. I don’t think anyone really enjoys that. If you have the option to just put your phone down and not look at things that make you upset and just go enjoy a place, I think everyone would just prefer to do that, and that’s really what happens on these programs.

Now, of course, you’re there for a month or longer In a group of 16, 17 people, you might not be best friends with every single person there, but you’re gonna find a handful of people that you really connect with. Those five or six people. And then you might also have a little group where say, Hey, let’s go travel for the weekend or wanna go to dinner tonight.

And so you will have of course, subgroups of friends who wanna do things. And those people then tend to be connected and stay in contact afterwards. And I see many cases where they. Become friends and visit each other back in the United States, and I think about 30% of our travellers are solo travellers.

And so this sense of community is very nice for them because they can jump in and have friends, but also solo travellers at times wanna be independent and they don’t wanna be with social. You can easily step out and be independent or step in and be social, whichever you prefer. And there will be other solo travellers there.

As well as couples. And the couples are all there because they enjoy that same cultural immersion that you do. 

Emily: Do you have some written and unwritten community rules? You know what to do and what not to do. 

Andrew: We don’t prescribe it so written because I don’t think people like being told what to do. But what we try to focus on is let’s focus.

Conversation and everything in the place that we’re in right now. And typically,, people will say, ‘ Look, this isn’t a place for politics or debate. ‘ If you wanna do that, go do that with whoever you wanna do. But as a group, we’re here to talk about it. What we discover today, what we’re learning, being in this new place and sharing things that make us happy.

Emily: As you mentioned throughout your career, you successfully blended technology with travel experiences. Do you have, maybe you think about integrating some technological tools or maybe you are using some features for travellers to be oriented in a new place? Are you offering this? 

Andrew: Yes, we are working on this.

Currently, the only technology we use is WhatsApp, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Very popular in Europe, but not as popular in the United States. But one of the great features of WhatsApp is a community feature. And so we use that. It’s in not just regular text messaging, but it’s a community, and you can have announcements and then subgroups within there.

And it works perfectly for the good life abroad because the community manager can send announcements. Tomorrow we’re meeting at 1:00 PM at this restaurant, we’re gonna make a cooking class or whatnot. And then there are gonna be subgroups where the people in the community, oh, I love visiting cathedrals, cathedral lovers.

This person, I like working out and doing exercise. Who wants to join my fitness buffs group? And so suddenly in this group of, 16, 17 people, you’re gonna find other people who like. Visiting cathedrals, go with them. I like going to the gym and working out. I, now I have friends to go to the gym with, so that’s a nice piece of technology that’s worked well for us.

What we’re working on building is perhaps something within our own app so that the group can live on after the program and people can stay connected there. So we’re thinking of trying to create something like this community for each group so they can take that with them. We’re also working on building out some more technology to provide more resources while you’re there.

It’s oh, I, whether it’s as simple as I wanna pick language classes, I can just click a button and connect me to the local language school to offer discounts with local suppliers. For example, if I wanted to rent a car, oh, if you click here, maybe you get 20% off and we can provide benefits for our members.

That’s something I think we’re still about one year away from. 

Emily: Great. Great. There are a lot of things that can be done. I even know some apps that might ease, like accommodation and from an information point of view to navigate people to be actually independent, if they wish. Because I understand during the day, people mostly plan their activities themselves.

Yes.

With your experience in leading and co-founding multiple companies, what key leadership lessons have you learned that are crucial to midlife professionals who are thinking about reinventing their careers after 50? 

Andrew: I think whenever someone thinks about reinvention, it’s can be scary because it’s like I’m doing something new, and maybe I don’t have the skills, I don’t have the experience because it’s something I haven’t done before.

But I really wanna communicate to all of your listeners that you actually have gained so many skills. It does later in life. There’s so much we’ve learned that’s not textbook learning or classroom learning, but we’ve lived, we’ve worked in many different environments at this point. We’ve come interacted with many different types of people.

We have skills we don’t even realize, and that is a powerful thing. And those skills can be transferred to your reinvention, whatever the new thing is. You have skills you don’t realize that can be used and deployed elsewhere. And. That’s why I think it’s important to do this sort of pause and do this inventory about yourself.

What do I have? Who am I? This was very helpful for my friends to coach me through this. And then say, okay, I can take things I’ve done in the past, whether it was African education or some kind of technology company, and re apply some of these lessons to my new venture, even though it’s not exactly the same.

And the other thing is. So one is you gained wisdom about yourself and the world. Two, most people at age 50 or wherever have a little bit more money in the bank than they did when they were 20 or 21. And so then you have a little bit more of a cushion perhaps, and three networks you have a network at later in life that’s much bigger than it had when you were younger.

And that network can be very beneficial in connecting the two of you. Resources or talent because one of the things I’ve learned is I have a clear vision, but I’m not the smartest guy in the room for every task. There’s certain tasks I’m really good at, and I have the vision and I have enough humility to know I need to find other people to support me in the areas that I need support in.

And how great is it now that I can just go into my LinkedIn and I realize I have a network of. Thousands of people, and I can see who might be able to help me out. In fact, my very first hire was me going on to LinkedIn saying, who do I know in Portugal? And I found this guy that I had worked with 15 years prior and I reached out and said, Hey, I’m gonna go to Portugal and looking to hire someone and then he said, oh, you should meet my wife.

And then one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had hired his wife, and then they connected me with people in Italy. So anyway, network. So there’s advantages you have later in life that you don’t have when you’re younger, and it’s important not to forget these things when you’re trying to reinvent yourself because you do have more equipment to help you be successful than you might realize.

Emily: Absolutely agree. Thank you for outlining this because sometimes people live with this, and we don’t understand how valuable it is, looking around. And basically, for me retirement it’s, not a completely relaxing stage of life. It depends if people wish it.

But today, with technological advancement, medical advancement, and if we take care of our body and mind actually from midlife we have still 40, 50 years of active life. And because of our previous program, whatever you mentioned, like you need to get education, start your career, entrepreneurship, family, children, like at 50 plus, you completed this program mostly.

You have time to redefine yourself. It is what my podcast and what I’m speaking about, to have time ahead, but to be clear and it’s work. It’s not likely to be for one month or a year, but to have this positive vision that you have another life to live, thanks to the time we are living in. And you can gain a great experience, open new talents, and actually learn more about yourself.

Andrew: Absolutely. I totally agree. 

Emily: Beyond professional achievements and experience, you enjoy studying languages, and please tell us how many languages do you know and learn? Anthropology, you mentioned not once and travelling with your daughters. Speaking about your daughters. They’re not coming to these trips because it’s not the age group.

What how do you balance all this? 

Andrew: So, languages. We’ll start with the easy one. So right now, I just speak Spanish and Portuguese and but I have known and have now forgotten some conversational Quechua Thai, very basic taxi level Russian, Swahili. So I, but those languages I’ve forgotten with not using them after many years.

But early in my career, when I was setting up international nonprofits for this organization in New York, I was spending months at a time in many different countries and I learned that within a month or so, I could get basic taxi driver language competency, and then with another month. I can have conversations.

And so I really enjoy that. At this point, I just said say, okay, I’m gonna focus on Spanish, Portuguese, and French. And that’s it for now. And then the next part of your question was about the kids. I’m a single dad, and so my two daughters. Came with me early in my career with a lot of this travel that I was doing, and it was, I always looked at it as part of their education to make sure they know that the United States is just one place in the world and San Diego, California is just one city.

And I think that helped them, especially in those high school years where hormones are raging and everyone’s worried about being popular or not popular and having friends. I think they always look, yeah, whatever’s happening in this school, this is not the end of the world. It’s not so big.

The world is a big place, and this is one place. I. So that, that was nice. Now I have one daughter off to university, and the other one’s about to finish high school and she goes to a boarding school. So she lives on the campus ofthe  school, and then she’s about to go to university in about one year.

And so that does free me up, to do things like the good life abroad. And I think that’s another thing when people think about reinvention and Redfin redefining their lives. For me, I probably couldn’t have done this 10 years ago because I had to take care of the kids. But now it’s this unique opportunity.

Financially, the kids’ education is taken care of, the kids are taken care of, they’re well sorted out, and this gives me time and opportunity to build this new business, which does require a fair amount of travel on my part. 

Emily: But do you still travel together sometimes? 

Andrew: Yes. Now, we try to plan family vacations.

We were discussing it last night, and it’s harder because the one in college wants to come back and get a job to make some money. The other one is trying to secure internships and other opportunities, but we do find time to carve out. Especially to see family in different parts of the country.

And sometimes it’s as simple as, you know what? We live in San Diego. It’s a beautiful coastal city in California. Let’s do a staycation and we’ll just get a hotel on the beach for a few days and just have that quality time together. Away from the distractions of daily life. 

Emily: What other hobbies or interests do you have?

Andrew: I didn’t mention, I so I like to do triathlon. I live in San Diego, so I swim in the ocean. I like cycling. I just did my first Iron Man 70.3 a few months ago. So again, at age 50, never too late to do something for the first time. And then I like playing tennis and other racket sports.

Emily: Thank you. And again,, coming to the topic, but now speaking about people who are planning to relocate abroad for retirement or perhaps slow travel, which may lead to relocation. What you suggest to professionals who are in brings of this massive leap to a new life chapter by relocation with your experience living in different countries.

Andrew: Yeah, there’s some pitfalls if you’re not careful. If you don’t think about what you’re doing, there are some pitfalls, but they’re easily avoided. And I think what I mean by that is, a sense of community. Sometimes, people go, I’m gonna go to this place. It’s gonna be wonderful. I’m gonna be in this tiny Italian village.

And the best thing, it’s like a movie, and you get there, and you’rein  this tiny Italian village and you get bored. And the people, nobody speaks English. And these people have lived there for hundreds of years, and the young people have all moved to the city. ’cause that’s where the jobs are. And the old people have their friends, and then it’s oh.

I thought it was just gonna be like a movie, right? The reality is it’s a little more complicated. So my first piece of advice is before you make that big move, go visit and go visit for a few weeks or a month. Don’t visit for a couple of days. It’s one thing to be there for a couple of days.

It’s a different thing to be there for, that starts there now, assuming you found a city that you really I would say still do the same thing. Spend a month there. To understand everything from the neighborhood. Each neighborhood has a different personality. Perhaps the traffic patterns or noise patterns, depending on your preferences.

And it’s important to do that background. And then this idea of community. Now of course, the good life abroad, you have a built in community. It’s very easy. But if you’re going to relocate permanently or for a long period of time. There. I really encourage people to not forget that you will want friendships, that you are not an island by yourself.

I think I always encourage people to look at things like Meetup. There are different meetups or affinity groups, Facebook groups, Reddit groups where you can find people who share some of your interests. And it could be something as simple as. People who wanna learn to speak Italian in this example, and you’ll find other people, you all share this thing of wanting to learn Italian or it might be an interest in for me, business and entrepreneurship.

I love being around people who are entrepreneurial arts lovers. These things are great ways for you to make connections with other people and to slowly develop friendships through repeated interaction and they get to know you whatnot. And I also think it could be something as simple. ’cause I tell this to all of our community members: when you’re there, get some habits going.

Go to that cafe every morning if that’s where you’re going to have coffee. If you’re a exercise person, go to the gym. And I guarantee you, after two weeks they will, oh, this person who’s not just here for a couple days. This person’s a regular and they get to know you. And then it’s part of the fabric of your life.

And that makes the whole tapestry more beautiful. 

Emily: Thank you very much. I really like your advices. Thank you. 

I very much appreciate, and I was enjoying this conversation. I hope the same will be fair for listeners. Thank you. 

Andrew: thank you, Emily. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Emily: Thank you for joining us on this h reinvention episode with our dear guest.

His journey reminds us that midlife is not a time to slow down but a chance to explore new horizons,  and new countries, redefine personal freedom and create a life full of purpose and connection. If Andrew’s story has inspired you and you are considering a leap into reinvention and global travel, remember that it’s never too late to embrace change and seek out new adventures.

Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more stories of transformation and empowerment. If you enjoy today’s episode, please leave us a review or share it with someone who might need a dose of inspiration. Until next time, this is Emily Braun signing off. Keep exploring. Keep dreaming and keep reinventing.

Andrew Motiwalla

Entrepreneur & Global Citizen

Andrew Motiwalla is a veteran experience designer and entrepreneur with 30 years of creating transformational programs that blend travel, purpose, and digital innovation. He leads with vision across product, sales, and customer success, helping people—from professionals to students—find clarity and connection through curated experiences. Outside work, he enjoys cycling, swimming, and spending time with his daughters.

Dive into inspiring midlife stories of transformation, freedom, and purpose with Emily Bron, your Age of Reinvention podcast host. This episode features an insightful conversation with Andrew Motiwalla, co-founder of The Good Life Abroad—a groundbreaking venture offering upscale, community-based living experiences for North Americans over 50 in some of Europe’s most iconic cities.

Through the lens of Andrew’s journey—from the Peace Corps to entrepreneurship—this story explores the power of slow travel, the importance of meaningful global connections, and the possibilities of reshaping one’s life in midlife.

Andrew Motiwalla’s Passion for Travel: The Early Days

Andrew grew up travelling with family; his passion was sparked during college, particularly through a transformative semester studying in South America. This experience ignited his love for anthropology and indigenous cultures, planting the seeds for a lifelong career in cross-cultural engagement. From working with the Peace Corps to leadership roles with international organizations, Andrew’s journey reflects the profound impact of exploration and connection across the globe.

From Africa to Latin America: Building Global Bridges

After completing his tenure with the Peace Corps, Andrew broadened his impact by contributing to organizations such as the African Leadership Group and the Latin American Leadership Academy. His work facilitating IT training and ethical leadership for youth in Africa and Latin America showcased his unwavering dedication to preparing future leaders for the demands of a globalized world.

The Good Life Abroad: Finding Purpose in Midlife

At age 50, confronted with a personal crossroads, Andrew reinvented himself by launching The Good Life Abroad—a visionary lifestyle business designed for the 50-plus community who want to combine comfort, adventure, and community connections through slow travel.

His idea was born from his desire to redefine post-retirement living for North Americans, creating enriching experiences in carefully curated neighbourhoods abroad. With a focus on independence and communal living, Andrew’s venture paves the way for meaningful, immersive travel in midlife.

Community-Led Travel: A Unique Approach to Global Living

Unlike typical travel services, The Good Life Abroad fosters a deep sense of connection. Members enjoy their apartments in vibrant neighborhoods, with guidance from local community managers who organize events, assist with logistics, and ensure safety. This design provides a unique blend of comfort, security, and camaraderie for solo travellers, allowing members to reinvent their lifestyles abroad without sacrificing social engagement.

Lessons in Midlife Reinvention

Andrew’s story is a testament that midlife isn’t a limitation—it’s a launchpad for growth and discovery. He advocates introspection, leveraging networks, and channelling accumulated wisdom to create fulfilling ventures.

For midlife professionals, Andrew’s insights underscore how clarity and courage can lead to reinventing life paths with passion and purpose. Whether shifting careers or embracing new lifestyles, midlife can be a transformative opportunity to pursue what truly matters.

Conclusion: Your Own Path to Reinvention

Andrew Motiwalla’s journey reminds us that midlife is the Age of Reinvention—a time to embrace change, explore new horizons, and connect with like-minded individuals for shared experiences.

If Andrew’s story inspires you, consider reflecting on your midlife reinvention. What’s your next chapter? Subscribe to the Age of Reinvention Podcast for more transformational stories, and discover how to live boldly, authentically, and globally.