May 2019 – my first organized tour was on a bicycle! And it was a success!
Like any rookie I had my share of fears, including but not limited to: What if many people will attend? I was not so sure on myself as to show this new face of mine to a lot of strangers…I have always recognized the benefits of practice, and I wanted this first experience to help me understand what I can do better (of this I was sure: it will not be perfect!). I was lucky though to have only a small number of attendees, which made me feel more comfortable, and more focused on me, on my performance.
Another fear was that I will forget the information I planned to say. This triggered the first improvement I realize I need to make: learn more! The tour took quite a lot of time to prepare, for documentation, trying to find out interesting stories about each objective. And this made the tension grow, cause I wanted to be able to share with the people everything I was able to dig out for them. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with the result, I forgave myself for mistakes, and I learned not to have a stress on this issue, cause the information I need to give, I will remember for sure. The rest are there, ready, for the next group 🙂
Main thing I learned: I need to be Authentic!
As inspiration for this tour, both theme related and tour guide “job” related, I attended another tour organized by someone who has a lot of experience in the field. How else to learn from if not the people who know how to do it? What I realized in this experience is that trying to keep my fears under control, and to manage the entire tour, I was always thinking on how the experienced guy was delivering, and I found myself copying his style. At the end, although it was a success for me, the only thing I didn’t like in my performance, was my lack of Authenticity! So I immediately understood I need to create my own guiding style, which implies talking freely and sharing my energy with the group. I am sure it will be improved over time, but this is my personal promise: from now on I will be myself and I will not be afraid to show my passion for this work and why not, even my fears!
I hope I will have the chance to meet more and more people in this activity, to organize more and more tours and to reach my goal of becoming a tour guide that the people will recommend and will come back to!
