This week, guides of the world ask: How to Keep your Tour Running on Time ? Well, my friends, you are not alone. This is one of the most common questions I am asked here at Be a Better Guide and a challenge we must all continually face.   Luckily, over the years I’ve learned how to adjust my wording and behaviour, so that guests know exactly what happens on my tours: We leave on time – ALWAYS. By handling this right early on in your tour, you will set a great precedent, plus you will...

There is a pretty good chance that your tour guide profile photo isn’t very good… It’s nothing personal, it’s just that almost all tour guides have bad profile photos. As I look back, almost 100% of my own profile photos were terrible too! In a moment, I’m going to share some profile photo tips. The problem is that most profile pictures are treated as something of an afterthought. Often times we only spend 30-40 seconds looking around our computer and choosing from the photos we happen to...

There are few things quite so embarrassing as being publicly asked a question you don’t know the answer to – especially if you are a tour leader. Tour guides have it especially bad because 1) we are claiming to be knowledgable 2) People are paying us to entertain/inform them and 3) It is expected that we field questions constantly during a tour!   There are a couple of ways to respond when you are caught in the moment and in today’s Be a Better Guide Community QnA, we look at whether or...

Tour Guide Jobs Let’s start with some good news. The overall number of tour guide jobs is growing globally, and the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) reports that global tourism continues to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy! When asking how to get a job as a tour guide, I believe there are at least 7 questions you will need to ask yourself first. This video will go through those questions one by one! I also share some insights into looking for a...

As a Tour Guide, I’ve spent a lot of my time leading tours outdoors. In many ways, it was one of the perks to lead a tour outdoors, but as you may know, it presents many unique challenges. After years of guiding in the elements, I’ve got some best practices I want to share with you. Want a little teaser on how to lead a tour outdoors? Of course you do! Have you ever thought about where to put the sun when speaking to your group? Do you wear sunglasses all of the time as a tour leader? Do...

If you are interested in ‘How to tell great stories on tour?’ – then you are on the right track! Stories are the way that humans have communicated for hundreds and thousands of years. Effective speakers use stories to connect with their audiences and deliver their messages in powerful ways. Business schools around the world use ‘case studies’ and stories as teaching tools and to help students tease out lessons out of real life situations. There is no question, that as tour guides, we should...

Today’s Tour Guide Training? How to be a funny tour guide and how to give a funny tour. Being funny is one of those traits that many incredible tour guides seem to share. You don’t have to be funny to be a great guide, but a well placed joke or a good hearted jab can really make your tour a lot more fun.   People love laughing, being surprised and hearing about absurd people and places. A great tour is ultimately a form of entertainment and it is worth it to figure out how you can...

The question of how to be a better people person is one that every tour guide should ask themselves regularly. So how to be a better people person? I would make the case that great social skills are one of the top characteristics that set incredible guides apart from ok guides. Even if you have an encyclopedic knowledge and are a powerful public speaker, you will still struggle as a tour leader if you cannot confidently interact with your guests. To help you with this quest, I’ve created a...

Today we are going to talk about some the things we can learn from history’s greatest speakers. I regularly get asked the question How to become a Powerful Speaker? by guides and tour leaders in the Be a Better Guide Community. Therefore, in this episode, we’ve turned to some of our greatest historical orators and a book by James C. Humes for some advice. To help inspire you even further, I’ve put together a free resource: “10 Incredible Speeches, by 10 Incredible Speakers” It is a...

If you ever look at video footage of some of the world’s most successful speakers, you’ll notice that they all have one thing in common: They use LOTS of hand gestures. An fantastic study done by the Science of People reviewed thousands of hours of the most and least popular TED talks. The least popular speakers on TED used an average of 272 hand gestures over their 18 minute talk, while the most popular TED speakers used an average of 465 hand gestures—that’s almost double! Other studies...