Hey there, listener! Thank you for checking out our older seasons! We're adding this note on the top of the show notes to keep you up-to-date with the show. Connect with Jen Amos and get bonus content when you subscribe to our private podcast show, Inside the Fort by US VetWealth, at http://insidethefort.com/

Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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155: "Every single story in history has a human story behind it." Dawn Bryant's story of becoming an accidental entrepreneur and tour guide

Have you ever relocated to a new place, and yearned for someone to help you uncover the hidden gems of your new community? If you're new in D.C., the Founder and Owner of Dawn The Tour Guide, Dawn Bryant, is at your service!

Jen Amos speaks with Dawn Bryant to hear about her experiences as an Active Duty Military Spouse, Certified Professional Tour Guide, and 2020 Service2CEO Graduate of The Rosie Network.

Dawn started her tour guide business during the 2020 global pandemic. After her original tour guide job was canceled, she saw an opportunity to offer tours to military families who were new to the area and unable to explore due to the lockdown. She believes that her life experiences such as homeschooling her son and traveling due to the military, had prepared her for a career in tour guiding. As a Certified Professional Tour Guide, she emphasizes the importance of interpreting history for her tour guests and putting the human element back into stories. She encourages listeners to think outside the box for career opportunities and shares the benefits of the tour guide industry for military spouses.

This conversation is also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xiEy869Jjpw

Connect with Dawn The Tour Guide

• Website: https://www.dawnthetourguide.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/dawnthetourguide/
• https://www.instagram.com/dawn_the_tour_guide/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-bryant-32a0791a2/

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In the Fall of 2023, Jen Amos was sought after by InDependent to co-host the 8th annual InDependent Wellness Summit™. In August 2022, Jen Amos' work on the podcast was recognized by Disney Institute and she was hand-selected as the only non-Disney employee to moderate the first Military Spouse Employment panel for the Veterans Institute Summit. March 2022, Jenny Lynne has voted the 2022 Naval Station Norfolk Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year. November 2020, Jen Amos was awarded “Media Professional of the Year” at The Rosie Network Entrepreneur Awards! The show continued to collect award nominations in the following years. In September 2021, the show made the Final Slate in the 16th Annual People's Choice Podcast Awards for the Government & Organizations category. In November 2021, the show was an Award Finalist for the 5th Annual National Veteran & Military Spouse Entrepreneur Awards. December 2021, the show was a Golden Crane Podcast Awards Nominee. September 2022, the show was a Finalist for the 13th Annual Plutus Awards presented by Capital Group for “Best Military Personal Finance Content.”

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Jen Amos 0:01

Let's see. Cool, cool. All right. And with that said, we have Don Bryant on our show, Don, Welcome to Season Seven of holding on the fourth podcast.

Unknown Speaker 0:09

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Jen Amos 0:12

Yes. And I thought I would start with a fun icebreaker. Just a way to warm us up to the conversation today. So I have like a bunch of questions here. And I'm just going to shuffle through them and you tell me when to stop. And then I will pull out a question for you.

Unknown Speaker 0:26

All right, stop.

Jen Amos 0:28

Okay, I'm gonna go with this one. Okay. Okay, here's a fun one for you. What does your phone wallpaper? Tell you a tell tell people about you.

Speaker 1 0:44

My phone wallpaper tells people that we befriended our backyard squirrels during COVID. Okay, so during the stay at home orders here in the DC area, which lasted forever. We don't have any pets. My husband has a lot of allergies, but we hang out in our backyard a lot. And we got to know our squirrels. And so my back my wallpaper right now is a squirrel that we had named Jr.

Jen Amos 1:14

Oh my goodness. I love that. This is like your version of like having feral cats that like come to your backyard and you have like a water bowl available. But instead it's squirrel. This is great.

Speaker 1 1:24

100 100% And we still we have like generational squirrels now. And when we leave the house, we have to like put knots on the back fence or they jump up on the fence when we're leaving and stare at us like we're negligent.

Jen Amos 1:38

Oh, my gosh, like they know you. Oh, yeah. Amazing.

Speaker 1 1:42

They recognize our voices, they'll come running. It's weird, but it's true.

Jen Amos 1:46

Don, this is the first time I've heard anyone talk about having like, squirrels is kind of pets. You know, obviously they can take care of themselves. But like, oh, but they feed us they give us nuts. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 1:58

Yeah, they, yeah, there's only a handful of them that really know us. But the ones that know us they they seriously know us. Yeah, they bring their little like, we don't have them or anything. I want to be clear. Like we don't carry them around. We don't have like those bubble backpacks where we like take our scroll the grocery store. They literally just run up to us and we throw them pecans or whatever. And maybe they'll sit on the table and eat it next to us. And yeah,

Jen Amos 2:26

that's amazing that I mean, I feel like I feel like there should be a whole I don't know podcast show about like everyone's COVID experiences and like all the things they never thought they do. And I think having said squirrels is one of them for sure.

Speaker 1 2:39

Yeah. And that's when I don't know if you can really see it here. But that's also when I first started making my hair kind of purple actually was really purple during COVID Now it's just a little bit lavender. But that was another actually COVID just turned me into the lover of The Color Purple, which was not a thing with me before. We're all different in our own way. Yeah,

Jen Amos 2:58

yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing that story. And, you know, giving us a peek into what is on your phone wallpaper. And I you know, I thought it would hurt Oh, like my pet dog or my child or something. But no, you got you got Jr, the squirrel? I do.

Speaker 1 3:14

And that was just really that was my own fault for picking that card. Now everyone knows maybe a little more about me than they should.

Jen Amos 3:21

I'm sure some people are going to reach out and say, hey, you know, during COVID, I made a pet raccoon in my backyard. And you never know, you might have some interesting people reaching out to you once this episode comes out. But that being said, Don, I'm thank you for doing that warm up icebreaker question with me. It's a great way to just, you know, ease into our conversation today. And I'm really, I'm really intrigued to talk to you about, you know, what you do in the tour guide industry. I don't think I've ever I have yet. Like you are the first person I'm meeting who really wants to educate military spouses on the tour guide industry because it's mobile, and you can kind of dictate your schedule and all the things and we'll dive into that later. I'm already like spoiling the story here. But let's talk a little bit about kind of like, like, like your, your former life before you got up before you became a tour guide to a license official tour guide. Sure. And I know that for you it. It you kind of naturally got into it. It wasn't like you just you woke up one day and you decided to be a tour guide. You naturally got into it as early as a teenager,

Speaker 1 4:30

Jen Amos 8:30

Yeah, you know, I think it's a, I think it's so interesting, you know, your story of what when I in the past, when I had talked to let's say military spouses, like they'll get into, let's say, professional organizing, because every time you move, like you got to organize anyway, and so that, you know, that became a business of their own. And I liked that for you. It was very Oh, and then other stories I would hear is you know, the moment you get settled somewhere, it's all about like learning about your local resources and all the things and for you, I liked how it was like, let me learn about the history of this area, let me learn about the culture. So it makes me you know, feel at home. And that just kind of became this natural passion for you. And like you said, Whenever people would visit, they, you can show them around and you genuinely good, you know, I know for me, like if my friends and family like In fact, I've had friends and family visit me here in Norfolk, Virginia. And I'm all like, honestly, I can't really tell you about the area because all I do is go to my office and the gym. Like that's kind of it and my church, like I cannot give you the history. I mean, I know the library down the corner has a like a mini museum, you can go there, but I love that you, you know you're able to, you know, tell tell the history of a certain area to your friends and family like, you know, through your lens, which I think is the most interesting thing. I think I think the most interesting stories are told through the lens of a certain perspective and for you it's you know, that being of a military spouse and you're new to the area and wanting to eat it up and feel at home as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 9:53

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's that was really one of the things that I learned about myself because I had lived In California and the central area of California forever until my first military move, I traveled, you know, I was really lucky. I feel like I have like bunny ears. So I'm gonna try to move a little bit

is there you go. I just noticed that when you call it when you point. I'm like,

wait, what's going on here? So anyway, it wasn't until my first military move that I, you know, had to kind of figure out how to feel connected quickly. And we all do that in our own way. I mean, that is a, I think, a standard behavior of every military spouses. We all figure that out. Some people, you know, immediately find a church, some people immediately find a job, you know, there's all kinds of things that you can do. And for me, it was always just sort of learning about the area. And, and, and it's incredible, it just opened the world up to me. And honestly, being from California, originally, that California history is so incredibly different than the history here on the East Coast. And so as a whole new world.

Yeah, let's talk about that for a little bit. Because I'm also a Cali girl like you. And it's funny, because my husband, he's from the Midwest, and he went to West Point. So a lot of his studies, there was all about American history, world history, you know, National News World worldwide news. And so when he met me, you know, Cali girl here in San Diego, California with my, what do you call it says, quote unquote, California Education, quote, unquote, you guys are listening to the podcast. That's what he called it. And so it was just funny, like the conversations we would have, because I, you know, I had certain beliefs, I had certain assumptions, perceptions, but it was when I moved to the east coast that I actually understood him better. And I understand that and I realized how little I knew about American history in general. And what I love about being in the East Coast is that you just walk into history, you just run into it, wherever you are, like, one of the first places we stayed was Richmond, and just learning about the Civil War, it just you just find it everywhere you walk, you know. And so I can relate to you, in a sense, where, you know, you coming from California, or Central California, and then coming to the East Coast. And, and let's talk about that, like, where was it in the East Coast when you like, saw history in your face, and that kind of like, opened up something for you?

Absolutely. So it really wasn't that first move to North Carolina, because I was just so overwhelmed. At that point, you know, I was learning to homeschool. I, it was really the first time that I was dealing with my husband being gone for extended periods of time, our son was young, you know, I was just keeping my head above water trying to keep the house from burning down. You know what I mean? Um, and then after three years in North Carolina, we moved to Rhode Island, my husband's in the army, but he went to the sister school up there for so we went to the Navy work Naval War College. And it's interesting, my maiden name is PS PE ASC. I knew nobody else with that last name, kind of hated it, to be honest with you. Um, and we're walking down the street in Newport after we got moved into our place. And I see this little house, this little blue colonial house, and it says, Simon peace house. And I'm like, why? You know? And so that just sparked his interest in me, because to your point, you know, my history education. And I don't know if this is just exclusive to California, I kind of since I work with a lot of students, I feel like maybe it's not. I think they've gotten better at teaching history. But I still think history is taught in such a boring, like, factual kind of way without a lot of context. And more importantly, they don't talk about why all this stuff matters to us today. Like, why do you need to know this? What how did it change the world that you live in? Nobody talks about that? Well, I shouldn't say that. Nobody talks about that. When I was in school. Nobody told me why I should care about the Civil War. All they did was tell me, you know,

it happened. Yeah, it happened. It's like they took the story out of history. You know, it just right. Yeah.

I tell my students that when I was in school, like I was taught that this that the revolution happened, and then nothing happened, and then a civil war happened. And then nothing happened, you know, but that's not true. Like, like, you know, Eliza Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln, they met each other. And those kinds of things just blow my mind. Like, nobody told me that I didn't realize even that they were real flawed, incredible, brave people. Like nobody told me any of those things. So the Simon peace house got me interested. And from there, I I just started to research and I realized that the Pease family was huge on the East Coast. And there were pieces buried in the cemetery in in Newport and their peace fam, part of the peace family founded Martha's Vineyard. I mean, it just went on and on. So probably I really came into it from a very, like a personal curiosity. And then you start learning about you know, your ancestors who were in the revolution, and then that makes you marched in the revolution and, and so it just sort of snowballed from there. And then when we went back to North Carolina after our time in Rhode Island, I was like, Okay, now I need to figure out like the history of North Carolina and those connections And so my next we spent four more years in North Carolina after that in those next four years, we did everything we could. In North Carolina. My father in law was in South Carolina. So yeah, we were just all over the place. So it was really that moment, I think when I walked past that little blue Simon peace house, and I was like, What is this, you know, and then it just opened up this whole new world.

You know, I love that it, I think that I remember a friend said to me a long time ago that if you don't know, your place in history, then you'll never understand it. Like, it'll just be kind of walking by, like, I don't know, a billboard, and not even care to read it or relate to it. Because they're like, you don't know how you can relate to it. So history is very much like that. And, and so I like that, in a way, what you're doing as a tour guide is, as I was saying a little earlier, like kind of putting the story back in history, you know, through your interpretation.

Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's what I really consider myself a storyteller. You know, I mean, I tried to share my stories are factual. Occasionally, I learned that they're not, you know, because there's new discoveries in history all the time. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of fables out there, I'll sometimes say things like, you know, I'm 80% sure this story is 90%. True. Because, you know, I mean, it's just hard to say exactly, but, but I think that's what we're all interested in. That's why we watch television. That's why we read books. That's why we, you know, talk about people, you know, I mean, it's because we're interested in human stories, and every single story in history has a human story behind it. And, and, you know, my husband's an Intel guy, and in Intel, there's this idea that there's got to be a so what if you're going to share a piece of information? There's got to be a so what behind it? And, and I kind of tried to take that into tour guide. And it's like, I could tell you who the Architect of the Capitol is. But so what like, what are you an architecture student? Does the guy have a great story? Or is that just extraneous information?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, it's all very, it's very interesting stuff. And it just kind of reminds me of like, the, what I want to do in my downtime, and to go to the local museum museums here. I mean, recently, we went to the not recently, but a couple months ago, we went to the MacArthur Museum here in Norfolk, Virginia, because he was, he was born here. And so they decided to bury his body here. And it didn't really, it didn't really connect. I mean, I was very interested in it one, because, you know, part of my cultural heritage is my family's from the Philippines. And so he went to the Philippines at one point. And then also, he's a fellow West Point grad, like my husband. And so we kind of it was kind of cool to go in there and try to find that connection. And I think that's like, like what you said, I really liked how you said, human history, like just knowing like how, like, because history is told by people, I think, and, and to learn, like, you know, and I think I've also heard that history is a collection of stories, and so right to just know, like, you know, how do I how do I relate to the story? How do I, how does the story relate to me today? And why does it matter, even today, when they say stuff? Like, if you don't know your history, you don't know yourself? Like, all the things like there's so much to it. And then the layers of it, of like the interpretations of it, I think just continues to be so fascinating. And to not take things out. Not to always take things at face value, I think Yeah. So. And so yeah, it's all very interesting is that is what I'm saying.

It is. And there's and there's a lot of, you know, the language around history changes to, there's just, it's an IT, it's a weird, because you would think it would be completely stagnant. But it's actually has a way of evolving. And I'm not trying to, you know, allude to the idea of changing history, which I know can be a really sensitive thing. And I'm not a fan of that at all, I always talk about how history is the story of and, you know, this person did this, and this person did that. And this thing would that they did was amazing. And this thing we might look at and be kind of like it, you know, but that's how we all are. You know, one of my things is I'm like the product of every good decision I've ever made in every bad decision I've ever made. Everything good that's ever happened to me and everything bad that's ever happened to me. And countries are like that people are like that. Everybody's like that. And so, but the way we learn to talk about these things in the way we learn to convey these messages, it evolves. And it's so it's fascinating, and it doesn't get old because of that.

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I can I feel like I would get lost and just hearing all the things that you know, like you are a wealth of knowledge. I'm sure she'll come out. But for the sake of time, right, actually, I am going to DC in September, so I might I might hit you. Yeah, I have. I have a friend who's kind of actually funny enough. I have a friend who's coming from California with her education, quote, unquote, I say that jokingly and, and she wants to go to DC in September. So yes, I will. I will keep keep tabs on this and possibly reach out to you. I think that'd be fun. So let's, let me go ahead and shift gears here because, you know, part of our offline In conversation you have shared with me that you are what you call yourself like an accidental entrepreneur. I mean, you have been a certified tour guide. And I've worked in the tour guide industry professionally, you know, with organizations for some time now. But then you, you found yourself in entrepreneurship. So tell tell us that story. And, and I also, what I also like about your story, I'm going to kind of like tease people here is that it wasn't even like this grand gesture of getting into entrepreneurship, you just accidentally fell into it. So tell us about that.

So when I became a tour guide, my goal, my plan, you know, how plans are, was to be a contractor with other tour companies. So there's a, you know, every single tour company out there has to have tour guides, and there's tour guides, who will take you to the national parks, and there's tour guides, or tour directors who will take you to see the fall colors in New England, and there's tour guides who will show students around Washington, DC, and most of those tour guides are working contractually, or as employees for other companies. And that was always my plan. You know, my prior, my prior experience with being in the workforce was always as an employee. So that was just what I was familiar with. And there was plenty of opportunity out there. So my very, very first tour with a large group was supposed to be March 18 2020. That did not happen.

Okay, that sounds like an interesting, right. Yeah,

that did not happen. And so I was, you know, home like everybody else, I learned to bake bread in a Dutch oven, and I did puzzles, and all those good things. And then my husband was home a lot, too. He was actually working outside of the Intel world for a little while on a policy thing. So he could actually work a bit from home. And so he was only going to the office every so often they are kind of rotating. And so he was here and I was just antsy. I'm like, I just developed all these skills and, you know, attained all this knowledge, and I want to share it with people. And at the same time in some of the Facebook groups, that Facebook groups that I'm in and such, I'm watching all of these military families still moving to the National Capital Region, and they're so bored, and they're so lonely, and their kids aren't going to school and they're not meeting their neighbors and their household goods are taking forever. So they're sleeping on, you know, inflatable mattresses, and I said, I told my husband, like I have this skill. And I see this group of people who could take advantage of it because we were allowed to be outside together in the summer of 2020, we had to be masked, and I ended up investing in like a, like audio devices so that I had a transmitter and people have receivers so that we could be socially distanced. But that came later. First, I was just like, well, what if I just like form an LLC and and start offering to take military people for a walk, you know, like, teach them to ride Metro. And my husband was super encouraging. He's he is so encouraging of everything that I'm doing. He's my biggest champion, and he's my Uber, he drops me off and picks me up whenever he can hit my husband, Uber.

Love it. I just connected it. I love that my

daughter, my husband. So So I put together this LLC in like January to April, it was not easy. It was hard to open a business bank account and COVID. So things took time i But eventually, I got it all lined up. And I offered a few kind of practice tours to some people who had been cheering me on from this one particular Facebook group called gams. And I practiced a little bit figured out what I needed to work on, figured out what worked, what didn't. And then I think in September of 2020, actually started like, charging for tours. And I worked, I worked the whole time. And my so many of my tour guide friends and peers were, you know, a little jelly, because I have found a way to continue to work. And so many of them were really suffering or had to move on to other other work, you know, if they were the primary wage earner in their household, they were doing becoming flight attendants or, you know, working in grocery stores, you know, all those kinds of things. And I was able to, to practice my craft. And now, Don, the tour guide, which is the name of my company is my COVID silver lining, it's the best thing that came out of COVID. For me.

Yeah. And tell us a little bit about how, because I know that one thing I've often found when in the entrepreneurial journey, sorry. What I have often found in the entrepreneurial journey is that you do not do it alone. So in addition, or you have like support for that. So in addition to, you know, your husband slash Uber, you know, being your champion and support system. I'm sure that there are you know, other people who have helped you and I know that the Rosie network was part of that right

100% Yeah, so I At that same time when I was putting out these little inquiries on that, again, that one Facebook group gams, which has 1000s of spouses in the DC area in it, what I was like, I'm thinking about doing this, if I did this, would you guys show up? Like, should I, and I got tons of encouragement from that whole community. And then one person hopped in there and said, Hey, if you're thinking of starting a business, you should apply to the Rosie network. I never heard of it. I immediately Googled it. And I think I applied that day. And it just so happened that the cohort that was at Fort Belvoir was like getting ready to interview. I mean, the timing, everything just lined out perfectly. I was accepted into that cohort, it was an incredible cohort, I am still friends with many of the women who were in that cohort with me, we it happened to all be women. I know not all cohorts are like that, but ours was. And and I just got so much encouragement and garnered so much wisdom from everybody who was a part of that journey with me. And I, I'm so grateful, and that Rosie network has continued to be very supportive of me since then, you know, they're the ones who connect me with you.

Oh, yeah. Well, you're welcome. No kidding. I am curious to know, so I think what's, uh, what's amazing about your story, because I definitely heard, you know, let's say some people go through the cohort program, and it's sort of first time being an entrepreneur. And so some of them don't actually end up pursuing their business. It was it was more of like, education, like, okay, so this is what it would take. But like you, you already had, what it took, I mean, you had the experience, you have, you know, the, the credibility, you know, the licensing, like, you know, the experience. And so it must have been, I guess what I'm most curious about is what, what was what were maybe one of the two or three, or main thing that you learned going through the rosary network.

So I think for me, I had a whole lot of enthusiasm, but not a whole lot of organization. You know, I really had never even worked in a for profit business besides this gift shop in Old Town Alexandria, where I worked for a couple of years as a salesperson, and you know, the, the owner of the store were great friends, but she would get so frustrated with me because she would like if they bring up the platter, tell them there's a matching bowl, and I'm like, I can't, that's not they don't want the ball. Like I can't push it on them. And so I couldn't upsell you know, I was just the worst in that regard. And, and so that was just not something that I had any knowledge about. And so just the basics of like getting a mission statement, putting together a foundation, you know, building a skeleton upon which to build my business, I don't know how I would have done that. Because it was not something. And if they hadn't held my feet to the fire, if I had just, like, watched a YouTube video and learned what to do, I would not have done it. So I needed the accountability, the of the Rosie network. And the accountability, like having to meet up with my cohort and like, you know, I didn't want to have to sit and do my homework. So yeah, it was it was, I think, for me, the the education about being a business owner. And little, you know, I mean, like we learned about insurance like I had is so boring to me, I, but I understand it's essential. And I have it, I'm proud to say, yeah, right. That's awesome. But But yeah, all of those things that are not innately part of just even my I don't think my basic makeup as a human. But the Rosie network made sure I knew about all those things. And then they made sure that I was actually doing those things. And then they helped gave me feedback, and helped me get just the right mission statement and all those things. And I can tell you, I would not have done all of that without them.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm curious to I'm curious to hear the mental shift for you when you know going back to your store and how you couldn't sell that extra dish, you know, to complement that one dish. Like, what was the mental shift for you that you learned in the Rosi network to be like, I can't upsell?

Well, I'm going to tell you right now that if anyone from my rosy network cohort is watching this, they're still gonna say that I'm not charging enough. I know they will. They're all just like, you need to charge more you need to know your worth. You need to, you know, and I know they're not wrong. And I have raised my prices once just so they know.

But y'all heard it here.

Exactly. Um, but I also I it's also really, really important to me, because I would say probably and I'm totally estimating here what I said probably a percent of my private business because I still do do that contracting work as well. I still do do that. So I have a lot of variety in my work, which I really love. Yeah. But in my private business, I would say probably 80% Have my clientele. My guests are military affiliated. And it's really, really important to me that anyone can afford my services. I want every single family who moves to the Washington DC area, who's interested in getting a tour to be able to go. And so I'm conscientious about not over pricing and knocking out a portion of the people who I'm trying to serve, because I definitely have like a service motivation. My motivation is to serve. And I think you can see that in all the other careers that I had before. And, you know, when I was in the homeschool community, I ended up as the president of my homeschool group, you know, just like, love it. I just Yeah, thanks. My family was like, What are you doing, but um, I don't know, that's just kind of who I am. And so I have raised my prices, but I want to remain in a place where everyone who wants to can head out with me. And because I have a soft spot for homeschoolers, I even do like a special pricing for homeschoolers, because you know, per person pricing for a family with one income and six kids is a lot. Yeah, and I still want their kids to be able to get out to so I'll do special programs for homeschool community. So I don't know that I truly learned all of the lessons of being an entrepreneur. And let's be honest, I have another huge advantage compared to some of my cohorts or some not cohorts, like my rosy cohorts, but my peers in the in the targeting community, while my income is significantly contributing to my household, I am not the primary wage earner, right, I would probably have to operate a little bit differently if I was, but I have that freedom.

Yeah, and I know that we mentioned this a little offline, but like you definitely are doing for yourself, you're doing a lot better financially than prior to being an entrepreneur and I love hearing how, even as an entrepreneur, you're still you still get contracted to, you know, work for other companies. And so I think the important thing when we talk about even financial awareness is recognizing, like, where are your sources of income coming from, and part of that part of part of your fortunate situation is, you know, having your husband as part of the breadwinner, and, you know, that is, I think that is completely okay, because I somehow I feel like when people get into entrepreneurship, they think that they need to, like be the number one breadwinner or like, you know, make a million dollars and, and it's really just about, like, knowing, like, what works best for you and your family and how you want to contribute. And, you know, there's so many layers to it, but to think that entrepreneurship is like, Okay, I'm gonna replace my husband's income, I'm gonna retire him, he's gonna stay home. Like, you don't have to go there. You don't have to do that.

I don't have to do that. And here's another thing I learned a long time ago, but I struggle with it all the time. And I think a lot of us do, I don't know if it's ego or what, but, you know, I did figure out a long time ago that just because I can do something doesn't mean I have to do it. And so, you know, people will be like, you could take over the world. And I'm like, maybe I could, but I don't think I want to, you know, I I like to have some work life balance. You know, my husband and I, we like each other. I don't always want to be on tour. Like, I don't go over the road a lot. You know, a lot of my friends travel for tour guiding. I don't do that very much. I like my bed. I like my pillow. Yeah, could I be making more money if I went over the road, possibly. But it's just not my primary motivation it is it is one of many motivations. And so, like, I'm so proud after 15 years of, you know, not earning $50 I love I love my husband a gift with money that I earned. I love feeling like, you know, I helped pay for our vacation, or, or I helped pay for this stupid new car that we had to buy because our old ones didn't pass inspection. You know, like, like, the fact that I have an income made that less painful and a time when we really weren't planning to do that. So I know that I'm contributing in meaningful ways to my family because of what I'm doing. And that's enough. That's enough for me.

There you go. Period. Yeah. Done. No, no, I love that. I love that. And I, you know, that's definitely one of the themes we hope to cover on the show and we speak with people like you've done is like being financially content. You know, I think I think that's kind of the word that just came to mind for me. It's like it's not having to make all the big bucks and yes, we could yes, you could, like you said, like I could it there's a possibility. But I'm content, I'm contented. Their circumstances, I'm content. I want to have a good work life balance. Like I like my husband, you know, like, spend time with him. And I really liked that. I liked that a lot because there's there it feels like there's like a steadiness with you like like a level Have contentment and satisfaction. And yes, we can also say that they're, you know, some days you want more or less or whatever, but it sounds like you, you are really you know who you are. And, and I know we talked about this offline as well, but like you really are kind of in the best season of your life right now like doing something, doing something you love, as well as, you know, making a living with it.

Yeah, I definitely, like I have had such a beautiful life. I mean, it's, it's not that it hasn't had its down points it has, and it's suffering it has, but I'm just I'm so loved by really wonderful people. And I've had incredible adventures, I love you know, I loved being a mom, I love to being a homeschool mom, all of those things, but I have never felt so much myself as I do right now. Like, I just am in a place in my life where I am getting to be me. And it's incredible. And it's kind of fun, and I sort of like, and not that it wasn't me before I was me, but I was me. You know, running my, in my household, I was me educating my child, I was me, you know, doing all the things that we do when we're younger. And all of a sudden, I'm sort of free to make a lot of choices that are just about me, and don't necessarily have a whole lot to do with anybody else. And I'm not sure that I've ever really been in that position. You know, and I think maybe when I was, you know, just in my 20s out of college, I probably kind of was in that place, but I was chasing a lot of things I wanted to grow up I wanted, you know, I wasn't financially stable in the way that I am now. So decisions were a lot more limited. You know, choices, I guess we're a lot more limited. So yeah, like I was just telling somebody the other day, I'm 53 years old. And it was one of my was one of the bus drivers that I work with. And he was teasing me he's like, Well, you're probably 29 And I'm like, No, I wouldn't be 29. Again, for anything. Like for me thing. I am so cool with being 53 I just am I just I'm in a good place.

Yeah, it sounds like you know, you, you acknowledge and appreciate your journey up until this point. And now you love who you are now, you know, you also love who you are now. And I think that's, that's beautiful to be so present in that way. And I agree with you like I'm in my 30s. And I'm just so over my like I like I feel like 20s for me was it was just, you know, like you said, it's a time of growth. It's a time of chasing things. It's a time of establishing yourself. And I feel like now that I'm in my 30s I'm like, I just feel more relaxed than I feel like I've ever been in my life. I mean, you know, I know I have a long way to go. But like now it's like, you know, I like this version where it doesn't feel like I have to chase you know, I can just take it easy, like I know I'm loved and cared for and provided for I'm pursuing the things that I enjoy. And that that is enough. That isn't enough. And I hear that a lot from your from your story as well, Don.

Thanks. Yes, I agree. And I will say that if you know, I because I have been pressed, like if you could stay any age forever, what would it be? And so 35 is where I landed. So should I 55 There you go. You're right in that space, but it's exactly what you just described. I remember being 35 You know, I was my body was still young, you know. And, but my I felt very established, I felt very, my confidence levels were high. You know, like I knew who I was probably not in the way that I know who I am today, but enough that I felt on solid ground. So yeah, if when pressed 35 is where I go, but I really don't mind being the opposite of that. I guess it 53

Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's it's it's very inspiring. And you know, part of my joy of interviewing military spouses is just hearing this wisdom and this satisfaction and contentment with your season and stage of life. It just continues to inspire me to appreciate my own journey and where I'm at right now. So thank you for that. You're welcome. Yeah, well, as we wrap up, Dawn, I feel like there are so many takeaways from your story that we can share with our military community specifically and one of them is that the fact that mobile career opportunities exist especially for military spouses. So let's talk a little bit about you know, why why you would recommend a military spouse to get into the tour the tour guide industry.

Absolutely, if that is something that I I would love to do and you know, even just from a selfish standpoint, you know, as my company has kind of grown, I have entertained bringing on other tour guides but because I feel like I have this niche kind of situation. I feel like I really want to bring on other military spouses, you know, even if, you know doesn't have to be active duty it could be retired, I mean, we're headed in that direction. And, and so but I want I feel like, I feel like there's a special connection between me and the military families that I serve. And if I was to bring other tour guides on with any kind of regularity, I think that that connection would be an important one. So I'd love just selfishly to see more military spouses doing this work. But when I first decided to go into targeting, I did not realize that we would be staying here for as long as we have, we've been here for six years now. And now we're looking at retiring and staying in this area, again, you know how plans are, but that is the plan. Which is awesome, because that means I get to keep doing this here. But the reality is, I could do this anywhere. For one thing, if we moved to someplace that didn't have a tourism industry, I could primarily just do the over the road work. And I know the companies that I work for here in DC, a few of them would fly me out here to work for them, they're not going to let me go just because I don't live locally anymore. So that would be an option for me. But you know, any place that has history, you can set up a little walk into your company, or you can go work at a local museum, you know, I know, I wouldn't have been able to do the work that I do now. And I had a young child, but I had he been in school during the day, I could have worked part time at a local museum, or for a local walk into a company that did morning walks, or there's just so many different ways that this can look and grow and change over time. I mean, you know, I sometimes walk 12 miles a day, right? Now, I may reach a point where that's not an option for me. And then I could go back into possibly working in a museum or in a, you know, a national park setting, even as a volunteer. There's just so many places in ways that these skills are transferable and flexible. And, you know, it was something I could have even done, have we gone back overseas, because as long as I was working for an American company, I would have been able to continue to work. So you know, I just feel especially overseas military spouses are so limited in, in what they can do professionally, or just even to get out of the house. And we don't all want to work at the PX. You know, yeah. Um, and while that gives you community, and that's worth a got value. There are should be other options for us, I think. And this I feel like is one of them that people don't really know about. And also there's a million different ways to be a great tour guide. If anyone's listening to this, and they're like, Yeah, but I, you know, I, I'm not like Don, like Don is different from me, that's okay. There are a million ways to be a successful tour guide. It's all about intention and interest in the guest experience. If you care about people, and you're interested in anything, it doesn't have to be history, it can be you can work in a nature park and talk about trees. If people are interested in that, and you're interested in them, you can win. So yeah, I wish more people knew about it, and we're pursuing it.

Yeah, absolutely. And on that note, that also reminds me, that part of your story is thinking outside of the box, you know, like, I know that for you, you knew that you wanted to work with people, you started to have a love for history. And and, and you just needed to find an outlet for it. And even if even though you did not know that something like this existed, it took you talking to someone about it for them to say, hey, you know, you could actually get licensed and tour guide, become a tour guide, a tour guide expert, I guess you would say a tour guide. And so tell us a little bit about the importance of, you know, encouraging our military community to think outside of the box and the benefits of that.

Yeah, I think that I think that thinking outside of the box is very liberating, especially for military spouses, because there are so many limitations, as we move around with our service member that impede our ability to succeed, often in more traditional ways. Not because we don't have the capacity, but we just don't have the bandwidth. We don't have the access, continuous access to opportunity. You know, some people who are licensed, you know, your license to be a teacher or a nurse in one state, you move to another state, you're no longer licensed to do that. This this licensing, you know, sometimes like in Washington, DC, you have to have a special license to tour guide in Washington, DC, but it's incredibly easy to get other cities don't have those licenses at all. So I think that honestly, and I almost hate to say it because I don't encourage this but you can actually be a tour guide without even going through any kind of certification. I don't encourage that I think as a well trained tour guide really matters. Because you learn a lot about the ethics of tour guiding you learn a lot about the courtesy of tour guiding you learn a lot about how to use language in in ways that are powerful and meaningful and thoughtful. Oh, yeah. And you know, that's not our job as tour guides is never to tell people how to think it's not our job to share our opinions, it's not our job to say this is how you should feel about this. And this is how you should feel about that. It's our job to give them the information and invite them to engage in some critical thinking or some imaginative thinking to come to their own conclusions. And training helps you build those skills. Also, usually, when you're in a training environment, you're you get connected to a group of tour guides who are going through with you and those people become some of your best friends in the industry. You find each other jobs, you connect each other to opportunities, the networking that comes through that training is is difficult to build outside of it. Because you just it grows, you know, your peers, they just share those connections with you until your world is, you know, sometimes I'm out in DC and my guests the group that I'm with, they're like, do you know everybody? Not everybody. But you know, because I'm constantly running into my friends. We're all at Arlington Cemetery. We're all down at the Lincoln Memorial. I know a lot of the coach motorcoach operators who drive the buses that keep us safe and get us where we need to go. And I know people in the venues that we visit on a regular basis. And and all of that started with those first relationships that I made in my training.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, speaking of which, that also reminds me about, you know, one, one, thinking outside the box and to talking about your wants, and, you know, the fact that you have people that you can so called friends and kind of like an extended family, you know, shows that you were very vocal about wanting the things that you want, even if at the time you didn't fully know that it was going to end up, you know, becoming a licensed tour guide.

Yeah. Well, I think I knew that. I mean, no, I just know me, I'm not one to sit still, I'm terrible pop culture, because I don't really watch television. I you know, I haven't even been to a movie theater. I don't know. I mean, definitely pre COVID. I just, I remember like a voracious audiobook listener, and I love on my time off to go, like, last weekend, my husband and I went took a tour of the Kennedy Center, because I'd never had an official tour. Like, that's literally what I do in my time off. And so I just knew I wasn't going to be happy if I didn't have a purpose, after my son was gone from the house. And if I'm not happy, everybody's miserable. You know, you know, I, my husband comes home, and I'm grouchy. And I'm, you know, bored. And that's just ugly. So I knew and that was part of why I started working in the gift shop even before my son went away to college was just because I knew that I needed those relationships, and I needed people who were waiting for me and counting on me. And that gift shop is really where I started to learn the history of Alexandria, which I'm a very competent Alexandria tour guide now, and that time at the Old Town shop is what kind of got me my foundation in that regard. So, but I also knew that retail sales wasn't really like, fill in my cup. So yeah, I encourage everybody to find their passion and pursue it, and do it in a way that, you know, enhances the lives of the people around you, not in a selfish way, but in a in a way that serves you and fills your cup. So that, you know, when then you just have more to give, I think,

yeah, you can't fill fraud, or you can't fill other people's cup from an empty cup. Right and as be overflowing, right, and yeah, well, while DON What What an incredible story, what an incredible journey, you know, and becoming an actual accidental entrepreneur and just being where you're at today, you know, your self awareness, your financial contentment, you know, with where you're at, and the ability to, you know, the kind of like the, the healthy. I'm gonna call it like the healthy anxiousness to not stay still is really, what got you to be where you are today and to stay active and hands on with your life. And I'm just in admiration of it. And I really do appreciate sharing your story with us. And, you know, as we start to wrap up here, I just want to make sure that you said everything you wanted to say, for your story today. So is there anything else that you'd like to share with our audience before I turn the tables and see if you have a question for me?

I don't think so. I feel like we've really touched on a lot of things here. I would just like to invite anyone who might be listening to this any you know, military spouse or anybody who's kind of curious about the tourism industry to or specifically tour guiding not just the tourism industry, but specifically being a tour guide or a tour director to feel free to reach out to me. Everything is done the tour guide my all my socials on Facebook and Instagram and my website. It's all done. Tourguide. So I'm pretty easy to find. And I'm happy to answer questions about what this career looks like and how it works and how it might work in different phases and stages. And if you're interested in training programs, I can recommend a couple that I've had personal experience with would be my pleasure to do that and bring you into the into the fold. Even if you don't end up pursuing it, you know, if you're just curious, I would. And if you're in the DC area, and you're really curious, I wouldn't mind having a small team of contractual military spouse tour guides who are able to help me because like I do multiday student tours, I just came off of one two days ago, I go back out on Tuesday. And so when I'm doing that for four days in a row working 14 hour days, you know, I'm not available to do private tours. So if I had some people who wanted to do that, I'd love to work with them. Yeah. And I'd love to encourage them.

Well, there you have it. Add for our listeners here. Reach out to don the tour guide. Awesome. Well,

thank you so much. Obviously, if someone wants a tour, they can contact me too. I guess I should actually sell my business.

There you go. This is your cohort members, St. John, remember to promote yourself.

Oh, by the way, if you can pay me to show you around if you want to.

Yeah. Love it. Love it. Well, Don, I just want to take this loss, this final opportunity to, you know, turn the table around and just see if you had any questions for me, as the host of the show. Any questions are I mean, I'll let you know if I'm okay with it. But yeah, if you have any questions, I'm open to hearing it. Well, I

think it's funny, because when, when you kind of warned me that you were going to ask me that. I was like, Oh, I don't know if I have any questions. But as we've been talking, I do kind of have a question. And it's very specific to my story. Yeah. And and to your story, because you shared that you're going to be coming up here. So I'm curious. If you do make your way up here, and you did want to see something new and different, like, what do you think you would be most interested in? Because it's just so endless up here? The things that

yeah, you know, I went to DC a couple years ago, actually, I went to Arlington. Okay, funny story. So for my birthday a couple years ago in December, so my birthday is December 15. And my husband thought it would be a great idea to go to the Arlington Cemetery, and place wreaths on the cemeteries and, and I was open to it because I am a Gold Star family member and my dad's cemetery or his marker is in Fort Rosecrans in San Diego. And I never knew that the community would put REITs on on the markers. And I just thought that was so thoughtful around the holiday season. So I was like, Yeah, I'll do that. So I come out, you know, we go to our LinkedIn, and it just rains all day. Like it's just boring. Oh, pouring rain all day. And it was funny, because I mean, I was I was fortunate because I have like two high school, like two friends from high school, like happened to live out in DC, decided to come celebrate my birthday with me and like put these wreaths out as well. But we were just also drenched. And, and then we went to the Abe Lincoln monument, because that was like the one place where we could avoid the rain. Yeah, you could go inside. So all that being said, I feel like I mean, I still got a lot out of that experience. And you know, I am a winter baby. So I'm not like, you know, depressed. I wasn't sad that it was like rainy, if anything, it just made for an even more interesting experience. Like, yeah, I'm going to a cemetery on my birthday. And it's raining. It's great. But I think for me, like I would like to if I were to get Yeah, when I go to DC. I think I think I would like a very like 101 Like, level tour because I'm bringing my friend from California who has my same California adequate education plan and quotes here. And and I think it'd be great to just have that one on one like tour. So what would that look like? You know, if you were to, I guess tour as well, I guess one of those go to boot. That's what I'm really curious about like, what, what are like the initial takeaways we should take from DC?

I think yeah, I mean, given what you just explained to me, and by the way, just side note reads across America, amazing. I love participating in that it is I love that every year, every single name and that Orleans that cemetery every single veterans name gets said aloud. I love touring in Arlington. I love taking people there. So that's a really, really special and cool experience. And I actually want to try to facilitate making it easier for local families to get out and do that because it can be kind of intimidating. So it's one of my dreams is to make that an easier access for folks. But that was a an aside. So I think based on what you just said, probably like a just a straight up National Mall tour where we talk about, you know, you mean, it's so it's a long time and you can do it over a course of a day with a few breaks or whatever. But, you know, you can go from the Supreme Court, to the White House to the Lincoln Memorial. There's places where you can get up high and take in views and see that National Coffee he'd roll up on the hilltop, there's places where you can, you know, find little hidden treasures, and some of the monuments and memorials that people don't necessarily know about if no one's there to share it with you. And on a beautiful day in September, it's way nicer. Yeah, it's a guess. Exactly. Then, like what I'm going to be doing with my sweet, sweet school from Iowa next week, when they're all just going to be out there. Like, you know, I'm just going to be constantly forcing hydration on them. Yeah, August. Yeah, yeah. But there's so much to see up close and personal on the National Mall. And I know, for some people, that probably feels a little cliche, but I really think that there's so many other stories that you can, you can learn about in Washington, DC, and it's endless. But I think that those foundational things are, which are what help the rest of the stories. Give the rest of the stories context. Context is everything. So yeah. Okay, that's interesting. Yeah.

Well, I'll definitely keep that in mind. Yeah. And, you know, I have your contact now.

And if you don't contact me, I won't be mad. I know, there's so much time. I was just curious, like, I wonder what she is interested in seeing because it's, um, those are hard choices to make. There's a lot.

Yeah, because my mindset is okay, my friend. Like we're actually this is like, really random, but we're going to DC or Mechanicsville, I think more specifically to run a Spartan Race like a 5k with a bunch of obstacles. It's muddy, it's disgusting, but it's great. And then the next day, she wanted to spend a day in DC. So that's partly why I'm asked because it's like, what can we cover? Like, how much ground can we actually cover in a day? So I do appreciate that recommendation? And we'll definitely keep that in mind.

Yeah, sounds good.

Well done. What Wow, what a pleasure. Thank you for you know, educating me on the tour guide industry. Thank you for sharing your story. And, you know, thank you for humanizing history. And it just you make it more interesting, and I'm intrigued and it's been such a pleasure having you on our show. So thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thanks for the opportunity. It's been really fun.

My pleasure. All right, and then give me one second here.