Sandcurves

Guiding was an intense job, with a steep learning curve, and many things that I learned carried over significantly to my blogging. 

In February 1998, armed with some nature conservation knowledge and a heavy duty truck license I came to Namibia to begin the adventure of becoming a tour guide. 

Little did I know that twelve years, one wedding and two kids later, I'd still be involved with the whole industry. 

In that time I have done all sorts of guiding jobs, from big groups to private tours, from massive journeys to lodge guiding.  From the super rich guests to journalists on educationals.  From big companies to freelancing.  I've done lots of stuff, and its been interesting and [mostly] very enjoyable. 

The most significant guiding job I've had was working as a nature guide at a lodge, which I did in the Sossusvlei area for nearly 7 years.  I was involved in training around 25 guides to a varying degree.  Although I was in management for some of that time, I was always close to the guiding and still took the odd drive or walk myself. 

Prior to guiding I was a student and used to writing stuff when I was out in nature - so I just carried on doing it.  These notebooks helped me in many ways.  I started doing sightings reports that eventually led me to blogging. 

But that's a different story.  Guiding is very much a people job, and many of the lessons I learned while I was a guide apply very well to blogging.  Let's look at some of them. 

You Need To Be Ten Times More Interesting Than The Next Guy

In Namibia travelers see a Springbok (a common antelope species in Namibia) repeatedly during their travels around the country.  As you start out your game drive with them, they often cut you off with "Yeah, we already know everything there is to know about Springbok". 

It didn't have to be Springbok, it could be an Oryx, the sand dunes, or one of a number of things we'd commonly encounter on desert excursions. 

After years of suffering this blow to my drive I came up with a way to cope.  Not just cope, but to turn it around and use it in my favor. 

I'd smile, say "okay", and drive past the Springbok, past the next one, perhaps two or three more and then, while still driving I'd point to one and say "I'm sure you've chatted about why Springbok all point their bums to the sun in the hot time of the day".  The guests would answer something like "Doesn't it have something to do with heat".  They would know in that second that there was a lot more to Springbok than they'd thought. 

We'd chat about that a little (short axes of their body, white parts, pronk hair, and the overall reflectivity of the body, the cost of sweat in a desert....), and carry on.  Then, if it was this time of year (August to December) I would say something like "What do Springbok eat?", and they'd answer "Grass".  Then I would say "Just watch the Springbok and see if a single one of them is eating grass.…"

By this point they'd be sold and totally convinced that I knew way more than any guide they'd already had on their trip.  It might seem like cheap tricks.  But I can tell you, many of those guests hung on every word I said for the rest of the drive.  It almost never failed. 

But there's one key to this kind of trick - it had to be backed up by solid field knowledge.  If you tried to pull it off when you didn't know what you're talking about, it will backfire. 

I was lucky - I had a nice niche that I could almost wrap up.  In blogging you're competing for reader's attention with millions of blogs.  Millions!  The challenge of separating yourself from the bloggerdom mass, and staying in a popular enough space that people read your stuff is a serious challenge. 

Blog Stories

Some guides have a good field knowledge, but they lose their audience when it comes to engagement.  When they take their guests on a game drive it sounds like they're reciting textbooks. 

As someone who's done a little guide training, I know that its one of the key early steps, teaching your guides that the knowledge is only a tool for interpreting what you're seeing in the field, and the guiding should actually be relating the story of what is going on around you when you're out in the field. 

Without the knowledge you're either telling the guests what they can see with their own eyes, some over-used guiding crutches (the stories that every guide tells), or you're telling lies and making it all up.  Trust me, more guides than you think are making up a lot of what they're telling you, partly because they think it doesn't matter. 

It doesn't work. 

I could write a book about it.  Someone already did (Garth Thompson's Guides Guide to Guiding). 

In blogging terms the same applies, even if the skills aren't exactly the same.  One of the best ways to pull your readers into the information you're presenting is to frame it as a story.  Here is a nice post on writing better by thinking in stories (not mine). 

Visuals are Powerful

As you know, people make up their mind about a blog within seconds of arriving on the page.  You had an opinion of this blog long before you read these words. 

As a guide in one of the most spectacular desert landscapes on the planet, I managed not to become to blazé.  I loved seeing someone there for the first time, on a day when the light was just awesome, and to hear, from the back of the car, one simple word.  It could be muttered under their breath or exclaimed loudly.  That didn't matter.  I'd know the day was successful if I heard one simple word uttered - "Wow!" 

There's one important thing to understand, we were just looking at sand - a lot sand, but sand none the less.  And this, I think, is the blogging lesson in it, you don't want all the bells and whistles, keep your blog very simple, but, simple doesn't mean ugly. 

It'll still take me some time but its certainly something I'll continue to strive for as I tweak away at Sandcurves.com - I'm aiming, like I'm sure you are too, for the day that someone opens my blog and utters that word, "Wow!". 

I'll blog more about my thoughts on the visual aspect of a blogging later in my theme of creating meaningful blogs.

Keep People Engaged

When you're new to guiding, complaints are the thing you fear the most.  But after some time on the job your main concern becomes apathy, guests who just don't care. 

If you're showing and talking with all the enthusiasm you can muster and the guests are not buying into the experience, at some point one starts to ask "Are these folks on the right tour?" 

But mostly the problem wasn't that acute, you simply lost the attention of the guests somewhere during the day.  Perhaps you got to technical, gave to much information too fast, or perhaps you didn't give information when it was needed. 

As a guide, I could see people's faces.  When you're blogging you don't have that luxury, and so you have to guess.  You have some help from tools like Google's Analytics, your comments and retweets.  One way to cultivate that kind of instinct is to work with people where the feedback loop is predominantly the look on their faces. 

Enjoy Interacting With People Who Are Smarter Than You

I could write a lot about this - its so important.  If you're not an expert, but trying to learn, most of the genuine experts will be only to happy to help you. 

As a nature guide I had the great opportunity to learn from many very knowledgeable people. 

Its important to stop having the view that you must be the expert on everything you blog about, you'll never be.  Rather view yourself as a student along the way, who's keen to share what he/she is learning.  That's exactly why someone like me can talk about writing good blogs - I'm sharing my learning process, well aware that there is still a long way to go. 

A bit of humility while you're learning will mean a lot for your blog as it grows.  The more you're willing, or eager, to listen to those who know more than you, the faster you, yourself, will be considered an authority. 

Good Feedback Feels Good

The header says it all.  An experienced world traveler goes to your general manager when you're a guide and says something like "______ was the best guide we've ever had in 30 years of traveling to Africa".  You are on cloud nine, no matter how macho you are. 

We all love to be loved, to be recognized, to feel like we've achieved something meaningful.  Recognition is all the affirmation we need to make it worth while. 

Use this on the low days.  Ask yourself what kind of comments you'd get if you put in that extra effort.  Get off your bum and write a cracker blog post.  Okay, I guess that you can sit on your bum while you write…

You Can't Please Everyone

Simple one.  In guiding I seriously wanted to please everyone.  I had to learn a hard lesson, you can't. 

You can't please everyone.  You can come close to not upsetting anyone but, if you do, your blog is going to be boring.  You wouldn't enjoy blogging for very long.  Say your say.  Go for it! 

People Jobs as Blog Learning Grounds

I don't mean to make the case that you'll only be a good blogger if you've had a people job.  I'd bet, though, if you've had this kind of work, you'd also say that its had a meaningful impact on the way you write your blog. 

I'm fairly convinced that there's something to it, and so for my next blog post I'm going to do something I hope will be interesting.  I'm going to frame an argument that there's some value to viewing your blog more as public speaking than article writing. 

I have a busy weekend, including two parties to attend and modeling for my wife's Beanbags, but I am hoping to put up the next post by late Monday night. 

Thanks for stopping by, you rock. 

Note:  Garth Thompson's book, though it is getting old, is somewhat of the guiding bible to some.  If you are interested in the book, below is a link to it on Amazon.  [Affiliate Link]  The Guide's Guide to Guiding

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