On Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 80 (How 2 Tuesday #29), I answer a listener question from Paul Manoogian, a guide just starting out: what are the top five things you need to be a successful fishing guide? I worked my way from number five down to number one, and then added the one thing that holds all of it together. The list is professionalism and business sense, happy customers over big numbers, communication, patience, and hard work, plus taking care of yourself. This is a solo How 2 Tuesday, and it is one of the most honest answers I have given.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · or press play in the player above.
I lay out five, counting down from five to one. Number five is understanding that guiding is a business that demands professionalism, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Number four is remembering that success is not about the biggest or the most fish, it is about happy customers who return. Number three is communication, number two is patience, and number one is hard work. Holding all of it together is the single thing I jotted down before I started: you have to take care of yourself.
Yes, and that is the part I did not understand when I started. I thought guiding was something you did for a summer, not a career, so I never studied how to run it. It is a business that requires and deserves professionalism in how you show up, how you maintain your equipment, and how you present yourself. If I could do it over, I would study marketing and entrepreneurship before I ever launched, because the best fishermen still go out of business when they cannot run the business.
No, and a lot of new guides get this backward. It matters to put good fish in the boat, but the real measure of success is whether your customer has a great experience. A great day can happen with only a few fish, or just some small ones. Happy customers are the ones who come back, and a business built on return customers is a successful business.
They are one of the biggest factors that separate a good guide from a great one who is booked for life. Communication starts before you ever meet the client, on the phone and on social media, where you set expectations about what the day can realistically be. If you are shy, you can work on it through public speaking courses or Toastmasters, because you are talking in front of people every single day on the water.
Longer than you think, and that is where patience comes in. Almost no one starts out booked three hundred days a year. Most of the guides who look like an overnight success are an overnight success ten or twenty years in the making. It comes down to time on the water and the word getting around, and both of those take years on the job.
Take care of yourself. Being a professional in the outdoors means being at the top of your game physically, emotionally, and spiritually. You need exercise, healthy food, real hydration, and a little quiet time for yourself, because the sun and the environment squeeze the water out of you like a sponge every day. Hard work is number one on the list, and taking care of yourself is what makes the hard work possible.
Here is the countdown I gave Paul, from number five to number one, with the one habit that ties them all together.
I tell the stories behind every one of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Hard work landed at number one on my list, and I was honest about what that means. If someone had told me at the start exactly how hard I was going to have to work to reach the kind of success I have had as a guide, on television, and with this podcast, I might have thought twice about the whole thing. I never stop working, on the water, in the office, in the edit studio, talking to sponsors, maintaining relationships. The benefit is that it is fishing, the thing I wanted to do. I walk through what a real guiding day looks like in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Communication is the skill I did not realize mattered until much later, and I wish someone had warned me how many ways it shows up. It starts before you ever meet a client, in your messages and the way you talk about your guide service. On that first phone call you find out what someone actually wants, and sometimes you are not the right guide for the job. Passing a trip to the right person comes back to you tenfold. I explain how I learned to set expectations and read what a client really needs in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Right before I began, I jotted down one note and then rudely looked at the computer to read it. That note was the real number one: you have to take care of yourself. Being a professional active person in the outdoors means staying at the top of your game physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The people who seem to do well without it are outliers. I describe the hydration, exercise, and quiet time that keep me going day after day in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The day after recording this, the thing that stays with me is how much these five lessons cost me to learn the hard way. I came up through this business not knowing it was a business, and I would hand any new guide this list to save them years of trial and error.
All of these are my opinion, drawn from my own experience guiding, building a television show, and now this podcast. Talk to another guide and they might rank them differently, but if you put professionalism, happy customers, communication, patience, and hard work together, and take care of yourself, you are going to see success. Press play in the player above.
Paul Manoogian (listener question) · professional fishing guide business · marketing and entrepreneurship · happy customers and return business · communication skills · Toastmasters and public speaking · patience and time on the water · hard work · taking care of yourself · Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins · How 2 Tuesday · Saltwater Experience
How 2 Tuesday is my weekly series where I break down one fishing skill at a time, from knots and casting to gear, tactics, and the habits that make you a better angler. Watch and listen to every How 2 Tuesday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I break down one practical skill or lesson at a time, from fishing technique and gear to business, travel, and the mindset that built my career in the outdoors, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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