At Invisible Cities, our guides are at the centre of everything we do. So we have asked them to tell us, in their own voice, about their experience: how they first found out about Invisible Cities, what they prefer about their tours or what their goals and dreams are.
Today, we are starting with Paul, our Edinburgh guide. His tour, Leith: The Trainspotting Generation is getting more and more popular. Here is what he says:
“I first became involved with Invisible Cities in January 2018, after successfully completing my Tour Guide training. Right after, I then attended Edinburgh College and launched my own Tour in June last year during the Leith Festival. Since then I have done loads of Tours including working on Boxing Day and I had two Tours on New Year’s Day!
I really enjoyed working for Social Bite last April when we were part of the team that provided the tours in the Social Bite Village. I was also the first tour guide to do a tour in Glasgow on social enterprises and I have also done some social enterprise tours in Edinburgh with our founder and big boss Zakia.
Doing the research for my tours was amazing and has piqued an interest in gaining full time employment in this field and indeed I have recently attended an interview with 8 production companies including the BBC. I also got a full time temporary job as an Executive Chauffeur/ Tour Guide last year and this has given me the confidence to set up my own Tour Guide company in 2019. I am working with Crisis in applying for a Changing Lives Grant to set up my company, and Zakia has also been very supportive in this decision.
At Invisible (Edinburgh) we often receive guests, who tell us about their work, or the training they offer and after talking about writing with Sian from Edinburgh City of Literature, I have decided to write my own book! I have already written 4000 words.
Today, I also hope to become a mentor for one or two guides and help out as much as I can. But my ultimate dream is to become a motivational speaker, a TV / Radio presenter or researcher, as well as doing my tour guide work with Invisible Cities, so watch this space and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, as you can if you apply yourself properly, take responsibility, don’t self sabotage and try not to procrastinate too much! If I can achieve this, then anyone can, my word of the Year is EXUBERANCE, as if you are going to do something, do it with exuberance!”
Interested in booking Paul’s tour? You can do it here!
