Guest Bio
Jake Field is the founder and owner of The Ultimate Adventure Travel Company. With over seven years of experience in the travel industry, Jake has led expeditions to iconic destinations such as Everest Base Camp and Mount Kilimanjaro. His passion for adventure and helping others fulfill their bucket-list dreams led him to launch his own travel company. Jake is dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences while guiding travelers through some of the world’s most challenging and awe-inspiring landscapes.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Jake about his path from childhood nature outings to launching The Ultimate Adventure Travel Company. Jake recounts how family influences and a pivotal training experience in Costa Rica shaped his passion for the adventure travel world.
The conversation delves into the challenges of becoming an expedition leader and the behind-the-scenes realities that often contrast with the glamorous image of travel guiding. Jake also discusses the value of networking, the importance of gaining real-world experience, and his advice for aspiring guides who want to break into the industry with purpose and authenticity.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Jake’s journey into adventure travel began with family outings in nature.
- ✓ The decision to pursue a career in adventure travel was influenced by his uncle.
- ✓ Training in Costa Rica was a pivotal experience for Jake.
- ✓ The reality of expedition leading includes challenges not often seen in promotional materials.
- ✓ Networking is crucial in the travel industry, especially for young professionals.
- ✓ Experience gained from bartending helped Jake develop essential people skills.
- ✓ Running a trip to Kilimanjaro boosted Jake’s confidence and credibility.
- ✓ The travel industry is a close-knit community where relationships matter.
- ✓ Aspiring guides should seek opportunities to gain experience before starting their own businesses.
- ✓ It’s important to understand the realities of the travel industry before diving in.
What You’ll Find on The Ultimate Adventure Travel Company
- Bucket-list expeditions to Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, and beyond
- Expertly guided group adventures with a focus on safety and personal growth
- A supportive community for travelers seeking meaningful experiences
- Firsthand insights from seasoned expedition leaders
- Opportunities for new adventurers to gain confidence and skills
- Customizable travel options designed around your adventure goals
👉 Visit The Ultimate Adventure Travel Company Official Website to learn more about Jake and their work.
Learn more about The Ultimate Adventure Travel Company and connect with Jake at:
https://www.ultimateadventuretravel.co.uk/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.399)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast. Today we’ve got Jake Field here with us. He is the owner of the Ultimate Adventure Travel Company. Jake, so happy to have you here today.
Jake Field (00:15.473)
Thanks very much, Jason. Happy to be here.
Jason Elkins (00:17.601)
Well, it’s a pleasure. Maybe our listeners have already could probably guess where you’re at just based on your accent, but let’s not make any assumptions. Jake, where are you located? Where are we? Where are you today?
Jake Field (00:29.184)
So I’m currently in Lincolnshire, which is kind of north of England. I’ve grown up in England. I have traveled around quite a lot, even from a young age, yeah, born and and raised in England.
Jason Elkins (00:39.779)
Very cool. Well, we’re going to get into all that stuff that kind of got you from wherever you were to to where you are now. But let’s do this real quick. Let’s give me maybe like the 30 second elevator pitch for what is the ultimate adventure travel company just so our listeners can kind of get an idea of what you do. But again, 30, 45 seconds and then we’re going to go back in time and discuss how got.
Jake Field (01:02.016)
Yeah, absolutely. I’ll keep it really simple. So the Ultimate Adventure Travel Company is a group travel company that I set up basically focusing on adventure travel. So I target individuals that are looking for a group travel experience and take them on adventure holidays such as climbing Mount Tupacal in Morocco, Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, trips in Europe such as husky sledding in Slovakia. There’s a really big mix of hard adventure and soft adventure.
And then also work quite closely with some charities and private groups as well.
Jason Elkins (01:36.469)
Alright, very cool that it sounds like you’ve practiced that a few times. I was very. I felt bad before I pushed the record button. I said I’m not going to ask you any questions to put you on the spot and then immediately I say OK, what’s your 32nd elevator pitch and I realized but you handled it really, really well. So cool. Thanks. I appreciate that. Alright, now it’s going to get it. Now it’s going to get easier. Let’s go back in time and figure out kind of what started all this for you. Sometimes that happens in childhood. Sometimes it doesn’t happen till later in life, but.
Jake Field (01:40.6)
Hahaha!
Jason Elkins (02:05.623)
How far should we go back to kind of get an understanding of you and what caused you to create this company?
Jake Field (02:11.13)
It’s interesting because I think people naturally assume that I’ve been really outdoorsy from the beginning. I would say probably when I was really young, I was more subjected to the outdoors rather than embracing it and loving it. My parents were quite outdoorsy. I think, you know, when you’re almost made to do something as a child, you end up resenting it a little bit. We used to spend…
Jason Elkins (02:22.723)
Hahaha
Jason Elkins (02:33.289)
No, no, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What do mean? Yeah, I can I can relate to that. So tell us more about that. What were you what were you made to do?
Jake Field (02:37.326)
Yeah.
So it was, my family was always very outdoorsy in the sense that we would go walking every weekend. We grew up, I grew up with dogs, so we would always have to take the dogs for a walk. And I think that almost became a little bit of a chore. You know, we would spend our weekends. Over here, you’ve got places called National Trust properties. So big areas that you can go and walk around. And I think, yeah, about 14, 15, I really started not enjoying that. wanted to be…
Jason Elkins (03:06.947)
you
Jake Field (03:09.91)
out with my friends. I didn’t want to be spending the weekend, you know, going and walking around these old buildings and houses. And now I find myself, that’s exactly what I want to be doing with my weekends. I want to be outside, I want to be exploring.
Jason Elkins (03:22.211)
Isn’t that crazy? Did you have siblings growing up that were kind of made to do these same things?
Jake Field (03:28.638)
Yeah, yeah. So I’ve got two younger sisters who haven’t quite taken to the outdoors in the same way that I have now, but they still do enjoy being outside regularly.
Jason Elkins (03:38.359)
I’m curious how much younger are they?
Jake Field (03:41.966)
So one is… Now you’ve put me on the spot because I’m to get in trouble. No, one is… No, what?
Jason Elkins (03:45.761)
Well, roughly. Are we talking months, years, decades?
Jake Field (03:54.126)
years. So one is 23 and the other is 19.
Jason Elkins (03:59.427)
Okay, well, I don’t know how old you are, so I’m trying to figure out how much younger they are than you.
Jake Field (04:02.27)
So I’m 25.
Jason Elkins (04:06.243)
All right. So we’ll do the math. a couple two to two two to four years younger. Okay. And then the reason I ask is cause cause yeah, I’m envisioning a teenage boy. The, know, that’s like 14, 15 and spending his weekends with his parents and his younger sisters. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Okay. And you’re a good looking guy. So I’m assuming you probably had plenty of other, invitations to go do things on the weekends and.
Jake Field (04:08.331)
Yeah, a couple of years.
Jake Field (04:25.77)
You start to get the picture.
Jason Elkins (04:36.321)
Okay, all right.
Jake Field (04:36.776)
Yeah, there were other places I’d like to have been in those moments. And I think what really kind of made that change was my uncle was a bit more outdoorsy, but he was quite outdoorsy in the sense of climbing mountains. He was working through his mountain leader qualification. So he was doing loads of hiking and he invited me along a couple of times. And that became so much more exciting than just going for a walk around the park. And, you know, suddenly there was a real sense of adventure.
Jason Elkins (04:40.483)
you
Jake Field (05:06.126)
And I became really hooked and the big turning point for me, I think was actually when I was in college and I was struggling to kind of decide what I wanted to do with my life. And he sent over a couple of links and it was at that point where I went, hang on, so this thing that we’ve been doing, you know, every couple of weekends, you can get paid for that. It’s like, why am I doing this for free? This seems insane.
Jason Elkins (05:28.579)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (05:33.601)
What were you going to school for?
Jake Field (05:36.959)
So when I left school, I went into college and that was kind of like our, I’m trying to think of the American equivalent, like a sixth form. So just after I’d done my GCSEs, I then went into A levels and I was studying.
Jason Elkins (05:49.491)
You just threw out a lot of stuff that can probably lost some of our listeners. Well, let me put it this way. So it sounds like you’re just saying you went off to university or to, you know.
Jake Field (05:52.606)
confused you. Sorry.
Jake Field (06:02.104)
So, one before university. So, I actually never went to university in the end. So, in the year before I would have gone to university, I was sitting my final stages of exams and I was studying history, English and sociology. So, particularly outdoorsy.
Jason Elkins (06:04.673)
Okay. Okay.
Jason Elkins (06:19.083)
Okay, all right. That’s what I was getting at. Yeah, it was where, you know, was it environmental biology or something that maybe would lead into it. But okay, I gotcha. So you’re doing that and your uncle’s like, Hey, look at all this cool stuff going on out in the world. And it sounds like a light bulb kind of went off.
Jake Field (06:35.726)
It was absolutely a light bulb moment. I think I spent so much time looking out the window and wanting to be outside rather than stuck in a classroom. And it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy learning. I think I just didn’t enjoy it in that setting. So maybe you can relate. don’t know.
Jason Elkins (06:53.097)
yeah, I can, I can relate. mentioned you ultimately decided not to go into university. I did go to university for awhile, but unfortunately I chose to go in Montana at in Bozeman, Montana. And at the time I was really into fly fishing and I remember walking to class and it was like, Ooh, it’s really nice today. It’s a really nice day. And sometimes I just turn around, go home, get my fishing stuff and just go fishing instead.
And I was learning a lot, I learned a lot, and ultimately it led me into a very successful career working in the fly fishing industry. But yeah, university did not happen for me, so I get it. I can relate.
Jake Field (07:31.322)
It was a bit of a tough decision because, again, I’m not sure what the experience in America is like, but there’s so much pressure over here for people to go to university. At least when I was going, it was kind of just expected that that’s what you would do. And because I was sitting A levels, it was never entertained by any of my teachers or lecturers that that isn’t something I would go and do.
Jason Elkins (07:41.037)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (07:54.71)
I remember the day that I officially left college, so just after school, and I sort of said to my teachers, because I dropped out a little bit early, and I said, you know, I’m going off to go and do this. And they thought I was completely insane. I had classmates that were telling me I’d thrown my life away. Yeah, it was a really big step.
Jason Elkins (08:08.567)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (08:16.042)
And the truth of the matter is it wasn’t really that long ago. Maybe it feels like a long time to you, but I’m about twice your age. So I can look at it and okay, well, that was, you know, a handful of years ago. And just from our past conversations and just my awareness of what you’ve done, you’ve done an awful lot with those years. So I just say, yeah, your classmates, your teachers all thought you’re crazy. Let’s talk about your parents. What did they think?
Jake Field (08:27.704)
Hmm.
Jake Field (08:40.712)
Yes. So I was quite fortunate. I had really supportive parents. They were incredibly supportive around those decisions. But what they made really clear to me at the time was they said, okay, if you’re not going to go to university, then we will support you and that’s okay. But that doesn’t mean that life is going to be easier. You’re not going to have a difficult time or have to apply yourself just because you’re not going to university. So whatever you do,
you’re almost going to have to apply yourself just as hard, if not harder. And that was really good advice for me because I think it really solidified in my head that that was the decision I wanted to make. And I knew that regardless of how difficult it was going to be, that is what I wanted to do. So they kind of prepared me in that sense.
Jason Elkins (09:30.539)
I when I heard you kind of explaining that I thought yeah there probably are some people that are just like Okay, I’m sick of school. I’m sick of the routine. I’m sick of working hard maybe and so I don’t want to go to university But that’s because they just don’t want to work that hard
And I can hear in your voice and what you were just describing, this was like, no, I’m going to go work hard. I’m just going to work hard on something else. An example might be some people might decide not to go to university and they go join the military. That’s not easy. Or they go start a business or they go join the Peace Corps or whatever. it’s not so, all right, I got you.
The uncle that kind of inspired this, he your dad’s brother, your mom’s brother, distant uncle? What was the connection there?
Jake Field (10:20.89)
He’s my mum’s brother.
Jason Elkins (10:22.975)
Okay. Did your mom and your mom was happy with him? Did this cause a rift between her and her brother that he was influencing you and encouraging you to go do something different? Or it sounds like they were pretty supportive.
Jake Field (10:29.012)
Hahaha.
Jake Field (10:36.168)
No, they were pretty supportive. I think if I had been saying, you know, I don’t want to go to university because I don’t want to get up in the morning and go to lectures, I don’t want to have to do this, I don’t want to have to do this, then I think they would have been a lot less supportive. I’ve always had quite a strong work ethic. So I remember an example of that would be over here, a really common job when you’re younger is a paper round.
Jason Elkins (10:48.873)
Mm-hmm. Sure.
Jake Field (11:02.894)
but you are supposed to be 13 before you can do a paper round. That’s kind of the guidelines around it. And I remember going to the shop and saying, oh, I’d like to do a paper round. And I’ve always looked young, you know, but he said, how old are you? And I said, well, how old do have to be? And he goes 13. I said, well, that’s how old I am. And I think, you know, I just turned 12 or something. I was just super keen to, you know, get out and…
Jason Elkins (11:08.322)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (11:14.967)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (11:20.099)
Well then.
Jason Elkins (11:26.634)
huh, huh, okay.
Jake Field (11:32.044)
and push myself that way. yeah, I think if I’d been less hardworking, they would have been a lot more concerned. But for them, they just said, you know, this is going to be tough. But if you put your mind to it.
Jason Elkins (11:43.363)
but they’d seen that drive in you in the past. So I’m curious, did you have a very clear path or plan before you quit school or did you wake up the first day after school was over and then come up with the plan or what did that look like?
Jake Field (12:00.448)
So I wouldn’t say I had a really clear plan, but I did have a little bit of a goal. So before I was allowed to quit, I was told you have to have something in place for afterwards. what that looked like, my uncle had sent me these two links to some outdoor training. And one of them was more based around outdoor education and center work in the UK. The training would be done over a year in North Wales.
And then the other course was four months in Central America. And I’m not the most patient person. And I looked at that and went, well, I can either train for a year or I can train for 12 months, sorry, for four months. So I decided being impatient, I was going to go for the four month, far more intensive course.
Jason Elkins (12:36.803)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (12:43.959)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (12:51.349)
Had you ever been outside of the UK at that point?
Jake Field (12:54.606)
Yeah, I had. I was fortunate in the sense that we traveled quite a lot when I was younger. My dad used to work kind of in business development and we lived in Fiji for a small part of my life when I was much younger. He’s actually…
Jason Elkins (13:10.199)
well, I’m happy we got back to this. You got Jay, because all I heard in the beginning was, yeah, we went out on the weekends and went for walks in the park. And now you’re OK. We almost missed this part of it. OK.
Jake Field (13:19.47)
Well, yeah, there was definitely international influence. My dad, he’s from New Zealand. So he grew up in New Zealand. yeah, my mum always says that she gets itchy feet after about five years of being somewhere. I don’t know if anyone can relate to that, but yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:28.786)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (13:37.635)
Okay, it’s all starting to get clear now. All right. Okay, got it.
Jake Field (13:45.25)
So we had traveled. We’d lived in a couple of different countries when I was younger. From, I think, of eight years old onwards, I was based in the UK for all of that time. So yeah, kind of, had the option to do these two different courses. One was a little bit more intensive, a bit more outdoorsy, was focused on preparing you for expeditions and…
Jason Elkins (13:56.801)
Okay.
Jake Field (14:11.532)
I just thought that sounded like the coolest thing. So I immediately signed up for that one.
Jason Elkins (14:13.939)
And I would have thought, I don’t know, but I would have thought, yeah, I probably would have just looked at it and well, Costa Rica or Wales? Not that there’s anything wrong with Wales, but.
Jake Field (14:22.39)
Yeah.
Jake Field (14:26.996)
No, Wales was far more accessible for me to go to in my own time. Whereas, Costa Rica, that was definitely a bit of a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Jason Elkins (14:31.041)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (14:35.747)
All right, so you chose Grisdrica. Did you speak any Spanish before you went? Okay, all right, tell us the story. That sounds fascinating.
Jake Field (14:37.71)
So I chose Costa Rica. None. Absolutely none.
Jake Field (14:46.67)
So the course was designed to prepare you for leading international expeditions is how they advertised it. So you would go through your medical training whilst you were there, some different leadership skills. It was kind of a fully comprehensive course. And because of that, they charged a certain amount of money that was similar to a year or so at university. So the first thing that I did when I signed up to this was, I’m going to go the following year.
was that I then I’d already been working in bars. I’d been working as a landscaper, kind of a laborer. So I basically just went into full-time work doing those two jobs, landscaping during the day, bartending during the evening and saved up a load of cash. Turns out expedition equipment can be quite expensive as I found out. So yeah, did that and then began the course, flew out. It was run by a UK company.
Jason Elkins (15:32.801)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Jake Field (15:41.294)
and spent four months learning jungle survival, expedition skills, the leadership, the logistics. It was fantastic, but still to date, probably the hardest thing I’ve done.
Jason Elkins (15:52.939)
Yeah, was it? Were you the typical student? What was the mix for anybody that? I mean, it sounds interesting to me. Was it mostly young, motivated guys like yourself or? How would you describe kind of your cohort?
Jake Field (16:02.19)
Mmm.
Jake Field (16:10.134)
It was quite a good mix. I was the youngest, but not by too much. Typical age ranges were, I’d sort of say, it was myself and one other at 18, 19. And then it went into mid-20s. Men and women, there was only about eight, nine of us. So it was quite a small group. But all different backgrounds, different experiences, but same motivations and goals.
Jason Elkins (16:32.503)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (16:40.021)
Right, very cool. Would you say it was closer to? Well, I’m thinking like almost like basic training, right? Because I did the I did the military thing. I was in the military for four and a half years. And when you’re describing this, I’m thinking, it’s kind like a four month kind of boot camp to prepare you for, you know, going on to your regular duty station or whatever. I don’t want to move past this quite yet, so I’m curious.
Jake Field (16:48.846)
Mmm
Jason Elkins (17:08.323)
Like help our listeners really understand. mean, you mentioned some things you learned, but what was it really like? What was like kind of biggest aha moment for you or what, what transpired while you were there? guess is where I’m going with that question.
Jake Field (17:22.115)
So, I would say it’s quite closely relatable to a basic training of sorts. Obviously, it wasn’t a military. They didn’t yell at us all the time. no, fortunately, we didn’t have much of that. So, it wasn’t too similar in that sense. But what we did have was, if you were…
Jason Elkins (17:28.951)
Did they yell at you though?
Okay, well then, it’s not really the same. Just kidding.
Jake Field (17:50.006)
If you weren’t five minutes early to something, you were doing pushups. I would say the easiest way to explain it is over those four months, we learned a lot of personal admin skills, jungle survival, just being able to survive in that environment. We were then doing a lot of logistics, so planning and preparing simulated future expeditions, budgeting, putting together risk assessments, all the rest of it. We did.
Jason Elkins (17:52.931)
Okay.
Jake Field (18:18.61)
our wilderness medic qualifications over those four months. And that was very practical. where you might be able to more closely relate to it is, you know, there’d be examples where they would say, okay, if something happens or doesn’t happen in the next 24 hours, Jake, you’ll be responsible for, you know, acting as the medic, you know, and then you go, okay, and then you just wait. So you’ll be going about your day to day, you know, tasks or whatever it might be, and something could happen at any minute.
Jason Elkins (18:41.112)
Mmm.
Jake Field (18:47.598)
But their favorite time was normally once you’d come into your hammock, you dried your feet, you changed into your clean clothes and you’re all tucked up and it had been a long day. You just get off to sleep and then suddenly there’s shouting and there’s whistles and you have to get out, get changed. And immediately there was, you know, I mean, there could have been anything that you were having to deal with as a medical situation. So they would kind of test you frequently.
Jason Elkins (18:53.385)
Mmm.
Jason Elkins (19:11.383)
So these, assume sim simulated like, okay, wake up. One of your guests left his cabin and fell down the stairs and wandered off into the woods. And you need to set up a search party and go find the guy and fix his broken leg or something. Right.
Jake Field (19:20.309)
Exactly.
Jake Field (19:26.51)
It was everything from breaks and sprains, missing people. We even had one person who was being very combative. It involved stretcher carries. It was everything. Because I think the whole purpose of it was you might be leading treks in areas that are very well managed and…
Jason Elkins (19:31.062)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (19:52.014)
You might also be leading expeditions in far-flung corners of the world where there isn’t much help and you have to be able to manage in both. So the whole idea was if we can teach you these skills and you can perform well in the jungle, you’ll be able to perform well wherever you may be.
Jason Elkins (20:07.587)
Because a lot of it’s just problem solving and just managing your own emotions and anxieties and managing your group, right? Managing people. Because yeah, if you’ve got a group and one person goes down, you still have to manage the group and you need to be able to do that. So I remember when I was guiding, I used to kind of joke sometimes like…
I don’t know why this comes up in my mind, but it was like, okay, the number one rule of guiding is come back with the same number of you left with. You know, and I’d say, yeah, that’s in the rule book. And I can imagine like four months of, remember, come back. You gotta come back with the same number you left with. And I imagine that one came up. all right, very cool. And you said it was the hardest thing you’d done up to that point. I get that.
Jake Field (20:40.142)
Yep.
Jake Field (20:49.998)
Absolutely.
Jake Field (20:57.068)
Yes, yeah.
Jason Elkins (20:58.421)
Was it a good choice? you regret any of it? Was there a different in hindsight? Did you think, know what, I could have skipped that. I probably could have got a job and learned on the job shadowing someone else. Or do you still feel like that was the right decision?
Jake Field (21:14.222)
So I think in hindsight, I now look at it and go, okay, there are other avenues that I could have taken to get to where I am now. But I think where I don’t regret it, and I don’t regret it at all, but I think the main reason is because it was so challenging physically and mentally, it really tested me of going, is this something that you actually wanna do? And when you’re lying in your hammock,
and you haven’t slept properly for days and it’s raining and you’re covered in mud and quite frankly, just a really unpleasant situation. And you do start questioning, is this a career I really want? I could be at university, I could be out with my mates drinking, I could be having a lovely time, but instead I’ve chosen to go to the jungle. And I think once you’ve made peace with that, once you go, no, this is what I wanna do with my life, then…
That for me meant that it was unwavering. There was no doubt from that point onwards that this is what I wanted to do, but it was a good test.
Jason Elkins (22:12.333)
Okay.
So it helped you figure out in the course of four months, what I’m hearing is in the course of four months, you figured out, okay, yeah, this is really what I wanna do as opposed to maybe going to university and getting a degree in tourism management or.
Jake Field (22:19.598)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (22:30.901)
something where you’re sitting in a classroom spending a lot of money for one, two, three, four years and then getting an internship at, you know, one of these big travel companies to go lead group trips to Milan or something. And yes. Okay. So it was kind of helped you figure out pretty quickly. This is what it could be like. And I’m okay with this. So I’m going to keep moving forward.
I wonder also like, I would think it’d be great for self-confidence. You probably had pretty good self-confidence. Your story about going in and getting your paper route, you probably have pretty good self-esteem and self-confidence. But what came up for me is like when I joined the military.
Jake Field (23:01.912)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (23:14.787)
The recruiter showed me the videos of these guys in the swamps and on rubber boats and camels all over their faces. And it just seems so romantic and exotic and jumping out of airplanes. And then, yeah, in your training, you’re like, oh, this isn’t quite what I was expecting to be like. And tourism is kind of the same way. The reason I’m bringing this up is tourism is the same way because
Jake Field (23:25.934)
you
Jason Elkins (23:39.231)
Anybody that might be listening to this and thinking, yeah, I want to get into tourism. I want to be a guide. want to have my own tour operator business. You know, they see the Instagram, they see these beautiful websites, they see, you know, people writing these views of amazing trips they have. seems very, very romantic. Or even if you’re a guest and you go on some of these trips, you look at the guy and wow, he’s got the dream job. But the reality sometimes is a little bit different.
Jake Field (23:48.626)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (24:06.783)
I have no idea where I’m going with this. Does that resonate?
Jake Field (24:10.606)
I know I’m sitting here nodding. absolutely completely resonate with that. There was a picture on the brochure of the training course and it was this guy and he was up to his neck in this jungle river. He had a shaved head. I might not have been up to his neck quite but on his chest. He was carrying his rucksack high above his head, mud everywhere. And I looked at it and I thought, I want to do that.
Whatever that is, that looks amazing.
Jason Elkins (24:40.299)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds like the exact same imagery. wonder if I wonder if both the military and this company use the same stock images for their brochures, because that sounds exactly like what I saw. And I don’t know why that looked so much fun when I saw the pictures. When I was doing it in real life, it was like, man, this kind of sucks. But but but the point is, once you’ve done it.
Jake Field (24:51.086)
They…
Jake Field (25:03.125)
I was exactly the same.
Jake Field (25:07.694)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (25:07.753)
If there’s you carry that that confidence that you know what? That was the hardest thing I’ve done. That was difficult and I did it. I finished, I didn’t quit and that can that can show up in so many other areas of your life, whether it’s in personal relationships or jobs or getting broken down on the side of the road, handling situations and that type of thing. So. Alright, so when you finish that, did they help you find a job? What was that like? OK.
Jake Field (25:15.022)
Mm.
Jake Field (25:29.87)
Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (25:36.887)
Congratulations, here’s your certificate. What happened then?
Jake Field (25:43.31)
So everyone’s journeys were slightly different. Some people had completed that course and actually in the months afterwards had decided that it wasn’t a route that they wanted to go down. One guy went back to working at the bank and somebody else went into selling land. There was a real mix of careers. Other people became paramedics. There were only a couple of us that really continued to look at the expeditions and the
Jason Elkins (25:54.241)
No, okay.
Jake Field (26:12.312)
travel and tourism route.
Jason Elkins (26:14.051)
Do you think that this might be a hard question to answer, but you spent four months with them in the jungle, so you probably have some insights into maybe what their thought process was. Do you think that at the beginning, most of them did this because they thought they wanted to be expedition leaders and then changed their mind? Or did they want to maybe be a paramedic and thought, this is a cool way to kind of get started, and it’s a lot more fun than going to the community college? What do you think?
Jake Field (26:39.758)
I’d say there was definitely both. There were some that wanted to be expedition leaders and then by the end of the course realized, you know, okay, I think I’ve had enough adventure for now. And then there were others, one guy in particular who I got on really well with, he was applying to be in the RAF. And for him, this was a stepping stone. You know, they told him go and get a bit more experience, go and get some life experience.
So he came and did this course and then immediately after was in paramedic for a year and now he’s in the RAF. So there were other people that used it as stepping stones.
Jason Elkins (27:16.129)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (27:19.683)
Okay. And then, you know, the other thing that comes up is one of the challenges with working in tourism, or especially being an expedition leader where you’re out on the road, is that just being away from home. And a lot of people, maybe they’ve traveled, but they go somewhere for a week or two. You know, they go on vacation with their families and then they’re home and they’re with their friends and da da da. But then,
Jake Field (27:34.582)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (27:48.327)
four months away can really like, ooh, that’s the other reality. It’s not just the stress of being in the jungle or the stress of being responsible for people or the skills or whatever. It’s that being away for months at a time. Do you think that that kind of played a role with anyone there? Was there homesickness moments where people like, man, I can’t imagine doing this, being away from my family for months at a time? Or did that even come up?
Jake Field (28:14.689)
Yeah, I think it’s a really normal reaction for people to have is that over that length of time, you are going to miss family. Everybody’s going to get a bit homesick, especially in those moments where
you you’re having to grit your teeth and dig deep. Everybody experienced those moments, but what was nice is that we all had come together as a group and were really supportive of each other. The instructors at the time used that as a little bit of a lesson in itself, where they said, look, it might seem glamorous leading all these expeditions, but the reality is, is if you want to make a career out of this, you’re to spend a lot of time away from home. You’re going to miss.
weddings, funerals, birthdays, Christmases, you that is just the reality. So have a think, is that something that you’re prepared to do? And if it’s not, that’s okay. But, you know, are you prepared for the reality of what this might look like? I think they hammed it up quite a lot, you know, but rightly so, because if you can accept that, then the reality, you know, will be completely fine.
Jason Elkins (29:01.57)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (29:16.899)
Because I think that is something that happens. think a lot of people go do this for a summer or two. They see it as a summer job. And they go work on a cruise ship in Alaska or something.
Jake Field (29:24.11)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (29:29.859)
It’s not quite the same as what we’re discussing about expeditions, but I think, you know what I mean? That’s a good entry level, right? To go work on an expedition ship or something. And then, you know, after a couple summers of that, they realized, geez, this is kind of tough because I make all these friends during the school year and maybe I get a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and then I go take off for, you know, the summer to go do these things. So I think it’s important. And I wanted to touch on that because…
Jake Field (29:32.376)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (29:54.497)
I do believe a lot of our listeners are maybe people that are aspiring to get into this type of work. Which leads me to, okay, you finished. Did you have a job lined up before you finished? Did they help you with looking for jobs? What transpired for you?
Jake Field (29:59.998)
Mm.
Jake Field (30:07.336)
Sorry.
Jake Field (30:12.964)
So I didn’t have a job lined up afterwards. It was something that I think maybe a little bit more support would have been nice in terms of finding work and careers. But there were recommendations that they would give. They didn’t really go ahead and hire loads of people from those courses. It was more designed for just preparing you for going and working for others. They did take one guy who was
Jason Elkins (30:37.709)
Did, hold on a sec. We don’t need to discuss which company it is, but you just said something that made me think, okay, so they have this training program, but then they’re a tour operator as well that presumably hires some guides or some expedition leaders, is that right?
Jake Field (30:54.88)
Yes. So they hire some from the course. There was one guy from ours who actually then ended up going back in future years and teaching the course, but he just loved being in the jungle. He loved it. But yeah, I wasn’t one of those people. was, was, do you know what? I think it was, it was a moment for me where I was, I was 19.
Jason Elkins (31:07.243)
Yeah, guessing. Yeah. Okay.
Jason Elkins (31:14.307)
Okay.
Jake Field (31:22.702)
I was just about to turn 19. I did love the course and I did reasonably well. There were still things that I needed to learn and that was kind of the starting point of my journey, I think.
Jason Elkins (31:35.043)
Okay. All right, cool. So then what happened?
Jake Field (31:39.982)
So I left, went back to landscaping and bar work in the meantime, and I was messaging and emailing and sending off. And what I really struggled with was I would get responses back and people would go, wow, okay, you’ve done quite a lot already, and this sounds like a really good course. We’d love to have you on board. Thanks for your application. By the way, you left your age off, how old are you? And I said, oh, I’m 19. And they went, ah, okay.
Come back in five years, we can offer you some work. But until then, we don’t employ anybody under 24, 25. So I was really hitting the wall with quite a lot of these companies. And it got to the point where because of the nature of the training that I’d done, I then was immediately looking at the military. So that was something where I was like, loved all the outdoorsy stuff. I loved, you know, the high pressure environments. I’d always had
Jason Elkins (32:20.707)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (32:38.282)
a fascination with the military my granddad was in. So I was naturally leaning towards that direction. And on the day before I was going to go to the recruitment office and have a chat, somebody responded to one of my emails and said, look, we’ve got a position, would you like it? And I said, yeah, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (33:00.515)
Whew. was close call. Close call, Jake. Not that the military is a bad thing. That’s a great story. Hey, a couple things. First off, did anybody, like when you signed up for this program, you presumably spoke with somebody at the company before you went and did this leadership, jungle leadership thing. Did anybody there say, hey,
Jake Field (33:07.16)
you
Jason Elkins (33:27.009)
Just so you know, it’s going to be hard to get a job until you’re 25 in this industry because most of the most of the companies are hiring, you know, people that are a little older or did they just conveniently forget to mention that? Or did you just forget to ask or what what happened there? Because that might have been helpful to know before you spent all this money and went off to this course.
Jake Field (33:36.846)
Hmm.
Jake Field (33:44.975)
I think-
Jake Field (33:49.23)
Absolutely. Naively, I think I forgot to ask because in my mind, it was never something that was going to stop me. You know, if I had the skills. Exactly. What do need to do? I’ll do that. It was never mentioned. I don’t think it’s something that all companies have like a hard and fast rule about, but
Jason Elkins (33:57.237)
Right. Kind of like the kind of guy, the guy at the paper route, you know, how old do I need to be? Yeah.
Jason Elkins (34:16.312)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (34:16.854)
There’s definitely, I’ve noticed there’s an underlying theme with certain companies where they won’t hire below a certain age. And I found that in all aspects of freelancing.
Jason Elkins (34:24.931)
And they may not say it, it may not necessarily be on the job description, hey, we’re only because same thing, they’re the same reason they don’t say, well, we don’t hire anybody over the age of 40 or 50 or whatever. we get it on both sides, right? All right, so.
Jake Field (34:31.083)
No.
Jason Elkins (34:46.445)
Did you, those jobs you were applying for, were those expedition leader jobs or were those a little bit more entry level? The reason I’m asking these questions, because anybody that’s listening to this that’s thinking about this, it might be a 19 year old. Because if I was wanting to get into the business, I might go listen to the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast and try and get to know some people. I don’t know. But anyway, so that’s what we’re like. What advice?
Jake Field (34:56.649)
Hmm.
Jake Field (35:10.158)
Yeah, I’d recommend it.
Jason Elkins (35:15.715)
would you give based on what you learned? And also you said there were maybe other ways that you could have got where you wanted to be. So I suspect that some of those other ways kind of came up in the process. Like, geez, maybe I could have just went and been an internship intern, or I could have got a, you know, entry level job washing kayaks, set up the river somewhere or something. So I’m curious what in hindsight, what do you think?
Jake Field (35:23.074)
Mm.
Jake Field (35:39.02)
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I think the advice that I would give to anyone and this podcast is a great way to network with people. And if somebody is listening, that’s been in a similar position or is in a similar position. That was really the moment where I realized that it’s about who you know more than what you know. Because, I know that’s used all the time, but it’s so, so true because nobody mentioned to me that my age might be a problem. It was never something I considered. Just that’s the mindset I’ve got.
Jason Elkins (35:59.405)
Nope.
Jake Field (36:13.998)
It was, I was really struggling to get those jobs. was applying for obviously expedition leader roles because that’s what I trained in, but I was also applying for assistant roles. was applying for UK based work as well. Wasn’t really my passion, but that’s, you know, I was, was looking to make a career in this industry that I just stepped into. Fast forwarding just ever so slightly, once I made those introductions and once I’d
broken through into a couple of companies, then the workload just soared. I was getting loads of opportunities and people were recommending me for this job and this job and this job because suddenly the age wasn’t an issue. And they’d seen me work. They knew I could handle myself. They knew I could handle a group and then it became okay. But at the beginning when nobody knows you, that’s really difficult.
Jason Elkins (36:57.347)
Thanks
Jason Elkins (37:02.722)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (37:07.681)
Well, because it’s a big, it’s a big risk. And I think anybody that’s listening to this, even if they’re 18 or 19. If they’re 18 or 19 and they’ve got the maturity and drive to do the work, then they’re going to hear what I’m saying and think, yeah, Jason, I get it. You’re right. Because it’s a huge risk for a company to hire an 18, 19 year old and send them off as an expedition leader.
with certain levels of responsibility, even if it’s an assistant job, maybe, assistant expedition leader, you’ve got people going on this trip that are paying a lot of money that have potential health issues, all different kinds of things could go up, could happen. And that if something goes wrong, even if, you’re 19 and you do everything right, but still somebody’s not happy.
It’s going to be that young kid. had a young inexperienced da da da da da where if you’re 25, you never went to expedition school, but you look older and you speak like you’re a little older and you seem a little bit more mature than the age isn’t going to. know, nobody’s going to probably say, well, there’s a young and inexperienced expedition leader. It’s just they’re just people are just that way, right? And and if you do have the experience.
Jake Field (38:21.054)
Yeah, I completely agree.
Jason Elkins (38:25.891)
And you show up and you show up as mature and responsible and this and that for somebody else’s company. He said, hey, well, OK, he did a pretty good job. The other company took the risk. He did a good job. Now we’re interested. know, Jake, what else? Do you have some time? We’ve got these projects going on. Sounds like that’s what happened.
Jake Field (38:44.254)
Absolutely. And this was what started happening was once you’d made that first break, people were like, okay, well, they took the risk and that was okay. So we’re now a little bit happier to take the risk. And I do sympathize and I do understand being in my position now, if somebody sent a CV over and they were 19, there would be a part of me that goes, okay, well, I want to meet this person and I want to have a conversation because on paper, maybe I am a bit skeptical.
Jason Elkins (39:12.363)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (39:12.689)
because of the age. But I really think that a lot of it comes down to meeting that person, what’s their drive, what’s their ambition, how do they handle themselves? I think what I hadn’t realized or maybe just hadn’t thought about is primarily, you’re going to be leading expeditions with people that are older than you. regardless of… Yeah.
Jason Elkins (39:34.829)
Probably significantly older. Yeah.
Jake Field (39:40.541)
So that’s something that at 1920, 21, you’re either going to be leading expeditions of people who are much older, or you’re going to be leading expeditions with people at the same age. And both of those have different challenges in terms of how you manage those people, because some will look at you as a peer and others will look down on you in the sense of how much experience has this guy got, et cetera.
Jason Elkins (39:54.711)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (40:00.771)
Well, you probably know more about this than I do at this point, but I’m thinking the typical person that can afford that has the time and resources to go on some of these expeditions is probably somebody whose kids are off in college. So my point is.
a 19 year old expedition leaders probably younger than their children. And trust me, trust me when I say this, I love my kids. I’ve got an 18 year old son. And if I spend a lot of money to go off and climb Mount Kilimanjaro and then somebody that is going to school with my son shows up to be the expedition leader, I’m going to always I’m going to look at him like I look at my son. love my son.
Jake Field (40:22.574)
Yes.
Jake Field (40:48.686)
Hmm.
Jason Elkins (40:48.705)
But, you I saw my son grew up as a baby. So it’s hard for people in their middle age to kind of, you know, have that faith and confidence in people that especially that haven’t proven themselves or don’t have the confidence. mean, geez, the first time you show up for your first guide trip, I did my first guide trip. was.
Probably after the military, I had lot of confidence after the military and stuff, but still my first guide trip, I was a nervous wreck and I was probably 28, 29 and I wasn’t expecting to go out that day. And I remember my not my stomach was in knots all day and everything. So it’s so I don’t know where I’m going with that. But anyway, I get I get it right.
Jake Field (41:09.294)
No, but I totally relate. Yeah, my first trip was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I’d done a little bit of UK work beforehand.
I’d spent, that was kind of my break, was getting some work in the UK, teaching some bushcraft skills. I then started, I actually applied for a job working with the Bear Grylls Survival Academy, which is an organization over here. And they had some in-house training and I went and did that and passed and they were really impressed with the skill set. And again, all the survival skills I’d learned in the jungle.
Jason Elkins (41:55.554)
yeah? Interesting. Yeah.
Jake Field (42:08.162)
came in handy. And that I then started doing some work with them in the UK. So that was another kind of stepping stone to being able to go and do the international work afterwards. But my first international trip was terrifying and I had a brilliant group. They were so lovely. But you have to have quite a thick skin when you’re that age and you’re in a foreign country and you’ve got a group of adults who you’re right, they have children older than you.
Jason Elkins (42:17.985)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (42:37.406)
The most common comment was, I’ve got t-shirts older than you. But I think one of the best bits of advice I’d give to anybody is that it’s all about how you handle people. It’s about management skills. It’s about your ability to communicate with people. And I don’t communicate with anybody in the same way. I don’t have a style that is equal to everybody. Everybody I treat differently.
Jason Elkins (42:41.253)
huh, huh.
Jake Field (43:04.684)
because I try and understand their needs and talk to them on the level that they respond to best. And if I hadn’t have done that, I think I would have really struggled. But you have to be able to take a good amount of banter. I think that’s the other thing. You can’t get upset because then you will look like a child. So you have to handle the jokes well.
Jason Elkins (43:04.802)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (43:26.733)
You know who you’re describing is a bartender. Do you think, do you think there’s a connection here? Right. Because I’ve had several conversations with people that hire guides and recruit. And, and oftentimes I ask them, what is the, like the person, what industry produces the best guides? Like, or when you’re looking at someone’s resume, trying to figure out who to speak to, what do you look for? And oftentimes it’s servers, bartenders, because bartenders can handle
Jake Field (43:31.307)
Yeah, probably. Yeah, you’re right. Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (43:55.927)
You’ve got a whole bar with 15, 20 people sitting at the bar and another 40 out front or whatever. And everybody’s got a different demand. Everybody wants to be heard and seen right now. And you’re juggling multiple things and maintaining a positive energy, trying to make everybody happy and dealing with the difficult people in a tactful manner to not run it for everybody. It sounds a lot like an expedition leader, doesn’t it?
Jake Field (44:08.109)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (44:23.534)
I would completely agree. I think when I was bartending, somebody described a bartender as a bartender, but also a therapist and a counselor and a father and a brother and all of these different roles that you may end up fulfilling in one night. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (44:25.763)
You
Jason Elkins (44:38.529)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (44:43.787)
Which is a guide. Which is a guide. It’s the same, right?
Jake Field (44:48.462)
And now that you’ve mentioned it, there’s so many similarities. And I probably did over a couple of years bartending. I think I did learn a lot of skills in terms of how to deal with people. Dealing with drunk confrontational people who don’t want to be told what to do by anybody, but let alone somebody who barely looks old enough to drink the drink they’re serving them, actually probably put me in really good stead for dealing with people.
Jason Elkins (45:11.276)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (45:15.328)
at Everest Base Camp who are suffering with symptoms of haste or hape and they’re a little bit out of it mentally and they’re becoming more confrontational. Yeah, I would say that now that you’ve mentioned it, that was probably a really, really good foundation for being able to work in this industry because so much of it is people skills.
Jason Elkins (45:25.058)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (45:36.195)
Mm hmm. Yeah, that’s
Jake Field (45:37.728)
And you are in an industry where praise, I think, is so important. When you’re freelancing, if people don’t like you, you’re not going to get work again. And I’m trying not to be one of those people that has to be a people pleaser all the time. But I think the nature of the industry that we work in, you kind of are a little bit. You’re relying on people enjoying their time. Otherwise, you won’t get any more work. So how do you balance that when you’re sometimes making difficult decisions that not everybody agrees with?
Really interesting.
Jason Elkins (46:07.393)
Yeah, it’s, it’s. Yeah, I, I think we all can like all people pleasing is a bad thing. It’s, but it’s a, there’s an act to pleasing people maybe without being a people pleaser. don’t know why this is probably a whole nother conversation we could have around that, but I do think there’s the connection between, you know, just as we’re discussing, yeah, bartender tour guide or expedition leader. So anybody that’s listening to this.
Jake Field (46:26.563)
Hmm.
Jason Elkins (46:36.579)
Go out and get your job as a bartender while you’re figuring out how to get a job as a tour guide. Maybe six months being a bartender might help you decide if you really want to be a tour guide or a tour leader or expedition leader.
Jake Field (46:49.279)
Yeah, I think that’s actually really, really valuable advice. And it’s a skill that you can then do anywhere. If you’ve got biowork on your CV, I was always told that you can find a job anywhere. But yeah, actually, now that you’ve mentioned it, as I say, the skills that you learn in dealing with people, I think are invaluable, and any of those kind of roles.
Jason Elkins (47:10.435)
Well, and also, you know, if you’re like, well, I don’t like working evenings. Okay. Probably tourism’s not the right gig. mean, well, so my ex-wife and I, you know, we managed a scuba diving and fly fishing lodge off the coast in Belize, off the coast in Belize and managed the lodge, but also bartending.
Jake Field (47:16.699)
Yeah. Weekends.
Jake Field (47:35.491)
Hmm?
Jason Elkins (47:35.959)
That was what our evenings looked like. We’d go in, you know, a couple hours over dinner, we would go in and open up the bar and, you know, we weren’t making a lot of fancy drinks, but we were literally, it was part of it. And we didn’t go to bed until the last guest went to bed. And we didn’t, there was no, it’s 10 o’clock, we’re closing the bar. You don’t do that when someone’s paying several thousand dollars a week to be there. You’re gonna sit with them.
Jake Field (47:50.296)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (47:59.427)
Until they’re done or find creative ways to encourage them to be done because they gotta get up early and go diving the next morning. Maybe they shouldn’t be drinking all night, but it’s. But anyway, yeah, there’s there’s a lot of a lot of connections there. So it. And. For somebody that’s trying to get in, I’ve for a while now thought, you know, if I was trying to get into the business.
Jake Field (48:11.694)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (48:27.811)
I was in the business but wanted to you know because you mentioned it’s about who you know like I Honestly, this sounds biased, but I would encourage people go listen to things like podcasts Read block read blog posts try and connect with the people that you want to work for it’s basically why I started the podcast to you know a full disclosure I started the podcast because I realized I needed to have more conversations with interesting people that
I could find ways to collaborate with, know, either website designer or whatever. So my point is, listen to podcasts like this. you know, maybe someone’s listening to this that’s 19 and reaches out to you, Jake, you know, a couple of weeks after we, after we released this episode and says, Jake, man, I heard your story on the big world made small podcast. And it really resonated because I’m 19. I just got back from this NOLS leadership course in Wyoming or something, and I’m looking to get in.
And you know, maybe that guy comes and ends up working for you at some point. So listen to podcasts and then take advantage of what you hear and reach out to people and tell them what you hear. It makes you stand out a little bit. Right.
Jake Field (49:25.18)
What?
Yeah.
So I’ve got the perfect example of that because I can’t recommend listening to podcasts enough. I can’t recommend, you know, just fully throwing yourself into that industry, trying to, you know, research what everybody else is doing, connect with people, ask for help. I’ve found that actually people are often really happy to help and give you advice, so much advice for free because they can relate to how difficult it was to get started.
Jason Elkins (49:55.031)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (50:02.536)
So going back to the issues that I was facing to get started, one was my age, but two was my lack of relevant experience. And although I’d done all of this jungle training, some of the companies were saying to me, know, well, we can’t send you up Kilimanjaro or we won’t send you because we don’t know if you can do it. If you came to us and you have Kilimanjaro on your CV, then that would be a different conversation.
Jason Elkins (50:11.159)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (50:28.078)
I remember I was working one day, I was landscaping and I was listening to a podcast by a guy who owns his own expedition company. He was talking about his journey and how he started off learning skills in the jungle and then he was looking at getting some work and then he basically decided that he was going to run his own Kilimanjaro trip. I listened to this guy’s story and I just thought to myself, well,
Why can’t I do that? What’s stopping me from doing that? So I totally stole his journey. I’ll be the first one to put my hands up and go, I listened to him and I thought that’s brilliant advice. I then put a, and at this point I started working with the Bear Grylls instructors. I put an advert out on to our Facebook page and I said, look, I’m putting together a trip to Kilimanjaro. Who wants to come? And I had five guys who said that they were interested and they put their hands up.
Jason Elkins (50:59.842)
Yeah.
Jake Field (51:28.334)
And I put together my own trip to Kilimanjaro and I ran that in February 2019. And it was a success. Everyone made it. It was brilliant. It was incredibly rough, I would say. You know, I was figuring it out as I went along, but I then went in the following week and phoned up a couple of these companies and said, okay, I’ve done Kilimanjaro. What’s your excuse now?
Jason Elkins (51:44.835)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (51:54.121)
Not only I did Kilimanjaro, I led a trip to Kilimanjaro, which is huge.
Jake Field (51:57.868)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I think that was maybe the other thing is going, I haven’t just participated, I’ve shown that I can guide a trip.
Jason Elkins (52:04.451)
I didn’t sign up and pay my way. You know, yeah.
Jake Field (52:08.118)
No, I costed it out. I ran the trip. I I costed it out appallingly. I spent more money going on that trip than anybody else did. was, I lost a ridiculous amount of money. So I’d say to anyone, do it better than I did. But I suppose it comes down to that mindset of me back at the paper round going, well, what do I need to do?
Jason Elkins (52:16.941)
than if you just paid for a spot, but you got more out of it.
Jake Field (52:34.765)
You tell me what I need to do and I’ll find a way to make it happen. So yeah.
Jason Elkins (52:34.903)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (52:39.703)
I love that you brought that up because that’s something that’s something that comes up quite often. And actually I’ve had people, you know, listeners of the show that have reached out to me and say something like, Jason, I’m doing this miserable job. I don’t like anymore. And I want to, you know, I like mountain climbing, for example, and I want to set up a tour company and take people mountain climbing. And I’m like, okay, hold on. Like, okay, great. And you know, how do, how do I start that data data? And it’s like,
Do you have a following? Do you know other climbers? Are you a member of a club? Are you in any Facebook communities with other climbers? Like, okay, let’s not go out and buy all the equipment and the website and all this stuff. Just figure out where you want to go and find an operator there that does that. Have them help you put together some sort of pricing, figure out what that might look like. And then you go to your audience, to your people and say, hey, I’m taking a group.
you know to where let’s say Kilimanjaro. I’m taking a group to Kilimanjaro who wants to go with me this is the price if you want to go you can even have them contact the operator directly to pay they can pay with their credit card through the you don’t have to necessarily get involved in collecting the money you could but if but the first time just get together a group we did that in the fly fishing business I worked at Orvis and we had a lot of fly fishing
Jake Field (54:00.822)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (54:06.339)
managers different stores around the country and a lot of these managers have never been out of the US and Would be like you know I want to I really want to go to Belize and go saltwater flyfishing I want to go to Chile or Patagonia and it’s okay great Let’s you’ve got a bunch of people to walk in that in your store every day. Let’s put together I’ll put everything together for you. I’ll give you all the materials and it’s all you got to do say hey I’m taking this group you want to go if you want to go call Jason give them your credit card
Jake Field (54:18.316)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (54:33.702)
And these guys got to go lead all these trips. They didn’t have to start their own travel business, you know, and some of them then after they left, or this had done five or six of these international trips and then kind of went on on their own and did that. So it sounds I think that’s a great, great idea. And I just I talked about it a lot. I’m sorry, Jake, but I love your idea. I’m happy. I’m happy you brought that up because that’s something that hasn’t really come up on the show and it’s something that people aren’t aware of.
Jake Field (54:44.526)
No, no, no, I think that’s brilliant.
Jake Field (54:59.308)
No, I’m glad it’s something that you could relate to and hopefully other people can as well. I think, again, giving advice to people who want to get started in the industry. Lots of people will be listening to this who own their own businesses and have been in the industry for a little while. But I think the ones that are probably doing very successfully have mastered a few of those basic skills. They know how to interact with people because networking and people skills are so important.
They can put themselves in the shoes of their customers. And that’s really important is, you know, I’ve spoken to people who want to set up companies and work in travel and they’ve never done any traveling themselves. They just like the idea of it. I think being able to relate to your consumers is really important. In some ways, I’d almost advertise trying to put yourself off before you make a go of it. In the sense of
Jason Elkins (55:31.319)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (55:56.374)
find out or try and chase the things that are tough about that job. So expedition leading can seem extremely glamorous, okay? But if you don’t like waking up early, going to bed late, working unsociable hours, you’re not cut out for it. It might look incredible standing at Everest Base Camp, but I’d almost say find out the things that you don’t like more than what you do and that will help you channel yourself into your job. And then if you want to run a company,
Jason Elkins (56:14.497)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (56:24.098)
And these are the things that I’ve learned over the last couple of years. It is a different skill set to guiding. And that’s something that’s been really shaped my experiences over the last couple of years is that leap from guiding to running a company has been huge. And there’s a lot of skills I’ve had to pick up quite quickly.
Jason Elkins (56:30.915)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (56:43.991)
What’s it’s typically a different personality style. mean, you know, there’s the person that is leading expeditions is not always the personality type that you want doing your bookkeeping or your marketing or any number of things. So one of the challenges that’s come up quite often in the conversation, most of the time I get the extroverted person that represents the company. You know, if I go to a company and say, Hey, you’d love to have you on the show. I usually get the person that
Jake Field (56:56.526)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (57:13.377)
maybe the founder of the company that started out as a guy that he’s very extroverted. And then we discuss how he was fortunate enough to have a partner that actually keeps the business afloat and keeps things going. So that’s important. And also I wanted to touch on, because I suspect, I mean, you do group trips, you do group expeditions. So if somebody, their motivation…
Jake Field (57:21.154)
Mmm.
Jason Elkins (57:38.219)
to get into the business is they want to stand at Everest Base Camp and they don’t have enough money to figure out how to get there. So they think, I’ll start a business or somehow. But I’ll tell you what, I suspect if a listener of the show reached out to you and says, man, I’ve always wanted to do Kilimanjaro. I’ve got a bunch of friends that like to go do stuff like that. Can you help me?
Jake Field (57:56.078)
It’s so funny you said that because I had a LinkedIn message two days ago now.
Jason Elkins (58:02.887)
together group if I get enough of my buddies together to do this can you help me make it work for myself financially I suspect that’s a really good opportunity for you and for them right you’re open to that aren’t you I’m sure you do it a lot
Jake Field (58:23.168)
And somebody reached out and they said, you know, I love what you’ve been putting out. You know, I found it really informative. I’m looking at starting my own travel business. I’ve been a guide for X amount of years. What do I need to know? What are things that, you know, I’m aware that there’s a lot that I don’t know, but I’m used to guiding, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, we had a really good conversation. And one of the things I then ended up saying to him was, look, it’s different from guiding to then running your own.
And there’s a couple of key things that I wish that I had done, yeah, maybe done before starting my own in the sense of one, having been or being able to have some marketing material from a trip that I can then use to put out. know, fortunately I’ve been guiding for so long. I’ve got lots of pictures of me on mountains and, and I’ve been taking groups away, but also getting an understanding into the business. And I was quite fortunate with my previous role before I jumped into
Jason Elkins (59:12.675)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Field (59:21.526)
running my own as I was running somebody else’s. I would say if you want to run a business, run somebody else’s and then step into your own. It’s the best training ground you can have.
Jason Elkins (59:24.192)
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Learn learn on their dime is what I always, you know, have heard is yeah, go learn on their dime and then once you once you kind of know it. Yeah, yeah.
Jake Field (59:42.58)
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And this might sound really heartless. Maybe it won’t. I don’t know. But play with their money. Learn what you need to do. If they trust you and you stepped up into that role, take some risks. You’ll soon figure out whether it’s something you can do or not. But I said to this guy exactly what you’ve just suggested. I said, look, how about if you’ve got a group of people? said, yeah, I do. said, why don’t you…
bring them to me, I’ll let you run the trip, you can see what it’s like to run your first expedition. I’ll facilitate it, handling the payments, I’ve got all the insurances, all that kind of stuff. But you can get that experience. So that’s something that we’re gonna talk about. And I think, yeah, for anyone listening, acting in that way is actually a really good way to gain experience.
Jason Elkins (01:00:18.486)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:00:25.943)
It’s.
It’s absolutely what I would do. would, anybody that called me and said, I want to start taking groups. would say, okay, if you’ve, if this is not something you’ve been doing for a while, if you haven’t led groups outside of the country, let’s, let’s rethink this. How about we find somebody who’s got all the everything set up. They can actually give you, you know, documents, maybe even give you a page on their website that you can direct, you know, your Facebook followers to let them do that. And you just go.
Jake Field (01:00:52.88)
Hmm
Jason Elkins (01:00:58.305)
you know, probably get hopefully get your costs covered. So you’re not showing money out of pocket. You’re able to go. And if it works well the first time, you know, figure out how do I do more of these and maybe start to generate some money working with your partners there? There’s there’s so many ways to go do these amazing trips without having to start your own company, buy a domain name, build a website, get an LLC, get the insurance and all the crap that’s involved.
Jake Field (01:01:22.745)
Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (01:01:27.479)
And I suspect the vast majority of people that go through all that.
Jake Field (01:01:27.608)
Hahaha.
Jason Elkins (01:01:33.685)
Most businesses fail, you know, early on. There’s probably a lot of websites out there. And I know because I do websites for a living. I spend a lot of time looking at websites and there’s an awful lot of travel websites out there for people that have never led a trip. Because they started the business, they went through all the stuff.
Jake Field (01:01:36.27)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (01:01:53.037)
They convinced their spouse to let them quit their jobs so they could go start a travel business. And then, you know, six months later they are selling real estate in Arizona. I don’t know. So, all right. That’s good. So, man, Jake, we’ve discussed so many things. I know we could keep going.
Jake Field (01:02:01.742)
No, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (01:02:15.171)
Before we wrap up, I’m curious, what are we missing in this conversation? What did I forget to ask you? Because I know we didn’t cover everything. But at this point, what is most important for our listeners to know about you, your business?
What do you got?
Jake Field (01:02:35.889)
It’s been a really, really great conversation. I just want to take the time to say thank you so much for having me on. I get the impression that we could keep talking for a good another hour at least.
Jason Elkins (01:02:45.345)
I think you’re coming back. I don’t want to, didn’t want to put you on the spot on the air, but please come back. because I think we, I think we’ve only touched on just the tip, the tip of the iceberg or I was trying to figure out.
Jake Field (01:02:56.386)
Pardon.
No, I’d love to. It’s been great conversation. I suppose some of the things that we maybe necessarily haven’t touched on is I have definitely learned so much over the last year or so in setting up the business. And you said most businesses fail early on. Being able to take my experience from being a guide, then looking at the experience and the skill set that you need to run a business. How do I
Jason Elkins (01:03:00.023)
Mountain climbing, but…
Jake Field (01:03:27.874)
put those two together. That’s been a really interesting journey for me. And then there’s so many things that I still want to do. I think if you’ve got that adventurer’s mindset, which so many of your listeners will have, and I know you do, it’s that the world is full of endless possibilities. And people like you and I, we just want to explore every single one of them. We like traveling, we like exploring different cultures.
meeting incredible people. So there’s so many things that I’ve got in the pipeline that I’m really excited to be announcing over the next couple of years. But yeah, I don’t know, I’m sure we could just keep talking.
Jason Elkins (01:04:09.633)
Let’s do this. Let’s do this because I know that, you know, we’ve got people that are listening to your voice the very first time. And then we’ve got people that you have already gone on trips with people that you’ve discussed with the guy that you just mentioned. They talked to on LinkedIn is probably on your mailing list now. He’s going to get an email with a hey, I was on Jason’s podcast. Take a listen. So.
Jake Field (01:04:32.92)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:04:33.375)
I want to take just a moment and acknowledge your current audience. The people that are already know like and trust you and what do you want to say to them? Get let’s give them a little shout out here on the show. What do you want to say to the people that are already in your database and already following you on social media? If they sat through and listen to the whole hour long conversation that we’ve had today, I feel like we should give him a shout out. What do you think?
Jake Field (01:04:43.662)
Well, I’d say first of all, thank you very much for listening for an entire hour. You know, that’s really appreciated. For everybody that’s been following me, you know, over my journey in this industry for the last seven or eight years, it doesn’t go unnoticed. It’s always really
really appreciated. And the travel industry is very small. You know, I think as your podcast suggests, it’s a big world that we’re making small by interacting with as many people as we can. And what I love about my new adventure travel company is that there’s a real sense of community. And if you’ve been on a trip before, then you you will start to recognize people on your next trip that you may have traveled with before.
You know, there is a plethora of information out on the website. think one of the big things that I focused on is partnering with lots of different companies that will help prepare you for your trip. So altitude training, if you’re climbing Kilimanjaro. Yeah, there’s the Altitude Center based in London. They do testing. I’ve now partnered with them to help people get ready for those big international trips. So all I say, thank you so much for your support.
Jason Elkins (01:05:58.159)
cool.
Jake Field (01:06:10.606)
or those that have been following along from the beginning. welcome to the community. There’s a lot that you can get out of it.
Jason Elkins (01:06:18.947)
Very, very cool. So we’re gonna have a link right to your website, right in the show notes. So anybody that hasn’t gone to the website, go over, take a look. I’d love that you mentioned that, because sometimes tour operators are pretty good about, here’s the tour, here’s how you book the tour, we’ll send you a trip planner, but having resources to help people actually plan the tour or even maybe assess if it’s the right tour. I’m not sure, but I’m imagining that that might be an important…
part of the process if someone wants to go do Kilimanjaro. And instead of me just taking your money, let’s connect you with the resources to figure out if this is the right thing for you.
Jake Field (01:06:56.035)
Well…
Absolutely, I could totally sit here and go, here are the trips that we’re offering. And I of course would love everybody listening to come and do one of those trips. And I can, or I could use this time to almost plug those tours that I’m running. But what’s really important to me is helping as many people travel as possible. And if you go onto my website and you love some of the tours that I’m offering, please, please, please come along.
If you see that there isn’t something that you might want to do, drop me a message. I’ve got a line on my website that says, if you don’t see what you’re after, let me know because if you want to go somewhere, there’s a good possibility that other people do as well. And let’s make it happen. yeah, and then as you just mentioned, for me, it’s about making sure that I’m also right for you. You’re entering into community, it’s about…
Jason Elkins (01:07:36.447)
Yep,
Jake Field (01:07:52.822)
the support that I can give you. Big travel companies have got lots of pros and lots of cons. And one of those cons is that you don’t always get the one-to-one support I feel is deserved on these big trips. So by booking with a smaller travel company, you get that one-to-one support. You can get in touch with me directly and really will help you on that journey all the way throughout from booking to boarding to afterwards.
Jason Elkins (01:08:06.359)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:08:19.139)
Very cool. Jake, I appreciate you. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to share your story in great detail. And I hope everybody listens to this. I mean, I think this was a great one, especially somebody that’s thinking about getting in the business, getting more involved in the business, or just really anybody. Because I’ve had 110 conversations now, and I’ve learned from every single one of them.
I just over the course of the last year and a half and it’s I I hope everybody listens to all the podcast. Trust me, I’ve listened to every one of them. I was involved in every one of them. I’ve learned so much. So anybody that would go back and listen to all of them, you’re going to learn just as much as I learned. And this was a really good one because some really, really unique things had come out in it. So, Jake, thank you so much. Appreciate you.
Jake Field (01:08:54.926)
Thank
Jake Field (01:09:09.64)
Thank you so much, Jason. I really appreciate that.
Jason Elkins (01:09:12.131)
All right, talk to you soon.
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