Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday. I'm your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. Today's episode is different from all the previous ones, and we also have our first male guest. This episode is the first episode of the new series, called Guides' Beta. There are many things guides want to know other than getting certifications. There are many questions guides want to ask. And this is my attempt to collect wisdom from the community.

In today's episode our guest Jed Porter talks about "independent guiding." Jed is an IFMGA/AMGA mountain guide. He writes articles and yearly reviews to help demystify guiding as a profession on his blog. He serves as the president of the CGC Board. CGC stands for Certified Guides Co-op. He guides more than 100 days a year and makes most of his income through guiding.

We talked about the definition of independent guiding, the mindset of treating guiding as your business, whether guiding can feed a family of 4, the ins and outs of the CGC, its vision and mission, its cease of operation since Feb, its potential future.

Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about guiding? Should we go find a so called real job? Should we always have backup plans? Can we find creative ways to pivot guiding? None of the questions has an easy answer. And I hope this episode can help you navigate through some of the challenges guides often face.

Oh! Rest assured we will keep featuring amazing female guides. Now please enjoy this interview with Jed Porter.

Jed's Website:

https://www.jediahporter.com/