We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Leese a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda , thanks for joining us today. undefined

I set out to monetize my passions and after some trial and error ( and a pandemic and a move) it worked!

Amanda , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Amanda. I own Wilmington Walking Tours, GAL Co Consulting and Wine GAL NC. My entrepreneurial journey has been one of timing, opportunity and hustle. Through my 20s- 40s I had a great career in hospitality, culminating with a six figure salary working as director of sales & marketing for a resort in Sedona, AZ. Once COVID came and went I had one of those “life is too short” periods of time, in which I realized that although I was happy, true freedom to me would include choosing how I spend my time daily. I was okay but nothing got me out of bed in the morning, so to speak. The moment I knew I was ready for a change is when a couple from CA offered to buy my house in Sedona, sight unseen. This was the door I needed to make a huge leap. I credit a little financial cushion from the sale of that house with giving me some bravery. I have zero investors.

I packed up my stuff and my dog and moved back to a place that always felt like home, coastal NC. I was job searching here while working remotely for my former employer and flying back and forth to AZ when I started taking long morning walks through the historic districts in my town, taking and posting photos of beautiful old Victorian homes. Upon my arrival in Wilmington I realized that a lot of new folks were visiting and moving to the area and had a thirst to learn about the community, while there were very few visitor experiences available, barring a horse and buggy or boat ride down the river. A walking tour company was born! This was the easy part – I would have no overhead and take advantage of a market emerging as a destination.

One of the keys to my success came from my career and knowledge of hospitality sales and marketing. I knew that reaching the masses no longer happens with traditional advertising, travel agents or concierge, so I turned to the third parties to list my experiences. And our Instagram culture was just emerging. Well, my newfound business was quite instagrammable!

The issue is that in order to gain traction you need experience and reviews. So I asked every single person I knew to take a tour for free and offer a review and take pictures. Within 4 months, things had taken off enough to quit my real job and focus on this “side hustle turned career” . I gave myself 120 days to succeed. Within 90 I was creating a second tour for evenings out downtown. I was hustling, looking to my sales background and forcing myself to make prospect lists and actually to in person sales calls. Back to basics worked – people spoke to me when I called them!

Every single tour I hand out cards, I ask guests to refer and review me.
In my third season I won Wilmington’s Tourism Star Award. Today I have a contract employee that allows me to keep my business open when I travel or am booked privately.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Due to a fear of failure, I deliberately created a business with little overhead. I don’t use vendors so that I can be in control of the guests experience.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I created this business I had been working for resort owners who were jaded, lacked integrity towards the guest experience. I felt I had no choice but to figure out how to monetize my passions and do my own thing. I took a “Passion Test ” and began to identify what I love and how to make those things into a job. this took years !

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wilmington-tours.com www.winegalnc.com
• Instagram: @wilmingtonwalkingtours @winegalnc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-leese-5aabb34a/