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

Rachel , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

This is such a beautiful question and one that has evolved for me over time. The sensational thing about entrepreneurship is that it encourages you to confront yourself head on and excavate truths about yourself that you may have hidden away. It challenges you to uncover what is genuinely important, what you value, and how you want to experience this lifetime.

In my opinion to be successful you need to define what success means for you. Not what success means to your parents, your friends, or even society, etc. But to sit with the question “What does success mean to me?”

At first, success meant making money…and lots of it. If “I can make all the money to buy all the things, to show everyone I am worth something… then I will be successful.” However, the more I contemplated the question, the more I realized my initial definition of success was based on opinions and thoughts of others. It was based on proving to my family that I am worthy of praise and love. It had nothing to do with what was authentically living in my heart.

Once you contemplate and create this living/ breathing idea of what success means to you (and this idea can 100% change over time), then it takes action, fortitude, and discipline to achieve the success you set out for yourself. The unexpected outcome of defining success for yourself in this way, is that motivation to put in the work to achieve your success comes effortlessly (to an extent) because you are creating/doing from what drives you, not from a place of lack or inadequacy.

In my opinion, one of the biggest pieces in holding people back for achieving their own success is action and consistency. One of my favorite quotes is; “If you kinda sorta do something, you’ll kinda sorta see results.” If you put in consistent action, even when you’re terrified, even when you don’t have all the answers, even if you fall down and make a mistake, but you just keep swimming, you’ll achieve your own definition of success. And in the end, isn’t that what matters most?

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Rachel Strobolson and I am the owner and creator of Denver Local Tours. I launched my company in February of 2018 as a way for people to experience Denver through the eyes of a local.

I’ve always loved the hospitality/travel/tourism industry. To me there is nothing better than traveling to a new city, experiencing the food, the culture and different ways of thinking. My career started off in hotel management. I worked in hotel operations for just over 12 years before taking the entrepreneurial leap. I wanted more freedom than the corporate world could offer. I found myself living for my weekends and for my 2 weeks of vacation every year. I found myself yearning for something different and I knew I had to make a change. I’m very grateful for the time I spent in the hotel industry as I believe it prepared me to lay a solid foundation to create Denver Local Tours.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Denver Local Tours was started on a shoestring budget and was bootstrapped from the start. I had $200 and the desire to create the best possible experiences for people wanting to know more about the city. In the beginning you would find me at Union Station, canvassing for people to experience my 1.5 hour LoDo walking tour. I was so enthusiastic about what I had to offer, talking a mile a minute, many people thought I was crazy. Haha

The first year of the company I worked a part time job so I could pay rent and bills. I would host tours during the day and then run to a customer support job in the evening. Everything I made I would put back into the business. It was certainly a labor of love to grow Denver Local Tours into one of the top rated tour companies in the city.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We are a small husband and wife team with 2 tour guides, however our presence online is pretty big. We are currently ranked the #2 tour company in Denver on TripAdvisor (we are hoping to secure the #1 spot this year) and we are very thankful to all the kind reviews people have written about us online over multiple platforms.

The biggest thing that has built our reputation is our genuine desire to create and provide memorable experiences to our guests. At our core it’s what we care most about. Every tour, everyday we give it our all. This is not a job to us, it’s who we are as people. I believe this authenticity is what has helped us to create our reputation.

We are also huge supporters of all businesses in the industry. We believe it takes a lot of courage to create a company. It takes a lot of time and research to develop a tour, and it takes a lot of guts to stand in front of a group of strangers and entertain them for hours. We don’t see others as competition because we all have a unique perspective and different tours to offer. We care more about the guests’ experience. If we can’t accommodate a certain experience, we are happy to recommend the companies that can.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.denverlocaltours.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denverlocaltours/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denverlocaltours
• Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g33388-d13417962-Reviews-Denver_Local_Tours-Denver_Colorado.html