If you’ve been building an AI brain with us in this series, there is a good chance you have already hit a wall. The usage bar fills faster than you expected, the bill creeps up, and you’re left staring at the screen wondering what you did to deserve it.
Part of the reason this decision layer matters right now is cost. AI is unusually cheap at the moment, and a big reason is investor money flooding in to get people using these tools.
You’ve become the general of a large, capable team. Marketing lead, operations expert, customer experience lead, finance lead. They all share one desk and one keyboard. That capacity is real, and the only honest limit on it is what you can picture asking for.
You don’t need to live on the cutting edge of AI. The whole point of this series has been to show where the biggest bang for your buck actually is, and to take steps that stay useful no matter which tools win.
In this piece, we are doing something different. Less framework, more behind the scenes. What our AI Brain actually looks like after months of real use, what is working, what is still hard, and where we think all of this is heading.
A skill is the same thing, but for your AI brain. That’s it. A single text file that tells your AI exactly how to handle a specific task. The first time you understand that, the whole concept clicks.
Accomplishments:
Co-founded and grew Abraham Tours & Hostels from startup to serving 100,000 tour participants and 200,000 hostel guests annually
CEO from 2010-2022, scaled company to 4 hostel locations plus a multi-destination tour operations
Established Israeli Hostel Association 17 years ago, served as general manager and chairman
Developed variable pricing schemes and team management for 100+ subcontractors/guides
Successfully exited as CEO in 2022, now consulting & mentoring various businesses in Israel and globally
Accomplishments:
Angela Shen is a proven business builder with deep roots in entrepreneurship and brand management.
Angela founded Savor Seattle in 2007 and grew it to a $1M business in under 5 years without outside investment. During the COVID shutdown in 2020, she pivoted the business from food tours to curated food boxes and grew revenues more than 2x her best tour year! Angela was named in Puget Sound Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40, and started a second tour business Savor the Wild Tours in 2023.
Angela’s expertise in business strategy and operations hails from the consumer packaged goods sector where she previously worked in brand management at PepsiCo and looked after iconic brands including Quaker Oatmeal and Life Cereal. Angela is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and serves on the board for Visit Seattle.
Ana stumbled into tourism backwards in the 1990s—first as a guide in remote Northwest Argentina mostly because she spoke English where few others did. As a horse rider, mountaineer, and fitness trainer, she naturally fell into adventure guiding, learning the hard way by doing first and studying later.
Everything began to click when she attended her first ATTA Adventure Travel Trade Summit in 2014. Suddenly, the entire structure of the travel industry made sense—the difference between operators and travel advisors, how B2B relationships actually work, or how marketing for a B2C audience is so different. That clarity saved her years of trial and error.
Since then, Ana has built her own travel company, Adentrando, initially as an active inbound tour operator for Northwest Argentina serving multi-day B2B clients, and since 2023 as an Argentina DMC and also operating trips in Latin America, working together with trusted partners. She’s become an ATTA trainer, developed Adventure Travel Guide Standards, and spoken at major industry events about responsible tourism and community partnerships.
Ana brings her hard-earned industry knowledge to Guest Focus members, particularly those starting out or pivoting their business models. Her specialty is multi-day trip design—creating itineraries that tell a story and have a positive impact, rather than just connecting attractions. She helps operators avoid the mistakes that cost her years of learning, turning complex industry relationships into clear, actionable strategies.
Accomplishments
Casey spent 14 years at Zegrahm Expeditions, climbing to VP of Marketing Communications where she managed a million-dollar budget. Through her leadership, Zegrahm increased business with travel advisors by 10% and cut direct mail costs by 23% – real money when working with those numbers.
After Zegrahm, she spent a decade at the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), growing net revenue by 30% and profit margins by 60%. Through COVID and its recovery, as President of the ATTA maintained a 90% team retention rate by keeping people engaged and motivated.
Now running Casey Hanisko Coaching and Consulting in Seattle, she’s doubled her own revenue in one year while becoming ACC certified through the International Coaching Federation. She’s also Dare to Lead and DISC and EQI assessment certified, bringing structured tools to her approach.
Casey specializes in strategic planning and getting tour operators out of the daily grind so they can work on their business instead of in it. She helps solo entrepreneurs and small teams document knowledge, define roles, and build growth systems. Her Guest Focus clients have hit major milestones – one reached a million in revenue, others doubled income, and several Guest Focus members have brought on new team members, consultants, and partners.
She’s passionate about supporting women leaders and purpose-driven operators focused on responsible tourism.
Accomplishments:
Jess quit her high school teaching job for what she thought would be one fun summer guiding bike tours around Paris. Eleven years later, she’s still there. Turns out, trading lesson plans for tour routes was the best career move she never planned to make.
She worked her way up from tour guide to director at Fat Tire Tours, learning every role – designing tours, training guides, managing ticketing, overseeing operations. This ground-up experience taught her what works for staff. She now works as Europe Head of Retail, as well as overseeing Paris/Versailles operations.
Her biggest win? Maximizing operational efficiency while keeping the human element intact. She redesigned scheduling systems to reduce labor costs and spoilage, automated data processes, and streamlined operations without losing Fat Tire’s family-friendly culture.
What she’s most proud of is her team development approach. Using her teaching background, she focuses on staff satisfaction and growth, helping guides and managers build confidence. Many told her the training changed not just their work performance, but their lives outside the company.
Jess brings this dual focus – operational efficiency plus people development – to Guest Focus coaching. She works with operators from solo startups to multi-million dollar companies, helping them increase profitability while maintaining authentic culture. Her coaching clients especially appreciate her reminder to take breaks and prioritize self-care.
Accomplishments:
Fieldbook focuses on one thing: simplifying all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into delivering a tour.
The Fieldbook platform makes it easy to:
Unlike other platforms, Fieldbook is simple and easy to use. And because it’s a small business just like you, you’ll get the kind of support big software companies can’t offer. That means getting up and running in days, not weeks.
If you want to give Fieldbook a try for your next tour, you can sign up here or if you want to have a chat feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected].
ResmarkWeb delivers results for tour operators.
When All Ways Adventures had zero bookings on July 4th, they knew something had to change.
That’s when they partnered with ResmarkWeb – a digital marketing agency that specializes in the tour industry.
ResmarkWeb’s solution delivered:
– 30% revenue growth this season
– Higher search rankings for qualified traffic
– A website that converts visitors to bookings
– Responsive ongoing support (changes happen with just an email)
What sets ResmarkWeb apart? They understand tour operators. Their team walks you through every step, from understanding your vision to optimizing for conversions.
Nathan’s takeaway: “Don’t wait until you’re burned out. ResmarkWeb helped us grow without compromising our values.”