Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Hicks.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Margaret. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Most of my life, I never knew I loved history or architecture or even Chicago for that matter. This all came to me much later in my life, but I’m oh so grateful.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. When I started doing improv, I moved into the city and performed at IO and the Annoyance, any bar that would have me. I was an Administrative Assistant for my day job and I wasn’t very good at it, not on purpose, I just wasn’t very good.
I moved to NYC in 2000 and I had a lot of problems with New York City, and that is me putting it nicely. I truly thought I would love it, but I thought wrong. I moved back to Chicago a year later and promised myself I would never take my beautiful city for granted again. It was like the whole city made itself known to me then. Before I was just moving to Chicago, but now I was a part of it.
At that time I had a friend going through the Chicago Architecture Foundation Docent Program and that sounded right up my alley! Once I started giving tours, I knew it was the thing I was the best at. I enjoy it, I’m good at it, it’s good work and it was absolutely my improv training that made me a good tour guide, so it was also total evolution.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not a totally smooth road, no. Being a “solopreneur” is hard. Starting a tour business is not that hard, but getting people to come on your tour is hard, finding cheap/free marketing is hard. Trying to think outside of my own brain is really hard.
What’s hard about running my own tour business is that it’s totally personal. If someone writes a bad review of my tour, there’s nowhere to run (not that anyone has ever done that, ahem). A lot of us are tour guides because we’re independent, have problems with authority, and like to talk and like to take control. Because of this though, it makes it hard to have “peers” or get feedback or have a sounding board. Believe it or not, it can be a lonely business.
My tour guide mentor says that no one will ever get rich being a tour guide. I’m sure he’s right, but I’m hoping to prove him wrong, but I’m sure he’s right. This is not the big money business and guides work hard, physically and mentally.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Chicago Elevated story. Tell us more about the business.
My company is called Chicago Elevated and I give walking tours. Chicago Elevated is just me, I have no boss, don’t want to be a boss!
And I do walking tours of Chicago, I can hop on your bus or your boat but if given the choice, I will always take you on a walking tour. I love walking because you get the whole city, right? The smells and the traffic and the rumble of the bridges. You smell Blommers and the lake in the summer and you hear the sounds of the el and the cars and it’s the only way to take in the whole city.
I like to linger on buildings, especially if someone has a question, on walking tours you can linger, take as long as you want. And since I’m an improviser at heart, I especially love that when you’re walking anything could change at any moment, there’s no set path. All my tours are different because the groups are different, the weather is different and I like to build those differences in that day’s tour.
And what I’m good at, I think really good at, is explaining abstract ideas in a simple way. I didn’t start out as an architecture person or a historian, I became one much later in my life. In reality, I’m a comedian. So I have a way of explaining hard ideas easily because, well, that’s how I had to learn those ideas. I break it down to make it as easy to digest as possible and then I can explain those ideas with simplicity, clarity, and hilariousness, because, well, I’m hilarious too.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
A lot? And none. It was mostly bad luck (losing my admin job) that propelled me to the good work of being a tour guide and starting my own business.
I have most certainly been in the right place at the right time and I consider it pretty great that the two things I loved (Chicago and comedy) lined up to make me a great tour guide, but also, I did that.
I take a lot of credit for the success I’ve had – it’s hard running your own business and luck isn’t going to help too much.
Pricing:
- Tour prices range between $23-$30
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.chicagoelevated.com
- Phone: 773.593.4873
- Email: margaret@chicagoelevated.com
- Instagram: @chicagoelevated
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicagoelevated/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chicagoelevated
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-elevated-chicago
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g35805-d2005102-Reviews-Chicago_Elevated-Chicago_Illinois.html
Image Credit:
John Eiberger
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
