Be the Role Model You Wish You’d Had
Jackie Stratton, Waterways Guiding
I’m all fired up today, because this conversation represents exactly the kind of guest and interview that drove me to start Guides Gone Wild in the first place. My guest is Jackie Stratton of Waterways Guiding, a licensed Maine Guide, Maine Master Naturalist, and ACA certified white water canoe instructor.
Like all of us, Jackie had exciting plans for 2020. She had given notice at her so called ‘real job’ and had started her own guide service, Waterways Guiding, and was ramping up on all fronts for her first full season in business. She had big goals for connecting new groups of people to the outdoors, improving access and safety, increasing the comfort level of those who’d been ignored or mistreated because of their sex, race, gender identity, physical limitations, you name it. Jackie was bringing years of backcountry and paddling experience to her new business, and she was stoked to make her passion her profession as well.
But COVID-19 didn’t really give a flying you-know-what about her big plans, and the past year has instead been an exercise in continuous pivoting, testing, reworking, and plan B-C-D-E activation.
Jackie has my head spinning with ideas and hope for the future of professional guiding - she is just the positive force I needed to get back on track after a bumpy start this year!
I love the approach that Jackie seems to be taking to fast track her journey toward all that she wants to accomplish. She’s totally embraced her cis-white female privilege, in order to acquire the knowledge and skills she needs from wherever and whomever she can, with the goal of transferring that knowledge to those who can’t access it in the same way.
Until the makeup of outdoor enthusiasts and professional guides reflects the makeup of the general population, it will be difficult for many wanna-be nature lovers to find the models and mentors they need to move them confidently into that new identity.
In my humble opinion, Jackie has already achieved her goal, to be the role model she sought for herself 20 years ago. And as a new board member of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, she hopes to use her influence to continue to manifest the types of changes she’d like to see in the industry. Jackie has definitely become my new role model, and one I hope many others follow in her intentional approach to her business and building her life in service to others.
I hope you’ll check out Jackie's guide service, Waterways Guiding, on the web, Instagram, and Facebook.
And don't miss Jackie’s fabulous Cedar Grove Sauna on the web, Instagram, Facebook!
We covered a lot of ground in this one, this is just a sampling!:
Jackie featured on The School of the Forest Podcast
Bug net with under-arm straps - this was the only one of its kind I could find :-D