Lisa Joslyn | From College Professor to Yellowstone Tour Guide
Our Stories Matter
Teacher, writer, podcaster, mother, partner, sister, conservationist, and Yellowstone tour guide: Meet Lisa Joslyn, co-founder of Sky’s the Limit Tours, together with her sister, Tin. I met Lisa and Tin through Megan of Glō Luxury Oils, who felt that Sky's the Limit Tours would make a strong collaborative partner with Dare to Detour. Megan was right. We share many of the same values, as well as the mission to empower and support women in stepping out of their comfort zones to reconnect with the most authentic versions of themselves. And we love wild places. In an industry that is dominated by male operators, Sky's the Limit Tours stands out as a female/veteran-owned business with a focus on conservation. Lisa works hard to tailor each private tour to meet the needs of her clients and is especially passionate about observing the wolves of Yellowstone in every season.
Currently, Lisa and Sky's the Limit Tours is offering all Dare Guides members a generous 16% savings on any private Yellowstone or Teton tour. And they will be offering a special Yellowstone experience to the women who join me for Dare | Montana at the Nine Quarter Circle Ranch in September 2025. Learn more about Sky's the Limit Tours
Detouring from our typical blog post, Lisa made a vlog for us - Enjoy, Darlings!
At various times in Lisa’s life, she wanted different experiences. No right or wrong, just going with the changes as they come. From her professorship in Colorado to providing writing curricula for authors, learn how Lisa’s life Detours led her to starting a Yellowstone Tour Guide company that supports women and minorities to be competent and comfortable in the outdoors.
Transcript
Hi, Dare to Detour community! My name is Lisa, and here is my Detour story.
For eight years, I studied to have my alternate dream job to teach at a college. That day finally came, and I taught college. I got to do that job for 10 years. At about year seven, I got invited to hire a weekend provider, a trainer who would provide a two-day workshop. I was reading through all of these applications about what they would deliver and imagining myself delivering these things, especially after I saw that they made $10,000 for two days of work. That was mind-blowing to me. So, it planted the seed. I continued, and a few weeks later, I signed up for a business class so that I could learn skills that I needed so that I could then venture out and have this opportunity for myself.
Fast forward a few years later, I left Colorado and moved to Bozeman, Montana, where I am today, and that job did not follow me. It was a state job. I thought it was going to follow me because I was remote, turns out no so I applied for all these jobs, heard nothing back for weeks, and then I decided a little Detour moment within the larger Detour, that I needed to have practices that regulated myself and that I needed a different approach, because what I was doing wasn't working hard truths.
When I let it go and I allowed open my aperture outside of just the college realm, that was when I got an opportunity to provide writing support for curriculums for authors from around the world. That was a beautiful experience that I would have never had if I had stayed in that nine-to-five job at the community college, but it kept me inside, and I moved to the mountains to be outside in nature. So again, it was this little moment of a decision of this isn't quite it. Keep looking, keep going.
I got a phone call from my little sister, Tin, and she said that she was considering moving to Bozeman to live near me and work in Yellowstone. So she did, and I joined her, and then the following year, we started our own company here. And the version of me that saw that external provider doing a two day workshop got a big reality check in realizing how much actual work it is to provide top level experience for people, how much behind the scenes work it is and how many skills that you need, so that was good for me to have that humility to realize that it's not as easy as they make it look stop putting in the time behind the scenes is what makes it run so smoothly.
Now, my sister and I run a Yellowstone tour guiding business. We are super proud that it is women-owned and empowers people to experience nature and themselves in new ways that they never thought were possible.
Hopefully, I will meet you one day, and you can tell me your Detour story. Maybe it will be here in Montan, in these beautiful mountains. Good luck with your journey!
