Position Summary
A Designated Ambassador Trainer is the in-market keeper of
the Ghost City Ambassador standard. Trainers turn new hires
into certified Ghost City Ambassadors and help current
Ambassadors keep improving — through structured training,
live-tour observation, and specific, behavior-based coaching.
Every guest experience Ghost City delivers passes through an
Ambassador that someone trained. This role exists to make
sure that training is excellent, consistent, and honest. A
Designated Training Ambassador is trusted to prepare people for
the moment they stand alone in front of paying guests — and
to tell the truth, constructively, about whether they are ready.
The core standard is simple:
Every trainee deserves honest preparation. Every Ambassador
deserves honest feedback. Every guest deserves the experience
they paid for.
What This Role Is — and Is Not
This role is: a trainer, a coach, an observer, a mentor, and a
working example of the Ambassador standard.
This role is not: a hiring role or a management role. Designated
Ambassador Trainers do not recruit, interview, or hire
candidates, and they do not make scheduling, discipline, or
separation decisions. Those responsibilities belong to the Tour
Guide Manager. The Trainer's job is to develop people and to
give the TGM accurate, specific, evidence-based information
about trainee and Ambassador performance. The Trainer
supplies the evidence; the TGM makes the decisions.
Essential Responsibilities
New Ambassador Training
- Lead training sessions using approved Ghost City tour routes, stories, curriculum, and standards.
- Prepare trainees for certification: material retention, storytelling and delivery, voice projection, pacing, guest interaction, group management, safety awareness, and company protocols.
- Run shadow tours and support each trainee's first solo tours, including a first-tour debrief in coordination with the TGM.
- Track each trainee's progress and flag concerns to the TGM early — attendance issues, slow material retention, coachability problems, or guest-readiness doubts. An early, honest flag protects the trainee, the guests, and the company.
- Treat training as an active evaluation period, consistent with the Ghost City Ambassador Standard: support and coach every trainee fully, and report the evidence of their readiness accurately.
- Keep trainees moving. Time-to-certification matters — run sessions as scheduled, offer make-up paths when conflicts arise, and never let a trainer-side delay stall a cohort.
Ongoing Performance Training
- Observe live tours (announced or unannounced, as directed by the TGM) and evaluate delivery against the Ambassador standard.
- Deliver feedback using the four-part structure: the standard, the observed issue, the impact on guests, and the required change. Feedback is specific and behavioral — never personality labels.
- Coach skill gaps: projection, pacing, transitions, story moments, energy, guest interaction, and group management.
- Deliver retraining for Ambassadors on improvement plans, as directed by the TGM, and report on progress.
- Complete written coaching reports that are factual, specific, and job-related.
- Recognize strong performance specifically — improvement after coaching, standout reviews, professional handling of difficult guests. Recognition is part of training.
Upholding the Standard
- Model the Ambassador standard personally: reliability, punctuality, preparation, professionalism, and city pride. A Trainer who does not meet the standard cannot credibly teach it.
- Apply the same standard to every trainee and Ambassador. Consistency is what makes the standard real.
- Maintain confidentiality around trainee performance, coaching conversations, and
evaluations.
- Communicate professionally and promptly with the TGM through proper channels.
Core Competencies
Credibility. The Trainer meets the Ambassador standard themselves and has the tour-delivery skill to demonstrate, not just describe, what good looks like.
Coaching skill. The Trainer can diagnose why a tour isn't working and prescribe a specific, practicable change — “slow down at story stops and face the group before key moments,” not “be better.”
Objectivity. Evaluations are based on evidence and the standard, not friendship, favoritism, or charisma.
Directness with warmth. The Trainer can tell someone the truth about their performance in a way that makes them want to improve rather than quit or become defensive.
Reliability. Training sessions and observations are commitments. Trainees and TGMs must be able to count on the Trainer absolutely.
Written communication. Coaching reports are clear, specific, and useful to a TGM making decisions.
Judgment and discretion. The Trainer handles sensitive performance information and public-facing situations with professionalism.
Required Qualifications
- Experience leading tours to a high standard — a certified Ghost City Ambassador in good standing is strongly preferred; equivalent guiding, teaching, or live-performance
training experience considered.
- Demonstrated pattern of reliability, professionalism, and strong guest feedback.
- Ability to observe a performance and translate it into specific, behavior-based verbal and written feedback.
- Strong verbal communication and comfort coaching adults with varied backgrounds and
experience levels.
- Availability during evenings, weekends, holidays, and peak tourism periods.
- Ability to walk assigned tour routes, remain on feet for full tours, and work outdoors in varying weather and nighttime conditions.
- Access to reliable transportation to and from tour locations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Current or former Ghost City Ambassador performing at the Model Ambassador level.
- Experience training, teaching, directing, stage-managing, or coaching performers or public speakers.
- Deep familiarity with the local market's tours, routes, stories, and history.
Performance Expectations
A successful Designated Ambassador Trainer consistently:
- Certifies trainees who are genuinely ready — new Ambassadors who pass through their training arrive at their first solo tour prepared, audible, and professional.
- Keeps cohorts on schedule, with no trainer-caused delays between hire and certification.
- Flags at-risk trainees to the TGM early rather than letting concerns surface after certification.
- Produces coaching reports that are specific and behavioral, and that TGMs can act on.
- Coaches Ambassadors to measurable improvement, visible in reviews and follow-up observations.
- Models the standard: arrives on time, prepared, and professional for every session and observation, without exception.
Trainers are evaluated on the readiness of the people they train, the quality and consistency of their coaching, and their own reliability and professionalism.
Physical and Environmental Requirements
This role involves attending and leading outdoor walking tours
and training sessions in public areas. Trainers must be able to
walk and stand for the duration of tours, speak loudly and
clearly to a group, navigate city sidewalks, streets, stairs, curbs,
and crowds, work in evening and nighttime conditions, and
perform duties in varying temperatures and weather, subject to
company safety policies.
Role Fit
This role is best suited for someone who takes real satisfaction
in another person's improvement — who enjoys watching a
nervous trainee become a confident Ambassador and knows the
specific coaching that got them there. It suits people who can
hold a firm standard and a warm tone at the same time.
This role is not well suited for someone who avoids difficult
conversations, softens evaluations to stay liked, plays favorites,
wants a leadership title without doing development work, or
wants hiring or management authority — this role carries
neither.
The Trainer's Standard
Designated Ambassador Trainers are expected to uphold three
core standards:
Prepare people honestly. No trainee should reach their first solo
tour unready, and no trainee should be certified on hope.
Coach behavior, not personality. Feedback is specific, evidence-
based, tied to the guest experience, and delivered with respect.
Model what you teach. The Trainer is the standard, made
visible. Reliability, preparation, and professionalism are
demonstrated before they are taught.
Pay: From $30.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
