Ryan Mossny, Two Feet & a Heartbeat

Ryan Mossny Two Feet & a Heartbeat

The FACET Golden Guide Award was first initiated in1998 as a way of recognising and rewarding those amazing people who really are the front line of tourism. They guide our visitors and guests through urban and natural environments and create excitement and enthusiasm for places that on the surface appear to be nothing out of the ordinary.

To be a good guide you need to know a lot about your subject and be happy talking in front of groups of strangers but the secret ingredient in guiding is passion. Without passion the guide is simply a talkative know-it-all: with passion the guide can create magic.

The 2012 recipient of the FACET Golden Guide award has passion in spades, Ryan Mossny is Director and Co-Founder of Two Feet &a Heartbeat the Perth based walking tour sensation. Ryan and his business partner Ryan Zaknich started Two Feet because of their passion for Perth and their desire to tell anyone who was willing to listen “how awesome Perth really is.”

Ryan had travelled extensively before relocating from his native Saskatchewan in Canada to Melbourne in 2004. As a Product Manager for a consumer electronics company it was his job to travel around the country launching and demonstrating new products. Clearly Ryan was already used to being a showman and he loved to present.

Ryan’s first visit to Perth was in 2005 when he came here for a reunion of friends that shared a house in London, one of whom was his old friend Ryan Z. After that he returned to Perth regularly with work and always made sure he had extra time to catch up with his buddy who took great pride in showing him around his home town.

It was around this time that Perth was getting abashing from the press for being Dullsville and cartoons featuring tumbleweed blowing down St. Georges Terrace were a regular feature. This puzzled the Ryans as they knew the fascinating story that was just below the surface. They had travelled around the world and done many tours in far less interesting cities and knew the potential Perth offered for this kind of a venture.

So in 2007 they took a leap of faith and created Two Feet & a Heartbeat walking tours. They created a route that took in Perth’s obvious and not so obvious historic landmarks and ran the business whilst they were also working full time. Perth was changing quickly and dramatically and a walk around the city today is very different even from 2007. In the grip of a mining boom the city has leapt from a relatively quiet capital city into a vibrant and exciting place to live and work.

Ryan tells of how they thought they would be appealing to the young backpacker market but were surprised to find that their solid base market was local Western Australians rediscovering their own city.Ryan says that people are often surprised that someone from Canada should be so passionate and know so much about their city. Sometimes it takes seeing your city through the eyes of a stranger to really appreciate its potential.

One of the characteristics of Two Feet & a Heartbeat has been their ability to keep reinventing their product. They offer the Perth Urban Adventure and the Fremantle Urban Adventure daily each telling the historical story but also showing where the cities are heading. Ryan loves the challenge of making history interesting to a varied audience as well as creating a fun experience. In addition to the Urban Adventures they offer Small Bar Tours, and Singles Nights. They also get involved in a whole range of other events including Perth Heritage Days, Open House Perth, Eat Drink Perth and many others. Ryan knows he is only scratching the surface of what Perth has to offer.

Two Feet LogoWhen asked what winning the FACET Golden Guide award would mean to him he said “It is an honour to have been recognised by my peers as a leader in guiding, I know the competition would have been tough”.

He went on to say “I would like to thank FACET for developing this award and the Department of Environment and Conservation for sponsoring it. I would also like to acknowledge the Two Feet team for sharing their passion and knowledge of Western Australia’s history and heritage and for the tourism community for supporting us in our journey.”

If you haven’t already experienced a Two Feet tour do yourself a favour and book one today at www.twofeet.com.au

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