Rick Steves
42 statements across 2 episodes · 14 bullish · 2 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Mar 8, 2021 by Rick Steves · said 2 times in 1 episodes since 2021 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Rick Steves's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Guy Raz (2)
tap a year for its mentions
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
Everything said about Rick Steves, oldest first
Mar 8, 2021
Steves: I drop friends' hotels from guidebooks if their quality drops
“If things go south, that hotel, even if it's run by friends of mine, is out of the book, and it breaks my heart, but I have had to drop hotels run by friends of mine, because it's no longer what it used to be when it earned a spot in the book.”
Mar 8, 2021 neutral
Mar 8, 2021 neutral
Steves: First TV series paid zero direct salary, only guidebook promotion
“The only pay I was getting was the exposure, I suppose, to the public, and the chance to say, and he writes a guidebook. So at the end of the show, he writes a cool book, and if you like the show, you like the book, you buy that, and then Small World would mak…”
Mar 8, 2021 bullish
Mar 8, 2021 neutral
Mar 8, 2021
Rick Steves bought and donated a 25-unit apartment complex to the YWCA
“Eventually I just gave that building to the YWCA, and now I go to sleep knowing that my hard work has resulted in the YWCA owning, you know, a 25 unit apartment complex that is housing 25 single moms in this case people who have had problems with hard drug add…”
Mar 8, 2021
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Rick Steves made early profits flipping European coins in Seattle
“Coins sold in Seattle in the sixties. Foreign coins for Three cents a piece, you know, in the coin markets, if it was a German coin or a Norwegian coin. So I could buy 52 Groschen coins for a nickel and bring them home and sell them for three cents each.”
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Rick Steves drove paid tour bookings by giving away DIY tour handbooks
“I put everything I knew about doing the tour in the handbook for the tour into intending to give people the information necessary so they could do the Rick Steves tour without Rick Steves. They could buy the book for five bucks and do it on their own. And some…”
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Rick Steves: Becoming partners' cash cow makes your business indispensable
“You know, one thing I've had as a business sort of value is be other people's cash cow. Everybody is struggling. Everybody is desperate to be viable from a business point of view, and if all you are is your own cash cow, nobody's gonna want to talk to you, but…”
Mar 8, 2021
Steves: Traveled across Europe in 1973 on roughly three dollars daily
“Back then, you could go to Europe really cheap. You could fly to Europe for a few hundred dollars. You could get a year rail pass, a student year rail pass for, I think it was 250 dollars, and we lived on, on three or four, I mean, there was no five dollars a …”
Mar 8, 2021
Rick Steves' Europe drove nearly 20% of all PBS pledge revenue
“I was spending 20 days a year, 20 days on the road doing pledge, and to this day, I mean, I just was talking to the people at public television a week or two ago, and they said nearly 20% of all the money that they raised in pledge this last quarter was from m…”
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Rick Steves: The best travel business entry is operating specialized minibus tours
“When people want to get into the travel business and make some money, I say, you know, I think the best thing is just to have a forte. Just, you know, you are you know, you are Mr. Scandinavia, or you are Mr. Baja, or Miss Baja, California, and just do that sp…”
Mar 8, 2021 positive
Steves: Society should fund a gap year abroad for every American child
“If the world was smart, they would establish a fund and give every American kid a little gap year trip, and it seems extravagant, but it'd be a small price to pay. To get Americans out of their home and into the rest of the world and realize this world's a bea…”
Mar 8, 2021 negative
Rick Steves: Founders cannot make up for missed parenting once kids grow up
“Pretty practical about the reality that you can't do it all, and those years are fleeting years, and you can't really make it up, make up for it when your kids are in their thirties, when you finally slow down and you realize that cat's in the cradle kind of b…”
Mar 8, 2021
Mar 8, 2021
Mar 8, 2021
Mar 8, 2021
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Rick Steves: Subsidizing gap-year travel for young Americans is worth the cost
“If the world was smart, they would establish a fund and give every American kid a little
Gap your trip, and it seems extravagant, but it'd be a small price to pay to get Americans out of their home and into the rest of the world and realize this world's a bea…”
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025 neutral
Steves drops friends' hotels from guidebooks if quality declines
“If things go south, that hotel, even if it's run by friends of mine, is out of the book, and it breaks my heart, but I have had to drop hotels run by friends of mine, because it's no longer what it used to be when it earned a spot in the book.”
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Jul 7, 2025 negative
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Steves: Arthur Frommer publicly anointed him as the next travel guide giant
“He had me fly all the way to New York and be on his radio show, and. Or it was a TV show, I think, maybe, and he's, he put his, you know, he kind of effectively put his arm around me, and he said, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the next Temple Fiel…”
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025
Steves: Small World initially paid me only in guidebook promotional exposure
“The only pay I was getting was the exposure, I suppose, to the public, and the chance to say, and he writes a guidebook, so at the end of the show, he writes a cool book, and if you like the show, you like the book, you buy that, and then Small World would mak…”
Jul 7, 2025
Steves: Producing a half-hour travel episode took six days on location
“The TV show, it takes six days to produce a half-hour TV show, and you learn nothing during that. I mean, I always thought, oh, I could learn while I'm there. No, it's just so all-consuming. You're just there waiting for the jackhammer to stop, trying to remem…”
Jul 7, 2025
Rick Steves: First guidebook split travel skills from 20 destination discoveries
“In the beginning, the book was two halves. It was like two books bound together. The first half was all the skills. Packing, hotels, eating, transportation, communication, you name it. And then the last half were individual chapters on my 20 favorite discoveri…”
Jul 7, 2025
Rick Steves: Become indispensable by being a cash cow for your partners
“You know, one thing I've had as a business sort of value is be other people's cash cow. Everybody is struggling. Everybody is desperate to be viable from a business point of view, and if all you are is your own cash cow, nobody's going to want to talk to you, …”
Jul 7, 2025
Steves: Rick Steves' Europe grew without formal strategy or planned executive roles
“No strategy at all. I never really wanted to look in the book and say, oh, now you have a COO. Now you have a CFO. I don't even know what that stuff is until it becomes apparent, oh, we need a guy to do this, and then they go, yeah, that's called a CFO. We're …”
Jul 7, 2025 positive
Rick Steves: Enter the travel business via minibus tours in niche geographies
“When people want to get into the travel business and make some money, I say, you know, I think the best thing is just to have a forte. Just, you know, you are you know, you are Mr. Scandinavia, or you are Mr. Baja, or Miss Baja, California. And just do that sp…”
Jul 7, 2025 positive