On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Todd Stallbaumer. He shares his experience working to promote tourism in Oklahoma as the Consumer and Trade Marketing Director for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. We discuss the importance of finding your claims and how determining them can help you stand out. Todd also discusses the importance of culture and diversity and how recognizing and respecting that can open travelers up to a new and unique experience. Lastly, we cover the importance of finding commonality and how that can lead to meaningful connections and lasting partnerships.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

• The importance of finding your claims and how doing so can help your destination stand out and attract the right audience
• Understanding the big picture and how that can lead to success
• How to use anniversaries and the attention they garner to launch ongoing opportunities for attraction instead
• Todd’s view on diversity and exploring community and how they are highlighting that in Oklahoma to create new tourism opportunities
• How Todd found his “Dynamic Destination” group and why it’s so important to find commonality with others
• What makes Oklahoman excellent spot for tourists and how you can learn more about the state and all it has to offer

Finding Your Claims

Have you ever traveled somewhere and expected one thing based on what you’d seen on TV or heard about the place and experienced something completely different? So many travelers have preconceived notions about destinations and what they expect to see when they get there.

This week, my guest on the Destination on the Left podcast is Todd Stallbaumer, Consumer and Trade Marketing Director for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. Todd learned very quickly that many people had stereotypes for what they expected Oklahoma to look like. In the episode, we dive into how he tries to reimagine those stereotypes to create an entirely different experience for travelers.

We dive into how Todd found Oklahoma’s claim. In other words, he explains how he came to find what sets Oklahoma apart from other places. What you’ll be interested to know is that it’s the state’s diversity and culture that make it a unique place to visit. Todd explains how he is utilizing the state’s culture to drive new and exciting tourism opportunities for visitors to dive into the various communities found in Oklahoma.

Finding Commonality

Toward the end of the podcast, we dive into Todd’s ability to find commonality with a really unique set of people. While this group of people lives all across America in very different states, they have found very specific criteria that put them in the same circle. It was so interesting to hear from Todd how they came to form this group and how he was able to find these very niche commonalities that have led to such a resourceful and helpful partnership.

Todd and I dive into the details of his dynamic group and how they use their commonalities to help each other. From sharing connections, resources, problems, and sales pitches, this team has helped each other’s states and cities find new ways to draw tourism. And, through these commonalities, they are able to refer travelers to each other and make connections with other similar travel destinations as they grow.

Resources:

• www.travelok.com

Cheryl Kilday, President & CEO, Destination North Myrtle Beach, CDME, has contributed to the communities where she has lived through destination development, tourism promotion, and economic development initiatives. And she has an extensive background working with not-for-profit membership-based organizations that affect a positive impact on the local economy and quality of life.

Cheryl joined the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau in October 2018. She previously led Visit Spokane from 2010 until October 2018 after living in the Washington DC region in Northern Virginia for several years. She launched Visit Loudoun in 1996 and was the President and CEO for nearly 15 years. She began her tourism adventure in the Willamette Valley in Oregon after graduating from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Cheryl also earned the prestigious Certified Destination Marketing Executive (CDME) designation through Destinations International in 2011 and has achieved Destination Management Accreditation in both Spokane, Washington, Loudoun, Virginia, and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Cheryl is a Trustee for Destinations International Travel Foundation and serves on committees for Destinations International Foundation and Association boards.

Her career honors include recognition for leadership in the meetings industry by Smart Meetings Magazine, and awards for marketing and public relations programs from US Travel, HSMAI, and an Emmy®.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Cheryl Kilday, who shares why she believes that working for a tourism office that is part of a Chamber of Commerce gives her office a considerable advantage. We discuss how Cheryl sees the future of tourism evolving and why the curation of destinations’ stories is likely to focus more on creating a connection between places and their visitors by positioning them where potential guests are searching. Cheryl also dives into what she loves about working in the travel industry and why a huge part of the joy she finds in her job lies in the connections she builds with the local community.

What You Will Learn:

• Different funding models that tourist organizations can leverage and why working with the Chamber gives Cheryl a better budget
• How Cheryl helps the North Myrtle Beach residents understand and appreciate that their restaurants, retail, and entertainment options improve because they’re outnumbered by visitors on any given day
• Cheryl’s advice for having a successful relationship with your team
• Creative projects that Cheryl and her team have been working on to make their destination stand out
• Why accountability and transparency feature highly in how North Myrtle Beach put together their messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they differentiated the messaging for residents, workers, and visitors, to the destination
• Why Cheryl and her team did a series of commercials for social media, local television, and radio to personify how their businesses missed their customers and what they were doing to make it safer for visitors to return
• Some examples of how coopetition has worked for Cheryl and her team
• The co-op program and how it world to differentiate their positioning for North Myrtle Beach compared to the larger Myrtle Beach area as a destination
• How Cheryl has seen destination marketing organizations role evolve over her career

Creative Ways to Connect with Your Community

Over the last couple of years, times have been challenging in the travel and tourism industry, and DMOs have had to get clever and creative. COVID-19 has required them to try new approaches and behave differently while we figured out how our world would evolve.

This week, my guest on the Destination on the Left podcast is Cheryl Kilday, President & CEO of Destination North Myrtle Beach. She joins me to share what she and her team did to let their residents and visitors know how they were going to keep them safe. We discuss the creative ways that North Mrytle Beach developed media campaigns that kept them accountable and transparent with their community to demonstrate that they were being sensitive to the needs of both the workforce and the visitors.

We dive into the fun ways that Cheryl and her team brought North Myrtle Beach to their visitors when the visitors couldn’t come to them — including putting together a Spotify radio channel of beach music, sending videos of dance lessons to learn how to do the South Carolina shag dance, and setting up cooking classes. They also developed a road trip toolkit so that people would have a fun way to connect with them on their way to North Myrtle Beach when they were ready to return.

Collaboration with Regional DMOs

We dig into Cheryl’s experience of North Myrtle Beach’s collaboration with the regional DMO and how the spirit of partnership helped them move forward. I often talk about ‘coopetition,’ the idea of competitors coming together to cooperate and create bigger wins together than they can achieve independently. Cheryl shares some examples of how her small community works to differentiate itself from its larger neighbor to the south — including setting up a co-op. The co-op is a voluntary organization that contributes money to help guide the destination marketing that differentiates its brand positioning. They also have a collaborative program called Momentum that helps them raise funds for specific projects or initiatives that go beyond what the co-op dues would support.

Cheryl and I also dive into the details of her destination master plan, when the destination plans to launch it and how they have been able to fund the project through creative coopetition. She describes the ultimate goals of North Myrtle Beach to brand itself as somewhere that partners with residents to go through an inclusive community-based planning process on how they want their destination to be in the long term.

I loved Cheryl’s take on how opportunities for cooperation advance the common good by allowing everyone to buy into a common goal and work together to achieve spectacular results.

Resources:

• Website: www.ExploreNorthMyrtleBeach.com
• Learn about South Carolina Shag Dance here: https://discoversouthcarolina.com/articles/celebrating-the-shag-south-carolinas-state-dance
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylykilday/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cyktourism

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for my dad’s car stereo shop, I got my start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, I headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.

In 2009, I founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. I now host “Destination on the Left,” a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.

As a business owner, I know what it takes to be successful. I founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. I have the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I discuss why I’m starting 2022 with a sense of reflection, renewal, and anticipation for what is ahead. Since 2020 I have been on a journey to understand the world in a broader sense, which has led to a search for greater meaning and a focus on intentionality in my actions. This week I want to share what I have done to understand differences, identify opportunities for personal growth, and take action to help make my world more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• How the Break the Ice Media team explored the topic of what diversity, equity, and inclusion meant to them and defined the actions they could take to make a difference
• How Nicole became the Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the New York State Tourism Industry Association
• How the 2021 Travel Unity Summit helped the industry focus on the importance of increasing diversity
• The difference between equity and equality and why it is important
• How to take your own incremental action by taking the Travel Unity Individual Pledge, which is for all who believe the world of travel should be welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities
• What the Break the Ice Media team identified when they dug into their core value of equity and how they sought more diverse perspectives
• How rounding out the team led to an invitation for Break the Ice Media to pitch to Cayuga County and Auburn, New York, for their Harriet Tubman Equal Rights Heritage Campaign to commemorate the 200th Birthday of Harriet Tubman in 2022

Reflecting on Our Journey in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Over the last two years, my small company has been grappling with how we fit within the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conversation, and we have really committed to educating ourselves around the topic.

I was very candid in Solocast 16 about the team’s journey to live out the ‘equitable’ core value within our company, and we have recently reflected on our most recent client work to see how it is significantly impacting our collective worldview. When examining how we aligned with our values, we found that we needed to work on developing more diverse partner, freelance, and subcontractor relationships to ensure we represent a wide range of viewpoints.

Being Intentional

Big things will happen when you set your intentions and start to take action. You may feel as if you are taking baby steps at first, but time will pass, and you will realize that all those incremental moves have led to a monumental shift and change in your organization. I’m grateful that we took this journey and for the lessons we learned along the way, particularly the importance of humility and vulnerability when addressing biases and issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Resources:

Websites:

• https://travelunity.org/
• https://www.nystia.org/
• https://www.tourcayuga.com/
• https://plimoth.org/
• https://breaktheicemedia.com/podcasts/solocast-16/

Additional Resources:

• Email: nicole@breaktheicemedia.com
• Website: www.destinationontheleft.com/
• Website: https://breaktheicemedia.com/
• Twitter: @Break_TheIce
• Facebook: @BreakTheIceMedia