Transcript:
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:00:00] I think the one thing we should do as destination leaders is throw out the concept that we're tourism leaders. The more we talk about ourselves as tourism entities and we think about everything from a tourism perspective, it limits us. If we pull back the lens and say, what does my community need, what does my residence need, and how can my role in bringing in visitors or generating visitation serve that need?
Adam Stoker: [00:00:26] Hey everybody, great news, the Destination Marketing podcast is going on the road over the next couple of months. We're actually starting with Tennessee. We're going to be in Tennessee the week of September 8th. I say September 8th because the 7th is labor day, so we'll be there right after labor day. We're going to be in Tennessee then, and then a little bit later we're going to be in Mississippi and we're also going to hit North Carolina that month. And if you and your destination or your state would like to be featured on the Destination Marketing podcast on the road and do an in-person episode, whether it's in one of your attractions, eateries, whatever, we'd love to come do a live episode there. So we're tired of being quarantined, we're getting out of the office, and we're excited to come to your destination and feature your destination on the Destination Marketing podcast. Let us know if you want to be a part of it. Email me at adam@relicagency.com and we'll schedule a time to get the destination marketing podcast in your neck of the woods. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Destination Marketing podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. We're really excited to have you with us today. We've got a great show for you. Our guest is from Long Island, New York. Her name is Kristen Jarnagin. Kristen, welcome to the show.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:01:48] Thank you so much for having me.
Adam Stoker: [00:01:50] Oh, we're excited to have you. We got a lot to talk about today. You're in the epicenter of this whole Coronavirus thing, which means you've got a unique take that a lot of us would love to learn from but before we dive into that we've, got a couple of ice breaker questions we like to ask everybody that comes on the show. And the first question we have for you is what is your dream destination? If you could go anywhere in the world, Kristen, where would it be?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:02:16] Well, that's a great question, and I think probably like everyone else, right now it's much different than it might've been six months ago because everything's been taken away from us as far as all destinations. And as much as I love New York and some of the things around here that I have access to, I just want to go to a tropical island right now, somewhere where my phone doesn't work.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:38] I bet you do. You just want to be secluded and…
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:02:38] Exactly.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:38] ...get a real break.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:02:44] I want to be somewhere on a beach, on a tropical island with a cocktail in hand and just the sound of the waves and not much else. But that's what's great about our industry, is that as we evolve our travel preferences do as well. And it's a great big world out there to choose from.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:59] That's right. What I'm hearing is it doesn't necessarily matter which island it is as long as there is no phone service, that's the requirement.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:03:06] That would be helpful. That would be preferable. Yes.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:10] Oh, great. Okay. Let's talk about your favorite trip you've ever been on. All of us travel quite a bit in this industry, is there a trip that stands out to you that was really memorable for you?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:03:23] Oh gosh, another great question. And it's so hard because that's what I love so much about our industry, is that in your last days, and not to be morbid, but you'll think back about what your life was about and what memories you had, and that's what our industry does, is we host those memories. We create the things that make a life a valuable life, and I've had so many of them, whether it's going for my sister's 50th birthday in Sonoma which we had just the best time surprising her and getting our whole family together, or I was privileged enough to get engaged at the Eiffel Tower as it was sparkling-
Adam Stoker: [00:04:07] Oh, wow.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:04:08] ... in Paris at midnight. And again, in our industry we're so privileged, I've been to Iceland, I've been to Berlin, I remember I was in Europe during the time of... right before we went into war with Iraq and it was all about freedom fries, remember that?
Adam Stoker: [00:04:24] Yup.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:04:25] And you remember the times and the political situations and the people that you met as much as you do the destinations, and again, that's why I'm so truly privileged to be in this industry that I love so much.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:39] We usually look for a specific answer on that question, but you answered it so well, seriously, no, I appreciate your answer. And you called out a unique opportunity that we do have in this industry, and I've never really looked at it this way, but if we do our job right we are on someone's bucket list, I guess, reverse bucket list, right? When they look back at their life and what's the amazing things that they've done, if we do our job right as destination marketers and managers we're on that list. And I don't think there's a lot of interactions throughout a life that end up on that list, and it's pretty special for us to be able to be stewards of something so important to the people that visit.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:05:24] I think you're so right. I mean, who knows what will carve out to be the things that mattered most in our lives, but I think 2020 has taught us to prioritize family and friends and people that we love and those memories that we make with those people. It's not about the car or the house as much as it is about just being together. And that's what our industry does, is we allow you to be together throughout different periods of your life, whether it's your favorite childhood vacation that you spent with your family at your theme park or whether it was when you went internationally for the first time or had a special moment that signified a significant birthday or life event. It's pretty awesome what we do if you think about it.
Adam Stoker: [00:06:04] You're totally right. Okay. All right. Those are good answers to our ice breaker questions there. I want to have our audience be able to learn about your background and how you got into the tourism industry.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:06:17] Oh gosh. Okay. So I think like so many people back in my day I fell into it. Now people are better at carving out this industry as something they want to do, but when I was getting into it most people just stumbled upon it, as did I. I went to Arizona State University. I'm originally from West Texas. I went to Arizona State and I got my degree in journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism with an emphasis in PR. And I was just working for a PR agency that had a couple of tourism clients, we had a railroad and a hotel, and in my workings with them, I would talk to the Arizona Office of Tourism and try to get my client in one of their FAM tours or included in something they were promoting. And one day they said, would you like to work here? I said sure. They were like, we'll have you do media tours around the state, and I didn't even know what a media tour was at the time, but I jumped at the chance and I fell in love with Arizona. I would have told you back then I was a native Texan and once a Texan, it's a privileged group to be in, but I fell in love with Arizona, just like I've done moving to Long Island, fell in love with Long Island. So I started at the Arizona Office of Tourism, I worked my way up in the communications department to be the director there, and then I went to work for a luxury resort, the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass resort and spa. I was their PR director for several years, and I really cut my teeth in the niche industry, dining golf, the meetings and conventions space there was critical to that resort. And then I went to work for a trade association, the Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association, which really taught me how to communicate the ROI. I ended up being the lobbyist there for the state of Arizona and learned legislative tools. And then a job came open on Long Island for the CEO, and I think it was the perfect culmination of my destination marketing as a state, my meetings and conventions and niche from the resort, and my political savvy to come here and utilize all of that training in this position.
Adam Stoker: [00:08:27] Wow. What a well-rounded background to have been involved in all those different components of the industry. My next question for you is centered around, you came up through the marketing ranks, that was your path, right, you came up through marketing and now you're the CEO of a major destination, how did that marketing foundation help you prepare for the role you're in now?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:08:52] Yeah. And I think it's a varied background and it's very different, and I have to give praise to every single one of those people in those positions that gave me an opportunity to do something I'd never done before. I went to be the PR director of a resort, I'd never worked at a resort before, and I can't tell you how many times I'd interviewed and people said, oh, you need resort experience. Or when I went to go work for the lodging and tourism association and I became the lobbyists, no one said have you ever met a lobbyist before, they just knew that it was about communication. And then when I came here to Long Island I'd never worked at a CVB. I work with CVBs in various capacities, but to be the CEO of a CVB without that experience, people really had to see something in you and take a leap of faith. And I don't think I've let anyone down yet, but in the beginning of my tourism career you always came up through the sales. It was all about sales-
Adam Stoker: [00:09:45]] Right.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:09:45] ... moving up into those roles, and it was heads and beds and numbers. And then it's marketing, but it's really communications is my background and that was... It's key. It's key right now because it doesn't matter what you're doing if you're not communicating it correctly and effectively. And the other thing I'd say that is really unique about my background that most people don't have is that lobbying, understanding how to get in the mind of elected officials in our role is critical, and it has been instrumental here for me on Long Island where there are countless political layers.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:19] Oh, I can imagine. Yeah. Let's talk about Long Island as a destination. Give us a general overview of the product that you represent.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:10:28] Okay. Well, I'll tell you that I think I have the best product in the whole world, so.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:33] I think that's important for what your job is. I think that's really good that you feel that way.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:10:38] Yeah. I'm like not to be biased, but. And I can tell you that I had never been to Long Island before I came here and interviewed for this position, and I came from across the country, so I really do see it from a visitor's perspective, an outsider's perspective, and that's good I think. That's been my biggest asset here, is that most people... When you grow up in your destination and you've lived there for many years you take for granted what you think people know about you or what you think your best assets are. So it's a beautiful destination. It's a $6.1 billion industry here annually on Long Island, I don't think people know that, but it's a long Island. It's 120 miles long, on one end we have New York City and on the other end, we have... It's two little forks, and on the North fork is the vineyards, more than 60 different vineyards, and the charming North Fork, and on the bottom is The Hamptons and Montauk. And then everything in between we're really like a mosaic that's made up of countless small New England-esque style towns with a little bit more of a New York edge.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:47] What a unique destination to represent, I mean, to have all of that within one area, I mean, it creates, obviously, a wonderful product to market, but also a challenge to make sure that you're able to communicate it all. It's a blessing and a curse.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:12:07] You're so right. And people in our industry would only recognize that, that it is. There's endless content to talk about. We meet every genre, families, history. I mean, we have so much incredible history here. Fire Island, we have Jones Beach Theater, music, anything you can imagine is really right here, but that's where my state tourism experience, I think, is really helpful, being able to market a very diverse geographic and populous area. And that's why we don't talk as much about this region or that region, and when we did our new campaign it's really about the emotional connection of Long Island. And what makes us so special is all those wonderful things you can see and do, but also just the history and the culture of our people and our community. And that's what we focus on a lot here.
Adam Stoker: [00:12:56] Awesome. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about, COVID hit and we all went through this emotional journey over the last six months, I'd love to hear about yours.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:13:08] Yeah. So it has been emotional and it still is emotional, it was just interesting because I've been here for almost five years and for the last four years I've been telling everyone think bigger. Long Island has a population of over 3 million people and we're connected to New York City which has a population of over 8 million people. So a lot of times we take for granted that we have to talk to anyone else outside of who we are, and I've been telling everyone here to think bigger. We went into Washington DC and Baltimore for the first time working with our airport. We went into Philadelphia for the first time ever last year. We've really expanded into our international markets as an international destination, and we have so much momentum going on, and then COVID hit, and I had to go around and tell everyone, so everything I've been saying for the last four years disregard and let's do the opposite, and let's just talk to locals and try to get people into our businesses and then speak to New York city people at that resident. And it's been, again, it's been a great challenge, but we're very lucky in our proximity to have this kind of population to keep us sustained through this time.
Adam Stoker: [00:14:21] Interesting. One of the things that you talked about was that you've got that lobbying and advocacy experience, and I know your office had to, or your team, had to transition into more of an advocacy role. Did you feel like your past experience helped you know step by step what you needed to do?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:14:41] Absolutely. And truly it's helped me since day one, Adam. I mean, we're not one of the organizations that had to transition into focusing on advocacy. The good news is since I stepped foot in the role, just because it comes naturally to me to advocate all the time because the one rule is you don't start advocating when you need it, it's too late, you have to advocate from day one and communicate your value from day one because when it comes into question it's already too late. So luckily we were in a great position, and that's why we've been able to sustain, I think, our organization much better than some of my colleagues who hadn't established all of those political relationships. And having webinars on a weekly basis with our partners, with our Congress representatives talking about federal aid, how they can help, and our partners seeing that we have those relationships already in place, they recognize the value of our industry, they want to help our small businesses, and what that did, as well as our local and regional elected officials, it gives our partners that confidence in us. They see that we have those relationships, and when they need help we can transition very quickly with the right contacts to help them. And it's created a tremendous amount of community goodwill and credibility in our organization during this time.
Adam Stoker: [00:16:02] Yeah. Let's talk tactical. Tell me a little bit about some of the changes tactically that you guys made in your office to support those small businesses that make up your customer experience.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:16:13] Yeah. We changed everything in a nutshell, pretty much everything overnight, just like everyone else. Our entire website, our entire strategic plan was tone-deaf overnight, comes do this, experience that, all the wonderful things. So when everybody was saying stay home, in this together, all of those things, we were very careful that our message wasn't one that was, I don't know, like whitewashed or paint-brushed. A lot of our community members feel like we're not in this together because we're a very diverse community and some were more privileged and some weren't. And that can be sometimes a backfiring statement. So we are very careful in what we said to people and we want it to always feel local and specific to our community. So the first thing we did is we went into our phase one, which we're calling hold fast, and hold fast was essentially our stay home message but we used a mariner's phrase that speaks to Long Islanders about, we've been through storms many times as Long Islanders and New Yorkers, and we're tough and resilient and we're going to see through the storm. And that was a really emotional and hopefully inspiring message. It was named by Forbes as one of the most inspiring travel videos in the world, so super happy about that. And then really focused on aid, federal aid, communicating what was out there, communicating the resources, had webinars on a daily basis, any way we could talk to people, communicating constantly through video messages. We were more visible than we have ever been, and we're pretty visible, but that was the time to do it, and it's really paid off. Created task forces to serve on both of our counties, economic recovery plans to communicate how we needed to reopen as the phases rolled out, how we need to have safety protocols in place. We created a be safe pledge that allowed everyone to have free signage. And then now we're in the new phase which... The next phase we called renewed gratitude as we started to open. Communicating saying, okay, all these things you took for granted in your own backyard, let's get out there and support them. And we've done a million things since then, but we continue to reevaluate and evolve and innovate truly, I think, every single day that we come here. We're like, what can we do today?
Adam Stoker: [00:18:36] Awesome. And I want to go back a little, you covered a lot right there.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:18:36] I know. All right.
Adam Stoker: [00:18:41] That's okay. But I want to back up to your messaging that you launched, hold fast. See, if we go back to the basics of marketing, and that's getting the right message to the right people at the right time. And you were marketing to the locals in New York, or excuse me, in Long Island and your message was a mariner message that locals would understand, right, hold fast. And it spoke uniquely to them. I really liked that. How did you guys come up with that? Was that a brainstorming session, was that a collaboration with an agency? What was your process to come up with that messaging?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:19:19] So we do everything in-house. We do not have an agency that's helping us during this time. And so we're a very small mighty team. And I have to give credit to that to our VP of marketing and sales, who is sadly no longer with us. She went on to bigger and better things. But what we do is we work so closely with our local partners, and she got that from the Oyster Association. They had put a really cool picture on their Instagram of a fisherman, and we follow them, and we repost a lot of their images, and we work very closely with them, and it hit her as a great message during this time. And it really resonated to your point. We made hold fast t-shirt that then we sold with the proceeds helping our local employees, our tourism and hospitality employees that needed some financial assistance because so many of them got laid off. So I think what it comes down to, like you said, is not just marketing, not just thinking of marketing, because we weren't thinking of that. When we did hold fast and we said we want to create an inspirational video for our residents and our community we just wanted to help. We wanted to be there as part of our community, and how can we help? And I think if you come from it that mindset as opposed to trying to come up with some kind of marketing catchphrase or whatever, that's how it becomes more authentic.
Adam Stoker: [00:20:40] Great. And we would love, so we have a LinkedIn group called Destination Marketers, we would love to post your video that you launched, the hold fast video, in our LinkedIn group. We also have a Slack channel that we'd post it in. Are you okay if we share it on those pages?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:20:56] Yeah. Sure.
Adam Stoker: [00:20:56] Great.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:20:56] Absolutely.
Adam Stoker: [00:20:58] We'll work with you to get that posted after the show. Let's talk more about your recovery campaign after we take a little break, and let's talk about how you were able to start introducing that recovery message.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:21:10] Terrific.
Adam Stoker: [00:21:12] Okay, guys. Since we started the Destination Marketing Podcast a little over a year ago, I've had several destinations reach out and say, "Hey, could you help me start a podcast?" And at first, we were like, "No, that's not really what we do." But after enough requests, we said, "You know what, let's explore this." And we've created a turnkey program for destinations where we will produce, we will host, we will edit, and we will publish your podcast for your destination on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. And all you have to do is show up and answer some questions. We're really excited about this program. We've got a few destinations that have been doing really, really well with their podcast.
If you've ever thought about creating a podcast for your destination but you don't have all the equipment or you don't have the expertise or any of that type of stuff, let us take that off your hands. Let Relic handle your podcast creation and production, and all you have to do is show up and answer questions about all the amazing things there are to do within your destination. So let me know if you're interested. Email me at adam@relicagency.com, and we'll get you set up on this podcast program. So we started to talk a little bit about your recovery message, and you're getting that campaign going right now. Tell me a little bit about maybe the tactics that you're using and how you're getting that messaging out, and also who you're targeting with this recovery message.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:22:51] Right. So the target market for us still remains to be locals. We still have all of our paid advertising frozen, although we're starting to come out of that, it's very small. And a lot of that is because of... We are ultimately here for our residents. The whole reason tourism marketing exists is so that we welcome people to come experience our destination and leave their dollars here for tax revenue generation. So everything we do is for our residents and has always been that way. And our residents right now, we went through, New York was the epicenter, we went through a very, very difficult emotional time, and we paid the price early on and now we're reaping the benefits. We did the hard work and we don't want to do anything that would go back on that. So knowing that our locals are very sensitive to welcoming anyone really outside of New York State, although we do have Connecticut, New Jersey, which we can still bring in, we're just talking to local residents and our neighbors in New York City and making sure that we're communicating how they can have a safe experience, the things that are right in their own backyard that they probably don't know about, and how people can help support their local businesses and their neighbors who really need them right now. So that's the mindset that we're coming from.
Adam Stoker: [00:24:14] Great. So recovery starting with those locals. And I think that's the right approach. I mean, those are the people that are going to have the access to spend that money in the short term. How do you foresee beginning to target other markets and how will you decide the priority level of each one?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:24:32] Yeah, it's an interesting question. It's very delicate, and it so much depends on what happens in the climate with this deadly virus that we have. So if and when we do go out we're looking at obviously digital campaigns. So we did a couple of things, we have a new renewed gratitude video, which I think I mentioned before, and-
Adam Stoker: [00:24:32] Right.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:24:56] ... that came right after Hold Fast, because also as soon as we started to open up our businesses Hold Fast became tone-deaf overnight, because now we're like, we got to tell people, get out of your house, we need your help. Hold Fast was great, but the days of Zoom cooking demos are really over, we need people to get into the restaurants, and how do we do that in a way that is sensitive? And so we did it from our perspective of Renewed Gratitude, which is also a video that's on our website right now, and it's about, again, sometimes we take for granted what we have in our own backyard, and we're lucky that we have this incredible destination where people come from all over the world to see. And when we are able to, and now that we're able to, we're going to hug tighter, and we're going to laugh louder, and it was really an inspirational message about getting back out there. And we're going to help our neighbors, and we're going to welcome visitors back to our shore. And we're going to do that in a very slow, strategic way. We started with New York City. We are looking at some digital campaigns that we will do that will ensure that we track the spending of not just heads and beds, but we track the ROI as what they're spending at the gas station and the grocery store because they might be staying at a neighbor's house or a friend's house or an Airbnb instead of a hotel, but that doesn't mean they're not our visitors, or they might be staying at home and then it doesn't mean they're not our visitors. So looking at the way we promote and track, and then also we've got a great partnership that did with New York City & Company and the Long Island Railroad where we trade $150,000 worth of assets. So right now we have great signage throughout New York City in the five boroughs promoting Long Island as a very safe and family-friendly destination that they can come to.
Adam Stoker: [00:24:56] Awesome.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:26:46] And for no cost, for no dollars, which is terrific.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:50] Man, that goes down a whole another topic that I think we could talk about on another episode, is the importance of leveraging partnerships during a time like this, and not being afraid to reach out to your neighbor and say, “How can we help each other?” It's good that you did that.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:27:04] We're so grateful. And again, that's one of the things we had established previously, but sometimes you get those partnerships in place, whether it's your airport or your train or your neighbor or your region, and we work so closely together here with all of my counterparts in New York State. And we do that all the time so that when we need to activate those partnerships we can do it very quickly.
Adam Stoker: [00:27:29] Well, that's exactly right. I mean, the time to ask for help is not when you need it, the time to lay the groundwork for that is building those relationships as you go and reaching out to your partners and destinations near you and brainstorming ways to work together so that when there is a crisis like this and you need to lean on each other the trust is already there.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:27:51] You're so right, Adam, and another great example of that is our new downtown mobile pass that we just launched through, it's a Bandwango platform, and the cool part about it is... I know a lot of destinations utilize Bandwango for different trails and mobile passes, but when we decided to do it really as a response to COVID, to talk to our local audience about what's in our own backyard and all those cute little downtowns I told you about, we didn't do it from a staycation standpoint or from a beverage trail or anything, we were listening to our economic development partners that we work so closely with on the daily basis. And they were talking about downtown revitalization and recovery. And how are we going to help these struggling small businesses? More than 80% of our businesses on Long Island tourism are small businesses. And so we came, it's expensive, the platform, and we came to both of our industrial development agencies for both counties and said, hey, you want to help downtowns and we think we have a way we can do it. And they paid, they paid for the Bandwango platform for us through-
Adam Stoker: [00:27:51] Wow.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:29:02] ... the partnerships that we had established with them because we already established the credibility as the marketing gurus for the destination. And they were like, yeah, be our hero. Right. We can help you be a hero. You pay for it, we enact it. And it was so well received. It was announced we already have over 2,500 downloads in the first, not even two weeks.
Adam Stoker: [00:29:24] Wow. I love that. So Bandwango was one of our very first guests on the show. They're a Utah company. I know Mo really well and I love their product. And they actually customize it for each destination depending on the needs. So tell me a little bit about how specifically you're using that. How many businesses are a part of that pass, and how does it work? What are we asking people to do with that pass for Long Island specifically?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:29:56] Yeah, so we went a different route. And you're right, it's so cool that it can be customized because Long Island is so long, it doesn't make sense, and we've always wanted to work with Bandwango, but it didn't make sense for us because we might have one brewery in a town close... And it's an hour and a half drive to get to another brewery or winery or whatever. It didn't make sense for us until now when we started talking about our downtowns, because, like I said, there are over, people don't realize, there are over 100 different downtowns, towns, hamlets, villages on Long Island. It's very parochial, and it's very fractured, and each one has their own character and they like to be individualized, and they need our help. We had great conversations with Bandwango and instead of doing one travel pass, we did the downtown travel pass which exists... It consists of six different downtowns, three in each county, because of course Long Island is made up of two different counties.
Adam Stoker: [00:30:58] Right.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:30:58] They have two different governments and two different missions. And they came together to fund it 50-50, and they each picked three downtowns, so we have 6 total. And trying to get 10 businesses in 6 different downtowns during a pandemic when they're just trying to keep their doors open and you're trying to introduce yourself and tell them how it's a marketing tool, it was a labor of love, I'm not going to lie, it was a tremendous undertaking and I think we challenged that platform a lot and said... We ended up doing some of the work on the backend to get people up there, but it's been a great tool. And it was pulling teeth, but as soon as we launched it we now have 15 downtowns on our waiting list. And people there --
Adam Stoker: [00:30:58] Wow.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:31:41] ... are dying to pay us to do it. And it turns out it's a great partnership tool. Everyone's like, what do we need to pay to be part of this? How can we be your partner as a business? So it's paid for itself multiple times over.
Adam Stoker: [00:31:56] Now, the example that I think, for our listeners, right, we have destinations all over the world that listen, the example that I'd say our listeners should be taking from this is that there are other ways to be able to utilize some of the products in the industry even if you don't have the budget to take advantage of it immediately if you're engaging your stakeholders correctly. And you guys went to your stakeholders and you said, “Look, we have a solution here, but we're going to need you to help us fund it,” and they jumped in because they trusted that you had the right answer of what needed to happen. And now, of course, there's a waiting list with other downtowns that want to be a part of this. I think it's a great example for our listeners. This is destination management, right? This is understanding which stakeholders need to get involved and how to involve them to make sure that everybody wins.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:32:49] I think so. And what I always like to say is when I go to a conference or a trade show, whatever it is, it's just being educated on everything that's out there as far as tools and technology, and really staying on top of it. And it doesn't mean you're going to use it right now, but you never know what the situation's going to be tomorrow and your budget could change or there's a different need in your community, and being able to be the person at the table that says I have a solution for that, I know exactly what we could do. And then being able to call that vendor that you met two or three years ago and say, I'm ready now, and this is how we want to do it. And sometimes pushing these technology platforms to be more creative too and to think of different usages, but it's just being educated.
Adam Stoker: [00:33:37] Right. Well, good stuff. It sounds like you have got a, you mentioned that you have a small but mighty team, you've got a scrappy team. How have you been able to inspire your team to work so hard and get so much done during a time like this?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:33:54] I have such a great team, and I'm so impressed with them every day. And it is, just like everybody, everyone here we're exhausted and we are trying so hard to stay relevant and to stay useful for our communities. But our team here, it's all about purpose, it really is. It's not just about what marketing skills you have or what administration skills or graphic design skills, do you understand, do you have the passion for what we're trying to achieve here? Do you understand the core, and do you understand the purpose of why we do what we do? And we are definitely a purpose-driven organization and team of people that care. And if you're not living and breathing it, then you're not in the right organization or industry in my opinion. So I'm very lucky to have a group of passionate people that are scrappy. And the other thing we really focus on here is being cross-trained. I don't think there's anyone on our team that does one thing. Everyone helps each other, and we don't work in silos here. We can't afford to when there are too few of us. And that's probably, again, it's difficult, it's the most challenging thing about a small organization like mine, but it's also the most effective.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:13] Well, it goes back a little bit to just crisis management in general, that when a crisis comes, of course, the first response is, “Oh man, this sucks.” Right? But I can tell you that with my team here I have seen some of the best work ever produced out of our agency during this crisis. And it sounds like you're seeing the same thing with your team. When everybody understands that there's opportunity in a crisis to do things that have never been done I really think that motivates people.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:35:46] Yeah. And you find new talents in people based on how you evolve as an organization. Just this past week I gave, starting today, our Instagram account is going to live with somebody else because it turns out it's become... Social media, it's always been important, but social media is now king because we've frozen our paid advertising. And we have a member of our staff, and she's really good at it. She's passionate about it, she loves it, and so we're like, okay, this is great, you're rising to this ability. Another great example is our sales manager, our sales manager, who is awesome and loves what she does with meeting planners, but what we learned is she's also incredible with our members and our partners. And since there are no meetings coming to Long Island right now she has risen to this great occasion, and she's now really helping to solicit and bring on new partners and communicate what we're doing with our members across Long Island and utilize her sales skills for that purposes. And we found a newly ignited passion in her too. So it's just a great team and you have to be flexible, but as long as you have that burning purpose and passion and you want to raise your hand when it needs to happen when it needs to be raised, that's what you look for in a team like this, especially during a time like this.
Adam Stoker: [00:37:07] Well, and congrats to you as a leader for seeing that when somebody wants to try something, instead of saying, “Well, that's not your job,” right, you let them give it a shot and it's obviously paid off for you and your team. As you guys are continuing down the path to recovery, none of us have a crystal ball, right? Nobody knows what's going to happen with Coronavirus or anything like that as time goes on, but we still have to plan. Right? So tell me a little bit about your plan for the next three months or six months, even if it might get blown up tomorrow, tell me what you see on the horizon for you at Long Island.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:37:45] I think that's been one of the hardest parts, is when you're somebody with such a strong vision and then you don't know what tomorrow holds. And it's been the most challenging part of my career because in any other job I can look at something and I can understand what the vision is, short term, intermediate, long term, and right now it's so, so challenging. But the plan is to be nimble. I mean, it really is. And that's why I say we come in almost every day and we operate like a startup, which I think is why I love so many of these other technology startups and companies, is ever since I came in here I'm like, “It's funny you said about the job because I don't want to hear two things, I don't want to hear that's the way we've always done it, and I don't want to hear that's not my job.” And we operate like a startup and we try new things all the time, and if we fail, we fail fast. And it's so hard to answer that question. I think short-term we're just going to stay the course right now and through the remainder of 2020, we're looking at locals and New York City residents, because we're coming out of our peak season. So once we hit November, December, that's our low season, and we'll start preparing for our recovery of next year, and it's going to be slow and steady. And hopefully the second part of next year we can look more back into some international markets. We are very privileged to have JFK in New York City right here. We have a lot of international visitation. But I think we'll stay the course and stay slow and steady in our regional area. And if we expand out we do have Philadelphia, Washington DC, New Jersey, Connecticut. We have a lot of urban areas right in our surrounding area that we can experiment and start to slowly spread out and then pull back if we need to.
Adam Stoker: [00:39:34] Great. And even though it might get blown up, good to hear that you've got a specific plan, and I like the sound of your vision, especially knowing that you're going into your slower season later this year. And that might allow for 2021, hopefully, especially if things have improved, to have somewhat of a fresh start there, and that's good. Kristen, this has been super insightful and I feel like you and I could talk about destination marketing all day long, but I'd love to get just a... If there's one takeaway that you could give destination marketers that are really struggling through the Coronavirus crisis, what is the most important piece of advice that you feel like you could give them?
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:40:17] I agree. And this has been a great conversation, and I love the fact that our industry has a podcast like this where we can talk to each other, so thank you for doing it. I'm in the final stage of my CDME, which is a certified destination marketing executive certification.
Adam Stoker: [00:40:32] I'm starting mine in December. I'm so excited.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:40:34] Good one.
Adam Stoker: [00:40:35] I got derailed in, thank you, I got derailed in April. I was supposed to go to Banff, Canada, and totally Coronavirus changed everything, but anyway, I interrupted you, go ahead.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:40:47] Well, no, you're right. I got derailed in April too. I am on my final assignment, which is two assignments and then your final paper. And I got derailed too because I have just not been able to focus on it, but I've finally finished my two assignments and now I'm working on my final paper. And this goes to your question as my piece of advice, my final paper is about destination leadership and the future of destination leadership. And I think the one thing we should do as destination leaders is throw out the concept that we're tourism leaders. We should not be tourism leaders, we should be community and destination business leaders. The more we talk about ourselves as tourism entities and we think about everything from a tourism perspective, it limits us. If we pull back the lens and say, what does my community need, what does my residence need, and how can my role in bringing in visitors or generating visitation serve that need? Because each community is different. And on Long Island when I first came here I had nothing to do about generating tax revenue because they don't care. I tell people here tourism saves you $1,000 a year on your taxes and they're like, that's it, where do I sign the check to get rid of your tourists? What they cared about was keeping young people here and creating jobs for their children so that their children can afford to live here. And so how does tourism play a role in that? And that's what each of us should do, is just drop the tourism mindset and look at our community and say how can what we do help.
Adam Stoker: [00:42:18] Yeah. Not easy to do, right? Look at the community and say, what does it need, and then look at how tourism plays into that, then look at how tourism can help solve the problem. I think that's great advice.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:42:28] Thank you. And I think historically we've always felt like we're the voice of the visitor and really having the visitor's perspective at heart. And not that we shouldn't do that, but the visitor is a means to an end for our residents. And it's flipping the script.
Adam Stoker: [00:42:44] Yeah. Great advice. Kristen, this has been fantastic. Thanks for coming on and sharing your knowledge and experience with us. It's been great to have you on the show.
Kristen Jarnagin: [00:42:52] Thank you so much, Adam. I appreciate it.
Adam Stoker: [00:42:55] All right. Well, everybody, this has been another great episode of the Destination marketing podcast. If you enjoyed today's show please go leave us a rating or a review. It really does make a difference for the show. And otherwise, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week. You guys, I have been working on something for the last six months that has been such a giant project, but I'm so proud of it. I'm excited to announce that I've just released my book. It's called Touchpoints, and it's the destination marketer's guide to brand evaluation and enhancement. And it is a comprehensive guide for destinations to look at their brand, evaluate what you've done, and make a very clear and detailed plan of action of how to fix it. And it's, look, I'm biased, right, because I wrote it, but I think it's so good. I think it's a great guide and I'm really, really happy with how it turned out. And I wanted to tell you guys about it. It's available on Amazon. Search Touchpoints by Adam Stoker and you'll be able to get that book for your destination. And I think it's going to be, especially for anyone that is trying to look at their brand holistically, this is the book for you, so check it out.
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