Transcript:
Michael Hensley: [00:00:00] Really when you look at destination marketing organizations, yes, they're there to provide a great experience for the visitor, but they're also there to advocate outside of that area for the residents, meaning that, "Hey, come check this area out because we have awesome people here that make this place such a great place to work, play and stay."
Adam Stoker: [00:00:21] Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. We've got a great show for you today. Our guest, his name is Michael Hensley. He's the travel marketing manager at Michigan's Great Lakes Bay Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Michael, welcome to the show.
Michael Hensley: [00:00:38] Adam, thanks for having me. Very excited to sit down and talk with you today.
Adam Stoker: [00:00:41] Yeah, we've got a great conversation planned today and I appreciate you taking the time. We have a couple of icebreaker questions we like to ask everybody right when they start on the show and we're going to ask you those same questions. And you're a listener to the show. You've heard these questions. Hopefully, you've had some time to think about it, but Michael, if you could go anywhere in the world, not within your destination, we've got a couple of people that have tried to cheat before, where would it be?
Michael Hensley: [00:01:09] So I'm a huge outdoorsman. Love to hunt and fish. So I would probably say out to the Colorado area. The mountains are something that I've been really longing to go and hike around in for a long time. So I would probably say that Colorado is a huge, huge draw for me. And it's on the top of my list of places to visit.
Adam Stoker: [00:01:31] Okay. Is this trout fishing?
Michael Hensley: [00:01:34] I haven't done much trial fishing here in Michigan, but I would love to try it. I'm always up for trying something.
Adam Stoker: [00:01:41] Nice, nice. And then hunting-wise, what animals would you be chasing in Colorado? Are we talking deer?
Michael Hensley: [00:01:48] Well, there's a handful, but I think the pinnacle of hunting for any kind of Midwest hunter is a Rocky Mountain elk hunt. So I think that is at the top of my list of animals to go and chase out in the mountains out there.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:04] Colorado is the right place for that. I actually drove through Estes Park, which is a little town right at the mouth of Rocky Mountain National Park. And just as you pull into the park, there's a giant herd of elk that's kind of just always there, it seems like every time I've driven through it. And we're talking giant bulls hanging out where everybody can see them. It's the right place if you're chasing some elk.
Michael Hensley: [00:02:30] Yeah. It's really kind of a fantastic site how acclimated to human interaction that they've become.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:37] Yeah. Okay. All right. I like it. Colorado, that's not exotic. It's not crazy, but what? It's a great new adventure and it sounds like it matches your interests.
Michael Hensley: [00:02:53] Oh yeah, absolutely.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:55] Well, how about your favorite trip you've ever been on? What would you say is that for you?
Michael Hensley: [00:03:00] I thought about this and given the position I'm in, I get to travel all over the United States and it's a very blessed aspect of the job. But I think my favorite place that I've ever been actually happens to be right here in Michigan, in the upper peninsula Pictured Rocks. I did a hike out there a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I had never seen the rocks before. And it is such a breathtaking experience. The intertwined interaction between nature and human, that really kind of gives you an awesome moment. And when I say awesome, I mean, struck with awe. Being out there and seeing the rocks, doing the boat cruise, it's a fantastic experience. Highly recommend it to anybody. And I would say that in all my travels, my favorite place is right here in my home state. How blessed am I?
Adam Stoker: [00:03:50] Yeah. That's pretty great Pictured Rock. I'm actually not familiar with that destination. I'm excited to learn more about it.
Michael Hensley: [00:03:58] Yeah. It's a national park and Pictured Rock National Lake Shore is the park. It's off Lake Superior and it's really, really a cool experience. Adam, if you are ever in Michigan, highly recommend it.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:13] All right. We'll consider it on the list. I've talked about this before, but the bad thing about me asking this question is my list is getting about five or six lifetimes long. And so I've got a pretty deep bucket list I've got to check off now.
Michael Hensley: [00:04:26] Yeah. And you and I are swimming in the same pool, man. My wife and I probably have a whole notebook full of different places and all the restaurants that have been recommended to me and things like that. So I try and write them down every time I hear them, but sometimes it gets to be too much.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:46] Yeah. All that means is you got to retire earlier, I guess so you can check them all off.
Michael Hensley: [00:04:51] Exactly. Exactly.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:52] Well, tell me a little bit about you, Michael, and your background and how you ended up in tourism.
Michael Hensley: [00:04:57] So it's actually a funny story. I have a degree from Saginaw Valley State University in criminal justice and criminal psychology, so --
Adam Stoker: [00:05:05] Naturally.
Michael Hensley: [00:05:06] Naturally, right, right. So my work into the tourism realm really didn't start for my degree, like a lot of people, but I would probably say there are just as many stories like mine out there that have such an oddball degree in their profession. I got hooked up with a few different groups in college that really kind of exploited my talents in business and talking with people and just being a people person. And from there you, it's not about what it's about who and what they know about you. So I got hooked up with a few different people and eventually, someone said, "Hey there's an internship at the CVB. And I recommended you. Expect a phone call." And I was kind of like, "I don't even know what a CVB is." And I would probably say, most people don't the first time they hear about it. So it was all happenstance, but I love it. I absolutely love the work and I really wouldn't have it any other way.
Adam Stoker: [00:06:05] So how long have you been there now?
Michael Hensley: [00:06:06] So I have been with CVB going on four years now.
Adam Stoker: [00:06:10] Four years. Great. And so you started as an intern. Did you go straight from intern to your current role as the travel marketing manager?
Michael Hensley: [00:06:18] So, no. Including my internship, this is actually my fourth role within the CVB. I was an intern for a little while. Then I was what we call a travel expert. Our travel experts are the ones who are manning our visitor centers. So I was a travel expert for about two-ish years, a little under two years. And then in 2019, I was the group tour niche market manager. So I handled a lot of motorcoach, smaller groups, things like that. And then when COVID hit, we had to kind of restructure our organization and I was "voluntold"-
Adam Stoker: [00:06:58] I've never heard that term. I like that. "Voluntold."
Michael Hensley: [00:07:01] Yeah ... to be the travel marketing manager. And I absolutely love it. And it was a move by the CEO that I think she saw some of my passions and my talent and kind of made the right move and absolutely made the right move. I love this job. I love all the other jobs I had at the CVB, but this one has really been something that I really enjoy.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:26] Great. And you're in a great place, a great destination. In fact, your URL is GoGreat, but let's talk about the Great Lakes Bay region as a destination and what makes it unique.
Michael Hensley: [00:07:39] Oh, awesome. I'm going to turn on my marketing voice here, so you can-
Adam Stoker: [00:07:45] You're our travel expert.
Michael Hensley: [00:07:46] Yes, exactly. So our region is a fantastic region in a handful of ways. Just looking at a lot of the destinations in Michigan, we are right in the middle of the lower peninsula and we've got a lot to offer for driving trips and things like that. Water seems to always be an aspect of somebody's trip when they come into the destination, whether it's a river cruise, kayaking one of our many, many rivers that we have, or even kayaking the Bay. We have different aspects of sailing trips and boating trips and things like that, where it's really kind of a relaxing situation. And to encompass the entire region into one category would be doing it a little disservice because we actually have six cities within our region that offer a very different experience on each different city. So I could talk for hours and hours and hours on that. But the biggest thing that I think we really kind of enjoy here in our region is an intertwined sense of being intertwined with nature, of being relaxed, but being innovative and explorative and just really kind of new experiences for anybody who comes into the region. And it's really something that we take pride in as CVB.
Adam Stoker: [00:09:08] Great, and six cities to somehow get on the same page and market as one destination. What challenges come along with that?
Michael Hensley: [00:09:17] There are challenges, but I would say there are more benefits than there are challenges. Because of the proximity of the cities to one another, we really get the opportunity to market as an entire region. And one of the benefits of the whole regional situation is that we kind of, and I know you've probably heard this a thousand times, when someone says, "Tell me about your region or your destination," there's something for everybody. But in our region, there really is something for everybody. And it's not far away. It takes a little under one hour to get from the top of our region to the bottom of our region. So if you take a family trip and somebody wants to kayak a river, you can still go experience Frankenmuth or Birch Run in the latter part of the day and not feel worn out. We want to walk that fine line between providing awesome experiences for our guests and making it a relaxing trip for visitors.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:18] Yeah. I want to speak to that a little bit because you said people don't want you to say there's something for everyone. I think that's a little bit of a misconception. I think every destination needs to have that core attraction, whatever that is. But then you're going to have ancillary activities that provide the versatility of experience. And you guys are in the Bay of the Great Lakes in Michigan. That is your core attraction is the Great Lakes Bay, but the ancillary activities that come along with that provide a versatility of experience that allows you guys to really cater to a lot of different audiences. And so while yes, I've heard there's something for everyone from a lot of people, I don't want to make that sound like it's a bad thing. Now it's a bad thing if you haven't figured out what that core attraction is. But if you've got the core attraction and you're providing ancillary experiences for multiple audiences to build off of that core attraction, I think you're hitting the nail on the head.
Michael Hensley: [00:11:23] Yeah, exactly. And Adam, you said it exactly right. Our core experience is really the Saginaw Bay, just because of everything that flows off of that Bay into the different rivers and different experiences that you can have because of it really, really is an awesome experience. And we have things for history nuts, we have stuff for outdoor adventures. So when you talk about those ancillary activities, we've really had an abundance of those that often involve our core attraction.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:57] Right. Makes a lot of sense. And we're going to talk about your audience today because you guys are in a unique position. COVID affected you guys just like it did every destination in the world, but with you, it caused a major shift in your audience. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Michael Hensley: [00:12:13] Yeah, and I think I would probably say we aren't alone in this. What we found is that our core demographic is still one of our big feeder markets, but we also have a new feeder market that kind of popped up because it was in that three-hour circle that people are really taking trips to. So when COVID hit, you really had to realign your marketing and your message and things like that to kind of align with what your consumer base wanted. So we took a step back, we looked at this and we said, "Okay, people are not going to want big crowds and big events," and that was one of our big staples. Our big draws into the area was all the events we had. And you can imagine that in almost six cities, we had an event every weekend for probably three out of six of those areas. So that was a huge, huge adjustment we had to make. But I think I have a fantastic team that I work with and we really adjusted and moved quickly. And I think we did it very well.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:19] I like it. So that new audience was a drive market within that three-hour radius like you said. Your normal feeder market was Detroit, is that correct?
Michael Hensley: [00:13:29] Yeah. And Detroit remains to be one of the ... well, I would probably say a larger market as well, so we continue to advertise and we continue to work with the Detroit residents to encourage visitation up to our area.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:44] Great. And I know that it's kind of obvious the drive markets are coming, but how did you actually identify, "Okay, we've got this new market that's big enough for us to start allocating dollars toward." What tools did you use to identify that audience?
Michael Hensley: [00:14:02] Yeah, exactly. Really Arrivalist was our biggest catch. So we have a contract with one of our vendors that use Arrivalist. So we took a look at those numbers and we said, "Okay, where are the numbers pointing us? And once we identify that feeder market, we really kind of switched our message, not so much to where it didn't apply to other markets, but we kind of geared it up more towards adventure and things like that.
Adam Stoker: [00:14:33] Got it. And with Arrivalist, you're really kind of able to see what activities people are using while they're in your area. How did that change your messaging?
Michael Hensley: [00:14:44] I think it was kind of a big change that came easy because we really, really already emphasized so many of these attractions as well. So, like I said before, our shift went from events and big crowds and things to do while you're here for this festival or that festival into, "Hey, get out of town, take a relaxing hike, hike a new trail, bike a new trail, get on a kayak, kayak a new river, have those experience that you can get, but do it in our area because it's new for you and it's relaxing." And we really kind of made that shift from events into outdoor venture and it's done well for us.
Adam Stoker: [00:15:28] Yeah. Is there an opportunity there? With the audience shifting that way from the event-focused messaging instead to come experience the outdoors, let's say we're crystal ball, a year away from now as if any of us knew what a year away from now looks like, but we'll just pretend, right. Events are back and you're having those events. Is this a net new audience? Do you feel like you're going to be able to maintain this audience segment if events returned to normal?
Michael Hensley: [00:16:02] The short answer. Yes. And I'll explain a little bit about that. And like I said before, it was a big change that came easy because we were already advertising so many of these ancillary activities that it really came easy for us because we didn't have to shift all that much. Because we were already advertising those kayaking trails and fat-tire biking and doing all the outdoor adventure stuff, the shift was less of a burden for us. Now, those ancillary activities, because they connected so much with our main attraction really made our marketing message still on brand and on point. So that's kind of what we see as moving forward is different, but it isn't. Does that make sense, Adam?
Adam Stoker: [00:16:56] It does. And I have a follow-up question. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to talk a little bit about how this audience is interacting with your product. And we'll talk more about that when we come back. Today's episode is brought to you by Relic. As many as you know, I own an advertising agency called Relic and we work specifically with tourism destinations. If there's any of you that are struggling with what to do next or you've tried agencies that don't specialize in tourism or if you've been using a local flavor for years and years and you're just looking for something new, I would say give us a call. Give us the opportunity to take a look at your plans, see what you're doing, use our tourism knowledge and industry specialty to examine everything from your brand to your tactical execution and make recommendations of how to help. We'll do that assessment for free. We'll give you those recommendations for free. And if you like what we say, maybe you can hire us to execute on those plans. So, kind of a risk-free opportunity to have us take a holistic look at everything you're doing, provide some recommendations, and you can kind of see us in action.
If you're interested in having us do something like that, please send me an email directly at adam@relicagency.com. I would love to set that up with my team. Okay, Michael, we were talking a little bit about this audience shift that's happened for you guys. And we talked about how you feel like this is a net new audience that you're going to be able to retain. One question I have is just like other tourism destinations, your audiences have stayed the same for a long time, has the way they interact with your destination changed? For example, are there dining establishments that weren't as busy before that are busier now, and the ones that were more popular, maybe aren't as popular, or maybe this audience segment stays outside and doesn't visit the museums? Do you see what I'm saying?
Michael Hensley: [00:19:02] Yeah, I do. And I think that's a really tough question to answer. And I think the biggest reason that that's such a tough question is because the pandemic has really kind of blown up any kind of sense of normalcy that we've had. And now we're starting to get to the next normal with mask-wearing and social distancing and things like that. So to credit, the audience shift as a reason why one attraction is getting visited less than the other, I think that would be doing a disservice to really the hard work that was put in in response to the pandemic. So I want to say that the audience is interacting differently, but I don't think it's by choice. I really think it's a forced a different interaction with our attractions, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I think what's going to happen when, like you said, crystal ball this, everything clears up. I think what's going to happen is people are going to realize that the event that they were coming year, after year, after year up into our region for, they can stay an extra day or two and really experience more activities and get more experiences under their belt when they stay in our region for a little while. They're going to realize that the festival that they're here for happens on Saturday, but Sunday, instead of going home Saturday night, Sunday, they can kayak a new river, or they can go to a different museum or see a different attraction that we have to offer. And I think that really in the future is going to be one of the bigger things that we can capitalize off of.
Adam Stoker: [00:20:39] Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. It's early to be able to say, "Oh, these changes are permanent changes," or, or this different interaction is a sign of what's to come. And I think that's a fair response, especially since data hasn't truly come pouring in yet, as far as what these new visitors are going to be doing over and over and over again over time.
Michael Hensley: [00:21:05] Right, exactly.
Adam Stoker: [00:21:07] So Michael, a question that I have, and you mentioned Detroit earlier, that you guys still pull a lot from Detroit. Obviously, Detroit has been hit by the pandemic because it's a major Metro area, just like many major Metro areas across the country have been. So as you're advertising to Detroit, how do you advertise in such a way that you're not bringing tons of new COVID to the area, but you're also able to help these stakeholders stay open? This is the great dilemma of the pandemic, is that you want visitors because you need these businesses to survive and maintain your customer experience. But at the same time, these visitors, it's like a chicken and an egg thing, like they could cause problems when they get there.
Michael Hensley: [00:21:56] Right, exactly. And I think we aren't really alone in that as well. So I think one of the bigger things that we did was we kind of made sure that the residents of the Great Lakes Bay region were ready to have visitors. We didn't really market much during any of the really peak times in COVID, and we wanted to make sure that our residents were ready for visitors, because like you said, we didn't want to bring new COVID up into our area. So I think that was a huge thing. And one of the things that we did as a team here at the Great Lakes Bay is, and we were one of the first areas to do this. We got with some of our colleagues, our industry colleagues, and they said this has really been a tactic that we've taken and used and we call it the Safety Pledge. So what that means is organizations, whether you're a restaurant attraction or a hotel, I have taken the pledge to say, "Okay, on our end, we are going to make our staff wear masks. We're going to practice good hand hygiene. We're going to do staff screenings. We're going to take temperatures. We're going to clean the surfaces. We're going to make sure that your safety is the number one thing when you visit this attraction." And on the return side, "We hope that you, as a visitor or a resident coming into the traction, do the same, wear a mask, social distance, use good hand hygiene, follow the CDC guidelines that really are keeping everybody safe and keeping this virus from spreading as rapidly as it has before." And that pledge really took well to our residents. So I think all of our hotels are taking it. And that was really the marketing tool that we used to say, "Hey, our residents are ready you to come up and visit the area, but we want to make sure that you're being responsible while you're here."
Adam Stoker: [00:23:51] Yeah. One of the things that I loved in kind of our intro conversation that you mentioned was a lot of these destinations that are listening, they did a pledge. They engaged their stakeholders at different times, but if they said, "Okay, we need to communicate with all of our stakeholders." And they said, "Well, here's our email list. We'll send an email." You guys really said, "No, we're going to divide this up. We're going to have a very manual process of making sure every stakeholder understands what's going on." Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Michael Hensley: [00:24:22] Yeah, I do. And for a couple of different reasons. I have to give credit to the team that I work with, our travel experts. One of their main goals is to make sure they keep an open dialect with our hoteliers, our restaurants and our attractions. So it wasn't anything new for them to get on the phone and call these places. So they did a fantastic job as well as other team members because it was such a big list that we needed to get done in such a short time. Other people had taken the reins, especially when the coronavirus hit because we were doing more than just marketing new visitors. So when the pandemic first hit, we shifted our responsibilities as a CVB from solely marketing to visitors, to bring resources to the residents of the area. So what I mean by that is we compile the list of all the restaurants in the six cities that are doing takeout. We did a list of places where you can go outside and get exercise, any attraction that we had in our area that was offering virtual learning, we put it up on our website and to go a step further, one of the bigger things that was a huge problem for us, we had everybody saying social distance, social distance. Don't go anywhere. Don't leave your house, which was not a bad thing at all. It really did wonders for the state of Michigan. But what we saw was a problem with our first responders, our hospital workers and things like that. So once again, we call all of our hotels and said, "Hey these people don't want to go home. They don't want to bring any kind of chance of a virus back to their families or anything like that. Can you give them a first responder rate?" And our hotels, our community really got behind that. And they were really receptive to that as well. So before we even came up with the pledge, calling our hotels on a quick basis was not a new activity for us at all.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:23] I really like that. And I've got to imagine that having that manual contact or one-to-one contact with each of those stakeholders, that had to have strengthened the relationships that you guys have with those stakeholders permanently, right?
Michael Hensley: [00:26:40] Yeah, absolutely. And we've always a really good relationship with our stakeholders as far as making contact and getting to know them on a personal basis, as well as our professional basis. So that was again, and I've got to give kudos to my team and those travel experts who that's one of their main jobs, is to make sure that we're updating their information on our website all the time. And for them, it was no new task and they were really resilient in making sure that they contacted all the stakeholders and they were fantastic at it. So COVID hit, we had to do that. And then in May of this year, I don't know if you knew this, but there was some flooding in two of our cities, Midland --
Adam Stoker: [00:27:32] I didn't know that.
Michael Hensley: [00:27:33] Yeah, Midland got hit with a huge flood. We had some really big rains, but Upriver, there were a few dams that actually either broke or failed in that aspect. So all that water came down the river and went right into Midland. And again, right as we were getting into some sense of a habit after COVID, our staff did the same thing. We shifted from solely marketing to those areas to bring visitors into the area. We shifted into, there are 30,000 people in the city of Midland, and 20,000 of them in Midland and the surrounding area don't have a place to go tonight. What are we going to do?
So we contacted all of our hotels again. And this was in the evening that the flooding happened. So we were really working hard to make contact with all those hotels and say, "Hey, we have people who are displaced. We have people whose homes are underwater right now. Do you have room at the inn? Is there room at the inn? Can we do this? Can we put people from six feet of water in their living room into a hotel room overnight, at least until the water subsides?" So again, shifted measures and we really worked hard to provide those resources for our residents.
Adam Stoker: [00:28:57] Boy, it sounds like you've got some amazing hotel partners.
Michael Hensley: [00:29:00] We have amazing hotel partners. We have amazing attraction partners. We have amazing restaurant partners and all of them, as soon as this flooding happened, it was like they all banded together to help the people in Midland. Restaurants were providing food for those families that didn't have things to eat and attractions. We're finding places to stay. Open our auditoriums were kind of triaged centers. So we are a resilient people and we've shown that we can thrive in any situation that's put in front of us. And I'm proud of my community. I'm proud of our staff, proud of our stakeholders was. It was a very, very proud moment when the water went down and we kind of saw all the rallying behind the community.
Adam Stoker: [00:29:49] Yeah. In our roles at destinations, we do so much to take care of the visitor. We want a great customer experience. We want them to love their dinner when they go out to dinner. We want them to enjoy every activity that they do. And we want the residents to treat them well. And you know what I'm amazed at with what your destination has done through some of these disasters that have happened, and man, they've kind of stacked up against you guys, your department has really focused on taking care of the residents and shifted from being a caretaker of the visitor to a caretaker of the resident. And I think that's something that's going to make a lasting impact on the relationship the tourism office has with the residents.
Michael Hensley: [00:30:35] Yeah, absolutely. And I need to correct you there. It wasn't my department, it was our entire staff. So for a while during the flooding, after the flooding, we were very geared toward making sure that our residents were taken care of. And not that we didn't do any destination marketing while we were doing that, but that was the main focus of a lot of our efforts so much so that actually, our three Regional Chambers, Chamber of Commerce do an award ceremony each year. And we got the award for most community-involved small businesses because we really kind of shifted gears and asked what our residents needed and provided what our residents needed. Because really when you look at destination marketing organizations, yes, they're there to provide a great experience for the visitor. But they're also there to advocate outside of that area for the residents, meaning that, "Hey, come check this area out because we have awesome people here that make this place such a great place to work, play, and stay."
Adam Stoker: [00:31:41] And one of the main reasons that the destination marketing organizations even exist is to benefit the residents. We want to take care of the visitor, provide a great experience to generate revenue that benefits the residents, and really so many good things happened for you guys, as far as your interaction with the residents during the last couple of real challenges that have come to the area. I want to ask you, as you look at these two major issues that have happened, you've got COVID, you've got this flooding that happened within your destination. What are the main things you learned?
Michael Hensley: [00:32:21] Well, the main thing that I have learned is that anybody who says that's not my job has not done a job long enough because to me, especially as destination marketers, our jobs encompass so many different things. It encompasses podcasts, interviews, trade shows, sales missions, and things like that. But really I've learned that given in a situation, you really can shine the efforts from your team. And we have fantastic people who work here. So I've learned that our organization really came together and given those disasters, back to back almost, we've really kind of shown our resilience and the community's resilience for banding together and getting through something.
Adam Stoker: [00:33:16] Yeah, that's really good. And I love your focus on, "Hey, that's not my job doesn't work." There are so many people that have been employed only during good times where there's not a crisis or there's not a downturn. Those of us that have been in the workforce for a long time, remember how hard it was to get a job in 2008 and 2009. And at that point in time, the answer was, "I'll do any job, not, "That's not my job." and I think that attitude just makes such a difference in your ability to take on the different challenges that come your way regardless of your work.
Michael Hensley: [00:33:57] Yeah, absolutely. Having the willingness to be flexible in your role and do something that you may not be accustomed to doing, it may be a little uncomfortable, but expanding your horizons like that really does a lot for work ethic and it gives you more experience and it gives you better tools to do your regular job. So we really strive in that effort. And I said, Adam, I cannot echo enough that the team that I work with is a fantastic team. And I really, really am blessed to be here with them and their resilience and their ability to just drop what they're doing to help somebody in need is something that is second to none.
Adam Stoker: [00:34:40] And I can tell. I can tell based on the stories you've told us today. Michael, is there anything I haven't asked you that you think would benefit the destinations that listened to our show?
Michael Hensley: [00:34:51] I would say that, and this has been the theme of the show for the last, I don't know, 10 minutes, but the team that you work with is really a special team. So make sure that you guys are together and you guys all have the same mission and you guys all want to move the organization forward and just stop every once in a while and look around and go, "Man, I have an awesome team." And I know sometimes it's hard to feel like that, but just to put teamwork into the mix and just take a second to appreciate it is something that really is awesome.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:27] Great advice. Well, Michael, this has been fantastic. I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today. Where can people learn more about you and your destination?
Michael Hensley: [00:35:36] Well, if you visit gogreat.com, that's a fantastic website to learn about our organization and maybe do a little trip planning while you're there. We've got a lot to offer and it's all displayed right there on our website. Gogreat.com for Michigan's Great Lakes Bay region.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:54] I like it. Michael, thanks so much for your time.
Michael Hensley: [00:35:57] Thank you, Adam. I really appreciate you having me on.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:59] Well, everybody, this has been another excellent episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. Thank you for listening. If you haven't yet left us a rating or review, please make sure to do that so that we can continue to grow our listenership. Thanks, everybody. And have a great week.
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