Early Mentors

So, those earliest of days with the Kankakee County CVB? Hey, I was coming in from radio. I may have understood marketing… but I clearly didn't understand destination marketing.

So, I was all too eager to attend meetings of what was then called the Illinois Council of Convention and Visitor Bureaus and learn from those who had been doing it successfully. I still remember driving to my first meeting in Elgin one afternoon and meeting my new peers from around the state. I didn't understand the language of the business and sat through the three hour meeting absolutely bewildered.

But there were two people there that spoke with such conviction and eloquence about where we all needed to train our attention that I said to myself, “these are the people that will be my mentors. These are the individuals to which I will hook my star.”

One was Destination International Hall of Famer Wendy Perks Fisher, the founder and former Director of the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Her passion and confidence inspired me. It made me believe this new career path was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Imagine my surprise when I realized, years later, that this oracle had been in her position only six months longer than I. The same was pretty much true for Tom Rivera, founder and former director of the Woodfield CVB.

And yet, their combined vision of what a Destination Marketing Organization could be and would become helped guide my understanding well beyond the “heads and beds” mantra that was being extolled by most.

A funny side story, Wendy hired my young consulting firm almost every year from our inception… but never for what we originally set out to be (a strategic planning company). As she was preparing to retire, I asked her, “why have you never hired us for strategic planning?” She smiled and said, “I wanna help you grow beyond that.”

That is so Wendy.

And thank you both.