Reflections on 20 Years

Inspiration, Change, Core Values & Service

“Allow me to re-introduce myself.”

I’m borrowing an iconic phrase and famous lyric from Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement (Interlude),” to re-introduce our company, now known simply as RMI. Sing it with me now!

When you’ve only worked for one company in your entire professional career, now as I write this fresh off celebrating 20 years in the business, you get to see a lot of change. Dang, I was 23 years old, fresh-faced, a new dad in his first real job, still wearing college t-shirts and sitting down at a desk with a sweet new bright green iMac with a bubble monitor (if you know, you know).

Anyhow, when I started in the industry, the company was doing business as Rocky Mountain International and had been running a successful cooperative marketing program for 16 years. Through that success, our company became synonymous with the clients we represented – a four-state group partnered together with a laser focus on promoting inbound international tourism, which was coordinated by our company. We were our four clients, and the industry didn’t really know our value proposition outside that group.

Since then, I had the opportunity to take the reins of the company after sharpening my skills as a coordinator and then manager of several international marketing programs. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, and I had a vision to grow the business into what I knew we could be. And change was and is the only constant throughout my tenure.

It comes with the territory when your vision is to be more: to make a difference, to care, to pioneer, to diversify our capabilities, to solve challenges and to be solution-seekers for not just one group of clients, but the international tourism industry at large. Although change can be uncomfortable – there were times it was just me and two other employees – it is where growth lives, and you can use it to learn and drive success.

After years of implementing improvements and onboarding new team members came 2019. That was when we started building the company we have today. It all began with figuring out who we are as a business. What are our core values? What do we care about? Who do we want to be, and what is our organizational culture that unites us? And what can we offer to the tourism industry?

That inner reflection was a team effort. We listened to our colleagues, employees, mentors and heroes, and we looked at companies, policies and values that we admired both personally and professionally. Our commitment to being good people with integrity is now reflected in our Core Values. These values are who we are. They’re plastered on our walls at the office, they’re there to guide our decision-making, and they are woven into every part of our company culture and the people we hire.

Now that we knew who we were, it was time to build a brand and services around those values, refine our service capabilities and focus on solving challenges for our clients, communities, and ourselves. Today, we’ve honed our unique expertise in four specific areas: education, research and data, destination marketing and events. All of this is driven by our – we now have a team of nine – passion and love for international tourism, the people we’ve met and worked with along the way, and the economic engine we believe tourism can be for destinations across the country.

Let me re-introduce RMI. We envision a future where international travel thrives through insight, innovation and collaboration. We’re committed to advancing the travel industry by delivering measurable impact: driving job creation, enhancing economic vitality, and enriching the quality of life in the communities we serve.

Whether you’re teaching your suppliers how to attract international visitors, searching for data to justify your global spend, promoting your destination globally, or hosting world-class tradeshows and events, RMI is excited to partner with you to help you crush your goals.

For me, that’s what it’s all about. Our business has grown into something bigger and better. We now offer clients Research & Data, where smart moves start with smart data; Events that celebrate community and culture and drive business; Destination Marketing, where we can work together to unite the world around travel; and Education, where we can share our expertise and teach the world to travel.

It’s incredibly rewarding to see this company where it is today. We still service the four-state group after 35 years and now have partnered with many more destinations in all the areas of our four service pillars to change, grow and adapt to the world of travel. I invite you to join me and the pros at RMI; you’re always welcome here with our crew.

Let’s Get There Together.