Michelle Carlen is the Founder & President of Alignment Advising. With over two decades of career experience, she is dedicated to helping businesses by creating long-term strategy, growing sales and revenue, implementing process improvements, developing organizational infrastructure, and improving the client and employee experience. She also helps individuals advance their professional development and gain clarity, confidence, and direction along their career paths. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

With professional experience in hospitality, travel, tourism, and property management, Carlen has cultivated a diverse expertise in representing and supporting a variety of business types and managing teams from: attractions, boutique inns, corporate brand hotels, destinations, museums, restaurants, small retail stores, travel agencies, tour companies, homeowner associations, and non-profit specialty organizations.

Carlen applies her unique ability to dial into what prevents businesses and individuals from attaining optimum performance and has a passion for translating those findings into strategic planning and practical solutions. She quickly pulls direction and establishes order from parts that seemingly don’t connect and brings them into superior working alignment.

Destination on the Left is joined by Michelle Carlen, the Founder & President of Alignment Advising. Michelle is dedicated to helping businesses with long term strategy, revenue growth, process improvements, and organizational infrastructure. On our podcast, Michelle talks about leadership development, transition management, and the importance of stepping back to gain a better understanding of the big picture. Michelle shares insights about adopting a growth mindset and leadership strategies that will help us excel. And she also shares specific examples of collaboration through her experience as the leader of a CVB.

What You Will Learn:

Michelle’s perspective on leadership development, transition management, and the importance of stepping back to gain a better understanding of the big picture
Michelle’s experiences with collaboration as the leader of a CVB
How Michelle helps travel businesses with long term strategy, revenue growth, process improvements, and organizational infrastructure
Michelle’s insights about adopting a growth mindset and leadership strategies that will help us excel in 2021
Why adversity can often lead to opportunities

Alignment Advising

Professional Development in the Travel Industry

Whether you are apart of a DMO, a CVB, or one of the many businesses that make up the travel and tourism ecosystem, there are a number of different ways to approach professional development. First and foremost, you need to adopt a sense of vulnerability and humility. You don’t know everything, regardless of what your title says, and being vulnerable will earn the respect of your team members. In addition, you must work on being open-minded, improving your communication, and taking advantage of the many tools out there to hone your leadership skills.

Keep Your Strategy Fresh

As leaders in any type of travel-related organization, you are also responsible for making difficult decisions on a strategic level. One mistake that many leaders of DMOs CVBs make is repeating what they did the year before with minor changes. After making it through 2020, it goes without saying that the things that worked one year are not necessarily going to work the next. There are way too many undeveloped markets and untapped targets to go after to be using the same stale marketing strategy you’ve been using for years. Through innovation and collaboration, you can grow your destination to new heights regardless of how the circumstances change.

Blog: https://www.alignmentadvising.com/blog
Website: https://www.alignmentadvising.com
LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellecarlen/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/alignmentadvising/

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