Dana Baasiri

My journey into travel and hospitality was unexpected. I initially wanted to work in fashion and even interned in PR for DKNY in New York City, but when I moved to Miami, I discovered the fashion industry was pretty much non-existent there. Miami turned out to be a travel hub, with many big resort brands in the Caribbean and Mexico basing their corporate offices there. I landed my first role at Sandals and Beaches Resorts in their PR department, and that's where I really fell in love with the travel and hospitality world. After a couple years there, AIC Hotel Group recruited me on LinkedIn for a manager position. I was skeptical at first because I was just a coordinator at the time, but I took the interview and it led to the next 7 years of my career. I started as a PR manager as a team of one, and my VP of marketing became an incredible mentor who fully empowered me to build out the department. I grew a team of amazing women and eventually started overseeing the social media department as well. The portfolio quickly expanded from 4 hotels to over 7 hotels, and I got the most incredible hands-on experience doing everything from traditional PR and media relations to events, grand openings, new hotel launches, influencer trips, and celebrity opportunities. As I grew in my communications role, I started dealing with a lot more crisis communications and was getting burnt out. COVID hit hard in hospitality, and shortly after, I decided to leave corporate and launch my own business. I had been taking one or two clients on the side doing websites and social media, and I realized it was time to step out on my own. I launched I'm Just a Publicist, which ironically didn't do any PR at all but focused on content marketing, social media, content writing, and thought leadership content. One of my first clients, Melissa Mango, owner of Alliance Connection marketing agency, fully believed in me and supported my business. A couple years into being an entrepreneur, I reconnected with a former colleague from AIC Hotel Group who was based in Cancun, and we started I'm Just a Creative, a social media arm of the business. We felt that hotels were lacking creativity on social, looking and sounding the same, and we wanted to empower them to embrace creative expression. That was about 3 years ago, and I'm now about 5 years into being an agency owner. We work a lot with travel advisors doing educational content, speaking engagements, and workshops at travel agent conferences. I love being able to bring what I've learned and inspire others in travel and hospitality to embrace their creative side. My proudest achievement is successfully growing my business for 5 years while being a mom of two. I got pregnant a month after I quit my corporate job and had two kids in the last 5 years while still managing to grow the business. Last year was my highest revenue year, and I'm proud of how far I've come.