The Danger of Getting Too Good at Change

(Or, Why Your Brain, Your Brand, and Your DMO Budget Keep Fighting Each Other)

Change is supposed to be scary. That’s how we know it’s working.

But in this industry, we tend to do one of two things:

1. Fight change like it’s a new tax we didn’t vote for.

2. Or over-adapt so hard that chaos becomes our brand.

Both are survival instincts. Both have receipts.

Why We Fight Change

Your brain hates uncertainty. It’s a primal thing. The limbic system kicks in, cortisol floods your bloodstream, and suddenly you’re defending the status quo like it’s a national monument.

The brain confuses familiar with safe. So instead of innovating, we replicate.

In DMOs:

Resistance sounds like:

• “Let’s wait until after the board retreat.”

• “We can’t change our logo, it’s on the water tower.”

• “We tried TikTok once; it didn’t work.”

This is the limbic loop in action. The comfort of process becomes the cage of progress.

In Short-Term Rentals:

Resistance sounds like:

• “I don’t need to list anywhere but Airbnb.”

• “Guests only care about price.”

• “DMOs don’t want to work with hosts like me.”

It’s that same fear of the unknown dressed up as “practicality.” But the market doesn’t care about your comfort zone. It cares about your evolution speed.

Why We Over-Adapt

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum...the dopamine crew.

Every crisis gives us a hit of new. New pivot, new campaign, new hero slide for the deck. Dopamine surges, and we confuse stimulation for strategy.

When you’re wired like that, you start rewriting your entire plan every quarter. You start calling survival “innovation.”

In DMOs:

Over-adaptation looks like:

• Rebranding every time a new director walks in.

• Chasing every shiny vendor promise.

• Changing the message weekly because “the algorithm changed.”

That’s not innovation, it’s panic disguised as flexibility. You’re not leading the market; you’re reacting to it on loop.

In Short-Term Rentals:

Over-adaptation looks like:

• Redecorating after every low season.

• Copying whatever your competitor is doing.

• Joining every host forum and trying every hack until your listing reads like twelve personalities in a trench coat.

You’re not evolving. You’re erasing your own positioning in real time.

The Middle Ground: Adapt With Discernment

Adaptability is a gift. But when it turns into your identity, you stop noticing what’s temporary.

You start treating survival tactics like permanent strategy. You build entire systems inside emergencies. You start calling exhaustion “passion.”

Real leadership isn’t “never changing.” It’s knowing why you’re changing.

How to Catch Yourself in the Cycle

1. Name your limbic loops.

When you catch yourself defending the familiar, pause. Ask: “Is this safety or stagnation?”

DMOs: That “legacy campaign” you’re defending might be a comfort blanket, not a brand pillar.

STRs: That pricing strategy from 2021 might be the thing keeping you invisible now.

2. Detox from dopamine.

Innovation isn’t every new thing — it’s the right new thing.

DMOs: Stop hiring new agencies every fiscal year like you’re speed-dating for solutions.

STRs: Stop renaming your property every month. Branding works when you let people remember you.

3. Don’t plan from the pit.

When things fall apart, don’t start rebuilding from inside the rubble.

DMOs: Don’t write your five-year plan mid-crisis because you’re scared of the press release.

STRs: Don’t create your “next pivot” during a bad-review spiral. Heal first.

4. Audit your adaptations.

Everything that worked once deserves to be questioned twice.

DMOs: What systems, vendors, or programs are you still running out of habit?

STRs: Which of your “temporary fixes” quietly became part of your permanent overhead?

The Real Lesson

Change resistance is biological. Over-adaptability is chemical. But discernment is leadership.

The trick isn’t learning to love change. It’s learning when to stop shapeshifting long enough to actually see who you’ve become.

🌍 The Industry Mirror

Tourism is the perfect petri dish for this. We rebuild every fiscal year, every season, every crisis and we call it progress. But if everything is always a “new normal,” nothing ever truly evolves.

The destinations that will thrive next decade aren’t the fastest or the flashiest. They’re the ones that can pause in the noise, recognize when something is just temporary, and protect what’s worth keeping.

Because that’s where real transformation starts - not in the panic, but in the pause.

I’m Jenn Barbee, and listen, being adaptable is cute until it becomes your whole personality. You don’t have to pivot every time the wind blows. You don’t have to “reinvent” just because someone else bought a ring light. Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is sit still, sip your coffee, and say, “Not today, chaos.”We don’t need more shape-shifters.

We need people who know who the hell they are when the trend dies.