Rick Sense grew up helping his father plan cross‑country family road trips to places like Florida, Toronto and Kentucky using paper maps, not smartphones. He credits these early experiences for his lifelong love of travel and adventure.
“[My parents] understood the importance of traveling as a family and experiencing that together. I think that does more to bond a family than a lot of other things,” Sense says.
Even less‑than‑ideal experiences became fond memories for his family.
“We got robbed on one trip,” the Appleton native says. “But then you’re dealing with that as a family unit and it just broadens you.” Sense has that same adventurous spirit when it comes to his career.
After graduating from UW Oshkosh with a degree in international studies, international business and political science, Sense traveled around Europe before “talking [his] way into a job” at Community First Credit Union, which turned into a 15‑year career spanning accounting, member services, branch management and IT.
He was then recruited to Goodwill as a fundraiser.
While some may have considered the job move a step back on the career ladder, Sense saw it differently.
“I looked at it as, hey, this is an opportunity to learn a whole lot of new skills that I don’t know anything about,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in the challenge and the mission versus the money. The idea of being in a position where you get to pull back the layers of the onion and really find that out and discover it — that’s really cool to me.”
Sense’s willingness to say yes to unlikely opportunities resulted in him serving as chief of staff for congressmen Reid Ribble and Mike Gallagher and in 2023 landed him his current job at Calumet County, where today he serves as economic development and tourism specialist.
“I thought a lot of the skills that I had in all these other areas, I could bring those to the table and take a real entrepreneurial approach to running a tourism department,” Sense says.
And that’s exactly what he’s done. In his first two years with the county, Sense’s efforts contributed to a record $77 million total economic impact in 2024.
His central philosophy — that tourism is itself economic development — has reframed the county’s mission and shaped its tagline: “Come for a visit, stay for a lifetime.”
“The way for you to bring people and grow your labor pool, to grow all the things you need to grow in your community to attract more businesses … is to get people to come and visit,” Sense says. “The idea is to attract people so they can see what we’re all about and hopefully get them to want to stick around and live here because it’s such a great place to be.”
This led to the creation of selectcalumet.com, a companion site to the county’s tourism portal where visitors can explore career opportunities, employers and communities in which to live.
Sense was nominated for the 2026 Governor’s Tourism Rising Star Award, particularly for his scrappy approach to marketing that hinges on authentic storytelling through unique itineraries, the Travel Calumet Original Podcast, YouTube and Facebook.
Many of these stories focus on what Sense believes modern travelers want: active experiences over passive attractions. From crawling through the county’s caves and picking apples at Heritage Orchard, to skiing at Ariens Nordic Center, Sense says Calumet County offers the kind of hands‑on, family‑bonding adventure that travelers are hungry for right now.
“People want to have an experience,” Sense says. “Here in Calumet County, you get to actually put one foot in front of the other and go out and do it.”
One of the county’s biggest structural limitations is its lack of lodging options — the county has only two hotels, Sense says — but he doesn’t see it as a barrier to travelers who don’t plan trips around county lines.
“We don’t have a lot of places for people to spend the night, but we have places where people want to be. We have so many hidden treasures,” he says. “For many years, people would call us the quiet side of [Lake Winnebago]. But our job is to make sure we’re anything but quiet.”
Photograph by Shane Van Boxtel, Image Studios
Stories that travel
The Travel Calumet Original Podcast now has more than 70 episodes, listeners in nearly 50 countries and downloads from roughly 725 cities — metrics that amaze Sense and prove that hyper‑local storytelling can travel farther than you’d expect.
Each episode features guests ranging from restaurateurs and CEOs to community event organizers telling stories about real Calumet County places and experiences. One popular episode featured five local thrift shop operators discussing what is available at each location.
The beauty behind it all, Sense says, is it’s been an affordable way to grow the county’s tourism efforts.
“We sit down with my cell phone basically, and we have a conversation. No bumper music, no dials,” Sense says. “It’s just another way for people to do a deep dive for 20 minutes to a half hour on a specific topic or a travel destination.”
Episodes are available at travelcalumet.com or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
