PromoKitchen Podcast: Recent Episodes
PromoKitchen
PromoKitchen is a community driven, volunteer led 501(c)3 organization focused on education and mentorship of professionals within the promotional products industry.
What’s the difference between building an audience and cultivating a community?Join Jay Busselle, Renya Nelson, and Roger Burnett as they explore the power of community, trust, and purpose-driven branding in the promo industry. Featuring the story behind the "We Make the Future" mural — and why being nice is punk rock.
The future of the print, promo, and apparel industry is shaped by the next generation and the leaders who embrace them. In this special episode of Meet Us in the Kitchen, Kate Alavez, President of PromoShop, hosts a candid conversation on how to recruit, nurture, and empower emerging talent. Joined by Victoria Ramos from PromoShop and Chris Perry from University Tees, the discussion dives into shifting values, workplace expectations, and what it takes to create an environment where young professionals thrive.
If there’s one harder than a Monday morning without coffee, it’s learning to say no. But according to the brilliant minds of Robert Fiveash (Brand Fuel), Brenda Speirs (Buzztag), and Denise Taschereau (Fairware), mastering the art of the well-placed ‘no’ is a game-changer in business and life. PromoKitchen’s latest conversation, led by Jay Busselle, dove into why saying no isn’t about rejection; it’s about strategy, values, and survival in the promotional products and branded merch industry.
Welcome to the latest episode of Meet Us in the Kitchen, PromoKitchen’s vibrant hub for serving up the freshest ideas in the promo industry! In this episode, we dove into the spicy topic of work-life balance—or, as our guests prefer to call it, work-life harmony. We gathered an inspiring group of leaders—Kate Alavez, Jodie Schillinger, and Kenny Ved—to share their recipes for fostering happiness and engagement in the workplace. Spoiler alert: it’s not just about balance—it’s about flavor!
Join us for part 2 of this episode of Meet Us In The Kitchen Episode! Jay Busselle is joined by Carson Roncketto, Bobby Lehew, and Cola Henderson. This episode guarantees a blend of expertise, insight and fresh perspectives on brands, branding and when is the right time for a re-brand.
In this episode of Meet Us in the Kitchen, our panel of “Promo Pros” dives deep into the relevance of trade shows. Are trade shows still relevant in the age of Zoom meetings and virtual events? Are in-person events still worth the investment of time and money? What are the biggest benefits? As one guest puts it, "Trade shows aren’t just about products anymore—they’re about relationships. You can’t replace face-to-face experiences with a Zoom call." Hear from industry experts as they share their insights, discuss the changing landscape of in-person events, and debate the future of trade shows in a digital age. Whether you're a trade show veteran or a skeptic, this conversation offers tasty insights for anyone navigating the pros and cons of attending or exhibiting.
Ready to spice things up? Welcome to "MEET US IN THE KITCHEN," PromoKitchen’s new bi-weekly educational series where we whip up fresh discussions, simmer on diverse ideas, and share custom recipes for success! Every 20-30 minute episode is packed with surprise ingredients, secret sauces, and a mix of seasoned chefs. We’re cooking up actionable strategies, stirring lively chats with fresh voices, and sprinkling in a few surprise guests in the kitchen.Join us for a flavorful experience that’ll leave you hungry for more! #PromoKitchen #MeetUsInTheKitchen #CookingUpSuccess #SpicyConversations
This month Johanna Gottlieb and Jenna Quaranta touch on Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: How to shake off self-doubt and confidently present your value in prospecting.
In this month's episode, Jenna Quaranta & Johanna Gottlieb chat about how to handle burnout during the prospecting process.
Ever had a client ghost you? If so check out the series premiere of the JQ & JO Show, Jenna Quaranta (HPG) and Johanna Gottlieb (Genumark) share their inspiration for starting this new series, and all their tips and tricks for responding to a client ghosting.
Dave Jacobs started The Positive Side in honor of his late father, he works with his sister Marian who is the founder of Logo Droppers a distributorship located in Las Vegas. See how they intertwine promos & positivity in this podcast episode hosted by PromoKitchens Executive Chair Ashley Colautti!
In this third episode of the PromoKitchen Podcast Mentorship Series, Jay Busselle connects with Ashley Colautti and Bill Petrie about their experience with the PK Mentorship Program. They discuss the pairing, what worked for them and what didn’t, and what a good mentorship relationship looks like.
Welcome to the Mentorship Series of the PK Podcast! In this series we will be talking about one of our core pillars and share success stories from mentors and mentees that have been through the program. In today's episode PK Chef Jay Busselle connects with colleagues and chefs Carson Roncketto and Robert Fiveash. Both Carson and Robert have played pivotal roles with PromoKitchen, with Carson serving as chair of the Mentorship Committee and Robert as founding member and past president. These two superstars have huge hearts for helping and have been instrumental in reshaping the mentor program and helping it grow into the success it is today.
Welcome to the Mentorship Series of the PK Podcast! In this series we will be talking about one of our core pillars and share success stories from mentors and mentees that have been through the program. In today's episode Jay Busselle connects with Russell Bird and Tyler Merriam about their experience with the program. Listen in! Ready to become part of the mentorship program yourself - either as a mentor or mentee? Visit promokitchen.org and click on mentorship to get started today!
What does Sustainability mean to you and what steps are you and your organization taking around it?In this episode Kate Plummer, Clearmount and Johanna Gottlieb, HALO, talk to Matt Hare, with HIT Promotional about how HIT, Matt and his colleague Natalie Sheffey are all in on Sustainability. We learn about their reporting, how they got started and where they are headed. As a major industry supplier it is a fascinating listen to hear how a company of this size is committed and open to change.
So far PromoCares has created two different '4 Good Fundraisers' that have raised close to 90K to date. This episode of the PromoKitchen podcast talks about the newest campaign in collaboration with Planet Water and the Water4Good campaign centered around World Water Day.Listen in to learn about why PromoCares has taken on the challenge of providing clean water and how our industry effects has an effect on water sources around the world. You'll also hear how you can get involved as a supplier, how you can get involved as a distributor – and connect your clients and brand to the campaign.
Join Denise Taschereu of Fairware and Alex Symms of PowerStick for a discussion on sustainable packaging. Brought to by PromoKitchen + Promo Cares with the support of Hit! Promotional.Editors note: At the time of recording Alex was working with Chamelon Like. He has since switched roles and is now working at PowerStick. The intro was not re-recorded to reflect this change so we wanted to advise here to avoid any confusion. Thank you for listening!
Just as we promised, a follow up to our interview with Dale Denham, President of PPAI, in August 2021. This was initially intended to be an update after Dale’s first 100 days as PPAI’s new President and CEO, but unfortunately Omicron put Expo into all-hands-on-deck crisis mode. Fast forward to today, with 5 months on the job, Chefs Mark Graham and Kate Plummer had their chance to sit down with Dale to discuss how he navigated the twists and turns of a new position, the leadup to Expo, and what his strategic vision is for the promotional products industry moving forward.
Ever wonder how a product comes to market? So did we! Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Brandon Mackay and Brittany David of Snugz to talk about how product development moves from idea, to production, to market. In part two of this two part series, we cover how you market a product, what contributes to Snugz's success and what happens when it's in the salespeople's hands.
Ever wonder how a product comes to market? So did we! Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Brandon Mackay and Brittany David of Snugz to talk about how product development moves from idea, to production, to market. In part one of this two part series, we cover how you figure out trends, how you fit it into your factory and what you have to consider for production.
In the latest PromoKitchen x PromoCares collaboration podcast, sous chef Amanda Delaney, Key Account Manager at High Caliber Line, and Denise Taschereau, co-founder and CEO at Fairware, sat down with Traci Tarquino of Hit Promotional Products as she breaks down the behind-the-scenes process(es) of designing for sustainability in the promotional product industry, and how sustainability goes far beyond just the product itself.
In this episode, Kate Plummer talks with Nel Mihan from Promotional Resource Group - PRG about how the role of the multi-line is changing. Neil shares his experience in building an agency, supporting US companies in Canada, and how to market in the new world.
In this episode we talk with Wil Cormier from Staples Promotional Products about how to look for new talent and how to foster it. Wil breaks down why internships matter for the diversity and success of the promotional products industry. He also talks about how he uses mentorship for successful team building and how to work with a cross country team.
As entrepreneurs and business owners there are so many parts of business that we don’t realize are necessary, available or even options. In this podcast we are sitting down with Scott Edidin of Xactly and 6AM Sourcing and CJ Ritterbusch of Concord Marketing Solutions to talk about various options of financing from start up to established business and what those options entail.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
In this bonus PromoKitchen podcast, PromoCares board members Meg Erber with S&S Activewear and Mandi Rudd, owner of Brand Energy Marketing, join chef Johanna Gottlieb and sous chef Amanda Delaney for an emotional and powerful conversation about Sleep In 4 Good; an incredible fundraising event designed to bring awareness to the direct correlation between sleep deprivation and mental health. Mandi and Meg share some behind-the-scenes details of what it took to create and implement the event's nation-wide marketing campaign, their fundraising partnership with NAMI, and they talk to us about why the entire PromoCares board is determined to bring the importance of mental health awareness to the forefront of the promotional product industry.
As part of our on-going series on mergers and acquisitions Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Andrea Pereira talk with Chris Anderson, CEO of HPG. Chris talks about his 5 key areas that need to be satisfied for a business to be a smart buy. He also breaks down how launching Batch and Bodega worked and how HPG views the market.
As part of our on-going series on mergers and acquisitions, Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Andrea Pereira talk with Jo-an Lantz from Geiger, as Jo-an lets us in on what Geiger's thought process is when looking at potential acquisitions. She also talks about what comes up when looking globally, and why cyber security should be your top concern. This discussion is wide-ranging and definitely worth a listen to hear Jo-an's predictions for the future.
In this special episode, Mark Graham and Johanna Gottlieb sit down with a very familiar face in the PK community, the new CEO of PPAI, Dale Denham. Dale served on the board for many years, and he played a monumental role in establishing PromoKitchen as one of the leading nonprofit organizations in our industry. Dale has spent the past 10 years of his career serving as the CIO of Geiger, and he held the position of Senior VP at ASI prior to that.
In this wide ranging conversation, Mark and Jo speak with Dale about the reasons for his career move, what he feels the largest opportunities and threats we as an industry are currently facing, and he shares his views on the importance of diversity, as well as his plans to lead our industry's largest trade association through today's challenging climate.
As part of our on-going series on mergers and acquisitions Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Andrea Pereira talk with Jamie Watson at Certified Marketing, Jamie lays out what is needed to sell your company and what you should be doing right now to make your company better, whether you're selling or not. Finally, a must listen portion for any business owner or salesperson, Jamie breaks down best business practices for your long term planning.
Jamie has been involved various aspects of Finance and Accounting for over 20 years. She qualified as a CPA in the state of Indiana, where she worked for a regional accounting firm, and became acclimated to the small business environment. Jamie transitioned to CMC in 2006 and has been involved in the consulting of both supplier and distributor companies in the Promotional Products Industry for 15 years. Her passion is in helping business owners achieve their financial goals through education and understanding of the financial issues that face small businesses, both inside and outside our industry.
As part of our on-going series on mergers and acquisitions Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Andrea Pereira talk with Chef Larry Cohen of Axis Promotions, now Halo Branded Solutions. Larry walks us through what an acquisition can look like from the seller side and what everyone should know. He also drops some amazing Business 101 information that you definitely should start using now.
Bio: Larry Cohen is the Founder of Axis Promotions, a full-service marketing and promotions agency, and now serves on the Executive Committee of HALO, the parent company of Axis. After working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., Larry decided to change directions and put his creative energies and entrepreneurial spirit to use. He founded Axis in 1991 with one goal: build something that was - and still is - 180 Degrees From Ordinary. Axis has grown to become a creative powerhouse in the promotional products industry, with a client base including American Express, L’Oreal, NBC Universal and more. When Larry is not busy growing Axis, he serves on the PPAI board, PromoKitchen Advisory Board, and PeerNet Marketing Committee.
At PromoKitchen, we're exploring all the different sides of mergers and acquisitions in the industry. Our first conversation is with Bridget Smith of Zazzle, formally Boundless. Bridget talks about being the lead on acquisitions, what funding looks like in 2021, and what made Boundless and Zazzle two different companies.
Bridget Bio: Bridget has had many roles since she started at Zazzle in 2005. Presently, she's our VP of Special Operations, overseeing the myriad of new opportunities that Zazzle is working on. She's also run our international operations, primarily opening and staffing our European headquarters in Cork, Ireland. She was Zazzle’s CFO for seven years and has also managed our acquisitions of FanMade and Boundless. Quite simply, there's not a facet of the business that Bridget hasn't touched. Prior to coming to Zazzle, she was a CPA at Ernst & Young, the Director of Finance for Apple's U.S. operations for 13 years, VP of Finance at Intuit and also co-founded an educational software company, Tenth Planet, which was later acquired. Bridget enjoys skiing, hiking, playing golf, snowshoeing and playing with her three grandkids in Nevada, where she set up operations at our manufacturing facility in Reno.
In this episode Chefs Johanna Gottlieb (Axis powered by HALO) and Charity Gibson (Peerless Umbrella) talk to Kristine Shreve. Kristine is the founder and CEO of Kristine Shreve Consulting, which offers writing, marketing and business development services. The company can be found at www.kristineshreve.com . Kristine is also the creator and host of the Business + Women podcast, where the discussion centers around being a business owner and being a woman and how those two states of being intersect. Currently, Kristine is also the Director of Marketing and Outreach for Applique Getaway. On Facebook, Kristine is the founder of the Women in Garment Decoration Facebook group. Kristine was the Director of Marketing for Ensign Emblem and EnMart from 2006 to April 2020.
In this episode we break down how we can help remove the bridge between decorators and distributors, we talk about how zoom has forced us to face some challenges and more!
In this episode, Chef Kate Plummer sits down with sous-chef Josh Pospisil about coming out and finding community. We cover how to create positive spaces and why he keeps wearing pink on Wednesdays.
In this episode chefs Kate Plummer and Josh Storey talk to Elise Lindborg and Kelli Henderson of Brand|Pride about Pride month, how to combat "Gay Washing," and what it takes to run a certified LGBT owned business.
Brand Pride is a lesbian owned, LGBT certified branding solutions company. For 20 years they've guided hundreds of brands on their quests for the best promotional items to achieve their goals of building brand loyalty.
What started out as a small, home-based business twenty years ago is now a bustling seven-figure operation with clients of all sizes nationwide. They challenge businesses to put their money were their ideals are.
Chefs Johanna Gottlieb and Kate Plummer sit down with the Redwood Classics team to talk about the launch of their impact report. They cover what it means to be sustainable, what a circular economy is and why women led businesses are important. The Redwood Classics team is Kathy Cheng, Ashley Chan, PJ Tang and Jasmin Bollman from Misfit Marketing Consultancy and Katie Motta from Shift Circular join them to talk about their work.
In this episode, Chef Danny Rosin and Chef Mark Graham explore what happens when you combine the power of the humble T-shirt, with a powerful message and fuel it with social media. In our discussion, we feature the story of Timmy Zhu, a software developer by day and a volunteer and tireless advocate for the nonprofit, Operation Smile, by night (and some of the day too).
Chef Kate Plummer chats with Kelly Brown from Green Giftz about what makes a good water bottle, How do we sell, or not sell another one and what we should be thinking about when we talk about sustainability.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Chef Kate Plummer chats with Jeff Becker from Kotis Design in a conversation that started about volunteering and moved to sustainable product selection and how to deal with leftover promo. We even cover if Patagonia got it right.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
In this episode Johanna Gottlieb talks to Hugh Lawson about Diversity and Racism. We tackle some deep topics and hear his life experience. We learn about his passion for the BLM movement and his Why. Hugh is the Director of Business Development for Staples Promotional Products (SPP), a subsidiary of Staples Inc. with offices in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
He has over 20 years of experience helping clients globally drive brand engagement and improved business results by designing and executing custom merchandise, incentive, recognition, gifting, uniform and promotional programs involving their employees, channel partners, and customers.
Hugh currently manages and leads strategic teams for Global new business prospecting, RFP responses, proactive proposals, competitive intelligence, future-trends identification, and business enhancement initiatives.
He is also a Member of SPP’s Senior Leadership team that oversees organizational strategic plans, succession planning, process improvements, and growth objectives for the Canadian division.
Hugh lives in Brampton with his wife Nadine, daughters Renée, Nia and new addition to the family, Miles.
Chef Kate Plummer chats with Jay Busselle about making it to the milestone of the 200th #PromoChat. We cover what's changed, what's needed to build an online community and so much more.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Chef Kate Plummer and sous chef Amanda Delaney are back with in impactful and inspiring episode of Growing Up Promo! Theresa Muzzillo, owner of Proforma Big Ideas in Tampa, is joined by her father, Greg Muzzillo, founder of top 40 distributor Proforma, as she shares stories from her earliest promo days as a kid, and what ultimately brought her back to promo after pursuing a post-college career in finance in the big apple.
You don't want to miss this incredibly real and raw conversation as Theresa opens up about why she has always been (and remains) adamant on paving her own path and creating her own success as a business owner within the franchise her father built. She also talks about how taking the risk to invest in self-promos when the pandemic hit actually helped her grow her business in 2020, how her biggest clients gave her a new game-changing perspective on the power of community-over-competition, and so much more.
In this episode Johanna Gottlieb, Axis Promotions, and Ashley Colautti, Commonsku talk to Meg Erber, S&S Activewear and Glencora Twigg, Fairware about selling sustainability in the promotional products arena. They tackle some great topics on what you can and should be asking your clients and suppliers.
Chefs Johanna Gottlieb and Kate Plummer talk to Paul Bellantone and Robert "Bob" McLean about the transition in a virtual environment, Paul's future philanthropic goals, what we have learned in the pandemic and what we can expect from the association going forward.
In this moving and powerful podcast, Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Kathy Cheng, Michelle Chen, Cindy Tsuji and Kathy DiFrancesco to talk about anti-Asian racism, how it has personally and professionally effected them. They also share how others can help and what our next steps need to be.
Chef Kate Plummer chats with Digital News Director at ASI, Chris Ruvo about what is causing inventory issues across the board. This was a great chat and it's worth reading the article that sparked this conversation: https://t.co/wmz5PyqqOg?amp=1
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Chef Kate Plummer chats with trend expert Vicki Ostrom about how sustainability is showing up in product design, the effect the pandemic has had on trends and so much more!
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific.
In our fourth episode, Jay Busselle & Danny Rosin talk with Roger Burnett about his experience as a founding member of PromoKitchen.
Chef Kate Plummer talks with sous-chef Ashley Colautti about the future for women in work looks like, what makes a good leader and the role of womxn events for individuals!
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Before zoom meetings, there was ZOOMcatalog. Chef Kate Plummer and Sous Chef Amanda Delaney sat down to chat with the inspiring women behind ZOOMcatalog, Noleen Zasman, President, and her daughters Bryony Zasman, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, and Donna Zasman Lomazini, Director of Business Development, for our latest instalment of Growing Up Promo. You do not want to miss this amazing story of how this woman-owned family business came to be, and how they have fought to push through the barriers to turn ZOOMcatalog into the forward-thinking, successful business it is today, in spite of everyone who told them they would never make it.
Sous Chef Amanda Delaney and Meg Erber with PromoCares have some exciting news for you and your future in promo! The Tee Hamilton Creative Scholarship is NOT limited to graphic artists and creative designers alike in our industry, so head over to https://www.promokitchen.org/donate to apply today! GOOD LUCK!
Chef Kate Plummer talks with PK Chef Dale Denham about what cybersecurity precaustions you need to take to keep you and your company safe.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
In this episode we talk to Bill Petrie, Brandivate and Alina Rubinshteyn, LiV2. We hear about their experiences in starting a business during 2020, a historically and challenging year. We learn about what has worked for them and how they are persevering.
In this episode we talk to Bill Petrie, Brandivate and Alina Rubinshteyn, LiV2. We hear about their experiences in starting a business during 2020, a historically and challenging year. We learn about what has worked for them and how they are persevering.
In this PromoKitchen podcast. Mark Graham, Kate Plummer and Jeremy Picker riff about the impact of promo on world events (and the other way around).
We spend a lot of time reminding end clients why promotional products are an effective marketing strategy. However, we often find ourselves fighting an uphill battle when we see some end clients dismiss our medium as trinkets and trash.
But what happens when our medium is “too effective”, when it moves audiences in ways that are uncomfortable for some people? We have seen examples of this in the past few weeks with the use of branded merchandise as a rallying force at the US Capitol on January 6. Or Facebook’s encouraging its employees from wearing company merchandise lest they be the subject of attacks. Or Shopify’s decision to take down Trump’s MAGA store.
Our industry has evolved considerably over the years. Thanks to advances in technology - like print on demand, just in time inventory, e-commerce, no minimums, Direct to Garment printing - our industry has been able to respond to current events with unprecedented speed. The result is a new relationship with our medium that allows us to break out of the confining trinkets and trash category. A big part of this discussion is how we feel about our new role in world events.
Chef Kate Plummer talks with Sous chef Andrea Pereira of Rocket Science Branding and Jarid Taylor of Brandigenous about being Indian and Indigenous and how identity gets built and communicated. They cover everything from land acknowledgements, to being a minority business and how they answer "So where are you from?"
In this episode Kate Plummer, Clearmount and Johanna Gottlieb, Axis Promotions chat with Juan Martinez, Director of Innovation and Branding Strategy at Spector & Co. We talk about what it means to be behind innovation at Spector and about highlighting the creative in our industry.
Juan has been involved in the promotional product industry for over 25 years. During the past 20, he has been employed by Spector and Co. His proven track record includes skill and experience in diverse branding methods, technology research and development, product flow analysis, methodology implementation and staff management.
His background includes an Industrial Design University degree that he applied on the automotive industry as a start up drafting and engineering position back in Guadalajara, Mexico; once in Canada and during his 26 years of residence, he has been very active within the promotional product industry, most recently as part of the operations of Spector and Co.
Through all those years, he has been in charge of factory operations of a 200+ people team through 10 direct reports over 3 shifts as well as 2 major building layout reconfigurations. Leading the research and development department over the past 3 years, extensive improvements and new developments to branding methods and peripheral procedures have been put in place.
Most recently as Director of Innovation and Branding Strategy, he has actively continued to apply his hands on experience and career background to the extensive technology development efforts and new branding technology of Spector and Co.
He is an energetic, enthusiastic individual that is success driven and passionate about what he does.
Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Amanda Delaney are at it again! In this heart-warming and hilarious installment of our Growing Up Promo series, they sit down with Josh Goodelman, Lead Janitor (aka Vice President) of New York based supplier Liqui-Mark, as he shares stories from the early days of how his grandfather's turned father's retail pen business entered the world of promo. Josh also talks about what pivoting looked like for them when the pandemic hit, how the competition has helped shape him into the leader he is today, and why he's not done growing up (promo) just yet.
Denise is chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder of Fairware. Denise got the idea to launch Fairware when she noticed how difficult it was to source promotional merchandise that reflected the social and environmental priorities of many of the brands and organizations she admired. Prior to starting Fairware, Denise spent seven years as the Director of Sustainability and Community for Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada’s largest outdoor retailer. She is currently a board member of Promo Cares, an industry group with a mission is to inspire, educate and provide actionable strategies to encourage social and environmental responsibility in the promotional products industry and our communities.
Mesa, AZ-based Marshall Atkinson is one of the leading production and efficiency experts for the decorated apparel industry. He is the owner of Atkinson Consulting, LLC.
As a coach, Atkinson focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement, workflow strategy, business planning, marketing, employee motivation, management, and sustainability.
He is a frequent trade show speaker, article & blog author, and is the host for the YouTube show for Jerzees “Adventures in Apparel Decorating”.
Atkinson has released four eBooks for the industry: “Top 10 Workflow Tips”, “Shop Basic Info Pack”, “Price for Profit”, and “T-shirt Texture Tricks”. His new book, “Moving Past Disaster” was released in May 2020.
For 2020, he has developed the first in a series of online learning courses. “6 Steps to Kill Your Production Downtime” is focused on eliminating costly production downtime with several easy to implement lessons.
The eBooks, online courses, as well as his shop coaching plans and several hundred industry blog articles, can be found on his website at https://atkinsontshirt.com/.
Marshall also co-founded a decorated apparel industry sales and marketing education company called Shirt Lab, with industry entrepreneur Tom Rauen.
On Dec 4, Tee Hamilton, our dear friend and founding chef at PromoKitchen lost her battle with cancer. Tee touched the lives of so many people in the promotional products industry whether it was through her brilliant video work, beautiful illustration and design output or her advocacy for the creative professional in her industry education outreach.
Tee was an original in every sense of the word. She stood out in any room she walked into. She was admired and respected for the work she did. Was she misunderstood at times? Sure. But all great artists inspire a range of emotions in people and Tee was no exception.
This podcast is dedicated to celebrating Tee’s life. We have collected stories from a number of people who knew and loved Tee. We hope this episode will allow you to reflect back on the impact she had or possibly give you a chance to get to know her better. A big thanks to the entire promotional products community who shared their stories about Tee.
Before you listen to the stories, PromoKitchen is establishing the Tee Hamilton Creative Education fund which raises money to provide educational opportunities for creative professionals in our industry. Celebrating and supporting industry creatives was a passion of Tee’s and we are excited to help continue this important work in her name.
We are inviting our community to donate if you are able. You can do so at promokitchen.org/donate
One last thing, we all know Tee loved her music, especially punk rock. We debated having a Ramones mix as an overlay throughout these tributes but we figured it would be hard to hear peoples’ stories. So we decided on something a little bit more chill. In preparing this episode we laughed that Tee would probably hate the music we chose and that somehow she’d let us know. And that’s why we loved her so much!
I hope you enjoy these stories as much as we did.
PromoKitchen is hosting a new education event!
Need a fresh start? Yes please! With 2021 just around the corner, join Chefs Jay Busselle and Jessica Gibbons-Rauch to learn how to leverage LinkedIn. Yes, you might feel a little anxious as you realize your profile is missing the mark on a few (actually many) sections – but don’t stress, Jay & JGR can help!
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5516073785432/WN_hLMjRiGnQtuwI2ddbah9GQ
This is a new podcast series where you get to go back in time and revisit the stories of some brave and somewhat geeky rebels who were keenly searching for a new path forward in the promotional products market. Welcome to the "PromoKitchen OG Podcast Series." Are you curious about these founding PK chefs and renegades? Don't you want to know why they started PromoKitchen and what they were trying to accomplish? In the spirit of vision and to help you trailblaze a new path forward - take some time and listen to these dreamers!
On Nov 17, 2020, Paul Bellantone announced his decision to step down as President and CEO of PPAI. Paul joined PPAI in 1998 and worked his way to the CEO position in 2011, a role he will serve until March 2021.
In his 2 decades at PPAI, he helped steer the organization through choppy waters - like 9/11, the financial collapse of 2008-2009, the shooting at the Mandalay Bay mere months before Expo 2018, and multiple legislative threats. And with the current coronavirus pandemic, Paul’s steady hand has guided an industry that’s had to adjust to a whole new way of doing business.
Since PromoKitchen started in 2011, we have had the opportunity to interview Paul on several different occasions. Looking back at the episodes since 2012 is an interesting time capsule of his time as CEO.
In this episode, chefs Mark Graham (commonsku) and Danny Rosin (Brand Fuel) sit down with Paul to explore the reasons behind his decision to step down, what he thinks about the future of the industry and also what’s next for him professionally.
This is a longer episode than usual and we invite you to settle in as we map Paul’s time at PPAI with the broader trends that have impacted our industry. After the interview is over, we have created a highlight reel of some of our past episodes with Paul, starting from 2012 all the way up to March 2020 when the global pandemic was starting to wreak havoc on our industry.
We hope you enjoy this wind ranging discussion with Paul
In this episode, Kate Plummer talks with Latisha Marshall, Robert Cunningham and Annette Jensen about their recognition on PPB’s Uncommon Leaders. They talk about what makes a good leader, how things have changed with COVID and how to follow in their footsteps.
Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Aly Brunton of commonsku to discuss the power of awards and how as a company they created the skummunity awards and how they narrowed down the winners.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Amanda Delaney sit down with Joe Douglas (aka British Joe), Client Relationship Manager for Illinois-based supplier Orbus, for a growing up promo story with a twist. Joe talks to us about all things Orbus, including how he introduced his father's existing exhibit and signage company into the world of promo upon moving to the US. He also talks about the vast differences between living in England and living in America, the culture shock that is the state of Alabama, and we all talk about how seeing our own company's promo out in the wild really makes us feel.
PromoKitchen OG Danny Rosin talks about his experience as a founding member of the organization and how much fun he has had investing in the organization.
Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Melissa Newman, social media manager of ASI to talk about what makes good content, how it can help you grow and why staying the same is dangerous!
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
In this episode, Johanna Gottlieb gets to connect and chat with Monica May. They discuss their personal upbringing and why Hispanic heritage month is important to each of them. Monica is a proud Tejana who has deep roots in South Texas, she has spent a large part of her professional life working to understand how culture and profession can work together. She began work with Employee Resource Groups (IBGs) in 2007 while working at Dell, Inc. and continued on through her tenure. She joined Expedia as a Global Program Manager in Travel Partner’s Group in 2019 to lead strategic initiatives that focus on optimizing the performance of their software partners. She immediately looked to join the Latinx community to continue the work that began early in her career, with emphasis on the importance of mentorship for continued success in the community.
Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Roger Burnett of Social Good Promotions and PromoCares to discuss what makes a good cause marketing campaign, how to lead with good and how PromoCares has evolved over the years.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Amanda Delaney sit down with three promo rock stars who not only share a love for all things promotional products, but they also share one of the industry's most recognizable last names. Industry veteran Dana Zezzo, VP of Marketing and Vendor Relations for American Solutions for Business, and his daughters Megan Zezzo, National Account Manager for S&S Activewear, and Maria Zezzo, Account Manager for industry service provider FAST Platform, talk to us about what growing up promo was like for them. They also talk about what it was like not only following in their father's footsteps, but how weeks on end of work travels together and summer internships with Dana's (then) customers helped shape them into the Zezzo's they are today.
Revolutionaries. Renegades. Dreamers. Leaders.
This is a new podcast series where you get to go back in time and revisit the stories of some brave and somewhat geeky rebels who were keenly searching for a new path forward in the promotional products market. Welcome to the "PromoKitchen OG Podcast Series." Are you curious about these founding PK chefs and renegades? Don't you want to know why they started PromoKitchen and what they were trying to accomplish? In the spirit of vision and to help you trailblaze a new path forward - take some time and listen to these dreamers!
Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Amanda Delaney sit down with promo rockstars who share more than a love of promo. Veteran Paul Kory and his daughters Meghan Kory and Morgan Kory share their story in Growing up Promo.
In this episode Johanna Gottlieb talks with three of this year's Counselor Magazine's rising stars, our own Kate Plummer and Kate Masewhich and Tiffany Wu. They shared their perspectives on earning this honor and talk about what they see for the industry ahead.
Sous Chef Javier Melendez interviews Chef Kate Plummer to discuss the value of factory tours and education and how suppliers and distributors can pivot in this new world. Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Deep Dive - Vicki Ostrom - Trends Chef Kate Plummer talks with trend expert Vicki Ostrom from SanMar about what's trending now. Their conversation ranges from Create-It-Yourself, to cottagecore to why tie-dye is seeing a resurgence. Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
In this episode Chefs Russell Bird and Johanna Gottlieb discuss the history of the PromoKitchen mentor program and where it is today. They talk about the new look of the program and how to sign up to be a mentor or mentee!
Bonus Deep Dive for you today. This one was recorded in early March but with everything that happened, it fell to the wayside. The topic is still timeless though. Denise Taschereau from Fairware sits down with Chef Kate Plummer to discuss sustainability, building a company when your mandate seems niche and what you can do to make a difference. Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific If you’re looking to learn more about what Denise talks about, here is a great place to start: https://www.greenbiz.com/events/webcasts
Chef Charity Gibson from Peerless sits down with Chef Kate Plummer to discuss what virtual tradeshows now look like and how we can make them better and be better at sales. Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
In this episode Kate Plummer, Clearmount and Johanna Gottlieb, Axis Promotions talk with Jason Emery from Toddy Gear. They discuss reopening safely during a pandemic and what it has been like at Toddy for the last few months.
Last year we did a podcast called Newbies and Vets. Mark Graham and Johanna Gottlieb went back to last year's newbies to talk to them about what it has been like to do your first year in promo DURING A PANDEMIC! It was such a fun conversation with three amazing women.
Melanie Dwyer-Joyce has been an account coordinator for Rightsleeve Marketing since April 2019. She has a background in fashion and digital marketing and a passion for sustainability and supporting social-enterprises.
Krista Franchuk with the Promo Addict has a wide range of experience. She has spent time working in the oil and gas, waste, construction, not-for-profit, and business consulting industries. Krista has been assisting customers with their promotional product needs since February of 2019. When not at the office, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, cheering on her kids at their various activities, and gardening in the spring and summer (and dreaming of gardening in the fall & winter).
Laura Gibson of Brand Fuel, Inc. is a self-proclaimed Jill-of-all-trades with a background in project management and administration, giving her keen eye for detail. She is a proud Navy brat that has been to 49 states (One day Alaska, one day…) and has logged 4.5 cross-country road trips over the years. When Laura is not helping add Fuel to your Brand, you can find her on the kickball and wiffleball fields, dodgeball courts, and other various social sports activities.
In this podcast Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb talk to Michele Bell and Jake Krolick from ASI. For the first time, this year’s Counselor Awards ceremony was held virtually. They discuss the planning and behind the scenes magic that helped make this event a success.
In this episode Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb chat with DeShaun Diggs about Racism in America. We learn about some personal experiences and hear a great perspective from DeShaun.
In this podcast Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb talk with Valerie Spiller. Valerie has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience. She has spent time working in positions in the Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, and Banking industries. Her sales career began in Sporting Goods with the Gatorade brand and has evolved to emphasize the Promotional Products Industry. She loves her work and helping customers find solutions, and it's clear to anyone she interacts with. Outside of work she enjoys group fitness classes and outdoor activities. Listen on to hear about Val's thoughts on why this movement is different, what she thinks of the term white privilege and more.
In this episode, we dig deep into apparel trends with Josh Appelbaum, VP Apparel with Hit Promotional Products.
In this episode Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb talk to Julie Kwan about the PPAI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Playbook and how we can make changes in our industry and move forward together.
Chefs Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb talk with Benn Sledge from Aztec Specialties. They cover what it means to be a minority business owner and their importance to our supply chain. In this discussion Benn opens up doing a self check in and why this movement is different than others.
Racism in America: A Discussion with Quianne Perrin Savoy and Sonja Smith from Moore & Moore Merch by PromoKitchen
In today’s episode, Kate Plummer and Johanna Gottlieb talk with Caryn Kopp. Caryn has been a guest on a previous podcast and is doing a special Promokitchen webinar series (details at Promokitchen.org).
Caryn is the Chief Door Opener® at Kopp Consulting whose Door Opener® Service has helped thousands secure initial meetings at the Executive Level in almost every major company.
Caryn Kopp has been dubbed the Chief Door Opener® because she gets her clients “in the door” with their prospects. Caryn’s senior business developers known as Kopp Door Openers® find the right opportunities and secure initial meetings for their clients.
In today’s episode, we explore the way some suppliers in our industry are throwing out the old playbooks for sales and marketing by employing digital first tactics. Our guests today are Evan Toporek and Pete Drago with Colorado based, Original Favorites.
Original Favorites is known for their high end blank Tshirts, sweats and polos made primarily from Supima cotton. While they do sell within the promotional products industry, they cut their teeth selling private label solutions to digitally native clothing brands. It’s from this experience that they developed many of their digital go to market strategies.
In this episode of the PK Podcast, Chef and parents Johanna Gottlieb and Danny Rosin connect with Angie Shockley, Parenting Expert and experienced counselor, to talk about the reality of the shifting family dynamics when combining e-learning and working parents. This is a great discussion of the new reality we live in and managing what it is to be a parent while providing balance and caring for all the family members.
Angie Shockley, MA, CSP, has spent 25 years working with adolescents, teens, young adults, parents, and families helping them navigate the challenges of daily life. Using her years of experience and training, Angie provides coaching, education, consulting, and alternative healing services for individuals and groups. She has studied Shamanic and Energetic Healing modalities under Berta Khunel of Balanced Horizons and is a Certified Shamanic Practitioner. Angie also utilizes the healing benefits of Reiki in her work. She is available for face to face sessions as well as distance work via phone.
In this episode of the PK Podcast, Mark Graham and Javier Melendez sit down with Shamini Peter to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of selling PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shamini is the COO of Axis Promotions in New York City where she has over a decade of product sourcing experience. Her supply chain expertise has helped Axis grow into the one of the largest and most sophisticated distributors in the industry. Shamini shares her recent experiences on sourcing PPE during a time when demand has far outsripped supply.
In addition to his role as a PromoKitchen sous chef, Javier Melendez is an Account Executive at All Star Incentive Marketing. He has sold PPE for most of his career in the industry and shares his perspectives on the sudden popularity of this category.
In this episode Mark and Johanna talk to two incredible nurses on the front lines of the Covid19 Pandemic.
Joanna Killian is a nurse in New York. She is with a university hospital on Long Island and has been there for 9 years in the cardiac department.
Jessica Aboagye has been a nurse for 12 years. She has worked at Southside hospital in Bayshore, Long Island for the last 4 years. She has a masters degree in nursing education and is certified in both medical surgical and geriatric nursing.
We talk about what life in and outside the hospital is like right now and how they are fighting the good fight every day.
Manufacturers of apparel, textiles and sewing plants are shifting their production operations from t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and underwear to make surgical face masks and face coverings to help medical personnel and the general public combat the global coronavirus pandemic. One of those great companies is Allmade Apparel. PK chefs Jay Busselle & Johanna Gottlieb had a discussion with Mel Lay & Ryan Moor to find out when they got started and what the process looks like when a large part of your company pivots from t-shirts to masks. Listen and learn how Mel, Ryan and the team at Allmade aim to supply healthcare workers and others on the front lines with face masks.
Manufacturers of apparel, textiles and sewing plants are shifting their production operations from t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and underwear to make surgical face masks and face coverings to help medical personnel and the general public combat the global Coronavirus pandemic. One of those great companies is SanMar. PK chefs Jay Busselle & Johanna Gottlieb had a discussion with Renton Leversedge, chief customer officer at SanMar to ask how they got involved, when they got started and what the process looks like when a large part of your company pivots from t-shirts to masks. Listen and learn how Renton and the team at SanMar aim to supply healthcare workers and others on the front lines with face masks.
Robert Williams started in the Promotional Products industry in early 2000 and since then his company, Brand Unleashed has grown every year. Robert is a passionate small business owner and a volunteer lieutenant firefighter. He is currently the President of the Board to the Australasian Promotional Products Association (APPA), having served in this role for over a year and holds 4 years on the APPA Board holding the Vice President role for 2 years.
Robert has served on many committees and loves giving back to the industry.
He has achieved TAS, CAS and MAS with PPAI and is very proud to support PPAI, as well as PromoKitchen.
His love for all things PK has opened up the opportunity for PromoKitchen to start up in Australia, with a launch date in 2020.
This conversation was recorded on March 31st, 2020. In this special episode we speak with Jonathan Cooke, MD. Pulmonary/Critical Care physician. Jon is currently employed at Northwestern Medicine Central Dupage and Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospitals. Jon took some time out of his busy schedule to speak with us about Covid-19 and what it is like on the front lines of a hospital. The discussion answers some hard questions and will be sure to keep you on the edge of your couch.
Special thanks to Jonathan Isaacson, CEO of Gemline, for providing some questions that were added to this discussion. Jonathan previously hosted a fascinating webinar on the coronavirus with several medical professionals right before the pandemic became a serious issue in North America (Feb 7, 2020).
Larry Alford is with Axis Promotions. In this discussion we hear tips on keeping your team engaged and sticking to a routine!
Andrea Pereira from Rocket Science Branding joins Chef Kate Plummer to discuss her technique for staying on task and productive. Stay tuned for her suggestions to keep your brain busy.
This was recorded Monday March 23rd
Valerie Spiller is with Elite Marketing. Val is a multi-line rep in IL and in this discussion we talk about working from home, tips and tricks.
Kate Kailik from Spector & Co is a road warrior and a WFH veteran! Join her and chef Kate Plummer to get tips on how to be productive while working from home and a really cute story of what's keeping her sane right now!
How are you holding up with everything that's going on? We want you to know that we're thinking about you and want to get you through these tough times so we'll be sharing stories with suppliers and distributors about how they're surviving, their tips for working from home and what's keeping them sane during these unprecedented times. PK Chair Johanna Gottleib and Vice Chair Kate Plummer are our first participants in our new series!
In this special episode, Mark Graham and Danny Rosin welcome back long time guest, Paul Bellantone, CEO of PPAI. We all know the industry is going through a challenging time as we grapple with the impact of the coronavirus. On this particular recording date, March 13, 2020, stock markets are crashing, suppliers are being run off their feet with hand sanitizer orders, distributor sales forecasts are being rewritten, employees are being asked to work from home, end clients are cancelling events in droves and some people are getting sick. And it feels like we’re at the very beginning of what could be a long and difficult journey.
We even hear from a special guest at the end of the podcast who shares how a 10 year old sees the pandemic.
Bobby Lehew from commonsku sits down with Chef Kate Plummer to discuss how to pivot with promo and prepare for disaster on all scales.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #PromoChat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
(For extra #PromoChat credit, go read the article Kate and Bobby reference in their Deep Dive: https://buff.ly/3cQC253)
Jo-an Lantz, president and CEO of Geiger and Jeff Lederer, president of Primeline, join Chef Kate Plummer to discuss how their companies have prepared for disasters, and what they’re doing to be on top of COVID-19. Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #promochat 3:00PM Eastern, Noon Pacific
Nick Lateur is National Sales Manager at IMAGEN Brands. He lives in Austin, TX and has a quirky fetish for Mondays. When he is not busy strategizing with his IMAGEN Brands team or brainstorming new product video ideas, Nick enjoys cooking with his daughter and jamming with his cover band. You can find him on MONDAYS with Nick on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Nick made a splash in the industry over the last few weeks when he was named #1 on Dale Denham's 2019 Online 18, a list of the most socially influential people in the promotional products industry. He came in hot and the industry is tuning in each week to see how he can brighten our Monday mornings.
Mandi Rudd from Brand Energy Marketing talks to Kate about online personas and keeping your social feeds personal and professional at the same time.
Join us every Wednesday at 12:00 PM Pacific, 3:00 PM Eastern on Twitter for an all new #PromoChat.
Try as they might to avoid making a mess in the kitchen, your hosts and PK chefs, Mark Graham & Jay Busselle, pull on some industry threads to discover interesting people and situations in the apparel & branded merchandise space.
This is a rags-to-riches, then back to rags… and climbing back to riches, story. Listen to how a small contract apparel sewing company of 5 family makers and a few machines in 1988 grew into a full service large scale apparel contractor who employed over 500 people in 3 different facilities in Canada. This podcast shares the account of Kathy Cheng and WS & Co. scaling up, scaling down and then rebuilding to launch Redwood Classics. Kathy Cheng is the founder & president of Redwood Classics. This is a story of family legacy, restructure, reinvention, fight, change and entrepreneurism.
What’s your North Star? Listen and learn from Kathy as she explains the importance of her North Star and how she’s used that to guide her through the challenges of reinvention and innovation. Kathy challenges us by asking why anyone would want to print a brand on an inferior garment as opposed to one that will last longer, and is higher quality? She also asks, “Why are you limiting your own earning potential?” This podcast will help you discover the answers to those questions and the benefits of embracing friction, being transparent and taking risks.
The Pyramid Award-winning Deep Dive is back! This week, Kate Plummer talks with Scott Nussinow about getting the most out of the organization you belong to.
Join #PromoChat ever Wednesday on Twitter at Noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
It’s become commonplace to open up our weekly email from ASI and PPAI these days and see some news about industry consolidation, whether it’s a supplier buying another supplier or a distributor joining forces with another distributor.
On Jan 29, it was announced that Halo had acquired Axis Promotions, the well known distributor agency based in midtown Manhattan. While these announcements are no longer surprising, the rate of consolidation is unique to this time in the industry and that’s part of what we want to explore in this conversation.
On our program today, we welcome Larry Cohen, CEO of Axis Promotions and Marc Simon, CEO of Halo. And while Johanna is a co-host, she’s doing double duty today as she’s also an employee at Axis, heading up their Chicago office.
Robert Fiveash and Jay Busselle bagged a unicorn! Michele Bell from ASI is perhaps the highest-profile industry leader who really doesn’t agree to podcast interviews. But we had an offer even MB couldn’t refuse. Jay’s promise of tacos for life, and Robert’s promise of yearly Stones-related gifts, did the trick! Michele was very generous with her time and was her hilarious, insightful, and intelligent self throughout. We talked about what the future likely looks like, the impact of tariffs, industry terminology, the role of suppliers and distributors, and of course, the Rolling Stones. Thanks Michele for sitting down with us, and thanks for being such a positive and influential part of this industry.
In this episode, Jay Busselle and Mark Graham speak with Ryan Moor, CEO at Ryonet & Allmade, about the world of apparel decorating and how his roots as a screen print supplier (Ryonet) led to the creation of a new project, Allmade Apparel - a shirt for screen printers by screen printers. Allmade has also made a name for itself by offering socially and environmentally responsible Tshirt alternatives in a sector not particularly well known for its environmental track record. It's a fascinating grass roots revolution that Ryan and several of his screen printing colleagues have kicked off and we're happy to share the story with you.
Chef Danny Rosin, our first chat of 2019 comes in to close off the year. He and Chef Kate Plummer talk about goal setting, how you achieve and how you bring your team in to make it count.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for a brand new #PromoChat! 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
Amanda Delaney cures her Promo FOMO and talks with Chef Kate Plummer about the best ways to give back and support your community.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for a brand new #PromoChat! 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
In this special episode of the podcast, Mark Graham and Johanna Gottlieb speak with Neil Ringel, CEO of Polyconcept, and Sharon Eyal, CEO of ETS Express, about Polyconcept's blockbuster acquisition of ETS Express on Dec 10, 2019.
In our conversation, we explore how this transaction took place, what this means for Polyconcept and ETS customers and the impact this will have on the overall promotional products industry. It's a rich conversation, required listening for anyone looking to understand the strategic mindsets of two of the most influential companies in the industry today.
Jamie Mair sits down with Chef Kate Plummer to talk about sustainability and all of the things that go unsaid in the promo industry.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for a new #PromoChat. 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
Jeremy Picker from AMB3R Creative sits down with Chef Kate Plummer to talk about the Now Economy.
Join us every Wednesday over on Twitter for a brand new #PromoChat! 3:00 PM Eastern, Noon Pacific.
Erich Campbell and Chef Kate Plummer sit down to talk follow-up and how to automate for those scared of the robot revolution.
Join us every Wednesday (but not THIS Wednesday, because of the holiday) on Twitter for another #PromoChat! 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific.
n this special episode, we talk about some recent changes to the leadership at PromoKitchen. On Nov 12, the board announced that Johanna Gottlieb would take over from Robert Fiveash as Chair of PromoKitchen. It was also announced that Kate Plummer would become Vice Chair.
This is a big moment for PromoKitchen as the organization as now seen 3 leadership changes since the organization was founded in 2011. In 2016, Mark Graham handed the reigns to Robert Fiveash who did a masterful job of scaling the organization to where it is today. And now, we welcome a new generation of leaders to help PK to continue to grow and prosper.
Many listeners will recognize Johanna for her work in building our mentor program as well as co-hosting the “Stories from the Floor” and “Newbies and Vets” podcast episodes. And Kate is no stranger either as she has been a driving force with Promochat and the Deep Dive video series. Both are exceptional leaders and human beings. We are so excited for the future of PK.
PK Chef Kate Plummer dives deep into brand names with Brian Jolin.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
Thanks to our friends at Maple Ridge Farms for supporting our Deep Dive video interviews!
We hope to see you next Wednesday on Twitter - join us at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern on the @PromoKitchen Twitter page. Search for the #PromoChat hashtag and filter by "latest" to see the most recent tweets.
Chef Johanna Gottlieb from Axis Promotions did such a good job taking over #PromoChat last week! However she didn't get a chance to answer any of her own questions, so PK chef Kate Plummer from sat down with her to get some advice on prospecting new clients.
Remember to join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern, for an all new #PromoChat over on Twitter
4 million shirts per week! Mark Seymour is the CSO (Chief Shirt Officer) at leading designer & blank apparel supplier, Next Level Apparel. In this PK Apparel episode, chefs Mark Graham & Jay Busselle talk with Mark about some of the secret ingredients they use to make Next Level Apparel a successful international brand that makes about 4 million shirts a week. Mark refers to promotional product companies and apparel decorators as t-shirt sommeliers. It gets a little spicy in the kitchen when he talks about how they balance selling direct and selling through wholesale distributors. Find out how Next Level became the official t-shirt of South by Southwest and why they have live print activations at SXSW. Mark claims part of the success at Next Level comes from listening to apparel decorators and continually developing a better product and print surface.
PromoKitchen chefs Marshall Atkinson and Kate Plummer dive deep into what it takes to meet your deadlines.
Join us every Wednesday at Noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern for a brand new #PromoChat over on Twitter.
In today's #PromoChat Deep Dive, Kate Plummer and Reagan Hartman discuss the pros and cons of working from home (and the joys of canine coworkers).
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #PromoChat!
In this episode, PK chefs Mark Graham and Eric Granata take a look at the cannabis industry and some of the branding and promotional products opportunities within this new and growing sector. To help us wrap our heads around this space, we spoke with Robert Sidwell, Owner & Principal Designer at Indica Creative, a cannabis branding agency based in Oklahoma City. Indica focuses on logo development and brand strategy specifically for the cannabis sector. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he studied visual communication and has also spent 6 years in the design field.
Chef Kate Plummer sits down to talk with Jessica Gibbons Rauch for some real talk about burnout. Kate and Jessica get real and hand out some much needed wisdom.
Join us every Wednesday at Noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern over on Twitter for another #PromoChat.
Get set for another #PromoChat Deep Dive! Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Brian Stidham of EMT to talk about photo tips, tricks, and why you should always sit next to the window at restaurants.
Join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern for a brand new #PromoChat over on Twitter!
Every t-shirt tells a story! Tom Rauen's start in the apparel industry wasn't easy. In this PK Apparel episode, Mark Graham & Jay Busselle talk with the owner of Envision Tees, Tom Rauen. Since his 2005 solopreneur start Tom has averaged 25% growth for several years. Tom is moving into a new production facility this year and has approximately 40 staff. Listen to the story of his world record and how his media hacks and marketing tactics have worked. We're sure you will enjoy Tom's detailed explanations, including his missteps and how he fueled his growth using a dream 100 list.
Chef Kate Plummer sits down with Bobby Lehew from commonsku to dive deep into foundational education and how to manage the emotional ups and downs of our industry.
Remember: Join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern over on Twitter for a brand new #PromoChat.
In this PK Apparel episode, Mark Graham & Jay Busselle talk with the owner of Printed Threads, El Capitan, Brett Bowden. Brett left a rock band and started an apparel decoration company in 2010. Listen to Brett tell his impressive story from the beginning days in the garage with a manual press to, now, a multi million dollar apparel decoration company. Brett talks about overcoming struggles, printing apparel live on site at festivals, experiential marketing and succeeding as a curator with promotional products. Learn more about the life changing, Allmade apparel story and its purpose driven social mission.
Long-time #PromoChat veterans Javier Melendez and Scott Nussinow sit down for an in-depth discussion of shipping and logistics on this week's Deep Dive.
Join us every Wednesday for another #PromoChat over on Twitter at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
PK Chef extraordinaire, Kate Plummer from Clearmount, talks to Sarah Dickerson from EMT about lapel pins, branding, and being promo AF.
Join us every Wednesday for another #PromoChat over on Twitter at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
Lisa Horn - The Publicity Gal, sat down with Chef Kate Plummer to talk about websites in the latest #PromoChat Deep Dive. What are the dos and don'ts? You'll have to listen to find out.
One definite do: join us every Wednesday at 12:00 Pacific, 3:00 PM Eastern for an all new #PromoChat over on Twitter.
Check out our latest Deep Dive where PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks with Josh Carter from LOCK Promo + Apparel about engaging with Gen Z.
Don't forget to join us every Wednesday at 12:00PM Pacific, 3:00PM Eastern over on Twitter for another #PromoChat.
This week on the #PromoChat Deep Dive, Javier Melendez sits down with Molly Neises from Maple Ridge Farms and Josh Storey from SanMar to talk about frequently asked supplier questions.
Join us every Wednesday for #PromoChat over on Twitter at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific!
PK Chefs, @Danny Rosin of Brand Fuel and Josh Storey of Sanmar sit down for a deep dive into social strategies.
(Here's a link to the blog article mentioned in the video: https://www.brandfuel.com/ideal-customers/)
Join us every Wednesday at 3PM EST for another #PromoChat over on Twitter!
PK Chef Kate Plummer chats Heather from Geiger to talk about how to explain our industry to outsiders!
Don't forget to join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern over on Twitter for #promochat.
In this episode, Mark Graham (commonsku) and Robert Fiveash (Brand Fuel) explore the world of distribution, fulfillment and logistics. End client marketing needs have split our industry in two - on one hand we have custom drop ship orders that never touch a distributor’s office while on the hand, we have complex company store models that require distribution and fulfillment oversight. The latter category is what we explore today with our guest, Harry Thetford.
Harry is the Distribution Center General Manager at Dollar Tree Stores based in Chesapeake Virginia. While Harry is not directly involved in the promotional products industry, he manages a 400,000 square foot retail distribution center supporting 300 Mid-Atlantic Dollar Tree stores. In this capacity, he has a unique view of distribution and fulfillment trends that also impact our industry. We wanted to share this fascinating conversation with the PromoKitchen community.
PK Chef Kate Plummer chats Jody Shaw of PPAI to talk about how to plan education programs, what people are thinking about and why diversity matters!
Don't forget to join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern over on Twitter for #promochat.
PK Chef Jay Busselle sits down with the president and head chef of PromoKitchen, Robert Fiveash, to talk about our One Simple Act initiative in this week's #Promochat Deep Dive.
Don't forget to join us every Wednesday at 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern over on Twitter for #promochat.
Buckle up for this extra long #promochat Deep Dive. This week, PK Chef Kate Plummer talks with Erich Campbell about using fresh eyes to approach old problems.
Don't forget to check us out every Wednesday over on Twitter at 12 Pacific, 3PM Eastern for another #promochat!
In this week's Deep Dive, PK Chef Josh Storey chats with Nicole Baker from American Solution for Business about the power of well presented packaging.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
In this episode, Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) and Danny Rosin (Brand Fuel) sit down with industry newbie Melanie Dwyer-Joyce with Rightsleeve and industry veteran Scott Alterman with The Icebox.
At the time of this recording, Melanie celebrated her 6 week anniversary in the industry while Scott has led a distinguished 28-year career. We wanted to see where their experiences were similar and where they differed in this wide-ranging conversation.
Thanks to our friends at SanMar for supporting this podcast!
In this episode, we take a dive deep into the soft and supple world of apparel, the largest category in the promotional products industry. We feature a 3 way PK chef discussion between Marshall Atkinson, Jay Busselle and Mark Graham. Jay Busselle lends his experience as the Director of Marketing at Equipment Zone, while Marshall draws on his background as the President of Atkinson Consulting and the Founder of Shirt Lab. In both capacities, Marshall offers coaching, education and training for those looking to up their apparel decorating game.
In this week's Deep Dive, PK Chef Kate Plummer chats with Rich Patterson from Patterson Brands about doing self-promo right, and leading change by being innovative.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
In this week's Deep Dive, PK Chef Kate Plummer chats with Roger Burnett from Social Good Promotions about becoming a teacher as part of your sales approach and why strategy sells.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern
On May 10, 2019, the US government announced a sweeping tariff increase from 10% to 25% which impacts the costs of several promotional products categories. As this news is fresh, we wanted to explore the impact on promotional products suppliers and distributors. In this episode, PK Chef Mark Graham speaks to Larry Cohen, President of distributor Axis Promotions and Josh Goodelman, President of supplier Liquimark to weigh in on the good, bad and the ugly around this announcement.
It's Promotional Products Work! Week - and we'd like to thank our sponsors PPAI and SanMar for supporting this podcast!
n this week's Deep Dive, PK Chef Kate Plummer chats with Beccah Stains from Geiger about solution selling, how free doesn't equal cheap and why we all need to factor sustainability into our sales pitch.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
In this week's Deep Dive, Kate Plummer and Bill Petrie sit down to have a chef-to-chef conversation about experiential marketing and the benefits of Recall ROI.
Join us every Wednesday on Twitter for another #Promochat. Jump in at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
In this episode, Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) and Mark Graham (commonsku) sit down with industry newbie Laura Gibson with Brand Fuel and industry veteran Lisa Pine with Axis Promotions. At the time of this recording, Laura celebrated her 4 week anniversary in the industry while Lisa has led a distinguished 30-year career. We wanted to see where their experiences were similar and where they differed in this wide-ranging conversation.
This week, PK Chef Kate Plummer sat down with Scott A. Nussinow to talk about not one but two amazing answers to our #Promochat questions. Strap in for some knowledge, because this is one heck of a ride.
Thanks to our friends at Maple Ridge Farms for supporting our Deep Dive video interviews!
Tune in every Wednesday at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific over on Twitter for another round of #promochat
On this week's Deep Dive, Chef Kate Plummer of Clearmount, talks to Meagan Upole from Catalyst Promotions and Thread Mail Designs about innovation and bringing the personal to the digital.
You can join us on Twitter for a brand new #promochat every Wednesday at 12:00 Pacific, 3PM Eastern.
On this week's #promochat Deep Dive, PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount sits down with Sam Stevens from World Emblem to talk about the best ways to communicate with your entire team when you start a new project.
Thanks to our friends at Maple Ridge Farms for supporting our Deep Dive video interviews!
Tune in every Wednesday at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific over on Twitter for another round of #promochat
PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks with veteran Promochatter Charity Gibson about collaborating with your competitors while they reminisce about 100 #promochats.
Catch #promochat every Wednesday at noon Pacific (3PM eastern) over on Twitter.
In this episode, Jay Busselle (Equipment Zone) and Mark Graham (commonsku) sit down with Mark Stephenson, Marketing Director for ColDesi and one of the co-hosts of the popular podcast Custom Apparel Startups.
In this episode, Jay and Mark explore why a distributor might bring decoration in-house, and what pitfalls to avoid when going down this path. We also discuss the concept of a “Maker vs a Marketer” which broadly describes the difference between the sales and marketing culture of the promotional products industry vs the manufacturing and production mindset of the apparel decorating industry. How those cultures and mindsets come together is the focus of this podcast.
Thanks to our sponsors PPAI and SanMar for supporting this podcast!
On this week's #promochat Deep Dive, PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks to Jessica Gibbons-Rauch about achieving milestones using SMART goals.
PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks about mission drift with Anna Henley in this week's #Promochat Deep Dive.
Tune in every Wednesday at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific over on Twitter for another round of #promochat.
In this episode, Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) and Mark Graham (commonsku) sit down with industry newbie Krista Franchuk with The Promo Addict and industry veteran Perry Wehrle with Image Source.
Krista has been in the promotional products industry for less than 1 month while Perry has been developing his craft for 4 decades. We wanted to see where their experiences were similar and where they differed in this wide-ranging conversation.
Thanks to our sponsors PPAI and SanMar for supporting this podcast!
Chefs Kate Plummer and Bill Petrie sit down with Darel Cook, Director of Expositions and Meetings from PPAI about the work that went into Expo 2019. They cover all the technology that went into making this Expo successful and why there was puppies and chocolate covered bacon on the show floor.
PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks to Erich Campbell from BriTon Leap about turning failure into success and working smarter!
Tune in every Wednesday at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific over on Twitter for another round of #promochat.
Patrick Kennedy from The ASI Show talks with PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount about using promo to change the perception of promo. Join us every Wednesday at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern for another round of #promochat on Twitter.
PK Chefs Kelsey (from Warwick Publishing) and Josh (from SanMar) are coming at you for the SECOND #Promochat Deep Dive of the week. We had so many great answers to last week's topic that we decided to do two videos. Enjoy this extra content and be sure to check us out #Promochat every Wednesday on Twitter.
Cari and Katie from alphabroder talk to PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount about managing two large corporations' social accounts. Don't forget to jump in with us for another #promochat, every Wednesday on Twitter at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific.
David Glenn, president of CoasterStone, talks to PK Chef Kate Plummer from Clearmount about cleaning up dirty POs and tackling time sucks. Don't forget to jump in with us for another #promochat, every Wednesday on Twitter at 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific.
In this episode, Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) and Mark Graham (commonsku) sit down with Alan Pedrosa, First Shift Supervisor at Spector & Company, to discuss the realities of working on the production floor of a fast growth supplier. Jo and Mark cover everything from what really happens when an order messes up (not often!) to the camaraderie between colleagues in an operations environment. It's a fascinating look behind the curtain.
Thanks to our sponsors PPAI and SanMar for supporting this podcast!
This week, Kate Plummer from Clearmount takes a #Promochat Deep Dive with Danny Rosin, co-owner of Brand Fuel and our very own Promokitchen Chef to talk about sales tactics and practicing what you preach. Join us for #promochat on Twitter each Wednesday at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern.
In this new series, Stories from the Floor, we go behind the scenes. In this episode, Mark Graham (commonsku) and Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) sit down with Chris Garcia and Josh Wees at SnugZ USA. Chris has worked in the laser printing area of the production floor for 2 years while Josh has been in the label cutting department for 5 years. We learn about their ups and downs on the job, their favorite products and what can completely throw off their days. We hope you enjoy!
Thanks to our sponsors PPAI and SanMar for supporting this podcast!
This week, Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks with Rich Patterson from Patterson Brands about how how he prepares for networking events.
Join us for #promochat on Twitter each Wednesday at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern.
This week, Kate Plummer from Clearmount talks with Patrick Black from Perfect Imprints about how he's promoting North American suppliers and his sales pitch for buying domestic. Join us for #promochat on Twitter each Wednesday at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern.
This week, Kate takes a LIVE #Promochat Deep Dive with Edward from Redwood Classics, to chat about sustainability, and how we can leave the world and planet a better place as promo professionals, and educate our customers on sustainable practices and options. Redwood invests in quality -- not "fast fashion" or "fast promo"-- but rather, durable apparel products that last. Join us for #promochat on Twitter each Wednesday at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern.
For this week's Deep Dive, Kate talks to Javier from All Star Incentive Marketing about his rockstar mobile app setup and how he keeps up with everything when he's on the road.
Join us every Wednesday at Noon pacific for another #Promochat over on Twitter!
In this new series, Stories from the Floor, we go behind the scenes. In this episode, Mark Graham (commonsku) and Johanna Gottlieb (Axis Promotions) sit down with Eliseo Cervantes and Stephanie Esse from Chameleon Like.
Stephanie is a Pre-Production Manager and Eliseo is the Production Manager with extensive production experience such as Paper Cutting, Machine operator, Die-cutting Press Operator, Offset Press Operator, Warehouse Supervisor.
We learn a bit about how they make the wheel turn and how tiny (and grand) production miracles happen every day.
This podcast brought to you by PPAI and SanMar.
Managing mental health in the workplace is more important than ever before. Fortunately, the stigma around mental health is starting to dissipate as society accepts that mental health is no different than one's physical health. In this episode, Mark Graham and Robert Fiveash sit down with Shaun Lichtenberger, President of Brand Blvd, to discuss their forward thinking approach to mental health in the workplace. It's a progressive and inspiring conversation and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
On Sept 14, Hub Promotional Group rocked the industry by announcing that they had acquired Origaudio and that Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak were joining the Hub management team.
To some, it felt like Origaudio would never sell, to others they felt that Jason and Mike might not fit in at a more traditional, larger supplier. So in true PromoKitchen fashion, we wanted to get to the bottom of it to find out why and how this deal went down.
There were so many great answers, we had to do a bonus deeper dive as Jay Busselle talks with Johanna Gottlieb of Axis Promotions about prospecting and cold calling.
On this week's #Promochat Deep Dive, Jim Jay Busselle talks with Reagan K Hartman about how miscommunications can cause roadblocks in our productivity.
This week's #TeaserTuesday deep dive, Danny Rosin of BrandFuel talked to Kate from Clearmount about hiring horror stories. Be warned, their stories get a wee bit PG-13.
Each Wednesday at 3:00 PM EST, PromoKitchen hosts a new #promochat on Twitter. All industry professionals are invited to participate. Each week brings a new topic that is relevant to improving the promotional products industry.
For this week's Teaser Tuesday, Kate Plummer of Clearmount talks with Marshall Atkinson of Atkinson Consulting as a more in-depth follow-up to one of Marshall's answers about the #promochat topic "Finding Purpose."
Listen to our #promochat follow-up from 8/8/18 as Charity Gibson talks with Bill Petrie about mentorship.
On this episode, Mark Graham (co-founder commonsku) down with Paul Bellantone (CEO, PPAI and Dale Denham (Chairman of the Board, PPAI) for a discussion about how PPAI advocates for our industry and promotes an environment of success for its members.
The impetus for this conversation was a Planet Money podcast\called Rigging the Economy. The episode looked at how some industries use regulation as a way to restrict new entrants in an effort to protect current members. The podcast looks specifically at the dental industry in North Carolina and how they tried to restrict teeth whitening clinics from operating without a dental license. So, in other words, if you were offering teeth whitening services in your local mall and were not a licensed dentist, the licensing board saw this as a crime.
Here’s an excerpt from the episode that frames things nicely and also creates a few parallels with the promotional products industry:
Teeth whitening is a fairly simple process. It doesn't require a lot of years of school. And people in North Carolina had started opening up these little teeth-whitening kiosks in malls and salons. They charge less than a licensed dentist and...
Dentists didn't like that competition. And so the licensing board for dentistry in North Carolina issued cease-and-desist orders to teeth-whitening clinics telling them to stop the unauthorized practice of dentistry.
We encourage you to listen to the entire episode to find out what happens, but for now this got us thinking about how our industry deals with new entrants. Some suppliers and distributors in our industry worry about lax qualifications to join our industry as this increases competition and potentially confuses end customers.
Are we like the dentists? Let’s find out.
On today’s episode Mark Graham (commonsku) and Danny Rosin (Brand Fuel) welcome Luke Freeman to the podcast. Luke is the President of Fort Lauderdale based distributor Wizard Creations. Luke played an instrumental role in rallying his community in the aftermath of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Luke brought his community together to raise funds for the victims of the tragedy as well as to raise awareness on how to make schools safer everywhere. The promotional products industry plays a role in national crises, often in supplying products to help those impacted by the tragedy. In other cases, we see products emerge in response to crises as is the case with the clear backpacks that were distributed to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting.
We wanted to discuss what it means for us in the industry when it comes to products that are deemed controversial. How do we handle discussions when clients ask for these products? What do we do if we as distributors have a moral objection to the product or the client’s industry? We wanted to delve into these questions on the podcast today as our industry is very diverse in terms of the products we produce and the people that purchase them.
In this episode of the PromoKitchen podcast, Mark Graham sits down with Gene Geiger, CEO of Geiger. Gene was last on the program in January 2015 and since then he’s been busy making headlines by expanding Geiger’s presence beyond the US. Specifically, just this past week Gene announced that Geiger was merging with the UK’s largest family owned distributor, BTC Group.
During their conversation, Mark and Gene unpack what this merger means for Geiger and the industry overall. We have seen a few global merger and acquisition announcements in the last few years and we are only seeing the beginning of an interesting trend as companies in the promotional products industry ready themselves for the demands of a global customer base. Mark also speaks with Gene about the process he follows for making acquisitions work, given the challenges of integrating different company cultures and systems.
Hello everyone, welcome to the PromoKitchen podcast. We are a community inspired conversation featuring boundary pushers, rabble rousers, freaks and geeks who are shaking up the $21 BN promotional products industry. My name is Mark Graham co-founder of commonsku and today I get the opportunity to speak with one of our industry’s foremost online community builders, Mike Schenker. In his day job, Mike is the Executive Director of the Gold Coast Promotional Products Association, but his side hustle is guiding the ebb and flow of the Facebook Promotional Products Professionals group, a role that he proudly shares with Lisa Bibb At 6134 members, the Promotional Products Professionals Group is the largest industry group on Facebook. It was founded in 2008 by Lisa Bibb as a way to bring industry people on Facebook together. The group is well known within industry circles as a place where people can get ideas for projects they are working on, source hard to find products and discuss the latest trends. And yes, it’s also a place where some people come to vent and complain. More on that later. Our episode today will explore the good, bad and ugly sides of building an industry group online and how one manages all of the different stakeholders, each of whom brings their differing opinions to the table. There is never a dull day here folks, and I am excited to welcome Mike to get into the details with us today. Mike, it’s great to have you here with us....
In this special episode, we take a close look at some major industry news just released moments ago, the coming together of alphabroder and Prime Line.
Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku, speaks with Jonathan Isaacson, CEO of Gemline, about an exciting brand partnership that Gemline just struck with RuMe Brandsuite.
A conversation with Alan Tabasky, Vice President of BEL USA to the podcast. BEL USA is the parent company of BEL Promo, Discountmugs.com, and Branders.com. BEL USA has grown tremendously over the past 5 years and currently has almost 900 domestic employees as well as an overseas office and division. BEL Promo is an industry leader in the Promotional Products Industry in both price and production capabilities. Discountmugs.com is an industry leader in the direct to consumer promotional market, producing over 1,500 custom decorated orders each day for both individual consumers and corporate clients.
Joining us in the guest chair today is Marc Harris, Managing Director of TradeMarc Consulting International. Marc provides senior level executive consulting services for consumer product industry clients with an emphasis on strategic marketing procurement, supply chain management and sourcing of marketing services, including promotional products.
Hear how PPAI CEO, Paul Bellantone, has responded to the Las Vegas shooting at Mandalay Bay to ensure the safety at PPAI Expo 2018.
Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku, talks with Ted Church and Anna Sork of Anthem Branding to the podcast today. Anthem is a fiercely unique promotional agency based in Boulder, Colorado.
PromoKitchen Jason Lucash and Mark Graham are at it again with the 4th installment of the Rebel Edition of the PK Podcast. Rebels on this podcast are Sam Kabert and Harry Ein.
Shout out to SanMar for their very generous financial support of the PromoKitchen podcast.
Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku, talks with Andy Thorne from Outstanding Branding on the PromoKitchen podcast.
Andy is one of the industry’s most outrageously, loveable characters. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, he makes friends easily and, in his words, he’s pretty good at getting people to “say yes to him.”
Andy, along with his business partner Sarah Penn, launched Outstanding Branding 8 years ago in their native London, England. Since then, they have grown into a multi-million dollar distributorship by focusing on design, building a quirky company culture and obsessively caring for their global clientele.
In our episode today, we talk about how the UK promotional products market compares to the North American market, why Andy isn’t scared of Amazon, how to build a global distributor office and why the future of our industry rests in selling creative marketing solutions vs logoed tchotchkes.
A HUGE thank you goes out to SanMar for their generous financial support of this PromoKitchen Podcast.
Welcome to the PromoKitchen podcast. Chefs Bill Petrie and Kirby Hasseman.
PPAI has a long history of executing education and networking events to foster growth within the promotional products industry. Recently, PPAI held an event in Denver targeted at young promo professionals called SPARK. This event was created by – and targeted to – millennials who comprise the largest portion of the workforce in the United States. Led by Seth Barnett, PPAI’s Diversity Development and Engagement Manager, SPARK is designed to give millennials an opportunity to become engaged, educated, and connected with topics that are specific to the beginning stages of starting a successful career in the promotional products industry.
On a recent unScripted podcast, Kirby and Bill discussed SPARK and, while applauding the overall initiative and success of the event, they expressed some concern about the optics coming out of SPARK and how it might be viewed from an outsider’s perspective. Specifically, the lack of the young professional’s story during and immediately following the event. We know there is a story – and important story – to tell and PromoKitchen asked two attendees of the event to share the SPARK story, their way.
First, we have John Cudahy who is the Senior National Account Manager at Prime Resources. John has over 15 years of industry experience and is the current President of SAAGNY. John also participated on the SPARK workgroup which helped shape the overall event. We also have Kelsey Cunningham who is the Regional Sales Manager for Imagen Brands (Crown and Vitronic). She grew up in the industry as her family’s distributorship before moving to the supplier side 10 years ago.
Join Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku and fellow PK chef and long time collaborator, Danny Rosin, co-President of Brand Fuel.
In today’s episode, we take a hard look at one of the most prominent yet controversial tools used to source promotional products today: the RFP (commonly known as the Request for Proposal).
Like them or hate them, RFPs now define how many end clients source promotional products. At their best, RFPs create a level playing field where the best distributor wins the business. At their worst, they serve as a way for end clients to slice distributor margins to the bone. In my nearly 20 years in the industry, I have not run into a distributor that doesn’t have a strong opinion about the RFP, one way or the other.
As RFPs create so much confusion for distributors, we wanted to dedicate this episode to uncovering why RFPs exist and how to manage them effectively. To help us with this, we wanted to talk to someone who has written countless RFPs and counseled end clients on how to negotiate with their vendors.
Please let us introduce Tom Beaty.
Tom is the founder and CEO of Insight Sourcing Group and SpendHQ. His company works across all industries to provide targeted cost optimization and procurement-related services. Their end deliverables are measurable cost reduction and performance improvement. Tom previously worked for Deloitte Consulting and Procurian (now owned by Accenture). His client roster includes Univision, Johnson Controls, LuLuLemon, LPL Financial to name a few.
Needless to say, Tom brings a fabulous perspective for those of us looking to understand how buyers think.
To provide some industry context, Steve Pons, National Sales Director at Staples Canada, joins us to talk about how he approaches RFPs from the distributor perspective. Steve is a long time friend of Mark's and a past contributor to the PromoKitchen blog.
You are all in for quite a treat today!
Not sure there are words that could adequately intro what you are about to hear. PromoKitchen Chefs Jason Lucash and Mark Graham roundtable with industry troublemakers Renya Nelson, Chris Ferriter, and Stephen McFadden for this mind-blowing third episode in the Rebel Edition of the PK Podcast.
Listen. Learn. Engage.
Also, a heartfelt thank you to SanMar for their generous financial support of this PromoKitchen Podcast.
Mark Graham and Danny Rosin co-host this very special episode.
When we started PromoKitchen in 2011, our mandate was to create an open dialog about the white elephants in our industry. Over the past 100+ episodes of this podcast, we have looked at everything from the incursions of Alibaba and Amazon to supply chain disruption to the changing behaviors of end clients. We pride ourselves on addressing topics that bring people together on challenging issues.
We continue this theme in today’s episode as we discuss one of the darker sides of the human condition: drug and alcohol abuse, and the ways it can wreak havoc on individual lives and as well as those lives around us. In particular, we are going to focus on issues facing the promotional products industry.
We are incredibly honored to welcome Amanda Delaney to the PromoKitchen podcast today. Some listeners may be familiar with Amanda as she worked in the industry as a supplier rep for 15 years. In 2016, she left the industry and checked into rehab after coming to terms with her addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Amanda has been very open about her story and her path to sobriety on her blog www.askmylittlemonster.com. After reading her blog and realizing this was a very personal and sensitive topic, Danny and Mark approached her to see if she was comfortable sharing her story with the PK community. Amanda responded with great interest. Our goal is to shine a light on this difficult, yet important subject matter so we can create greater awareness about drug and alcohol abuse in our industry – and perhaps, help people who are currently struggling with the challenge of addiction.
We included Jason's Isbell's song Traveling Alone as part of our intro and outro music. Isbell has been quite open about his struggles with addiction and we felt this was the right way to complement this episode.
In this episode, Mark Graham of commonsku is joined by fellow chefs Dale Denham of Geiger and Bill Petrie of PromoCorner.
For those of who are tuned into industry social media, you have likely seen your feeds dominated by LEAD, PPAI’s Legislative Education and Action Day. Dale and Bill were among the dedicated group of volunteers that took to Capitol Hill to speak to members of Congress about our industry.
We were curious about LEAD and, given that Bill and Dale are prominent chefs, felt there was an opportunity to sit down with them to try and understand more about this initiative, why it matters, what success has come from LEAD and how more people can get involved.
Please be sure to thank our friends and supporters at SanMar for helping us bring you this episode.
In today’s podcast we delve into the world of product safety, why it matters and how we can get people to truly care about it. I must admit that when I first spoke to Tim about doing a product safety podcast, I was concerned about it coming across as dry and boring. After all, everyone knows that product safety is important, but many distributors in our industry often think of the landing the business first vs thinking of the mechanics of the product. After all, isn’t that the supplier’s job?
However, I felt that if anyone could shine a bright light on product safety, and make it interesting and relevant to the average distributor, it was Tim Brown.
Tim Brown is the Executive Director of Operations, at the Quality Certification Alliance (commonly known as QCA). In this role, Tim is responsible for the overall direction and operational oversight of QCA. He is focused on increasing QCA’s visibility both within the supplier/distributor community as well as more broadly outside the industry to ensure QCA remains a responsive organization in terms of educating its participants on issues related to responsible sourcing.
We are also joined by Cliff Quicksell. Cliff has been involved in the promotional products and sportswear industries for the past 33 years. During this tenure, he has been a mainstay on the education circuit at PPAI, ASI and several regional associations. Cliff’s perspective on product safety comes from his supplier and distributor backgrounds, not to mention his many years observing industry trends.
A hearty thank you to our friends at SanMar for their generous support of this episode. Find them on the web at www.sanmar.com
Join PromoKitchen Chefs Mark Graham of commonsku and Charity Gibson of Green Banana Social as they speak with Jake Director, co-founder of Strideline.
At the young age of 17, Director and business partner Riley Goodman started Strideline as a way to sell custom socks to fellow lacrosse players and ended up finding huge success in the retail space. Just a few years later they have made a flying leap into the promotional products space and are absolutely crushing it.
Listen in to find out how Strideline has handled the transition from retail to promo, how they view the promotional products industry, and where branded socks are headed.
Mark Graham of commonsku and Larry Cohen of Axis Promotions talk with Seth Mattison.
Seth is an internationally renowned expert on workforce trends and generational dynamics. As Founder and Chief Movement Officer of FutureSight Labs, Seth advises many of the world’s leading brands and organizations on the key shifts happening around talent management, change and innovation, leadership, and the future of work.
Over the past 10 years Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders and has received accolades from many of the world’s best brands including: MasterCard, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, and Disney to name a few.
Seth’s experiences are highly applicable to the topsy turvy world of promotional products so we are honored to have him here with us today.
Today PromoKitchen Chefs Mark Graham of commonsku and Larry Cohen of Axis Promotions welcome Lou Diamond to the podcast.
Lou can be described as a Coach, Consultant, Master Connector, Best-Selling Author, Speaker & Motivator.
In these capacities, Lou is the Founder & CEO of Thrive, a leading consulting and coaching company focused on making the most incredible leaders and their companies even more amazing. He has led teams at Accenture, Deloitte, Omnicom, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America.
If that weren’t enough, Lou is certified as a Co-Active Coach by the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), a Cornell University graduate, a passionate sports fan, avid golfer, loving husband and extremely proud parent.
Chefs Marshall Atkinson and Mark Graham recently did a megacast with the guys over at 2 Regular Guys. The 2 Regular Guys, Terry Combs and Aaron Montgomery, have a podcast that focuses on the decorating industry. During this podcast they talk about what keeps people up at night in the promotional product industry, and more so the why, how and what of podcasting. What does it do for your business, how do you get started and what it takes to get it out to the world.
Welcome to the PromoKitchen Podcast. I am Bill Petrie, founder/CEO of brandivate and PromoKitchen chef.
Many in the promotional products industry not only worry about working with the “younger generation,” – also known as Millennials – but have cast a very negative light on the entire group. As readers of my blog likely know, I have been a very strong advocate of Millennials and the overall need to have their voice heard in industry conversations.
However, in October 2016, I wrote a blog titled “Hey Millennials…enough!” where I took the generation to task for casting older generations for being comfortable with the status quo, backward-thinking, and having the inability to adapt. I went on to write that “being part of the Millennial generation doesn’t automatically make you a disruptor, more adaptive, or quicker to embrace technology any more than being part of Generation X unquestionably makes me resistant to changing the status quo.”
This leads me to our guest today, Seth Barnett.
Seth Barnett is the Diversity Development Manager for Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). As an advocate for the industry's marketplace success, he develops new ways for business to meet the growing demand of a diverse workforce and a changing consumer market. Barnett spent his first three years in the industry as the association’s Government Relations Manager where he coordinated legislative and regulatory obligations for the industry.
When it comes to advocating on behalf of Millennials, Seth is a key player. Seth wrote a very thorough and thoughtful response to my blog post titled, “Hey Other Generations…ENOUGH!” In that response, Seth expressed his concerns that the industry not be so quick to dismiss Millennials and, rather, should seek to embrace them and their ideas.
In Seth’s words, “I believe that we are in a great place to have these sometimes difficult generational conversations. However, we are not the only ones. What we need to be mindful of is that we as an industry are unique. From the way we go to market to our very specific supply chain, we must adapt according to our methods. I want to ensure that we are having the right conversations for our industry and our changing times.”
Seth is a featured speaker at many industry events, a champion of Millennials in the promotional products industry, and all around good guy.
Seth, welcome to the PromoKitchen podcast.
Mark Graham and Danny Rosin are here with a brand new PK Podcast for you!
Some of you may be familiar with the popular Kickstarter campaign for a cooler known as the “Coolest.” It became the biggest project in Kickstarter history by raising over $13MM. As coolers are a big item in the promotional products industry, a number of us paid close attention to how this product would roll out after its incredible fundraising success.
Sadly, they ran into major production and distribution problems that have dogged them to this day. Danny was a backer and shared the updates from the company founder with me over the past 2 years. These became the inspiration for this episode.
The challenges faced by the Coolest highlight the divide between “coming up with a cool idea” and “manufacturing that idea and getting it into customers’ hands.”
We wanted to explore this disconnect by speaking with an industry veteran that knows a thing or two about product design, sourcing and manufacturing: Dan Edge at Peerless Umbrella.
While this episode is not about the Coolest per se, we wanted to use it as an example to get us started about how to bring products to market in our industry.
Some background on Dan …
Dan has been working in the promotional products industry since 1997 and has spent all of those 19 years with Peerless.
He is their National Sales Manager and is also responsible for product development and marketing for the company. In 2016, Dan was named “Best Boss” by PPB Magazine.
He has served on multiple PPAI committees and is active on many social media and industry groups.
Dan resides with his wife and 2 kids in New Jersey.
Join Mark Graham and Jason Lucash in a conversation of epic proportions. This podcast features upcoming PPAI Expo Keynote speaker Johnny Earle a.k.a Johnny Cupcakes, maverick t-shirt entrepreneur. He has created a global phenom of his brand and in the next 50 minutes you'll get a taste of what it takes to do this same thing for your own brand.
Want to learn how to create a frenzy for your product? Limited number of tickets are available for a special session with Johnny Cupcakes after his Expo keynote. Visit www.promokitchen.org/cupcakes for info.
Hang with Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku and Danny Rosin, President of Brand Fuel.
Today’s guest caught our attention when we came across an Inc Magazine article titled “This $22 Billion Industry Is Dying. Meet the Startup Reviving It.” The article was about a feisty and innovative player called Alyce, an AI powered corporate gifting platform. The article exposed some of the deepest insecurities we have about the promotional products industry: poor quality products, gifts that don’t resonate with their recipients and the difficulty in tracking ROI. Alyce set out to address all of these problems with their beautifully designed and tech forward platform.
So, in PromoKitchen fashion, we reached out to the source and asked to dig in a little deeper. And today, we are excited to welcome Greg Segall, founder and CEO of Alyce to the podcast. Our goal is to understand the role that Alyce plays in our industry and to see what the future holds according to Greg.
Before we get started, here’s some background on Greg and Alyce.
Founded in December 2015, Alyce tells a corporate gifter exactly what to send and the most impactful times to send. According to the company, U.S. corporations spend $120B on corporate gifting and incentives each year and 90% of it is untracked in CRMs, unmeasured for ROI, and/or irrelevant to the recipient. By gifting smarter, Alyce strategically builds stronger connections, decreases churn, retains employees and closes prospects faster.
It’s a compelling value proposition and one that appeals to modern day marketers looking for something a little different than what our industry traditionally offers.
Hello everyone, welcome to the PromoKitchen podcast. We are a community inspired conversation featuring guest suppliers, distributors and service providers discussing insights into the 20 billion dollar promotional products business.
Join Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku as he welcomes to the podcast Rich Patterson, owner of Patterson Brands in beautiful Vancouver, BC.
This episode looks at the perception of our industry as a place to start one’s career. Specifically, we’ll look at how high school students perceive us and how they compare us to other lines of work.
Mark became interested in having Rich on the program after reading Rich's blog post where he shares the story of him talking about the promotional products industry at a high school career fair. What made this experience unique is that Rich was speaking alongside technology giants who arguably had the upper hand from a brand perspective. This discussion gets at the core of how perspective employees/entrepreneurs see our industry, how we can compete for talent and when is actually the right time to enter this industry in the first place.
Born and raised in a small town in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, Rich grew up camping, hiking and skiing. Rich graduated from Simon Fraser University in 1992 with his Bachelor of Arts in Communications. He has worked in government and the private sector in senior PR & marketing roles — most notably as the marketing manager for Roots.
Since 2005, Rich has owned and operated Patterson Brands, one of Vancouver’s top corporate gifts, swag and licensed merchandise distributors.
Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku, joined by blogger, consultant and all around promotional products nice guy, Bill Petrie, President of brandivate.
Many people in our industry worry and complain about the younger generation, most commonly known as millennials or Gen Y. Whether their concerns are based on reality or fiction, suffice it to say that much ink has been spilled on why our industry needs to sit up and pay attention to younger buyers and employees.
While today’s podcast will add to the Gen Y conversation, we are more interested in exploring the group that is coming up behind them, Gen Z.
Loosely defined as those born between 1995-2012, Gen Z is cast in a slightly more positive light than their Gen Y brethren. They are described as “conscientious, hard-working, somewhat anxious and mindful of the future.” Like Gen Y, they are technology natives and have very high expectations of employers and the brands they support. Gen Z will also have an important impact on the promotional products industry very soon.
This leads me to our guest today, Daniel Bielak.
Mark Graham met Daniel at the Archangel conference in Toronto which attracted incredible speakers such Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Robin Sharma. At 17 years of age, Daniel stood out as a curious and conscientious young attendee and Mark knew that he would provide a fascinating perspective to the Gen Z conversation.
Ever since Daniel was a kid he’s always wanted to help people be successful, especially young people.
Daniel is the founder and host of the Youth Empowerment Podcast. On the podcast he has interviewed some of the world’s greatest influencers, leaders and inspirational people.
Daniel also tells us that he has eye on the Prime Minister of Canada’s job in 2035. He is someone with no shortage of ambition.
Please welcome to the PromoKitchen Podcast, Bielak.
This podcast. There aren't words.
It's the PromoKitchen Podcast Rebel Edition, episode no. 2. Listen in as industry ruckus rousers and misfit box of toys, Jason Lucash of OrigAudio, Kevin Mullaney of Brandito, Mark Graham of commonsku, Roger Wasson of Elite Promotions, and Bill Petrie of Brandivate, talk shop. If Jason's intro doesn't say something about what this 44 minutes will hold, nothing will. Welcome to PromoKitchen Podcast #107 - order up!
Several months ago Mark Graham and fellow chef Jason Lucash were talking about a fun theme for an episode or two. The idea was to explore what it means to be a rebel.
For anyone who knows Jason Lucash, they won’t be surprised that the idea of rebellion is something that comes pretty naturally. When asked who should be the first guest on this so-called rebel show, he said: “That’s easy: Johanna Gottlieb.”
So, let’s turn attention towards Johanna ...
Johanna is a Senior Branding Specialist at Axis Promotions. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Johanna holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communications from the New York Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree from Iona College. Johanna worked at the Axis New York City office for almost 7 years before packing up her promotional bag of tricks in 2012 and moving to Chicago.
In Chicago, she lives with her husband (who she met at Axis) and her daughter, Olivia Bella. Johanna loves running, being a mom and making a ruckus in the promotional products industry. Her mom was born in Cuba, so she knows a thing or two about cooking. Her father was born in Argentina and, together, they can dance a mean tango.
Join Mark Graham and Danny Rosin as they speak with a promotional products alumnus and to understand what the world looks like when you move from distributor to end user.
Our guest today is no stranger to many listeners: Rebecca Kohlmann. Rebecca got her start in the promotional products industry as the Marketing Manager for 4imprint in 1996. In 2004, she moved over to head up Business Development for AIA, a role excelled at for 11 years before moving away from the industry to join Fox World Travel as their Director of Marketing.
Fox World Travel provides travel management, meeting and incentive services and vacation travel to a range of clientele across the US. They are also an end user like the millions of other end users that distributors call upon every day. Part of what we’ll explore with Rebecca today is how our industry looks now that she’s on the other side of the fence as a buyer. I hope everyone is taking notes!
Join Mark Graham and fellow chef Marshall Atkinson as they leap head first into the world of embroidery and digitizing. It’s a fascinating world populated by colorful characters and professionals who make it their duty to create the guts of an embroidery design.
For some, digitizing is a mere setup charge that represents a cost to be minimized when building a promotional products campaign. For others, it’s one of the most important elements of the entire order. Digitize poorly and you end up costing yourself extra time and money on the shop floor, not to mention compromising logo quality over countless promotional items.
Our guest today is Erich Campbell, the head digitizer at Black Duck Embroidery in Albuquerque New Mexico, where he creates some of the industry’s most beautiful and complex digitized files.
In addition to Erich’s time at Black Duck, he’s a prolific writer and presenter within the digitizing and embroidery fields having written for Printwear Magzine, Wearables Magazine and the well regarded MrXStitch.com web site.
His popular column is called ‘Ghost in the (Embroidery) Machine‘ where he exposes a more varied readership of artists, crafters, craftivists, fiber-workers and lovers of all stripes to the inner workings of machine embroidery and digitizing.
Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a heck of ride!
Joining us today in the guest chair is Jessica Hiner, VP of Key Accounts at The Magnet Group.
Jessica got her start in the industry in 2003 when she worked as an Account Executive at the distributor Promotion Concepts. It was during this time that she had the chance to work with the great Paul Kiewiet, where she learned how to sell promotional products in the most creative and strategic way possible.
In 2007, she moved over to the supplier side when she joined the Magnet Group. Since then it’s been a swift rise throughout the organization as she has moved from a regional sales rep to VP of Key Accounts in a few short years. Bill Korowitz, Magnet’s CEO, counts Jessica has one the organization’s key lieutenants.
Armed with such experience, I’m looking forward to exploring the world of promotional products with Jessica and getting her take on the shifting sands that we see in our industry today.
Today’s PromoKitchen podcast is brought to you by Get In Touch! — PPAI’s industry branding campaign. This month Get In Touch! is live and on stage at Advertising Week with Seth Godin, Tuesday, September 27 at 11am at B.B. King’s in New York.
Want to see Seth Godin live? Experience Advertising Week? PPAI has complimentary tickets for you. Visit www.promokitchen.org and click on this podcast for links.
We are conducting a grand experiment today. We recently recorded episode 100, and to honor this we wanted to get as many chefs on a podcast as possible. On today’s podcast - PromoKitchen Podcast #102 - we welcome PromoKitchen chefs Charity Gibson, Aubrey Collins, Danny Rosin, Kirby Hasseman, Marshall Atkinson, Robert Fiveash, Larry Cohen, Patrick Black, Tee Hamilton, Bill Petrie, Dale Denham, Jess Hutwelker, Nate Bailey and Roger Burnett.
We wanted to hear from them about what they’ve learned from the podcast, what’s surprised them and even what’s irked them. We’re already thinking about the next 100 episodes and in order to move forward, it’s worthwhile to look back.
Joining Mark Graham for an interview with David Nicholson, President of Polyconcept North America. PCNA is one of the industry’s largest and most influential suppliers. Under David’s leadership, Polyconcept has grown into a $ ½ billion organization. It’s been a staggering run.
On July 18, the industry learned that Polyconcept was acquired by Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on middle market companies. This acquisition marked the end of a successful 11-year partnership with Investcorp. The 2005 acquisition, which consisted of PF Concept in Europe and Leed's in the United States, marked the formation of Polyconcept.
In our episode, we will talk to David about the reasons for the acquisition, what it means for Polyconcept and the industry as a whole.
Long time listeners might recall the last time when Bruce was on the podcast. It was October 2012 and we spoke at length about Bruce’s endless curiosities and passions. I maintain to this day that Bruce is the only person in this industry who gets younger which each year he gets older.
Bruce is the owner of Embroidery Unlimited and current member of the PPAI board. He lives in Tempe, Arizona with his wife Suzanne and family. In addition to his responsibilities as a decorator and family man, Bruce invests heavily in his own professional development.
To that end, Bruce is here to tell us about his experience with Seth Godin’s altMBA program. The altMBA is an intensive, 4-week online workshop designed by Seth for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead. It’s an intense boot camp for marketers and I have heard that it’s insanely great.
Mark Graham, co-founder of commonsku and fellow chef and rabble rouser Jason Lucash, President of OrigAudio have a special episode lined up for you today as they speak with one of the emerging entrepreneurs in our industry, Adam Walterscheid.
Ask Adam how his day is going and the response you get is “It’s great, just another day in t-shirt paradise.”
The son of a cotton farmer, Adam learned early how cotton was made and distributed for wearables. Being a Division 1 Athlete taught him that it’s not just about you, it’s about the team around you. In 2003, Adam founded Pony Express, one of the first screen printers in the USA to introduce soft hand water base/discharge printing to corporate markets. In 2010, he sold Pony Express and promptly starting thinking about his next venture.
And on January 1, 2011, he established that venture when T-shirt Tycoon Solutions, Inc. was born.
T-Shirt Tycoon is an expert in apparel and apparel decoration, private labeling and merchandising a company’s brand through wearables. Since its founding, the company has experienced exponential growth and has been recognized as one of the industry’s fastest growing suppliers for the last few years. In 2015, Adam was selected as Supplier Entrepreneur of the Year by ASI.
I remember sitting in the audience at the awards show thinking to myself “this is someone to watch.”
The future is bright for T-Shirt Tycoon, with a goal of becoming a $40 million company in the next five years. Let’s find out how he’s going to get there.
On today’s show, we welcome Jon Levine, President of the distributor The Image Group based in Holland, Ohio. Jon graduated with a degree in accounting from Arizona State University in 1980 and used this experience to establish his early career in the steel industry. In 1991, he shifted his focus towards the promotional products industry when he started The Image Group.
Since the founding of the company, Jon has grown The Image Group into one of the industry’s most respected distributors.
Earlier this month, Jon made headlines with the acquisition of two ecommerce sites, Bag Warehouse and Thirsty Promo. The deal marks The Image Group’s move into the ecommerce world and helps them diversify their customer base.
Said Levine in a recent press release “Our customers are increasingly interested in researching and procuring promotional products online. We believe the shift to online purchasing reflects the growing influence that millennial-aged employees are having in company buying decisions. This acquisition helps us remain ahead of that shift.”
Over the course of this podcast, we will explore this exciting new shift to the online world and how others can learn from Jon’s experiences.
Mark Graham welcomes Chuck Fandos back to the program. Chuck was first on the podcast in May 2012 so a repeat visit has been long overdue. Chuck is the founder of Gateway CDI, a prominent distributor based in St Louis. He is also the CEO of Facilis, a leading industry software provider and technology enabled buying group.
In January 2016, it was announced that UK based distributor Brand Addition had acquired Gateway CDI. This got me thinking that there would be an opportunity to hear from Chuck as to why he sold Gateway, what process he went through to sell the company and what advice he’d offer to entrepreneurs looking to sell.
Tony Wavering is the founder of bidPress. In 2005, while studying at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Tony started a custom apparel business that sold to many student groups and businesses in Pennsylvania and New York. After graduating from Penn, Tony worked as a management consultant for Deloitte Consulting in New York City for six years, working primarily with global banking and securities companies on mergers, integrations, divestitures and performance improvement initiatives. Tony left Deloitte in late 2013 to return to the custom apparel business full-time, starting bidPress.
In today’s podcast, Mark Graham and Charity Gibson get the chance to speak with one of the smartest, if not one of the most eclectic and unassuming, characters in the promotional products industry, Jeff Batson.
Jeff is the kind of guy you should know and here’s why:
Jeff has been President of NEXT Products in Shelbyville, Indiana since 2013. On his watch NEXT was named one of ASI’s fastest growing suppliers in 2015. NEXT, with its onsite corporate parent, is a manufacturer of injection molded drinkware and promotional print products. NEXT is a pioneer with polyurethane dome decorated products and recently added full color digital technology accessories.
Among other trade roles, Jeff has been a promotional product manufacturer, decorator, and business owner since 1999. Jeff was also a U.S. Navy submarine officer for 6 years. Jeff graduated from Vanderbilt University and has a master’s degree in operations from RPI. Jeff and his wife, Anne, are recent emptynesters, but still have tuition bills, and enjoy hockey, comedy clubs, and the symphony.
In 2001, when I was relatively new to the industry, I attended an education session at the PPPC show with today’s guest, Cliff Quicksell. It was a transformative moment for me as I was challenged by Cliff to see the bigger creative picture as it pertained to promotional products sales. I will always remember that class and the several others I attended in subsequent years as key to my development as a professional in this industry.
While Cliff is certainly a household name in the industry, his bio is well worth recounting.
Cliff Quicksell, Jr., has been involved in the promotional products and sportswear industries for the past 33 years. During this tenure, he has been a mainstay on the education circuit at PPAI, ASI and several regional associations. Those who who have attended his sessions describe a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm for creative promotional products sales.
For more than 27 years, Cliff has been speaking, training and consulting internationally to associations and national business groups on more effective ways to market themselves and their products and services. Cliff has consulted for several blue chip industry companies such as: iPROMOTEu©, Fruit of the Loom, Inc., Brown & Bigelow©, AIA, Geiger© and Snugz© USA.
Cliff has been the recipient of numerous industry awards. Recognized by PPAI for creativity, he has won the prestigious PPAI Golden Pyramid award 23 times. He has received PPAI’s Ambassador Speaker of the Year Award 6 consecutive years. He has also been recognized by Counselor Magazine as one of the Top 50 Most Influential People in the Promotional Products Industry.
Cliff is also a prolific writer, having been published in every recognizable trade publication in our industry, and we are honored that he now adds PromoKitchen to that list.
Chefs Mark Graham and Danny Rosin with a special edition PK Podcast -
On Dec 8, news broke of the merger between 2 of the largest apparel suppliers in the industry: alphabroder and Bodek and Rhodes. According to ASI’s Top 40 Supplier list, the combined sales of these 2 companies is now over $1 Billion making this the first company in the promotional products industry to cross that threshold.
This is the third major addition for alphabroder in the last few years, after it added Imprints Wholesale in 2012 and Ash City Worldwide in 2014. From the looks of it, alphabroder is just getting started.
Joining us today to discuss the reasons for the merger, what’s ahead for both companies and the impact of a billion dollar supplier on the industry are Norm Hullinger, CEO of alphabroder, and Mike Rhodes, CEO of Bodek and Rhodes.
In today’s episode, we take a close look at the print industry, what makes it tick, how it’s different from the promotional products industry and where it complements the work we do every day with. We have this conversation with Marci Kinter, Vice President for Government & Business Information for the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association International, most commonly known as the SGIA. SGIA is the world’s largest trade association for the screen and digital printing industry. This includes screen printers, embroiderers, sign manufacturers … and basically anyone who prints anything using the screen and digital platforms.
Marci oversees the development of management resources for the Association and represents the screen printing and digital imaging industries before federal and state regulatory agencies.
In 2008, Marci, in conjunction with colleagues from other printing trade associations, launched the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership program. The SGP Program is a registry system for printing facilities that includes third party verification. The program successfully launched as an independent organization in August 2008. Marci holds a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University.
Today's podcast features Mark Graham and Robert Fiveash in conversation with Prime Line's CEO Jeff Lederer.
Prime Line is one of the industry’s largest and most recognized supplier brands. Jeff joined Prime in 1993 as a regional sales manager and over the years has been a key visionary in helping shape the organization in areas such as product development, new service offerings, and technology innovation.
Jeff has traveled extensively throughout the world and represents Prime as the only US member of IPPAG, the International Partnership for Promotions and Gifts. He has three children and lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife Wendy.
PromoKitchen Podcast #8 - The Future Of Technology In The Promotional Products Industry by PromoKitchen
PromoKitchen Podcast #21 - Distributor DNA - Janie Gaunce | Grapevine Designs by PromoKitchen
Join chefs Dale Denham and Danny Rosin in a conversation with guest, Catherine Graham.
Catherine is known for her passion about the modern workplace and what it takes to run a successful business in 2015. She is the President of RIGHTSLEEVE and CEO of commonsku. Prior to joining Rightsleeve, Catherine had a variety of roles including several years of financial planning at TD Bank. She pursued an MBA at the Rotman School of Management during which time she joined the fledgling eBay Canada as employee #4. After leaving eBay, Catherine worked as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney, working with Fortune 100 companies in a wide variety of areas including merger integration, marketing strategy and operational efficiencies. Catherine has been named PPB’s Best Boss and an ASI Rising Star.
Outside of work, Catherine is a mother to 3 children ranging in age from 11 to 6 years old and sits on a variety of boards and committees in the non-profit space. She is also involved in a variety of initiatives and organizations in the entrepreneurial space, including serving on Dell’s Global Entrepreneur in Residence Advisory Board and acting as a mentor for Futurepreneur.
In this podcast chefs Mark Graham and Jessica Hutwelker have the pleasure of speaking with Brittany David, currently Vice President of Sales at SnugZ USA in Salt Lake City. Brittany has just finished an exhausting campaign for the PPAI Board where she was recently elected to one of the supplier board seats. She is no stranger to the industry, having got her start right out of college when she joined SAGE in 2006. Then in 2011, she moved to the supplier side joining Snugz USA. Her rise throughout Snugz has been swift - beginning as national account manager into the national sales manager position, and finally to her current role as VP Sales.
Brittany also stands out in the promotional products industry as a millennial business executive. It’s well known that our industry is aging and there is no question that our future success depends on recruiting fresh young faces into our ranks.
Jay Deutsch, CEO and Co-Founder of BDA, Inc is our special guest on this episode of the PromoKitchen Podcast. With more than 500 employees and multiple awards and honors to his name, Jay shares some of his tips and lessons learned from his days of bootstrapping with $500 to building a multimillion dollar enterprise. Featured on ABC’s Secret Millionaire, Jay shares with us some of the backstory of that episode as well as “the rest of the story”.
Being entrepreneurial at different levels, recruiting the right people for you culture, keeping employees motivated in a very demanding business – those topics and more are discussed as Mark Graham and Danny Rosin take us behind the scenes and inside the mind of the man who leads one of the most successful and iconic businesses in our industry. (For more information on BDA’s philanthropic passion, please visit BDA Cares).
Founded in 2009, OrigAudio -the ‘origami of audio’- was named to Time Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009 and appeared on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’, gaining worldwide recognition. Co-founded with his business partner Mike Szymczak, Jason Lucash was honored as Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” for 2013. Join Jason and chefs Mark Graham and Danny Rosin as they discuss key issues and opportunities facing suppliers in the industry, including: how a small supplier can gain traction within a massive industry, using social media to change the conversation with customers, design thinking when developing products, and balancing retail and promotional markets successfully.
Welcome to the very first episode of the PromoKitchen podcast. In this episode Mark, Bobby and Jonathan discuss the newly launched PromoKitchen website, its purpose and place in the industry and how you can get involved.
The PK Podcast is a weekly conversation hosted by Mark Graham and Bobby Lehew featuring guest suppliers, distributors and service providers discussing opportunities, challenges and insights into the promotional products business. The purpose of the podcast is to to bring the conversation we are already having at shows and restaurants to a public forum where we can all listen and learn. As a continued commitment to mentor those new in the industry, the podcast will feature a broad spectrum of topics. If you wish to participate in the podcast, please fill out our form and we’ll be in touch!
On May 8th, we recorded a very special episode of the PK podcast with best selling author Daniel Pink. In this episode, we discussed Dan’s new book To Sell is Human and the relevance of his research on the promotional products industry. Other topics include the shifting paradigm for sales commission compensation, the myth that extroverts make the best salespeople, how to decommoditize our medium, the threat of internet selling, and more.
Daniel H. Pink is the author of five provocative books– including the long-running New York Times bestsellers, A Whole New Mind and Drive. His latest book, To Sell is Human, is a #1 New York Times business bestseller, a #1 Wall Street Journal business bestseller, and a #1 Washington Post nonfiction bestseller. Dan’s books have been translated into 34 languages. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and their three children.
In this episode, Bobby Lehew and Dana Zezzo meet for an early morning chat at the ASI Power Summit. (Tim Andrews even makes a cameo appearance as a photographer). A fast-paced, rich conversation on a myriad of topics, including:
The law of reciprocity and the power of giving away your secrets, Zezzo’s Three Levels of Marketing, national account advice, powerful advice for beginning suppliers, using your competition to establish benchmarks for yourself, giving back to your industry, the paradigm shift and risk of publishing thought leadership for an industry.
CJ Schmidt, Vice President of Sales at Hit Promotional Products discusses the growth and development of Hit, a long-time industry powerhouse whose technology prowess and product development has earned the admiration of the industry. Mark Graham and Danny Rosin chat with CJ about the critical issues of technology development, managing a family owned business, the sanctity and success of the traditional distributor/supplier model in our industry, and more. Join the chefs as they discuss how to abide by one of Hit’s primary principles: “live this business”.
Recorded live at the recent SAAC show in Long Beach, CA, Chris Piper, the Northwest Regional Vice President for HALO and the founder of Piper Speaks Promo joins us to discuss a myriad of topics as his experience in this industry is vast, including working on both the supplier side as well as the distributor side and within such niches as the luxury sports market. Topics include: a discussion on how to put a plan behind your promo product, how to present good ideas to your clients, becoming more consultative in your approach, and growing allegiance with other departments within your customer’s company.
(We experienced technical difficulties during the recording of this broadcast: half way through the broadcast you will hear a gap in the conversation, the recording resumes after a few seconds).
Brad White, fellow chef and Vice President of Sales Development for Boundless Network, joins us on this episode to have a quick chat about sales, sales prospecting and most importantly: where to find the time to get that critical activity of new business development done. Smart advice in a short amount of time!
Ben Baker with CMYK Solutions joins us on this episode to talk about selling to government agencies and some of the keys to working successfully with government partners, plus tips on how to thrive as a solopreneur, including the benefits of staying small and nimble!
Jeff Becker, President and Founder of Kotis Design joins us to chat about his success from start-up to an $18 million enterprise. Topics discussed in this episode include selling to colleges/fraternities, breweries, collegiate licensing, manufacturing, managing salespeople, structuring your business to grow, developing a value-add business, market positioning and more. This is a rocket ride of a conversation with a bold and energetic professional on the front lines of growth, join us!
Tim Andrews with the Advertising Specialty Institute sits down with us in Naples, FL at the ASI Power Summit to discuss the editorial business, content marketing, important inefficiencies in the industry and an outlook into where our industry is heading. Articles discussed in this podcast include the new 2012 Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study and Content is the New Cold Call.
The PK Podcast is a weekly conversation featuring guest suppliers, distributors and service providers discussing opportunities, challenges and insights into the promotional products business. The purpose of the podcast is to to bring the conversation we are already having at shows and restaurants to a public forum where we can all listen and learn. As a continued commitment to mentor those new in the industry, the podcast will feature a broad spectrum of topics. If you wish to participate in the podcast, please read our editorial guidelines then fill out our form and we’ll be in touch!
Rich Carollo, Vice President of Marketing at Lion’s Circle, has been involved in the business since 1995. A 2012 ASI Hot List honoree , Rich discusses the trajectory of Lion’s Circle success as it relates to the promotional products industry including insights such as listening to your customer to develop new product lines, the power of customization in a commodity driven industry, pushing the creative bounds to achieve extraordinary results and strong team and employee management. Join Mark Graham and PK’s creative genius Tee Hamilton on an insightful journey into what it takes to operate and manage a successful USA made manufacturing operation today.
Chef Mark Graham received an email from a Chinese seller. Like most of us, he usually deletes these emails immediately. This time, however, he didn’t. Instead, he got the email’s sender, Golden, on the phone and asked him to join the podcast. Indeed Mr. Wang’s perspective on Chinese importing is much different than most of ours in North America. Join Mark Graham and Danny Rosin for a conversation with Golden Wang of ShinyFox about the import business, trustworthiness of imported goods, and safety compliance issues.
Jessica Hutwelker is the Director of National Accounts at Match-Up Promotions based in Florida. Jessica has been in the promotional products industry since 2005 as a part of the team that has grown Match-Up’s business from $6.4M in 2005 to $15.6M in 2013, placing Match-Up in the top 1% of distributors in the industry. Jessica was a recent speaker/panelist at the PPAI Leadership Summit and today, joins fellow millennial and chef Nate Bailey, along with (not-quite-millennial) chef Mark Graham, to discuss Managing and Empowering the Millennial Employee.
Jeremy Lott, President of SanMar, joins us to discuss the success story behind SanMar, their trajectory into the promotional products industry, retail brands, mindful business growth, competition, the future of the industry, and much more. Join Danny Rosin, Mark Graham and Jeremy as they navigate a conversation toward building cathedrals, check it out to find out why!
Today we are bringing you a very special podcast on the West Coast U.S. Ports Conflict. This conflict is creating chaos with International trade shipments. The primary issue is an unresolved labor conflict which is currently causing major disruption to the delivery of 50% of all US Imported goods and 70% of all imported goods coming from Asia. This particular conflict is described as the worst in history as far as delays and consequences. If you are wondering what this port shutdown has to do with you, dare we venture to say that as a professional in the industry of branded merchandise, it has everything to do with you.
Join PromoKitchen chefs Jonathan Irvin, Founder and President of Branded Logisitics, and Jason Lucash Co-Founder of OrigAudio in a discussion with Jane Sorenson, Vice President, Customs & Import Services at CEVA Logistics.
Wondering how you can help? Tell the President and your members of Congress to take action now! You can click here to visit the PPAI Law site to find names and contact information of elected officials serving your area. Make a call, write a letter, and get involved today.
From the day he opened Axis Promotions, Larry Cohen was a consultative promotional professional, twenty-one years before “trusted advisor” became a key component of most distributors’ value proposition. Over the past twenty-one years, Axis Promotions has grown from a one-person operation to over 50 employees and six offices. Larry, a newly aproned Chef in the PromoKitchen, sits down with Mark Graham and Danny Rosin to share his years of veteran insight including best practices as it relates to hiring, safety, compliance, the evolution of your brand, eliminating silos in the workplace, cultivating teamwork, and … dessert Tuesdays. Sit down, tune in, and savor the virtual dessert, successful journey, and exceptional.
While distributors and suppliers represent the largest segment of the promotional products industry, it’s the consultants who often work behind the scenes to make sure the industry continues to thrive. In today’s episode, we wanted to explore the industry from the vantage of one of the most experienced consultants around, David Blaise
David is an entrepreneur, author and business consultant with more than 25 years experience in direct marketing and advertising. He has been involved in the promotional products industry since 1988 as a sales representative, sales manager, marketing manager, business owner, sales trainer and coach. He is the author of Getting Started: How to Launch a Wildly Successful Career in Promotional Products Sales, Top Secrets of Customer Acquisition and co-author of The Power of Promotional Products.
Since 2001, David has been a popular speaker and trainer at all the major industry shows. He has conducted numerous education events for ASI, PPAI, SAAGNY and PPPC, and is the co-founder of Promo Academy and SmartEQP.com
Lon McGowan is the CEO and Founder of of iClick, a leading supplier of branded USB flash drives, writing instruments, mobile accessories, and apparel decoration whose journey provides an insightful, engaging, and enterprising conversation! Mark Graham and Brad White chat with Lon about culture, success in a highly commoditized space, growing your business, and commanding mindshare with resonant marketing strategies (such as “I want to work for them versus I want to buy from them”). Join the chefs as they discuss consolidation in the industry, advice for those starting out, and how to create a remarkable business that lasts.
In today’s podcast we explore the world from the vantage point of the multi-line rep. Multi-lines have helped establish the sales foundation for this industry, though in recent years their role has been threatened by shrinking commissions, factory direct sales forces, and the disruption caused by the internet. No conversation about the multi-line sales channel would be complete without today’s guest. Join Mark Graham and Danny Rosin in welcoming to the Podcast, Dan Pigott, newly appointed Director of Sales for Stromberg Brand Umbrellas.
In this special episode of the PK Podcast, Mark Graham (commonsku), Larry Cohen (Axis Promotions), Jessica Hutwelker(Sunrise Identity) and Bill Petrie(Brandivate) discuss the pending Staples acquisition of Office Depot and the impact this could have on the promotional products industry. Enjoy!
Mitch Mounger, the erudite and candid CEO of Sunrise Identity, a very successful distributor located in Washington, joins us to discuss some of the secrets behind their success, including their open book management philosophy and getting services ahead of product in the selling cycle. Among other topics, (including best sales types and answering our ’10 questions about Mitch’), he also shares his transition from having a closed attitude towards suppliers to opening up and sharing more information that results in stronger relationships and closed sales.
In this episode of the PromoKitchen Podcast, Chefs Mark Graham and Dale Denham bring you up to the present as we speak to Norman Cohn, Chairman of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) about how both ASI and the industry look in 2015.
In June 2012, the Wall Street Journal described Norman as the “Sultan of Swag.” It was a breakthrough piece written by one of the country’s most prominent media outlets and it shone a bright light on our industry. However, Norman is much more than just the sultan of swag, some might say he’s the architect of the modern promotional products industry.
Norman was born Iowa in 1933 and had his first encounter with promotional products in high school. Then in 1962, Norman convinced his family to sell off their supplier interests and acquire ASI, at the time, a small trade association. Over the next 6 decades, ASI grew into a powerhouse with media, technology, trade shows and education as part of its product mix. ASI now touches over 25,000 distributors and suppliers and wields enormous influence over how the industry operates today. How ASI grew to where it is today is an incredible story of perseverance and entrepreneurship and one that we are privileged to bring you.
Click, listen, and comment. Without further ado – enjoy!
In this episode, Mark Graham and Bobby Lehew sit down with Paul Bellantone at the recent PPAI Expo and discuss:
The growing optimism in the industry, PPAI’s role in providing legislative oversight for the industry, the impact of social media on an organization like PPAI, the new PPAI certification designations (TAS, CAS, MAS and MAS+). the effectiveness of shows and the future of trade shows
In this edition of the PromoKitchen Podcast Mark Graham chats with Gene Geiger about the recipe for good leadership, the importance of working as a team, and the future of the affiliate franchise model. It’s PK Podcast #68 – Enjoy!
In this episode of the PromoKitchen Podcast, Chefs Mark Graham and Dale Denham speak with one of the most influential and dynamic people in our industry, Norman Cohn. Norman is the Chairman of the Advertising Specialty Institute, most commonly known as ASI.
In June 2012, the Wall Street Journal described Norman as the “Sultan of Swag.” It was a breakthrough piece written by one of the country’s most prominent media outlets and it shone a bright light on our industry. However, Norman is much more than just the sultan of swag, some might say he’s the architect of the modern promotional products industry.
Norman was born Iowa in 1933 and had his first encounter with promotional products in high school. Then in 1962, Norman convinced his family to sell off their supplier interests and acquire ASI, at the time, a small trade association. Over the next 6 decades, ASI grew into a powerhouse with media, technology, trade shows and education as part of its product mix. ASI now touches over 25,000 distributors and suppliers and wields enormous influence over how the industry operates today. How ASI grew to where it is today is an incredible story of perseverance and entrepreneurship and one that we are privileged to bring you.
Click, listen, and comment. Without further ado – enjoy!
Mark Graham recently stumbled across a great blog post written by the owner of a South African ad agency. His name was Mike Stopforth. He loved the post so much that he tracked him down in Johannesburg for an interview.
Mike is the CEO of Cerebra, an ad agency based on South Africa and one of the most of original and creative minds in the business. Cerebra specializes in social media and social business consulting, education, and implementation for corporate brands. In 2013 WPP acquired a majority stake in the company.
In 2014, Mike published #BrandSchizo – a business book designed to help brands navigate the opportunities and challenges of the social era of business.
When he’s not working, Mike is golfing, drumming, fishing, running, cycling, swimming or spending time with family and friends.
Take 42 minutes and 2 seconds of your day to join chefs Mark Graham and Larry Cohen in a brilliant conversation about differentiation, shifting focus from acquisition to retention, and a whole lot more.
In today’s episode, Chefs Mark Graham of CommonSku and Danny Rosin of Brand Fuel, are going to explore the new and exciting world of 3D Printing. 3D technology has been getting a lot of play in the media these days, but many of us in the promotional products industry are waiting for 3D tech to make an impact within our professional day to day lives. Presently, 3D printing represents an intriguing, yet very small niche. However, this is poised to change. Suppliers are increasingly using 3D printing to create inexpensive prototypes and marketplaces are being setup to sell 3D printed goods to end customers. Immersed in this vibrant world, we find today’s guest, Kevin Maloney.
Kevin Maloney is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of ZVerse, a 3D printing platform devoted to “Making the World’s Content 3D Printable”. Kevin is chiefly responsible for developing relationships with many of Zverse’s key partners and customers. He’s a sales rock star as he has presided over the company’s rapid growth trajectory over the past 2 years. Prior to ZVerse, Kevin was a sales executive with Fortune 500 medical device manufacturer, Boston Scientific. And prior to this role, Kevin was the first sales representative hired at a startup called Fine Line Technologies. Welcome to the PromoKitchen Podcast, Kevin Maloney.
In this episode of the PromoKitchen Podcast, PK Chefs Mark Graham of CommonSku and Robert Fiveash of Brand Fuel Promotions chat with Jim Martin of Kolder Incorporated. Kolder is the parent company of industry icon Numo Manufacturing. Jim talks to us about what it takes to create a much loved supplier brand, how to compete with a Made in USA product line, and how he’s been able to move beyond Koozies and into a diverse collection of unique and innovative products.
Every February a team of marketing and design geeks descend upon Raleigh for the annual High Five Conference. At this year’s event, no one was geekier than today’s guest. This someone dazzled the High Five audience with stories about how he became a one man graphic design branding machine and how local advertising campaigns were manhandled under the ruse of his newly formed, and gigantically reckless, Draplin Design Co.
In today’s episode, PK Chefs Mark Graham of commonsku, Danny Rosin of Brand Fuel, and Tee Hamilton of CreativeAlchemy, speak with the one and only – Aaron James Draplin, who is also the founder of Field Notes. Listen in as they talk about art, graphic design and zigging while others are zagging.
*Just a quick note to listeners of this particular episode: If you are sensitive to the use of strong language you should be advised that this podcast was left unbleeped and uncensored to maintain the authenticity and (as our resident Canadian Mark Graham would say…) flavour of the interview.
In today’s episode, PromoKitchen chefs Mark Graham and Dale Denham are going to take a deep dive into what it takes to deliver “ultimate customer experiences”. In today’s competitive landscape, customer experience is often the key differentiator that separates one company from the next. We know this to be especially true in the promotional products industry where commoditization and price shopping run rampant. The winners in this industry have long recognized that it’s the intangibles beyond price and product that create enduring and successful companies.
So what does it mean to create the “ultimate customer experience?” Our guest today is the man who coined this very term. Please welcome to the PK Podcast, Scott McKain.
Scott is the founder of The Distinction Institute, a company that explores the role of ultimate customer experiences in creating enhanced client retention and revenue. He is the author of three Amazon.com #1 business bestsellers, all focused on teaching companies how to expand profits, increase sales, and engage customers. Scott’s latest book, 7 Tenets of Taxi Terry, provides the specific steps for every employee to create and deliver ultimate customer experiences.
Without further adieu, PromoKitchen Podcast #79 . . .
Today’s guest is well known for his technical savvy, social media wit and outsized ambition. He is also someone who has made enormous waves in the promotional products industry for over 20 years. Joining Mark Graham and first time as a podcast host Bill Petrie, is Geiger CIO Dale Denham.
Dale is responsible for all ecommerce and IT functions at Geiger. Dale was named to Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders list for 2015 for his technology leadership and innovative approach to business challenges. Dale was recently elected to a 4 year term on the PPAI Board of Directors and is the first CIO to ever serve on the PPAI Board.
A graduate from the University of South Florida, Dale was among the first 10 people certified as a Master Advertising Specialist+ by PPAI, recognized by ASI Counselor Magazine as one of "40 under 40", and was named one of Corporate Logo’s Most Influential People. Dale also joined PromoKitchen as a chef in January 2015.
When Dale isn’t saving the world from bad technology, he’s at home in Tampa with his wife Kim and 4 energetic kids. Please join us is welcoming Dale to the PK Podcast!
Special thanks to Sanmar for supporting this episode of the PK Podcast.
In today’s episode, Mark Graham and Danny Rosin get the chance to interview one of the industry’s most familiar names, Bill Petrie. Whether you subscribe to his riveting blog at brandivatemarketing.com or follow his pursuits on social media, Bill has truly made a dent in the industry.
Bill has over 15 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive team outsourcing company solely focused on helping small promotional products companies responsibly grow their business. In March of 2015, Bill began a partnership with Proforma to assist their Owners growing their individual distributorships.
A speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, and current member of the board of directors for the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), Bill has extensive experience in coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and delivering RFP responses, and successfully presenting promotional solutions to Fortune 500 clients.
Bill Korwitz is the CEO of industry powerhouse supplier, The Magnet Group. Bill joined the Magnet Group in 1996 and has led to company to a point where they now produce more than 300 million magnets annually. In addition, Bill was recently named the 2015 Person of the Year by ASI.
PromoKitchen is a 501