skucast

What does the promo industry look like from the inside out? I mean, all the way to the source, from manufacturing in Asia to the delivered product to clients. Well, in today's show, we're getting a peek behind the scenes as we take a promo tour through Asia with Dave Shultz, commonsku's VP of Supplier Partnerships, and Mark Graham, commonsku's President and Chief Brand Officer! The two industry vets journeyed to Asia for a factory tour and a visit to the Hong Kong Gifts and Premium Fair, plus, they joined CJ Schmidt, the CEO of HIT Promo to help build a water tower outside of Hanoi with PromoCares through Planet Water Foundation's “Water for Good” initiative.

Can you hit a 30% growth target YTD and still make a major contribution to your community? Apparently, you can. In this episode, we talk with Nevin Bansal. Nevin is the Founder and CEO of Outreach Promos, a Columbus-based company providing online brandstores, branded merch, and design solutions. Nevin is also the founder and Executive Director of Small Biz Cares, a nonprofit that engages small businesses for philanthropy and community impact. Tune in to learn how to impact your bottom line and your community!

Britney Godsey is the dynamic CRO at Gold Bond, we chat about tariffs, the "China plus one" strategy some suppliers employ, the recent implementation of commonsku ePOs for streamlined order processing, and tech advancements like the Brand Lab AI podcast and chatbot, alongside a focus on team growth, plus their strategic focus on Tech, Golf Dominance, Green Gallery, and ZipShip. Join us for a wide-ranging but incredibly informative chat with Britney!

Tom Havens, a creative powerhouse and the visionary founder of Havens Consulting, possesses a remarkable sales background and deep roots in creative and design for the promo industry. His leadership propelled Catalyst Marketing to $25 MM before its acquisition by HALO in 2017. Driven by his passion for innovation, Tom launched Havens Consulting in 2024, dedicated to empowering distributors and suppliers to achieve unprecedented sales growth.

Episode 338: A Branded Product Agency Philosophy with Francis Pierrel, LR Paris by commonsku

Episode 337: Mastering Client Complexity Through Mergers: A Chat with Kate Ivory and Laura Mazy, Premier Press by commonsku

Episode 336: The “Quiet Work” of a Power Brand: Inside MOTIF's Unique Culture with Joel Antymniuk by commonsku

Episode 335: Customer Experience is the New Differentiator (Dan Gingiss) by commonsku

Episode 334: The Optimism & Anxiety of Sales Growth: Tips from Sales Expert Kevin Baumgart by commonsku

Blackfish is an unapologetically boutique brand that focuses on a customer-obsessed experience as the bedrock for building growth.

Monty Mims is one of the many folks leading SanMar's Decorator & Tech Solutions division, he's brilliant at both helping distributors work better with their decorators, but also helping decorators navigate the landscape of trends, equipment, and supply chain.

When John Henry of JH started in 1998, little did he know that JH would soon expand into culture and recruitment services for businesses, consulting, digital services, and more. Many of us in the industry consider ourselves strategic advisors to our clients, but when our CCO, Bobby Lehew, got to participate in JH's “Expand Your Brand” event (virtually) this year, we realized that if there's one thing JH is exceptional at, above all, it's expanding their own brand to serve their clients.

Episode 330: The Impact Journey: Fairware's Sarah White and Denise Taschereau by commonsku

Episode 329: Ethically Sourced Merch for Socially Responsible Clients (Daniel Cardozo, Ethix Merch) by commonsku

Hit Promo is now a connected+ supplier on commonsku, what does that mean? A lightening fast ordering process, securing inventory quicker, and the elimination of order entry errors by you and your team (and more!) Today, we're talking with Amy Rabideau, Hit's VP of Product and Jon Norris, Chief Strategy Officer at Hit.

Episode 327: "Marketing Made Easy: Unleashing the Power of commonsku + PromoPulse (with Jason Nokes) by commonsku

Our guest on this episode of the skucast is Kyla Scanlon, founder of the financial education company, Bread, and a prolific creator. Kyla writes a weekly newsletter, makes YouTube videos, hosts the “Let's Appreciate” podcast, and posts —almost daily— short-form videos about the economy and markets.

Todd Henry is one of the most sought-after creativity coaches in the world, he teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance.

When Sky High Marketing partnered with commonsku about four years ago they had 25 employees and in the short time since, have doubled their team to 50! Owners, Josh and Rachel Kozinski just opened a brand new 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in the Milwaukee area complete with warehousing, in-house decoration, and embroidery. We were honored to join them for their open house, what an amazing team and experience.

Founded in 2013 in New York City. Whitestone has graced the Inc 5000 List for Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America the last seven years. Founder and President Joe Sommer has led a superstar sales team and is looking at growth through both organic sales and acquisitions, they recently acquired Merchful (who operates in Canada and Europe) and they acquired San Francisco-founded distributor Design Like Whoa.

Today Rob Watson, CEO at Vantage Apparel joins us to talk about their look into the future and the aspirations and realities they are creating as a tech-enabled pioneer in apparel.

Ryan Paules pivoted to the promo industry after losing his job as a manager with a national chain on the same day of his wife's first ultrasound. With a new baby on the way and a mortgage to pay, he turned his IT hobby into a full-time venture, launching Radar Support, which he later closed despite its success.

Tim Andrews is a luminary in the promo industry, he's the CEO of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) whose 350 employees serve a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors, and decorators in the industry.

Todd Mawyer is the President and CEO of TK Promotions, a commonsku distributor customer, and yet another very successful entrepreneur in this industry who started during a recession, in 2008.

In our chat today, Dean will share some-real time tactics and ideas that will help you build a brand that people want to connect with (through every business touchpoint). From the way your team communicates to generous marketing, Dean combines his experience as both client and distributor to help you build a brand your customers will like, love, and trust!

Today, we have a really special sneak peek episode featuring Charlie Moscoe, commonsku's VP of Product Management. Whether you're an OG client, a new client, a supplier, or even just someone who is commonsku curious, today, we'll unpack some exciting new developments coming up in June and for the remaining year.

Doug Jackson, President of Storm Creek and Teresa Fudenberg CEO of Storm Creek, both join us today to talk about their sustainability journey, their passion for impact, and since they're the OG's of eco, we talk about today's buyer demands, how it's changed, and their practical tips on how we as distributors can make eco a priority with our clients.

Pop! Promos removed 36,000 pounds of plastic from their supply chain, expanded their organic, recycled, and sustainable materials, and achieved a bronze designation from EcoVadis, the world's largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.  And the Pops! Promos Transformation toward sustainability and its increased effort toward social impact all began with a small group of volunteers from within the organization. Today, we talk with Sterling Wilson, President of Pop! Promos about how a small voluntary group made such a huge impact, how they formed the group, what priorities they decided upon, and his tips on how you and your team can do the same to fast-track your sustainability efforts!

Walk into the coolest, local, craft coffee shop in your market and the likelihood is high that you'll see coffeeware and insulated drinkware on the shelves from our guests today, Jeremy Moss and Ryan Schneider, who started Created Co in 2015. Fast forward a few years and Jeremy and Ryan with Created Co and Numo's Jim Martin found one another. Two strong and proven but disruptive brands that both have an affinity for making cool products for discerning buyers. Now, we see a lot of brands enter our industry but there's something about this that feels different and perhaps it's the way they approach their partnership which is what we talk about today.

Today, we're chatting with Issac Childs, founder of Rustico, one of the most beloved brands who closed their doors after a very successful run of 22 years.

Today we talk with Shed about so much, you'll love the depth of his thinking, we talk about: candor with care, the most important traits of a leader, the struggle some of us have moving from roles like a sales driver to an organizational leader, and more - join us!

Shelley Stewart is the CEO, the Creative Experience Officer, at Red Promotions based out of Seattle WA. As a women-owned, led, and fully operated team, they have become a powerhouse for their clients and have worked hard to build an incredible culture and a fiscally vibrant business.

Danny's talk walked us through the sometimes rocky and now incredible journey the branded merch industry has been through, from an advertising add-along to today's intimate merch experience that is embraced by brands and adorned by fans.

Lia Garvin, author and speaker, is known as the team whisperer: She's the bestselling author of Unstuck and author of a new book released just this week titled The Unstoppable Team: A simple formula for managing your team, reducing overwhelm, and increasing revenue.

Today, we talk with Ryan about this incredible business they've built in California, their expansion into the industry providing workwear, plus how their audiences have widened to include not only the trades but also this huge market for transitional workwear.

Our guest today is Ben Higgins, best known from season 20 of ABC's hit series, “The Bachelor.” Ben stays connected with his loyal Bachelor following with his iHeartMedia podcast, “Almost Famous,” which he co-hosts with his friend and former Bachelor contestant, Ashley laconetti, which has over 150 million downloads.

Linni Kral is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and educator. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, the BBC, Condé Nast Traveler and more.

Denise is the CEO and co-founder of one of the industry's most respected brands, Fairware. 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 Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) and also a board member of Promocares, a group working to inspire, educate and provide actionable strategies to encourage social and environmental responsibility in the promotional products industry.

Today, we're sharing an episode that we recorded live from skucon where Jeremy and Jonathan answer questions from Catherine Graham, commonsku's CEO, on a broad range of topics including: US/China relations and its impact on the supply chain, deglobalization efforts, the impact of international trade, the labor market, and a financial outlook for 2024.

Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak, the two founders behind one of the industry's most ingenious company's Origaudio, are back. Jason and Mike sold their very successful company, Origaudio, to HPG in 2018, and after a few years, both retired from the industry. The two entrepreneurs, known for their innovation in product, production, and distribution, have launched a new brand with a bold new mission. The company is called Rupt — and it sounds just as it was intended, an idea meant to disrupt the industry, particularly the status quo when it comes to transparency in sustainability.

Frank Carpenito was a five-year board member on Gemline's board of directors, and he loved the company so much that he wanted to help lead it; in 2019, he became President and recently was promoted to CEO and is now responsible for the day-to-day running of the business at Gemline.

Logomark's story is one of innovation, not just in product but in production, masters at obsessing over speed and accuracy, we begin our chat today with Clive by talking about his entry into the industry, what the pandemic taught him and the team, and how it impacts their work today.

Right now, if you're listening to this as it's published, you're in the middle of your 2023 holiday break, and as has been a tradition for us, we like to use these few weeks during the holidays to republish a few hidden gems you might have missed earlier in the year. Today, since the new year is right around the corner, we're republishing our conversation with Rob Dube, CEO of Imageone on the topic: “The 10 Disciplines for Maximizing Your Energy,” it's the perfect episode to help you as you think ahead to your personal and business goals for 2024!

Right now, if you're listening to this as it's published, you're in the middle of your 2023 holiday break, and as has been a tradition for us, we like to use these few weeks during the holidays to republish a few hidden gems you might have missed earlier in the year. Today, we're republishing an episode about “How to Have a Good Fight” from the Teamwork Doctor Liane Davey. Liane was our keynote speaker at skucamp and held the room spellbound with her talk on how to overcome negative workplace conflict and replace it with healthy conflict. Enjoy!

When we began our podcast adventure over 300 episodes ago, we had no idea the number of incredible people we'd meet along the way and the impact they would make on us and the commonsku community.

In our industry, distributors, and suppliers also have two distinct types of growth, and both are a requisite for future-proofing a thriving business. And since Q4 is well underway, many of us are beginning to think about 2025 business planning and benchmarking, we wanted to share a few ideas from our numerous interviews with leaders on how to create benchmarks for both type 1 and type 2 growth.

David Priemer has had 20 years leading top-performing sales teams, including his tenure with Salesforce, where he was not only the Vice President of Commercial Sales, he was the creator of the Sales Leadership Academy program, and he's often referred to as “the sales professor”.

Promocares is an all-volunteer-driven organization; their mission is to inspire, educate, and provide actionable strategies to encourage social and environmental responsibility in the promotional products industry and the industry's communities. Each year, the board at Promocares picks a new initiative called their “4 good events” to rally the industry around a cause and use the collective energy of suppliers, distributors and service providers to make an impact on the world.

Today, we're talking mergers. KG Specialties is a Portland-based distributor who, this year, merged with Premier Press. Premier employs over 200 people, and they handle a wide variety of print, fulfillment, and logistics management for clients. Our guests are Kyle Gibson, the owner of KG Specialties and now Director of Promotional Merchandise at Premier, and Premier's Vice President, Manuel Saez.

Sam Brown is one of the very few marketing strategists whose expertise is solely in the promotional products business. Sam has been the chief marketing strategist at some of the most notable brands in the industry including Summit Group and Brandvia.

Today, we are talking with Neil about two fundamental priorities for Polyconcept: sustainability and how deeply sustainability permeates all of their decisions at PCNA, and technology through the lens of making distributors' lives easier.