Promokitchen Podcast

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 remai

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 th

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.

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

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

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

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 i

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 regarde

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! —

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.

PromoKitchen Podcast #100 | Paul Bellantone by PromoKitchen