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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.