PromoKitchen

A Special Brand Of Fearlessness

Posted on March 4, 2013 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

First I want to say that being a leader requires the ability to get people to follow you. Sounds elementary and obvious, but to really create a following you must poses certain skills and charisma that make people feel they are following something that will either benefit them or a cause they believe in. For the purpose of this article,…

The Distributor-Supplier Relationship: One Distributor’s Perspective.

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Danny Rosin

With 20 years in the industry, I have seen a lot. I’ve been on the other end of the phone trying to get information from a supplier about a $10,000 opportunity, where the supplier said they would call me back within the hour with the basic stock and pricing information I requested – and I never received a call back….

How To Lead Today

Posted on January 29, 2013 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

Paul Kiewiet, MAS, is a speaker, coach, writer and the executive director of MiPPA. Leadership is not about being liked. It’s about doing what’s right. This means being visionary and looking beyond your corners of the promotional products world. It means that as a distributor, you must strengthen the supplier channel and vice versa. You must ruffle feathers, or you’re…

The Long Tail of a New Leadership

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Promo Kitchen

There is rare agreement among leadership gurus such as John Kotter, Seth Godin and Tom Peters. Leadership is going through dramatic change. We don’t need to look far to see why. Change is happening faster and faster, more and more. Author of Leading Change John Kotter explains in Accelerate (HBR November 2012): Perhaps the greatest challenge business leaders face today…

Leadership Is Personal

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Promo Kitchen

The following article was written by Cindy Jorgenson, MAS. Cindy has 15 years of industry experience beginning as an assistant, becoming a top sales producer and is currently the vice president -national sales manager for Brown & Bigelow. During her years she has achieved great sales success winning multiple sales and industry awards. When the editors of PromoKitchen asked me…

Authenticity

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Charity Gibson

The following article was written by Charity Gibson, Top Banana at Green Banana Promotions. I’ve been pretty introspective lately. A lot of things around me are changing, and I realized that if I’m not careful, I could easily lose myself to it all. So…this blog post isn’t really about business; but at the same time, it’s kind of everything about…

Now Serving…YOU

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Roger Burnett

By Roger Burnett, National Director of Branded Merchandise for WorkflowOne “So if it’s all for one, and one for all, then maybe one-day, we ALL could ball….” B.o.B. Make no mistake about it, I was horn-swaggled into participating in my regional association. The details are fuzzy, but Tim Hill from Lanco and Kari Moravec from Gold Bond invited me to…

Want To Be A Line Leader? Have The Confidence To Carry The Soap Bucket.

Posted on May 31, 2012 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

The following article was written by Russ Mogell, CEO of Seven Sourcing, and he can be harassed via email here. My five-year-old son, Jack, is in pre-school, and each day a student from his class is chosen to be the “line leader.” The line leader is responsible for carrying the soap bucket and leading the class down the hall to the…

Top Six Trends Changing Our Business Today

Posted on May 14, 2012 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

Dale Limes, MAS is senior vice president of sales at HALO Branded Solutions. You can reach Dale via email, here. If you have been in the promotional marketing business for a while, you certainly know there have been an abundance of changes, and there are more to come. I can recall my early days when the morning started by unrolling…

Fear Of Success

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Charity Gibson

In order to succeed, you must learn to get over the fear of failure. Great. Mission accomplished! I’ve come to terms with not only the fear of failing but also with failure itself. To me, failure is no big deal. What terrifies me? Success. And judging by some figures I just read, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. Though the…