Candid Conversation with Adrienne

We gave a big hug, and we're not allowed to do that anymore.

Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, that's why I wrote an article last night. Like, something to do when you're not hugging. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. How are you?

So do you miss the office? So I know you're safe with your mom in South Florida.

I am. I am. So I came down to— I do miss the office. I miss everything. I miss everybody. I miss it all. I really do. I came down to Florida on March 6th. It was a planned trip. My mom spends the winter down here and I don't like her to travel alone, so I came down to basically pack her up from her winter camp in what I call Del Boca Vista, if anybody watches Seinfeld. And, you know, I spent a few days down here and packed up and closed up her house, and then we were supposed to fly home on March 14th back to New York. And when I flew down on March 6th, it was a Friday, you know, things weren't definitely not what they were now. They weren't even remotely. There was a couple of, there was that, you know, cluster that started in Rochester, New York. There was nothing in Long Island. I mean, there was really nothing going on. And as the days progressed, we were here for the week, you know, we were supposed to fly home on Saturday afternoon, March 14th. We were really on the fence. Should we go back? And I kept telling my mom, you know, I said, you know, if we go home, you know, you can't leave the house, you know, I mean, like you can't even go to, you know, the supermarket because, you know, yeah, she's my mom, thank God, knock on wood, she's in great shape and she's healthy, but she's in that age range. She's 68 years old and, and, uh, you know, and I didn't, didn't want her to be subjected to it. And down here in Florida, in, you know, South Florida, it really wasn't an issue at all at that time, you know. But then all the New Yorkers decided to get on a plane and come to Florida because they wanted to get out of there, or, you know, and whatever happened. So we decided to stay. And then, you know, I can work from anywhere. You know, it's better for me to be in the office. I always like being in the office and interacting directly with my staff and our factory and our production team. And, but then, you know, 10 days later, not even, it was actually 5 days later, after we were supposed to come home, we decided to stay. New York, Governor of New York closed everything down. So, you know, and we were, you know, it's interesting because my initial knee-jerk reaction was on that Friday was, you know, wow, you know, if we don't ship product, we're out of business, you know. And I petitioned to New York State. They had like an exemption request that you could submit. And because we, you know, we have a big retail side of our business in addition to promotional products, we supply major retailers like CVS and Walmart and Dollar Tree and you name it. We supply all mass retailers with school and office supplies. And so my knee-jerk reaction was, okay, let me petition to New York State. You know, students are going to be doing their schooling at home, parents are working from home, we supply essential retailers that will be open. You know, they need school supplies and office supplies, you know, and New York State, that Saturday morning I submitted this exemption request and that Saturday morning it got denied completely to stay closed. 2 hours later, I got another email from New York State that said we've re-reviewed your request and we believe that you should stay open to ship product only due to the products that you supply to essential retailers. And, you know, and that was good because we, you know, we have product and finished, you know, finished good inventory that was ready to go, scheduled to get picked up, and we did all that. And, you know, then they granted us the ability to stay open for a packaging process, but we could not manufacture. Now remember, in our factory in New York, we are still one of the last standing pen, marker, school and office supply manufacturers that does make product here in the US. And they granted us the ability to do a packaging stage to finish, you know, the last stage prior to shipment. So we had materials and finished good inventory ready to go. So initially my thought was like, this is great, you know, we can keep everybody employed and we can ship and we're not going out of business. And, you know, because those are the thoughts that go through your head as a business owner, you know, and that Sunday night at about 11:30 at night, we had put a small crew, you know, I have close to 60 employees, and we put a small crew of like 6 people together to just finish up packaging stage on Monday morning. At 11:30 Sunday night, I called my production manager, all my managers, and said, look, we're not doing this. I don't want to bring anybody in. You know, it really defeats the whole purpose of keeping people away from each other. What are we gonna do? We're gonna pack up so much, you know, such a small amount of inventory that it's not gonna make or break us at that point. We had trucks scheduled to come pick up shipments to retailers during the week. I was able to have two of our employees who were incredible, they're warriors that, you know, went in, they stayed 100 feet from each other, right? Just to help load the trucks that came to pick up. So, and that's what we were able to do. And since then, you know, I have a team of people who we are working remotely. We're doing the best we can, you know, on the promotional side of the business and retail, order processing, artwork, virtuals, quotes. We're doing it all, you know. It's, it's, um, you know, and we're— what I like to say is stockpiling orders for when this resolves so that we have a business and have orders to ship. Um, our retail customers have been understanding that we're shipping out as much as we can and understanding that their ship dates are going to get pushed. You know, it's just, it's crazy, you know, but we're making do. And, you know, I'm really optimistic that, you know, that was the right decision that we made. And, and we're doing the absolute best we can right now. And I think that's what everybody's doing.

We're all in this together. So everyone has to understand. Did you have a crisis plan?

Yeah, I mean, we do, interestingly enough, like, you know, we've, you know, we've never been in this I mean, this is a real crisis. And although you plan and have a crisis plan and you think about what your redundancy is and where you're going to have a backup, you need a backup plan and then you need a backup plan for the backup plan. But even when you do make these plans, nobody ever knew that we weren't going to be in this situation that we're in now and to the extent of what it was. You know, yeah, and everyone, you know, some businesses didn't even have all their employees able to work remotely and from home or being able to forward their calls directly to their phone system, or maybe they had a voice over IP phone in their house already. I mean, we had this all set up. Yeah, and I'm glad that we did. It's a contingency plan. So we did have a contingency plan. We didn't think that the contingency plan never was, okay, we're going to be closed for at least 4 to 5 weeks for manufacturing and production. That was never part of the contingency plan to the level that it is now. You just never thought that was going to be the case. And I think this teaches a lot of us that you can plan as much, but sometimes the best-laid plans just never work out the way you want them to.

Yeah, it's strange because I know Sammy was in Shanghai, my oldest— well, my middle. So like we knew what was going on because he lived right there. So he would tell us every day he couldn't—

how's he doing?

He's doing good now, but he couldn't for the— in the beginning, back in early January, he said, Mom, it's like going outside naked with two machine guns. Everyone looks at you, you feel uncomfortable, you know, like not having a mask. And then he's like, at every, every sneeze and cough, it sounds like a shotgun, like you duck and hide. But yeah, what am I gonna do, stand in line with everyone who has a mask to get them? Mask. And then finally an order came through, he was able to get a mask. And, but so I don't know why we didn't put two and two together, just even myself in my own brain. I flew, so I was ASI Orlando, and there's really no communication about that. Then I went to Los Angeles with, uh, Juniors Global, and that was really a neat trip. And there were actually a lot of different people from every kind of global company, so there were a lot of masks that were being worn. And I had a few conversations, but still And then PPAI.

And you didn't feel vulnerable at that point?

I didn't feel vulnerable. PPAI Las Vegas was interesting, right? Because that— there, there was Steve Wozniak. How do you say that? Yeah, he's claiming that he may have been the number one, like, ground water.

Well, I mean, I know it's funny because I, I read that. I mean, when I read that, I was like, I was mortified. I said, like, you know, this is crazy. I know people just even in New York, I mean listen, we've all been going to the Las Vegas PPI show forever and we all know it's always referred to as, "Oh, we all came home with the Vegas crud flu." It is flu season in January. It's like you're almost at the peak of flu season, right? The middle of January. People are traveling from all over the country on long flights and even all over the world for that matter to come to this, the biggest trade show that the industry does for promotional products. Where you're in a convention center that is never the cleanest place to begin with. It's very dusty, it always is, right? And then you're confined in this dry atmosphere of the desert and you're there for 5, 6, 7 days depending on what you're doing and who you're with. You're interacting, you're shaking hands. I mean, come on, I mean, this is the industry we're in. We all love each other, we do. I mean, it's a really crazy thing, at least I think we do. And some of the greatest friends I've made, like you, have been in this business. And you see people once a year, twice a year, in person, and you could be standing there having a conversation with somebody, you see Adrienne walking down the aisle, you just walk away from the conversation, you run down the aisle and you give her a hug. I mean, that's just the nature of the beast. Out of business. It's not just me. I mean, you know, and I think that, I really think that, you know, that timeframe, there was a lot of this going on that nobody realized. I knew people in New York after the fact. I knew people from the industry who afterwards that were from California, that were from New York, that all got sick, you know, and, you know, they just figured, oh, it's a bad sinus infection, upper respiratory infection, you know, this happens, time of year, you know. And, you know, it's terrible. I know people who weren't in our industry that were really, really sick for 2-3 weeks with a terrible cough and never thought anything of it. And it wasn't really until the end of February, beginning of March, that here in the US we were all realizing this is something we need to be extremely concerned about.

Yeah, I remember being— I was at a networking group. I, I tried to get out and like signal different like networking. So this one happened to be like the assisted living, and they're all marketing directors from all the different assisted living and then the vendors for the assisted living. And a woman, I was in the bathroom with her and she said, Adrienne, it gets in your lungs. The flu this year is so bad. My brother-in-law who's like 50 is in the hospital fighting for his life. This is really serious. And, but you know, in her mind, so terrible, terrible. Well, I will tell you, I have to wear this because this pandemic is making me get bigger. So I like, I'm gaining weight. What does Adrienne have in common with your highlighters?

Oh, don't say, come on, Adrienne. I will.

I swear, like this. Here's Adrienne.

Yeah, well, that highlighter, the highlighter in your right hand, the smaller one, probably just kept going to the fridge.

This one is so big. Just to give you an idea of how big it is, it's like bigger than my head.

I didn't realize you had props.

That I had what?

That you have props.

Oh, I know. Well, I did a little thing because I try to be really cool. So if you ask me if I have pens, I'm going to answer you in my most sophisticated manner. I definitely had writing instruments for you if you would like some writing instruments.

You're the queen of promo.

The other person sells pens, but not me. Oh my gosh.

So you have the whole gamut.

I wanna talk about the masks because it's interesting that, you know, our industry, so many of the suppliers are retrofitting their machines, they're bringing in masks.

So let's just say— I wish I could.

Well, but I love your idea, I wanna go over that. But let's just say that I wanna buy some masks. I wanna buy, I have a company and I wanna buy 100 masks for my employees. If I go on the web to look for masks, I don't know the people on the web. And some of them don't even, you know, you get to the Alibaba sites and you get to sites you really don't know or Amazon and it's 4 to 6 weeks delivery. So I say, why not go to someone like myself? You'll know me. I work for Halo. Halo's amazing. Halo vets every one of their suppliers 100%. It's not so easy to sell a mask because it's gotta come, you know, the masks have to be approved, the vendor has to be approved, all the certificates, everything has to be done correctly. Yep, not for healthcare. We're not taking anything away from healthcare, but now the rules are not in Volusia County, it may never be. And our, our county is a little different, but Osceola County, Orlando, you know. So we were talking earlier, are you having to have a mask where you are when you go out?

Now, where I'm— where I am now, because I'm in Florida, is, uh, I'm in Palm Beach County. And yes, Palm Beach County requires a mask in, you know, all public places. If you go into the store— I mean, I've been wearing a mask for weeks already if I go into the store. You know, I try to limit my time there. You know, I, you know, I go once a week and I don't like the idea of getting things delivered because I don't know who's touching it. I've seen, I've walked into, down here it's Publix, and I know people are watching from all over. I know you're in Florida, so you know Publix. But I've seen the people walking around who are doing your Instacart shopping or your delivery shopping, they're not even wearing masks. I'm sorry to scare the rest of the world by saying that. I mean, hopefully now they are because it's required in the county where you live. But, you know, I'm, I'm so OCD. I mean, think about the level of OCD we're all going to have after this, even now and during it. Now, you know, I'm— masks, gloves. I bring my own tote bags. They're all promotional tote bags that I use to shop. And I shop with those bags. I bring 2, 2 or 3 max. It's an incredible workout because then all of a sudden you're holding these bags, like walking around the store. I'm in and out of the store so quick. I, I I go to self-checkout. I use the same bags to check out. And then if you would see my system of— it's like biohazard control to wipe everything down when I get home in the garage and I leave this stuff for 48 hours. And it's like crazy. And people do, to your point, people have to wear masks, right? Now you do. I've been wearing one for weeks. I've been walking into the supermarket. I mean, I see people of all ages. They're not even wearing masks and gloves. They're pushing a cart like nothing ever happened, like nothing's happening. You know, and I think they're all crazy.

I, I think I've been out only 4 times. I had Alan went out with me. Alan went out too. Um, oh, I got some hand sanitizer, uh, for my niece who lives in West Palm Beach. Sweet guy, and she needed something. And, and then I got her a spray because now the Lysol and stuff, I'm starting to see that the stuff is coming in from a post. But before, you know, I, I've been using Sally— Sally Gard, a company from Melaleuca, that works great. But, uh, and then I finally did get masks. These are really cute too. So I got 5 masks, 2 for— one for David, my friend David, and his girlfriend Rachel, and then Alana and I. But they're—

oh my gosh, that's so funny.

Ah, we— they're little baby ones, but that's okay.

That's so funny.

I didn't even care.

But it's great to see a lot of people in the industry are, are repurposing their equipment. You know, I saw You know, I saw Numo is doing it. I mean, they really, you know, it's funny, I actually ordered— they had some really cute designs and I ordered, I ordered one for my niece. Great. You know, and I think that now more than ever, I think the industry, like you were saying before about, you know, I think that suppliers like myself, right? Interestingly enough, I saw this happen in January. You know, I was watching it happen around the world and I ordered a lot of supplies. For, you know, for our company, for office that I stockpile that are like locked up and, you know, and I have, you know, on reserve because I know, I knew this was going to happen. I had, well, not that I can't say this is going to happen to the extent it was, I, it was part of the contingency plan, right? Because at some point we all have to get back to work, right? Or the world is going to have to reopen. And I think the biggest concern that everybody has, and I talked to a lot of A lot of my friends in the industry who are suppliers and who have production facilities like we do, I have friends that are in many different industries, okay, and they have production staff and even their office staff. And the concern is, is how are we going to make our people and our coworkers and our employees feel comfortable and safe when they come back to work? And I'm glad that I have, you know, an inventory of masks. And gloves. And I had ordered all this stuff in January, and, you know, I had some people tell me, you're crazy, what do you need 500 masks for, you know? And, you know, I have it for my staff, and I know that we're gonna need it when we come out of this because it's not going away so fast. And if you do want to reopen, you know, there are gonna be— there's gonna have to be a criteria of rules that everybody follows. And you see what's happening in other countries, and, and, and listen to what doctors are saying when you want to watch the news about taking people's temperatures when they come to work. I mean, that's going to be a whole new process that nobody ever thought of.

Oh yeah, everyone's going to need thermometers now.

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's— and that's the digital thermometers and that, that whole process. And, you know, if it's going to make your staff feel comfortable by providing them with the safety equipment that, you know, that they need and that we want them to have, you have to have this stuff available, right? So I think it's great for you that you have that available because I think now the industry should rely on each other both supplier to supplier or distributor to distributor, supplier to distributor, you know, and then not only the normal way of, you know, distributor to supplier just placing orders for promotional products, but if we all have the resources available to get the equipment and the supplies that we need to all be safe and operate a business and operate our industry, you know, the industry will make a pretty decent comeback. And I think that it's good that we're all able to support each other that way.

It's true. And you've read a lot of, you know, where people are like, well, you know, stay in my lane. I don't know. I will say that yes, if you are like me, gonna sell masks, gowns, and gloves, you do have to take the time to learn more about it. And then so in that case, you know, I sat on an SGS testing company, did a full webinar outside the industry about what the differences between the KN95s and the N95s, and you should and should not sell, and what a disposable mask looks like. So all of that. So that is good. I really feel like I got a little bit more of an understanding, but I think Companies want to buy from someone that they can trust and not just throw it. Always something the other day, and I don't know why I tell him, don't do anything without talking to me because, you know, hey, I'm like the, you know, like me, you know, he goes and he orders something and then sure enough his credit card gets compromised.

And oh, and on that, I mean, listen, there's so many when you scroll on social media now, you know, and there's so many sponsored ads of these no-name companies that have sanitizer and have sanitizer and sanitizer, you know. And I think that you got to be really cautious because, you know, you don't know who you're going to— you know, and they're, you know, from a marketing standpoint, they're really getting into people's heads. And it's funny because I wanted to talk about that. You know, when I was thinking about the other day, you know, with some of the marketing that we're doing now, and I was going over with our team, you know, some of the social media we're doing. And I think, you know, even for the last 3 weeks, if you look at, you know, LiquiMarkz Instagram and You know, we, we kind of, we always did like a featured item, like once a week, twice a week, we would pick an item, we'd feature it, we'd show uses for it, things like that. And I said a couple weeks ago, as this really started to progress into like the stay home, you know, you know, environment that we're in, I say, you know, we really need to connect to people's minds a little bit, you know, more now than ever before. You really do need to connect with people, and we're in such a different atmosphere, you know, an environment that I wanted to create, you know, social media that just says, hey, we're thinking about you, you know, because it does, you know, it does click. And, you know, and as we come out of it, I think, you know, we're marketers, right? That's what we do. We all do that in the promotional products business. We are in the business of marketing and making your logo look good and helping you brand yourself, right? So, and we as a supplier have to do that to teach you as our distributor sales force about our products and how our products can be used for the entire world, who's your client base. And I think more than ever, as we start to slowly come out of this and get into a new normal, when it comes to sales and marketing of product, doesn't matter if you're Coca-Cola, you know, it doesn't matter if you're these big, big, huge brands, I think we— it's really important that we connect to people's minds and their hearts when we market. Because, you know, this was traumatic. It still is. It's going to be for a really long time. And, um, you know, and even the strongest mindset people in the world that are, you know, will tell you that they're fine and they're moving on and, you know, they're going right back to the old thing, and that's great and they should. There are going to be people who are going to get back to their old ways in a new, in a new environment per se, okay? But they are still traumatized. By what happened in the world and how their lives changed. And I think that from a marketing standpoint, we really need, doesn't matter if you sell pens or you sell apparel or you sell masks or, you know, or you're selling drinkware, it doesn't matter. You know, you really are gonna need to connect with people's minds and their heart when it comes to regenerating a business relationship, you know, and that's my take on it. And that's some of the focus that we're, the way we're going and coming up with different ways of how we can help and coming up with ideas of, you know, how to get— you know, we have to stimulate promo. I mean, that's really it. I mean, when you think about it, sexy, I think, yeah, yeah, you know, stimulate promo.

I really like that idea.

And, you know, but the reality is, is that, you know, we're gonna— this, this is gonna pass. We're gonna move on. Nobody ever thought that this Nobody thought 6 weeks ago we would be where we are today, right? And, and, um, you know, and if we, if we don't come out of this and we don't think how we're going to, you know, be able to help each other, right, it's not going to be good, you know. And I think that right now, um, companies are going to need to really market themselves better than ever. Right. So, you know, people, companies are going to want to make up lost sales. The travel industry, hotel chains, you know, you know, we're going to have to come up with creative ways. And yeah, you have to spend some money to make money. I mean, that's, that is a true fact. It's always been that way, you know, but marketing and promotional products hopefully will make a good comeback, a strong comeback. To helping support rebuilding American business again, you know.

I agree. I love watching. I was reading about First Watch. Do you have a First Watch where you are?

I don't think so.

Oh, First Watch is an amazing restaurant. You would love it. It's really made for you. Yeah, you know, all like the natural— they had the avocado toast before anyone did. They had like 3 in Tucson because Tucson is pretty, um, you know, natural and kind of And so the owner of First Watch, I love how he wrote, like, you know, they're closing the restaurants, they're paying their employees, and they're getting themselves ready to come back full force, but they don't want their employees even trying to do a little work for, so, you know, we see Disney, we see these big companies are really not letting their employees go, keeping their employees, not doing something, you know, not laying off their employees, right away before you even know what's going on. I think what I saw is a lot of companies immediately laying off their employees. They didn't even wait like a week to find out. I think you have to move slowly when these things happen too. Not too slow, but slowly enough to kind of get a gauge of what's going on before you do anything. So I love all the companies that have furloughed their employees or taking care of them. Our industry, you see that a lot.

Yeah, it's very unfortunate. I mean, it's unfortunate, but you know, You know, I think that there's a few ways to look at it. You know, you're right. You have to think about making those decisions smart. You know, it's similar to what I was telling you before. You know, I made a knee-jerk reaction when we had to close, like petition to the state to stay open. And I'm saying to myself, you know, as much as I want to stay open, it's not for the benefit of my employees. You know, the whole point of stay home is keeping people away from each other. I would have felt terrible if I brought a staff of people in and, and they— someone got sick. I mean, even now, I mean, you know, you have to— it's a huge liability even for supermarkets. You know, they have a whole staff there. Someone gets sick. I mean, they're exposed to all the customers. But, you know, you need supermarkets open. You need food. I mean, people have to live, right? So, but I was happy that I, you know, my initial decision took, you know, took me 2 days to really think it through. And I made a decision. I feel like it was the right one. When it came to not bringing people in that day. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully this stay at home, it seems to be from, you know, what we see on the news, it seems to be working. It's not working as fast as we all want it to. I still think that there are areas in the country and people that aren't really complying with it. And, you know, everyone's health is the most important, and eventually, you know, the world will get back to you know, a better place. It will. I'm very confident and optimistic about that.

Me too. And help me think about what's going to take place. So, so because I have to change all, you know, the, in the etiquette, we teach handshakes because most people have like some of the worst things I've ever seen, you know, just, yeah, sure.

People that don't know, now you're not allowed to handshake.

So now we got to get—

how about we go to bowing?

Well, that's— I wrote that like, so I was talking to my friend David, he said maybe a little namaste, maybe even just like this to say, you know, really great to meet you. I was thinking Anything that's antimicrobial is a great opportunity now to have something, because it's still nice to hand something to someone. And I have a feeling people will be worried about business cards, but there's other things that you could do. So I'm just thinking, you know, look—

I like antimicrobial. I like that antimicrobial idea, and it is a really great thing. So we have an antimicrobial line of product, and it's interesting. So years ago we launched it, And it's an additive that we infuse into the plastic when we injection mold plastic components of pens and markers. So I think it was about 10 years ago we launched it. Now we were kind of on the downside of like the economy went kind of downwards around 2000, you know, 2008, 2010, it was still not doing so great. And we had launched this just to add a new product line, this antimicrobial line of product. It does add an additional cost to the product. You're adding more raw materials.

Right, right, right.

So it didn't make it dramatically more expensive, but if you looked at a regular pack of pens, you know, let's say a 4-pack of highlighters in the store, it probably added about 20% of the cost.

It did.

And that was a raw material cost. Okay, so what we found was people love the idea, and at the time, at the time, they didn't think that the benefit was worth the premium. Is that So it didn't sell. It didn't sell. And in January, I said, you know, we were looking at and said we still can make this product and we started, you know, reviving this product line and we're going to be relaunching our antimicrobial product line. So, you know, because, you know, pens and markers and highlighters are still the largest volume promotional products in the industry, right? So to your point, if you can give somebody something that has this antimicrobial, they feel safe about it. You can coat a lot of products with it.

You can, right?

But you're— I don't know what's the right way to greet somebody now. We're not going to be able to hug.

Okay, so first of all, um, thank you for asking. First of all, I can't remember if I have someone coming out. I'm like a dork. I don't remember. I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything. Hold up for one second because I, you know— oh good, you and I are gonna— we got like 3 hours. Okay, so Josh, I just want to say that I won't take 3 hours, we'll just take another 2. Um, People just need to stand up if you can. Obviously, if you can't, if you can't physically stand up or if you're squished against the wall, don't stand up. But I can't believe how many people I see that'll be like, hi, how are you? No, stand up to greet someone. That's gonna mean more now than before. I know you're saying like, Court, was it Adrian's nuts? No, unfortunately, we're both nuts. But like, people don't stand up. You gotta stand— you and I stand up. So stand up. That's immediately one way to show that you're different from everyone else.

Gratitude.

Yes, gratitude. Then look someone in the eye. It's nice to meet you. My name is Adrienne Barker with Halo Branded Promotions. And what is your name?

My name is Josh Goodleman with Liqui Moly. Nice to meet you.

Josh Goodleman. How do you spell Goodleman?

G-O-O-D-E-L-M-A-N. Oh my gosh, I'll remember that. Good.

Oh man. And, you know, make a little fun and always ask someone their name. If they say John, Pat, Chris, right? Like most names, even Josh, though I really actually don't even know if there could be. Or you could even say, oh, Josh, is that— is that— is your name Josh or is it Joshua? If you're like really want to be like, it really is Joshua.

No one ever called me Joshua.

Is it really?

Not even when I got in trouble. Not even when I got in trouble.

See, but now that would have been a conversation. So, you know, name is always something fun for people. So get the name. Maybe you could bring back the old hello, my name is sticker.

Oh my gosh.

That's so true too.

And then we can include a little pen or a permanent marker so they can write their name on.

Here you go with a pen. It's just, it's gonna be a little different. I like the idea of, you know, if you wanna say, so nice to meet you and get a little heart, 'cause people may need to do something with their hands.

Sure. I really think bowing is a good idea.

Bowing is nice. We've always said in the industry, in the profession.

What about a wave? Hi.

That's kinda weird though. Hi, I'm standing in front of you, hi. No tension here, but I—

and, well, you don't want anybody giving you that. You don't want anybody giving you the middle finger. No, bad greeting. No. And it would be really funny.

What was that?

That would be really funny if that's—

oh my God, hi. I won't even do it online because that'll be the one thing that'll come out. But in the etiquette industry, shaking hands is something that really does take a lot of time to teach and to understand. I think now more, uh, it's going to be important to know how to make a proper introduction. So that's something that people want to know. So you're going to stand out from a crowd, you're going to meet someone, you're going to go in for an interview and you've gotta really— now all you've got is yourself. You don't even have your hands to do a good firm handshake. Sometimes, sometimes that's all that someone remembers. My parents—

I think to your point about an interview, to your point about an interview, and that's fine, and I think I can live without that. So I'm a little old-fashioned when it comes to, comes to interviewing. I think that someone coming now, interestingly enough, are we going to be doing in-person interviews like we used to? Hopefully. Okay, because I think that says a lot, but I think that people will be doing a lot of these type of interactive Zoom meeting, FaceTime, whatever, however video type chat or interview, right? But eventually, depending on your environment, you know, they're gonna come to your building, they're gonna come to your office, they're gonna work in your space, right? So I've always been a big believer that the people who show up for an interview prepared, okay, with a copy of their resume and and follow up is huge, and I think it's going to be even bigger now than ever before. I, I, you know, in the last few years I've been very, very disappointed in the working world, okay, when I've interviewed people of all levels of employment, from high-level sales executive down to people in our production staff. I mean, they're all important roles And to me, it doesn't matter. You know, I've always been one that takes a lot of pride on being prepared and following up. Okay, I do it when I go on a sales meeting. It doesn't matter if I show up at the corporate office of Halo or I show up at the corporate office of Walmart. I show up prepared, I show up early, I present myself well, I make sure that I'm dressed nice, and I follow up and I follow up fast. Just thanking them for their time. It's a proper greeting. It's etiquette like you talk about, right? So in the last few years, while the job market was pretty, you know, the unemployment rate was pretty low and it was hard to find, you know, qualified people in certain roles, I would be really disappointed. You know, you'd engage with somebody, we would post an ad, let's say you'd post an ad and you'd engage a conversation via email setting an appointment for an interview and Next thing you know, that person doesn't even show up and they confirm they don't even show up. They don't even say, hey, by the way, you know, send you an email, by the way, as a courtesy, you know, we are unable to make it, or, you know, I accepted an offer somewhere, whatever it may be, you know, to just be courteous of their time. Listen, when— if I wouldn't go to a restaurant I had a reservation at, I always called to cancel in advance, even if I was last minute and I couldn't make it. I just think it's a respectful, courteous thing to do. People show up for interviews, you know, not presenting themselves appropriately. I'm not saying, you know, we're a very business casual environment. Does everybody need to show up in a suit? I think that that would be the right thing ultimately. Do they— if they're, you know, just presented well and not sloppy, I think that that would be sufficient depending on your environment and the type of position. Position they're coming for, and come with a copy of your resume. I can't tell you how many times people don't show up with a copy, and I ask them, "Do you have a copy of your resume?" They say, "No, you have it in your email." That's the answer I get. And it's true, they do. I do, I have it. That's right. But I think it's about being prepared because it says a lot about how they're going to be prepared for doing their day-to-day role if you were to choose to hire that person. And then lastly, I've always had this rule of following up. And it's not that I want someone to, you know, it's, it's about following up, because if they don't follow up with me after an interview, how do I feel comfortable they're going to follow up with my customers? And that's the most important thing, is following up and being courteous to your staff and your customers. And I've always had this rule that if I don't receive a follow-up, I can't consider them for employment. If I told you what I did on my first job interview, I, you know, as a follow-up, and this is— I was a senior in college and I drove from Rhode Island. I went to the University of Rhode Island and I drove from Rhode Island into New York City. I had a final and I had my final in the morning, drove into the city to go on an interview. It was the second round of interview, and then I had to drive back to Rhode Island because I had a final the next day. And on my way back I had this interview. I was wearing a suit. I drove into this— I was like, you know, I had 15 copies of my resume. I don't know how many people I was going to meet with, and it was a meet at that time. It was an interview with AT&T in corporate business development and sales, a huge, huge company. And on my way back to school, I drove back to college, I stopped at a Toys 'R' Us. This is a true story, Adrian. I don't think I ever told you this. I stopped at Toys 'R' Us and I bought a few G.I. Joe figures. I attribute this to a friend of mine's dad gave me this idea. I wrote a letter and in the letter it was about thanking them for their time and I'm a candidate for the job and blah, blah, blah and I'll go to battle for you. I FedExed it that same day that I had the interview. When I got back up to— so I FedEx'd it. I went to a FedEx office and I FedEx'd it overnight, a printed letter that I signed, you know, a real business format letter that I don't even think anybody knows how to write anymore, younger generations, with the little G.I. Joe figures that I'd go battle for you. And then the next afternoon they got the FedEx delivered at 10:30 in the morning, and the next afternoon I had a job offer. And I don't know if it was the follow-up. I don't know if I presented myself well, but I think those things are what stand people out today. And even in the process of sales, you need to stand out. That's the whole point, you know?

And yes, Josh, I actually think that what we're talking about is really important. First of all, when I used to interview, if I had like a window with Muscular Dystrophy Association, I would do this. I would say, I would give someone a parking spot. So I'd say you need to park third one to the right, and I would see if they would follow the directions. And, and really, because that's how you do it. And then part, you know, I'd say, if I was to go out to your car right now and look in your glove compartment, what would I find? And, you know, all those like kind of questions. But I will tell you, when I opened up the gallery over in Daytona Beach at Tanger Outlets, I was surprised how— what was going on. And I didn't understand this. So at one point, I was just getting, you know, I was looking for someone that had some art experience retail, but at one point I was having really a lot of trouble finding some good staff. I decided that I would really change it up on Indeed, and I asked for a bachelor's degree and 10 years of retail.

Wow.

Okay, okay. And all of these emails are coming, all these, you know, from Indeed emails are coming in, and I'm like out loud saying, what is going on? Why is it that like, you know, you worked at a Chick-fil-A but like you never worked retail? Like I couldn't understand it. No degrees, So I hired a really lovely man, David, who a graduate of, uh, FSU, I think, in Tallahassee, right? Uh, with an art degree. He's fantastic. We're still friends. But during that time, I was like trying to understand what was going on. Well, then it hit me. Someone said to me, Adrienne, what you are experiencing is when someone's on unemployment, they have to get 5 a day, right? So they're out there trying to get 5 a day of interviews or 5 a day of just saying that they applied. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. So then I start digging a little bit more. So now at this point, I'm active with the chamber and I'm meeting CareerSource, which is our like contractor for unemployment. And I'm finding out that this is very true. And what a lot of companies are doing is that now they have to hire an outside source. So just having someone like me just being able— because Indeed is a great program. It's really simple.

We use it. Yeah.

You let people know. I've always let people know. No matter what, I would reject them right away. And at the end, if I had a few, nobody could ever say that Adrian didn't let them know yes or no and wasn't, you know, make sure that they got in a timely manner so they can move on. But this is really this. I would like to suggest that's part of like in my mind for business that we get back to another way because the strain on the employer is way too, too much for them to have to go through. And not just because someone has to get 5 jobs. There should be a better way of doing it. And because it really—

yeah, that, that scenario is just going to get worse with the unemployment level the way it is today. Because coming out of this situation, you know, you want to hope you're going to be able to restore your staff to what it is, but there's going to be, you know, there could be areas where you can't, and you're going to have to— and we're going to need to hire people, and the pool of people should be great because there's so many people unemployed. Right. So there has to be a new way, you know, and I like the way, you know, you talk about etiquette, right. I, you know, and maybe I have friends that would tell me when I would go so frustrated, I was supposed to have 4 people show up for interview today, you know, only 1 showed up, the other 3 didn't show up, or 2 showed up, they don't even come in, they don't even prepare, they're not prepared, they don't follow up. And I had someone once, a friend of mine in another industry, once tell me, you're setting your your expectations too high. You're just not going to get that in today's world. You're not. You're not going to get the follow-up that you would do and that you would expect. But, you know, if I'm looking to hire a salesperson or a customer service person, or, you know, I— or even if it's someone in our production staff that's going to be communicating with vendors, and, you know, I need to feel confident that they have those good communication skills to do a proper follow-up And I don't think that's too, too much to ask for today's world. And I think that, I think that, you know, that there, there should be some opportunity on teaching people, and you can do it for sure, you know, that what that etiquette should be coming out of a, a crisis mode, a high level of unemployment, and how to help people, you know, really get their careers back on track.

Exactly. So we used to call it soft skills. It's really essential skills. It's emotional intelligence and communication is the number one problem that employers will say. Oh, they just got rid of me in the stream. That it's the— I'm still here. You just, just—

I know you froze, Adrian. I can hear you.

Yeah, but yeah, just probably just the streaming thing, but emotional intelligence. So really actually having the ability to, to communicate. And I'm proud that Volusia, you know, the Volusia school system is actually working on that. We were working with the career technical education part of to bring in, you know, these soft skills, which are so important. But I want to say the other end too. I'm going to just see if I can reconnect my camera.

Yeah, I hear you now. The screen just—

oh, there I am. I'm coming in. Whoa, there I am. And let me hide the other— so, so wait, now you're actually—

there you go.

I applied for an executive level position with a local company here. There were just 4 of us at the end. It was a part-time executive director position. And I could not believe that they did not get back to me. It was the craziest thing. And so, and you know what, 2 months later I ran into one of the men that was there in the hiring and I said, and he said, oh, how are you? It's nice to see you. And I said, you never, you never got back to me. You never told me yes or no. I mean, just not a good look for any of that. So as an employer, that's so important. People will remember you. Running the gallery, in my mind, anyone could be a client. So I was having a little problem with the thing. Anyone could be a client. So of course I want to, you know, I don't want to give anyone a feeling that Barker Animation doesn't do anything nice or that we— how we treat people. So it's so important to really just be brilliant with how you interview and how— I keep coming in the stream, it's hilarious.

Right now, just, you know, I don't see you. Now I see you.

Look, you want to see— you want to see a few of me? Oh yeah, there you go. Wait, what's going on? Oh, this is a fun program. But anyways, I, uh, I love talking to you. I'm so glad.

I'm like honored to be on this with you. I was— I've been watching some of the, uh some of the guests you have, and, and they're all incredible, and it's informative, and I think it's a nice way to connect with people. You know, I've, in the last few weeks, even when this first started, you know, I'm so grateful for, you know, the friendships that I've created with people like you and in our industry, in the promotional products industry. We are one very big dysfunctional family.

We really are.

And, and we are, and, and I think that's it's funny because people ask me all the time, you know, what do you like doing more? Do you like the retail side of your business where we sell Walmart and all major retailers, or do you like the promotional product side of the business? The answer to that is I do, I love it both. I do, I love them both. But I have this like real emotional attachment to the promotional products industry. And it's only because it's a little bit different. You know, there can be some corporate if you want to look at it that way, you know, level of doing business in promotional products, certainly. But it's definitely more personal. It's definitely more, I think of, there's definitely a higher level of mutual respect and, you know, people who want to hear your ideas, not just crunch numbers all the time. And, you know, I'm grateful. I mean, I have, there's distributors who are customers, suppliers, friends who, you know, we've become part of each other's families, you know, that I've, I've been invited and been in, in, in their homes for holidays, invited to their birthdays, and vice versa. And, you know, I think that our industry is going to make an incredible comeback. I think we as people in this world will make an incredible comeback, and I think that the industry itself will, will make a great comeback because we, you know, we have great people in it that support support each other, and that's what's really, really nice.

So I didn't go to Las Vegas this year because I made a decision to go to Tallahassee to meet— yeah, and it really made sense because now if Paul says, okay, we need to, you know, who do you know in Florida, Adrienne? You know, I have people that I connected with that I have at least the ability to, to get Paul some answers or get Paul a meeting if needed. So I thought that was really important. I've also— I want to share with you, I've also— I also, by the way, with SCORE— I love SCORE, I love business, so I love SCORE. I'm a certified mentor and the, uh, market—

I remember.

Yeah, I love— I do the marketing here for Volusia Flagler, all volunteer. Um, and of course right now we're really busy because everyone wants to talk about how to either start their business or how they can make sure that their business is going to be strong.

Make sure you sell them all pens.

Oh, I can't, that's a conflict of interest. I'm not— when I'm working with a SCORE client I'm not allowed to sell anything. That's like 100%.

Oh, okay.

But I do mentor distributors and I mentor suppliers. And then you know what else I've been doing? I have been consulting in the industry. So I am on Upwork and I've been getting some business on Upwork. And I've also been, um, I'm on a couple of the larger, really large companies, and they will call me and I consult for a pretty penny because why not? 35 years I've been doing this. So I, what I think that I have a lot of experience. Yeah, well, I, yeah, because, you know, at one point someone said, Adrian, you know so much, you know. I'm like, well, everyone does, but they're like, how you are able to consult and how you're able to share that knowledge is also part of the, the trick. So I, uh, I've been doing okay because of all of that, and I, I have to get a little bit more, uh, I call it hustle. My friends like, don't say the word hustle, but I just need to get out there a little bit more. And so I've been really working on that. I had a couple of big things that were in the lineup, so I'm hoping to, you know, still be able to do that. So like everyone else, you know, I, I believe in the past, present, and future, and you work a little bit every day with your past, your present, and your future to make sure. So I, uh, and this is a great way for me to continue being relevant in the in and out of the industry. But the reason why I'm doing it, I want to show off my friends because I have said Oh, you like this? You should see— you should be Josh. You should— this is a family.

Well, I'm glad you got to show me off. So I'm honored.

It is, it really— that's what it's about. So hashtag show off your friends. And if anybody wants to do this, the, the BeLive, B-E-L-I-V-E. The studio was easy to get into, right?

Yeah, it was great.

Computer or your phone?

I'm using my computer.

Nice. Okay, so you don't really have to download an app or anything, right?

No, no.

So very easy program. It works out nicely. And, uh, and I give you— let me wish you the best day ever. Are your beaches— what are your beaches?

No, the beaches are closed. The beaches are closed.

Okay.

But there's like a— there's a path, um, there's a big wide path in front of the beach that you can go walking or running on. And, you know, I mean, it's— everything's— the beach has been closed for, I think it's almost 4 weeks now.

Wow. We didn't close our beaches. So we— you could no longer swim because someone drowned. And of course there's some terrible— yeah, so now there's no more swimming. But, um, but my problem is— and that I was gonna go, but I'd have to use the ocean to go to the bathroom. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Now I'm like, stop. I have to like— I'd have to run to the beach, enjoy like 45 minutes, and like hurry up and come home. Anyways, so yeah, have a good rest.

Have a great day. Thanks for having me. I love you.

I love you. I'll see you soon.

Bye. Remember, we have LiquiMark.

Oh yeah, beautiful. That was fun. All right, and I just stopped.