Candid Conversation with Host Adrienne Barker, MAS

How cool is this, huh?

Creativeawards.net is in the house.

Do that. What do the kids do? They do that stuff, you know.

Oh yeah, wait, so you— have you, have you seen the whole promo show that they have going on where you could go into the, uh, the vendors' like booths, like the virtual booths, the, the virtual trade show?

Yeah.

Yeah, that is so, so cool.

We're, uh, you know, we have, we have a showroom here at Apogee, uh, that we use for our, uh, local distributors, um, and, uh, and I'm not in the showroom, I'm about 15 feet away from that, but I did, I did kind of set up my little— I got my little showroom. I got all the fun little Halo things. Uh, I want to tell the story.

I want to tell this story. I want to share my story. We all get emails. We all make a decision whether we're going to open an email, are we going to read the email, and are we going to respond to the email. Very easy decisions. And granted, I do multitask, probably not a good thing. And I'm quick, you know, because I'm older. One of the big shows that we have in the industry, and I read every email, and I get this email from a supplier I'm not familiar with, 35 years in the industry. I'm very nicely— just talks about the awards. It says, come to the booth, Adrienne, I want to meet you, I want to just introduce you to the booth. And something made me print it out. And then I went to the show with Jennifer Campbell, and I'm in the show with Jennifer, and we're ready to leave. And I say, Jennifer, before I go, I feel like there's something in my head. I gotta— give me a minute. I want to open up the bag. I want to go to the book. I want to look at my note. I'm missing something. And I'm like, I know what it is I'm missing. I want to go to see a, a panchi. I don't know if I said it correctly. I I want to go meet this guy. He has something unique. So I'm gonna think app, like appetizers, but apogee. So I go over to the booth and they're so beautiful and so nice, and they say, Adrian, we talk a little bit, they say, we have a gift for you. Now who wouldn't be absolutely thrilled? I mean, I know, right? Oh my God, it's just— and it's, it's acrylic here, wood, my name is engraved beautifully. It's missing the MAS, but that's okay. But I love it. I absolutely love it. And, and now we've developed a relationship. Now I need to start sending him orders and now we need to like talk awards because having something like this. Now what this allows me is sometimes when I'm on a call, I'll strategically place it or sometimes I just hold it up. So it's not like for virtual. Now these kinds of awards really make a difference. When you have something behind you, you could really show it off. So let's talk about creativeawards.net, and John's going to walk us through, uh, something wonderful he's got in store for us. I'm very— I'm tongue-tied.

You know, Adrian, I, I love that story because it's pretty well documented. You, you said some very favorable things, and that's awesome. Thank you. Now, um, it was Customized. It was with, with the Halo logo, and it was personalized. And I watched your reaction when you got it. You were hypnotized. So basically, I just want to make sure everybody knows you can customize things, you can personalize things. The best thing is when they get it, they're hypnotized. Now, every time— and you like it, thank you. But every time you look at that, you know, you might look at it and say, oh, I like that. But you are always thinking about Apogee and Creative Awards. And yeah, we, we know that you've given us many opportunities to help your clients with recognition. So, and it's because of that. And eventually one day that will be— and that's, that's kind of why we're here, because we wanted to talk a little bit about positioning. 40 Years Later, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind 40 Years Later. And for all the viewers that aren't familiar with Al Ries and Jack Trout's book, in 1981, they wrote a book called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. And it was this book, I was just in college, I was studying marketing, and I grabbed this thing. And it's like, hmm, the battle for your mind. I want to read a marketing book. Well, I get into it and I realize that positioning is a term that marketers use to talk about how they want their clients to perceive their brand, how they want their clients to think about their company. And so today, we're going to talk about positioning and the battle for your mind and how it relates 40 years later And I know that, uh, for me, uh, my position— my position is pretty simple. You know, everybody's got a personal brand. Uh, I just— I make mine really simple. I love it. I'm kind of— I'm kind of a big deal. Just go ahead and ask me, right? My daughter gave that to me for Father's Day, and I said, how did you know? I am Rob Burgundy. I don't know how to— I don't know how to tell you this, but But, um, positioning, you know, for all your clients, they're always trying to help their customers think about their product when their customers want to buy that category. And, uh, like you and I talked last week, we said, you know, are you doing everything you can do Are you using the tools so that when your clients are thinking about products that you offer, are they thinking about you? And for me, I'm in the recognition business. And I just want people to know that when they're asking you for recognition ideas, you're thinking about me and it's working. So thank you.

I love it. Oh yeah, keep going. I just, I'm just so—

I want to keep going because I am, uh, I'm not 60, but I'm not 30. Okay, um, by the way, how's this looking? I told my wife, I said, I'm okay, I'm okay with not getting my hair cut. I'm gonna let my hair grow out. I want to look like Jackson Brown. She goes, yeah, and I want to look like Farrah Fawcett. I'm like, you be quiet. So when I was in college and I was studying marketing, they always talked about the 4 Ps, right? Product, price, promotion, place. Wait, actually it goes product, price, place, promotion. And those are the 4 Ps of marketing, and they're kind of fun. It's an easy way for young people to understand the elements of marketing, but we've evolved a little bit. And really, the 4 elements of marketing, uh, the way that I have for decades, I go into the classrooms and I help young people who wanna study marketing develop a comprehensive view of what marketing is because it is a very broad stroke. When you're flying at 40,000 feet and you say marketing, you're really referring to sales Advertising, promotions, and public relations. And how that relates to the 4 Ps now, really sales, the first element of marketing, is really everything from who's gonna make it, what are you gonna price it as, who are you gonna sell it to, how are you going to ship it? And all the salespeople involved and all that stuff when it comes to product. And price is all wrapped up into sales. Now, in our industry, the promotional products industry, or specifically for me, the recognition industry, uh, we can talk about sales in many different ways. But I know the people who buy awards from us don't buy awards from us, they sell awards. And they can't buy them unless their clients want them. So I try to tailor everything in that regard. And I, I know that I'm no good to any of the distributor sales reps out there if I'm not just helping with the overall concept of recognition. So maybe before we get into promotion, uh, advertising and public relations, we talk a little bit about recognition, and that's really the catch-all here when it comes to discussing awards, right? Because when we were younger, when you were at the cheerleading camp and they gave you the Sexiest Cheerleader Award, you know, that little trophy, that was an award. And, you know, we've evolved now. We, we don't really talk about awards for employees. We talk about recognition, or the buzzword really is employee engagement, right? So employee engagement is so crucial nowadays, um, because I mean, think about the workforce. It's, uh, it's not the old-timers like you and I, okay? Or, you know, the not-so-young-anymore people like you and I. It's really about these millennials that have overpopulated in a good way, our workforce. And 86% of millennials in the workforce consider recognition to be a vital aspect of their enjoyment. What they seek in a job, what they like in a job, 86% of them like recognition. And isn't that interesting? We used to think, oh, you know, Who wants to have a, a super cool piece that is given to them? No. Yeah, they love that. They want to put it on their shelf and they want to say, yo, I was just recognized as— well, I got 25 years in. Well, clearly millennials don't have 25 years in, but if 86% of the largest, uh, category in the workforce think it's a very vital part of their job, oh, we've gotta pay attention to it. So all your clients that are out there that rely on promotional products, they are always thinking about employee engagement, whether or not they know it or they wanna do something for their people. It could be personal recognition just for having a great attitude. It could be specific recognition for reaching a milestone or years of service, which is huge. Okay. Employees— employers have a hard time really paying their staff enough because their staff can always boost their resume. You can shop themselves around.

I'm gonna go— go ahead. No, you're good. I'm gonna hide myself so that, so that the, uh, Oh, I see what you're doing.

Oh, I see what you're doing. Oh, why, can you guys see awards in my— can you see awards in my— can you see recognition items in my, in my background? Isn't that amazing? Well, um, let me just grab this. This is not 7th place. This is actually, um, a racetrack's logo, uh, and, and my— and the owner of the Apogee, he doesn't let me hold the 1st place But he will let me hold the second place award. But getting back to recognition, you know, personal recognition just for having a great attitude or specific recognition for achieving certain milestones, sales achievements, being part of a team that was successful in solving a problem, or an example of what you talked about, unexpected recognition. Oh, my goodness. Adrian. Yo, Adrian. Yo, Adrian is John. Yeah. Apogee. Hey, before you leave the trade show, don't forget to stop by your booth. My booth. I got something for you. And you got there and you saw something that was customized, personalized. And I looked and I watched you with that thing. You were like, I've been hypnotized. I've been hypnotized. Yeah, recognition. There's a lot of angles on there, but everybody knows the value of it. Just keeping that employee engaged is crucial because, boy, you want employees, you want your workforce to take ownership of what's going on in the workplace. When employers are successful, giving their employees ownership of what's going on, it's overwhelming the success and how they feel about their job and, and, uh, keep, keep keeping that up. So this whole entire business that's around us here, we've got about 40,000 square feet.

Wow.

It's all because of employers recognizing employee engagement.

Jen, I want to go back to the beautiful piece that's behind you that I could see, the one that you were just holding up, the last one. Can you hold it up again? Could you take a second and explain how— I mean, this piece, someone may look at it and be like, yeah, yeah, no, explain how much work goes into it and how much of this by hand, because I mean, you very rarely see someone have—

yeah, it really is something, you know, obviously.

I mean, it's not even just a work now, it becomes a piece of art, like a sculpture. Would you mind, uh, romancing it a little bit, describing it?

Let's talk about it for a little bit. Um, awards, clearly, in auto racing, uh, what it's got, it's acrylic racing, you know, uh, it's, it's hard not to think about those events and see the people that are on the podiums. My goodness, uh, Olympics, right? Gold, silver, bronze. This particular piece is for a customer who sells awards to large racing organizations that host awards. You know, we got a wood base, we wrap it with steel, we put the imprints on it, we do it specific to the race, we put the race's logo on it, we put the sponsor's name on it, we put additional sponsors here. So when they're up on the podium, they can do this. And that's really amazing, getting away from race awards We should probably talk about just the wide palette of materials that are so prevalent to use when we're talking about awards. You see a lot of steel, you see metal, you see acrylic, but you also see a lot of wood. And wood is a very warm thing for awards.

Wait, I want a little more description. Wait, wait, Chad, is it— it looks like it's like acrylic and then you put it on, it's like a 3D. I want you to explain like how, because you've got, you've got so many moving to it.

Yeah.

Um, what's in the middle of this? What is it, just different color wood? It looks like an overlay.

This is the color, and we use acrylic because our lasers can cut out specific words, and our other printers can print things on it. So we can take what is bamboo— by the way, a renewable resource— um, we can take bamboo and we can decorate it, or we can take— with ink— we can take bamboo like this, and we can also decorate it like that. Or yeah, isn't that— isn't that fun? There's a lot going on here. So, you know, if a company's logo, if their main color is blue, we can take that and customize it. And when it comes to recognition, remember we used to talk about recognition as being— you, you said it yourself, your client wanted to get their employees some plaques, and you said Plaques? Plaques? You're talking plaques? We can do so much better, right? I mean, people might rather have a tap handle, you know. I mean, you know, you know, get a tap handle instead of a plaque because now you can put that on your shelf and say, yep, I just got myself a tap handle. Someday when I get that kegerator kegerator. You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning. Oh my gosh, yes.

Is it a real handle too, or—

it is a real tap handle, fits right on the tap.

I love that.

Um, but plaques, you know, you can do plaques But now we take glass and we paint the glass and then we decorate it and we put it in matching frames. By the way, shout out to all the first responders, frontliners out there, right? Huh? Don't forget to get those people some recognition. That's right. That's right. But that's more in the lines of something that's a little bit more acceptable when it comes to a plaque. Sometimes— oh, sometimes people might want to go a little bit more industrial. Look at how cool this is, right? We got the, uh, ridiculous— we got the little cage. Take a picture of that. Take a picture of that. But yeah, you know, this doesn't look like regular recognition. This looks like really cool recognition, right?

I love it.

Um, let's see if I got some other things that I can show you here. Um, no, no, no, let me, uh, put that right here. Um, here's a plaque that I think is pretty cool because it still— it doesn't look like a plaque. Look at that, it's a little shadow box with a little standoff inside there and done up exactly for M Ink. Look at that.

I can't, I can't see.

You can't, you can't, you can't. Now if you don't want to hang it on your wall, it comes, it comes with that. But you know, isn't that cool? So yeah, plaques. Oh, we got plaques. Look at this. Now this is gonna blow your mind.

Oh, that's gorgeous.

Yeah, so you know, multi-layered. We got glass. We got bendable aluminum, which is really a high-tech product. When we came across bendable aluminum, we're like, we can do stuff like that. People have these things done up in certain sizes just so they can go to a car show and have a big sign sitting right next to their '64 Malibu, or in your case, the 1972 El Camino. Oh, I know you had it all coming on. I love it.

What's that? Realtor of the Year. Realtors need a lot of awards. That's a beautiful, beautiful gift.

Oh yeah, the Realtor of the Year. Uh, let's see, what do I got for realtors around here? Um, oh, I got, uh, and I think you've seen something like this. Here is a Listing Agent of the Year. Okay, for Highland Estates, this agent listed more properties than anybody else. Again, it's a very recurring thing. It's just a very wide palette of materials, and you know, that can sit on— it can sit on the desk or it can hang right on the wall. Bam. Um, we love talking about recognition. Here's a super hot item people use all the time. They are puzzles. Look at this.

Beautiful.

Look at this. So now this company gave it to all their employees who were involved with sales, and every time they reached a certain level— and there was 4 levels, right? You got the bronze, the silver, the gold, and the platinum level— they were able to complete their puzzle. And so when they sat around the sales office You can see that your, your counterparts, they were already up to gold and you hadn't even got your bronze. Come on, snap to it! Let's go, let's go! Build that puzzle, let's go! Now when you talk about puzzles, you, you know, you know where we're going with this one. You're an important piece of the puzzle. I got myself a piece of the puzzle. And look at that, you know. Now we do the schematics, you know. Can you imagine a 12-piece puzzle Employee of the Month? That's cool because outside of Human Resources you get to see Jane, Debbie, Martha, Frank, Gerald, and John all one Employee of the Month. That's cool, but they got to have their piece to take it home with them. Yep, it's a man, man, a piece. It says, honey, I'm gonna put this on the mantle, um, right next to my mother-in-law's photo, and so that when she comes over, she can see that I was Employee of the Month. January, slow month.

Um, you know what, I don't want, um, I don't want to be, uh, Debbie Wait, John, but when— wait, can you hear me? When I have seen when families have passed away, when someone's passed away, that that award is actually handed down. That's how— nobody throws away awards. So you get an award like that, the family— I want this, I want this to remember my mom.

I'm glad you did because I'm excited. Oh, passed away 7 years ago. He spent 60 years in the fishing tackle industry, and he rose to the highest levels of the fishing tackle industry. And the amount of awards that are hanging in his 4 children's homes and his 12 grandchildren's homes are priceless. I mean, everybody got some of Grandpa's awards to hang in their house. It's, it's unbelievable. It's, uh, Yeah, it's, it's amazing. Even something as simple as a $20 item just to sit on your desk for being Employee of the Month. I mean, you know, every time they walk by June's desk, they see that June was the Employee of the Month last year in August, and they just like, yo, June, you're the woman. Let's see what else I got here. It's kind of fun. Um, oh, we do. These items are called Double Visions because, you remember, customized, personalized, hypnotized. You can have these things created to match your position.

You—

even your employees are getting items that are tailored to your logo, to your colors. Here is the architecture of the month. Okay, of the Building Energy Alliance. Okay, and so you can see what they did here is they took one of their favorite buildings and they put it on there. And isn't that just fun? And what a simple little item. And you think Samuel's gonna put that in his office? He's like, watch out, world, give me a hammer, I'm putting this up.

Um, and he's putting it on social media. He's taking pictures of it and he's pushing it on every single platform.

Oh yeah, and if he's, uh, and, and if, if his wife likes him, she might even say, hey, look at what Samuel won. Um, you never know what's going on out there, but this is a recurring product. These are bamboo traced uprights, but this goes to John Gallop. Thank you for your efforts during these difficult times. What, you know, $30 well spent to recognize it. Hey, bamboo perch! They weren't sure if Don wanted to have this or not, but look at how fun that is. I got more here, I got more here. What, can, can I show you the Rustic Champ? Look at this. This is barn wood, and this is the Florida's, uh, Manufacturers Association. And look at this, they rewarded a bourbon manufacturer for being the manufacturer of the month. And isn't that— isn't that fun? It reminds me of oak barrels and the bourbon, although we're, we're only 12 hours removed from Cinco de Mayo last night, and, uh, let me just tell you, it wasn't bourbon. Although on Yahoo, it feels like bourbon. Oh hey, I'm not gonna say what customer this one is for, but remember when I mentioned, uh, the bendable aluminum? Well, an architect just got awarded a big contract and it's because of his extra work in the architect firm where they got the building made in the shape. And so we're going to decorate this one with his outstanding achievement for his new designs. It's very solar, very beautiful. Isn't that cool? We're going to call that— we're going to call that the Tower of Power, and it's going to show up on an Earth, Wind and Fire Album.

Album. You're funny. But John, you know what, actually serious, these are really also one of a kind. That means that nobody else— like, you can have it. Like, nobody else has this award, obviously, with my name on it, but maybe they have this. But some of these awards that you're seeing, nobody else has it. They're— that, you know, when someone says, Adrian, how many awards do I need to order? What do I say, John?

If you, if you want a custom award made to look like the minimum, whatever it is, we draw the line in the sand and we say you have to buy one. If you can clear that hurdle, one, right? You can have an award custom made.

You can imagine one, one that one.

So when you do this catalog, you can imagine how difficult it is to create a catalog when everything is made to order, right? What we do is we just basically have an ideas book. This stuff didn't exist until somebody ordered it, right? These items didn't exist till somebody wanted something cool. That Captain cutout right there Again, because somebody ordered that thing about 5 years ago, now people have other things cut up, like they use it for their 5-year award. This is our Echo Gecko. Normally it's made out of bamboo, but the Angus Breeders Association thought it was so cool if we could paint it black because their logo would be on it. And this went to the best small herd, the Corma Jane Ranch. And now every year the Angus Breeders Association has a very specific award. Looks like nobody's award in the world, by the way. I'm at my— it matches my, my phone case.

I just love— I want to make a pitch for a second. I want to say this. This is really what you're looking at right now when you're watching. This is a partnership. You're looking at me with Halo working closely with Halo, and then we work closely with John to take whatever your needs are and create the award. So the sales pitch is very simply, if you have been thinking about doing awards, if you haven't been thinking about doing awards, if you want to during this time of COVID-19 when you do have employees going above and beyond doing things that maybe they haven't done. Think about something special. Don't just go on and order a plaque. The prices are not what you think. They are very reasonable. John and I can look, we'll work within your budget, we'll work within the materials that make sense for you and your team. And all we ask is that you just give me a call and say, Adrian, let's talk awards and recognition.

Adrian, I have a product development team Uh, that just went out to Montana to test some of the cartridges that they designed, and they're very pleased. I have this photo that I want to see, can I incorporate it into an award and just give it to those 5 people who are on that team? And you're like, yeah, give it to me. Whoa, did you say Montana? Oh yeah, we can make it look like Montana. And look at how beautiful that is. That award is printed right on that Montana pine. And now all those guys that were involved with that project will have— you think they'll have that for any length of time? And can you imagine getting something like that for those people? They're like, you know, $45 a piece. I mean, that, you know, it's unbelievable.

Um, forever awards. Forever awards, that's really what it is. They last forever.

They really do. I think there was something else I was going to show you. Oh, you know, by far the largest category of recognition across our country today is a category called perpetuals, meaning they are recurring awards, and we want put those items— they want to put those people's names on things and leave it in the office, or it might travel from office to office. So when we make these, you know, we'll set it up so that— yeah, yeah, set it up so we have a spot for every winner. This one is four-sided. Isn't that fun? By the way, you recognize that? You recognize that last name? Um, but anyhow, look at that, you get 6 on each side, and if I could multiply by 4, I could tell you how many times that would be good for.

Oh, I will— so many people do that. Oh wait, what? That's so funny, Bark. Oh, we have one in, in town, Barker. Oh, B-A-R-K-E-R. I love the logo. Oh my God, what a beautiful, beautiful—

Hey, do you, uh, you have time for me to, uh, just go grab one more thing? Because, uh, sometimes recognition can be fun and games. Hold on.

Yes, yes, yes.

Don't, don't go anywhere. Uh, tell them how to, how to, how to get a hold of you in the meantime.

How to get a hold of me? Oh, that's fun. Isn't it fun? I feel like I want to just go right into his room. Okay, get a hold of me very easy because my number is over everything: 386-631-4577. I have been 35 years in this industry. I am— I have my Master's of Advertising Specialties. I'm a PPAI fellow. I'm a SCORE certified mentor. I love the community, and I am so proud to be with Halo Branded Solutions. 70 years in business. Halo knows what they're doing. So— oh, you look good, John. So, so— oh, I can't wait. All right, all right, let me, um, let me reduce myself to size. Let me put myself down. There I go.

All right. In this day of quarantine, uh, you know, people are doing, uh, things like, uh, virtual card games and virtual whatever. But before all that happened, you know, companies would have outings and they would like have a poker tournament or something like this. This particular poker tournament, they wanted to give the winner an award. And so they do it every single year, and people who would never play poker go to play poker because they see that trophy sitting on people's desks or that piece of recognition. So look at— they did this, uh, we did this little special poker award for this company. Isn't that fun? And that's— it's made out of Simstone or like Corian, so it's, so it's heavy. It's like It's very fun, isn't that cool? Um, other, other fun and games. Yeah. Um, hey, you know, sometimes you want to give your employees the really cool gifts. Um, can I, can I, can I show you this one? Uh, hold on. Yeah, I gotta— I better, I better, I better, better cover up the— better cover up the logo just in case. I don't have a approval to, to show it, uh, with the logo on it. I'm not dropping names, but if I was, you know what name I would drop? Halo.

Oh, these are really works of art. These are, to me, they're pieces of art. They're really— this is where art blends with recognition to become—

look at this idea. This was just an unexpected gift this company gave their employees because we came up with this idea. It's a travel cribbage board decorated with their logo and a spot. And, and look at it, it, it, it snaps together with magnets. It can't even— but you can put a deck of cards in there and the things.

Oh, I love it. Recognition.

Recognition. Just simple, you know, unexpected recognition. Wow. Give me ownership of that company. I just— recognition. Well, and you know how much I had, how much fun I had today. I just wanted to say thank you for letting me be kind of a, you know, big deal. Um, is there anything else?

I don't think— my, my mouth hurts. I've smiled so much. This was fabulous.

Um, if we— if you keep me on the line here any longer, I'm gonna start doing my Rodney Dangerfield. Hey, you know, I'm telling you, I said to my son, I said to my son, I said, hey, you know, wait to have kids of your own someday, you know. He said, same to you. I'm telling you, no respect, no respect at all.

I love you, John. Oh my God, this is, this is truly what partnerships are about. This is really what a partnership is about. So, so happy. You, you're, you're fantastic. I cannot wait to see you either in Las Vegas or Orlando or hopefully both. I am really, really excited to see you. Thank you so much. You are fantastic. You are the best. And no, you cannot work directly with John. You have to work directly with me and then I can work with John.

I think that's important to know. You know, you know, you have to be a promotional products person. You have to have certain industry certifications for APPA G to build your awards. So Peace, love, and halo, toots.

You got it. Thank you, John. You're the best.

This is the best.

You deserve an award for this. This was an award-winning show.