Episode 210: How to Make the Most Out of skucon 2022!

Welcome to Skucast, the podcast for entrepreneurs in the promotional products industry. Skucast shines a light on our industry's best work, features maverick personalities, and discusses what's really involved in running a modern promotional products business. Skucast is the official podcast of Common Skew.

Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, the Chief Content Officer at Common Skew. As most of you know, we made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person event at SkewCon, but sometimes difficult decisions can turn into amazing opportunities. And SkewCon Virtual is now happening on Tuesday, January 18th. And in this very short episode, Mark Graham, Common Skew's President and Chief Brand Officer, and I unpack 3 things. Number 1, the highlights you can expect from the event. Number 2, how to make the most out of SKUCon. Mark shares some excellent ideas on how to not only ensure your entire team is actively engaged, but also how to create an action plan following the event. And number 3, finally, we share with you our thinking behind canceling the in-person event, but more importantly, Mark and I talk about how we live in a world now of surprising disruptions and how COVID gave us each a new muscle for responding in ways that still propels progress. If you haven't already signed up you and your team for SKUCON, I encourage you to go to skucon.com right now and register. And what I encourage you to do is think about registering those colleagues that are not only in sales-forward seats in your organization, but invest in those who aren't. That's the beauty of a virtual event. You can invite everyone to it. You might have folks in production and admin positions, and regardless of their role, what attending SKUCON together as a team will give you is an incredible forward momentum. Instead of coming away from the event pulling everyone along, you'll be able to work through your actionable ideas beside colleagues who are on the same page and excited with you about what the year brings. SKUCon will be on Tuesday, January 18th, and starts at 11:00 AM ET. I hope to see you there. Today's episode is brought to you by CommonSKU, the work from anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more or begin your free trial now, visit commonsku.com. And now here's my chat with Mark, and I kick off this discussion with this question.

Tell me what is at the top of your mind when I say, what are you excited about the most for SKUCon?

I think for me, Bobby, right from the very beginning when we launched SKUCon, it was always about two things. It was the people in the room. First and foremost, the people in the room. I know this year that people won't necessarily be in the room physically, they'll be in the room virtually, but that still hasn't diminished my excitement to see these amazing, energetic, curious people that will be attending our event. Always starts with the people in the room. And number 2 is just this, the eclectic range of speakers that we have on stage every year. And so this year we've got non-industry pros like Davis Smith from Cotopaxi, Aaron Draplin from Draplin Design Company, that are our non-industry speakers that are going to come and give us a bird's eye view, a 30,000-foot view about where things are at from their perspective. But then, then you pair that with incredible industry experts, people that are running huge multimillion-dollar businesses, to people that are focused on things like emotional intelligence and how to manage teams effectively in this current climate. And it's eclectic, it's wide-ranging, and it's so exciting for me to put together these two elements, these attendees and these eclectic speakers. And you put them in this room and you kind of shake it up, and it's this interesting cocktail that at the end of the day, I don't think anyone really knows what's going to come from it, but it's always very special.

Yeah, I love that too. One of the things that I love the most is that we have these amazing speakers, like you said, that come in at a 20,000-foot view, that paint a picture of where we've been, where we're going, but also incredibly practical speakers too. And I'll give you an example just to juxtapose two of them. You have Davis Smith, who I had the privilege of interviewing before on the Skewcast. Some will remember, super genuine person, so kind and such a magnanimous person, but also a very compassionate about business and doing good with business. And so I love talking with him because he's the same person off camera as he is on camera. And as I was chatting with him last week, as we were sort of making the big change from, from SKUCon in person to SKUCon virtual, he said, you know, I'm in the middle of a CEO search. We've been through 1,000 resumes. And, you know, you look at an organization like his where he's on the path to become the next Patagonia or surpass the next Patagonia in that sense. What an opportunity to have him be with us on room and then talk about the business from our perspective. And you and I always love these personalities that sort of bridge our world from consumer and retail, streetwear, whatever it might be, fashion into the industry, because I don't think there are as many distinctions before. So juxtapose Davis with Aaron Draplin, who, if you're not familiar with Aaron, I just need to tell you, buckle up. For one thing, you don't know what you're going to get from Aaron. So that's something you should definitely show up for. But the other thing is He is one of the most legendary designers working today. If you've ever carried a Field Notes notebook or seen one, that's his handiwork. And his work is everywhere. He has been on some of the biggest shows, biggest podcasts. I know he has been a keynote at Adobe's conference. And then you and I have had great fun talking with him off mic. And he is a wild character. But here's the thing about him. He's in our business in a sense. He loves our business. He does. A lot of his business comes from merch sales. From his own creative merch that he built. So again, yet a really cool creative bridge. But here again, juxtaposition of this 20,000-foot person-like view, like Davis, and then you get Aaron, who is sort of in the trenches with us, creating merch, selling merch, and doing things like that. Yeah.

And what I love about those two examples is that you put these two people on stage, and there's many others that will be on stage as well. But if we just use those two as examples, you're sitting there listening, and you're getting inspired by how it is that they're conducting themselves, how it is they're positioning their brands, how it is they're creating culture, how it is that they're thinking about design and product, whatever the case may be. And there's always a few really boundary-pushing ideas that are shared by these speakers that then inspire you as the attendee to then go back to your business and then think about it a little bit differently. It's like, how, how would I think about my business if I was sitting here as Davis Smith. And even though Davis Smith may have a much larger business than maybe the average attendee who's listening, at the end of the day, they're able to be inspired by some crazy story, some crazy unique experience, and they can bring that back into their business. That to me is one of the most powerful parts of the event because we're trying to almost set up these situations where people will be inspired, They're learning by other people's examples, their mistakes, their failures, the things they've done well. And to see how those map back to a promotional products distributor or supplier is fascinating. And that's really what we're trying to establish here.

Yeah. One other thing about putting on an event like SKUCON, especially this year, is that these events and these experiences that we create are sort of always being edited even up until the last minute.

Here's what I mean by that.

One of the panels that I was already really excited about with SKUCon in person is Sandy Gonzalez with Made to Order and Stephanie Leader with Leader Promos on the topic of how to create a strategy for growth. And the conversation is all around how they have, as they look back at their business, but also as we all look forward at the changes in the industry, how they're growing. So interesting thing happened because as we were getting ready before Christmas for SKUCon, it looked like some folks started backing out. We had one of those speakers back out. Well, naturally I went to go find a replacement for that speaker on stage. And I was so lucky that Jill Haspert with Foxtrot Marketing said, I'll join. Well, come to find out we're going to end up doing SKUCon Virtual. So the benefit here is now we have 3 of the leading distributors who are powerhouses, like dynamite folks, leading very large distributorships that we get the perspective and the opinion on. So in a sense, yes, we didn't have that, but there are things like that where I say it's an editable experience all the way up until we produce the event that turn out actually for the better. So I'm really excited about that conversation. The other thing I'm excited about that conversation in particular is we're talking about what changes they're looking forward to as we have all made big shifts in our business going forward.

And Bobby, I think that's a great example of turning lemons into lemonade, so to speak, in that there's been a lot of lemons thrown our way, uh, not only our way but certainly the industry's way, society's way, over the last 20 or so days. And that's a great example as we pivot to virtual. The fact that things can be edited in real time, it's allowed us to add even more speakers and add more perspectives, right? And, and in a way that we wouldn't have been able to have done in person. So yes, we are mourning the fact that we aren't able to do this in person, but it is exciting to look at this whole other universe that's opened up in terms of how we're able to do things virtually that we wouldn't have been able to do in person. So yeah, there are some blessings here for sure.

Yeah, we won't have time to cover every experience that we're unlocking at SCUCon, but I want to mention two other things. One is Ben Adams with Advocate. Advocate was listed a couple years ago as one of the fastest growing ad agencies by Ad Agency Magazine. And I was in Washington, D.C. and happened to reach out to Ben for an interview. You might recall this, and he was gracious enough to grant me that interview, and we were able to sort of just really talk about the industry in a robust way. They were doing big experiential marketing projects for YouTube and other big brands. And of course, what happened with in-person events impacted their business. They made a big shift. So what we're going to be talking about is actually how to broaden our view of experiential marketing. Now we've all made this shift with tactical products. The other thing, another juxtaposition, is that you look at Jeremy Picker with Amber Creative. Jeremy is probably one of the most imaginative people in the business who often bridges this world between streetwear, fashion, and the merch business because he's very culturally relevant. As I was talking with him about his presentation, I got excited. And you and I have been doing this a long time. I got really excited and I thought everybody needs to be at this event and needs to definitely be there for Jeremy's talk because it's going to be very tactical and very practical about how to take these big creative ideas and then implement them through merch.

Right. And you think about that as one micro example, and Jeremy is, is so thoughtful and creative with his approach. But just think about that one speaker being able to walk away, even if you walked away with one idea from someone like Jeremy, who's built this incredible business on creative merchandise and unique thinking, walk away with that one idea and implement that and think about the value that that would accrue to your business in 2022 alone is mind-boggling. And then you add up all those little lessons and little things you can pull out from each of the speakers, and everyone's going to pull out something different. I guarantee you Aaron Droplin is going to come up on stage, or Jeremy Picker is going to come up on stage, or Stephanie Leader, or Sandy Gonzalez, or Davis Smith, or all the other speakers that we've got, and there will be 50 different things that different people are going to pull out from each of them based on how it is that they run their suppliers or distributors. And I find that fascinating, and, and that's the magic of this.

Yeah, we also have SkuCon stories that have been probably one of the most enjoyable experiences that we've brought to stage. Well, so we'll have a couple of stories as well. We've got a few surprises for you in terms of the stories. Also, uh, Mark, let's talk a little bit about one of my favorite topics, which is how to make the most out of SkuCon, because the reason why it's such a favorite topic for me is because these events typically thunder into our lives, we're very excited, and then we just go back to the mayhem that we, that we left. And I'm not sure sometimes that it really sticks, that there's a lot of traction. I think it does subconsciously, but unless we have a plan moving forward— so one of the things I want to talk about for just a minute is how can teams approach SCUCon Virtual in different ways than in the past? What tips do you have?

So first of all, this is an event that was designed for a distributor and a supplier's entire team. This was the whole reason why we were choosing to do virtual that was live streaming in conjunction with the in-person event. We recognize that in-person is inaccessible to a wide range of people because of the number of people that we can accommodate, price, travel expenses to Vegas. It's always, always, always going to cater to 10% of the overall audience. If you can bring your whole team You spend a few hours to all come together and to get on the same page. That is the first thing, um, that we've really created something that is economically accessible, digitally accessible because of the virtual platform, and inviting and welcoming your entire team, everyone from a sales coordinator all the way up to, uh, C-suite and owner, sales leader. It is for them because there is something for it. I think the other thing is that experiencing this event at the same time in real time allows for the team to come together afterwards and even during the event to share notes. So what is that sales coordinator that has been at your company for, say, 12 months? How is he or she relating to that content relative to, say, a senior VP sales that has been at the organization for, say, 10 years? And they experience the business entirely differently, which means they're going to experience the content entirely differently. And to be able to share and compare those notes internally is absolutely invaluable. So those are my two tips: bring the team, and then make sure that the team is sharing what it is that they got from the experience, because I guarantee you that everyone's going to come at it differently. And by sharing those notes, the whole team benefits.

Yeah, which means real practically scheduling a meeting. Uh, one of the first things to do after SKUCon is schedule a meeting with your team, put it on the calendar, block an hour, whatever time you need to go through each of those speaker highlights. But I love what you said because it's a very emotionally intelligent thing to say. Speaking of one of the panels that we have is to talk about everyone's perspective is different. And as you and I love outsiders' perspective in your own business, you have folks that are brand new to the industry, brand new to the business, getting them excited about the business, but also inviting their perspective to the table. Because we particularly, I think the more experienced— what's the study that was put out that said expertise dulls experience? Absolutely. One of the common things that happens to those of us that have been doing it a while, and those fresh perspectives are vital as we go forward.

I also think, and this is funny to say, it's almost ironic, that I think the ability to collaborate and share is that much easier in a virtual environment than it is when you're sitting there in person. Because you're sitting there in person, you're writing ideas down on a journal, and oftentimes those Those ideas are almost locked inside the journal or locked in your phone or whatever it is that you have, or it may just be locked within yourself because you're intimidated to share or speak up, particularly if you're someone who's newer to the industry. It can be intimidating. Whereas if you contrast that, so let's say you're a team of, I don't know, let's make it up. Let's say between 5 and 10 people as an example. What I would encourage as a pro tip is that you spin up a collaborative doc. So we use Google Docs.— the Google Docs here quite regularly, but you could use Microsoft 365 or whatever the case may be. Spin up a collaborative doc at the beginning of SKUCon. Everyone who's attending the event has access to it. And then everyone is writing notes and contributing different ideas. And then at the end, that becomes the master document that everyone has access to. And it's private to the organization. And that is how you get the value out of this. I guarantee you that if you don't have something like that, You're gonna attend the event, you're gonna get really excited about it. The following day you go back and there's 7,000 fires to deal with and you're like, what, SkuCon? What was that? Whereas you have this and you're— we talk about editing the event in real time. We encourage the attendees to experience and record the information in real time. So I think if you take that and then obviously we're gonna be sharing all the content and videos and highlights to all the registered attendees. And that can complement the internal document that's created, that's gold for 2022. So that's my pro tip.

I love that tip. And then add at the end of every one of those highlight sections, actionable. What's actionable here? So you're gathering everybody's highlights, but you're also saying, okay, what are we going to do with this information as we move forward?

Absolutely. And the fact that this is in January, that's when most people's fiscal years start. We're off to a really weird start. I wouldn't say a bad start.— but a weird start, confusing start. And if this is something that can help clarify and get people excited after this strange start that we've had to the year, then that's really exciting for us to be able to have a role in helping you with.

One other thing I want to add, and I normally wouldn't bring this up except for that, Mark, you're the one that forced me to do this, but I will be opening SKUCon with a talk on the future of the world. Against your will, of course. Yeah. The reason I'm bringing it up too is that The world has dramatically changed, as we all know, but our industry has dramatically changed. And what I'm going to do is highlight how the changes have affected us, not only how we work, but our medium. And when you look at the astonishing things that I'm going to reveal, what's happened to our medium, it's a great time to bring folks that are either new to the business or seasoned pros to get excited about it.

Okay, I want to jump in and share some maybe background information with those that are listening or watching here. Um, so Bobby, you delivered an excerpt of what is going to become this great opening keynote to our whole team at Commonsku on the first day that we came back. So I think it was January 4th. We had an all-hands meeting. Everyone came back talking about what they were doing over the holidays. And then Bobby, you gave your update. And it's like you could hear the proverbial pin drop that everyone was like, wow, this is a really interesting look at the road ahead. And also looking at all the things that happened and changed in our business that I think we took for granted in 2021. 2021 and how they are landing with an enormous thud in 2022 that represent incredible opportunity. So I remember I backchanneled you, Bobby, and I said, this presentation blew the Common Skew team away. It needs to see the light of day, and people in our industry and in our community need to hear this. So I know you don't like the compliments, but I'm very, very excited about it and how it also ties back into the Common Skew experience, I think is also really valuable as well. So yeah. Folks that are listening to this will not want to miss Bobby. I know normally they do want to miss you, but this time they will not want to miss.

Right, right. All right, let's talk about this topic. Uh, it's like the elephant in the room. We canceled the in-person SKUCon. We and the team made an amazing quick turnaround. This was a pretty big disruption for a lot of folks, not just us, but the big suppliers that had backed out of Expo. There was such a disruption there right after Christmas, right after the first of the year, and it happened so quickly. How do you see disruptions like this reshaping our industry in the future? But before you get to that, maybe we should share a little bit of insight into why we decided to make the decision we did and how we feel about that.

I've been, I've been saying to anyone who has reached out that this was an imperfect decision for imperfect times. And that, for anyone who knows me, was really challenging because we, not just me, but I think that we really strive for perfectionism in a lot of what we do at this company. And particularly when it comes to interacting with our community and our friends in the industry. That is where the bar is incredibly high because there is an incredible amount of respect for the people who spend time and money to come to our events. And we don't take that lightly. We haven't taken it lightly from the very beginning, and we definitely don't take it lightly now. So by making this decision, it was very challenging for us because we knew that it was going to inconvenience and disappoint a number of people that are very, very important to us. And I think in that respect, I would say it was among one of the most emotionally fraught decisions that I think I've ever had to make in my entire time being involved at Commonsku. And I don't, I don't make that comment lightly. That said, the reasons that we canceled it, and we were very public as to why we did, it was really around creating that superb attendee experience that people know our events for and the standard that we hold ourselves to. That was first and foremost. We were also extremely uncertain and worried about safety, and that's not to say that events that are happening right now that are in person, that they're being done irresponsibly. That's the last thing that I'm saying. I'm actually really excited to see those going ahead because, by goodness, we need to see those events go ahead. In terms of getting back to normal. So I salute and applaud the folks at ASI, the folks at PPAI, for continuing with their shows. For us, it felt a little different only because of attendee feedback. We had spoke to so many of our supplier partners, so many of our distributor attendees, and the one thing that was the top concern was, am I going to be able to experience this event safely? And when that was the number one question that we were being presented with, like in the past, the number one question is, is it an open bar at night, or who's on stage? Or like, but not having questions like that. When your attendees are asking, am I going to experience this event safely? And after all the things that we did in terms of requiring full vaccination, requiring masking, abiding by all of the Nevada rules and regulations that were put out by the state, etc., etc., etc. And despite all of that, when that was still the number one question, we looked at ourselves and said, I don't know that we would be the most responsible organization if we were to host this. And Bobby, you were part of it. The first day we came back, January 4th, end of the day, we had an all-hands UConn planning meeting And we all put up our hands and said, this isn't the right time to do this event. And I can tell you, sending that email and that social communication and calling Dale Denham the following morning, among many other people that we called, was an absolute low point. Yeah, yeah. In my career. And I know that's a long story, but we have learned so much from that, and I'm really glad we did it. But we learned so much We've learned so much in the last handful of days in terms of how people have reacted, how we've communicated that. And I honestly feel we've come out of this situation better than when we started. So that's my big story there. Yeah.

And a little more to add to some color to that is that our event that we had with an all-hands meeting for everyone that was going to SCUCON and Expo with our team, everyone was required to attend at the end of the day because we were starting to see some cancellations and things were starting to pick up steam in that regard. And this all happened so fast, right after the first of the year. The next day, we have literally hours to make a decision. It wasn't like we had days, we had hours to make a decision. And when we did come to a vote as a team and decided, our hearts were broken. I mean, it was— everyone on the team to a person was crushed about this. I have to say though, in the next couple of days, we started seeing things a little bit differently. It may have taken us 24 or 48 hours, but we finally started going, okay, because one of the things that I think I'm learning, that disruptions like this are changing the way we do business going forward, is that we all gained that vital muscle through COVID about adaptability and fast-action adaptability, that quick assessment muscle. And that also includes a sort of more broader empathetic decision-making paradigm. And so we had to involve that. And I'll give you an example, is that I'm here in the US. For me to hop on a Southwest flight to get to Vegas is not a problem. Really. But for my team who's in Canada, you know, like if 80 to 90% of our team is in Canada and they're trying to leave the country, if you haven't traveled internationally with COVID sometimes, especially with this latest spike, it can be very difficult. So you— we all have had to view our decisions through a lens of a much more empathetic decision-making device. So first, that muscle that we gained through COVID, we had to learn. And second, I think what I learned is that all of us in the industry had to make a decision, and that we also have to keep in mind that not mistaking an option as the only option. No one wants to see the decline or demise of Expo. No one wants to see the decline of events. We all actually want to get back to that. Virtual, for all of its weaknesses and has this residue of Zoom fatigue, we're now used to it more, and it gives us options. So I think what I was really proud of with the team, it took us about 48 hours to go, you know what, This is going to be amazing. And now, like the example I shared earlier about Jill being able to join us now on that power panel and things like that, yeah, what we ended up creating was a better event, ironically, than what we might have had in person, just because we had a few more days, we accumulated a few more speakers, and now we get to invite a much larger group of people to the experience.

Yeah, on a better day too, on a weekday, and You know, and I don't know what the stages are, but you know how people talk about multiple stages of grief. And I don't, I don't know what the order is, but, you know, anger, sadness, feeling sorry for yourself, acceptance, so on and so forth. I'm butchering it, but I think that people get the point. We no question had some pretty serious lows and have the grief side of it. And I think, I think about the team and to think of a team, you very much included Bobby as one of the key leaders. To have had, you know what, the better part of 9, 10 months kind of ripped away from you in this, in literally like the course of like a 1-hour meeting, was really, really challenging to see. And so, yeah, I think that there was some of that sadness and anger and like, this isn't fair. And COVID is the worst, and blah, blah, blah. And I think once you get past those very natural feelings, you then get to acceptance, and you get to, all right, I'm at a fork in the road right now. I can either crawl under my bedsheets and cry and run away from this and feel sorry for myself, which did happen for a little bit, I'll let you know. And then the other The path is, all right, put on your adult pants here and we're going to make the best of this. And if anything, you might actually turn out to even making it better. And for me, that's been a really interesting lesson as a leader in the promotional products industry. So forget about SKUCON here for a second. Forget about selling pens and polo shirts here for a second. This is all about the power of adaptability and flexibility and pivoting when thrown a curveball. And that's not new by any stretch, but I feel what's new now is how random things are now. Like, we never thought in a million years that this event would be canceled. Vaccinations came in, COVID was kind of over, we were all being safe, and then within, you know, a week or so, the world went to hell in a handbasket, and we had to adapt and learn. And I think that is a theme that I see unfolding in 2022. I think for those people that are able to really lean into that are again going to be the ones who are going to come out on top in this industry. So it's still a little fresh right now, I'll tell you, because we're recording this podcast, like what, not even a week after we had to make the decision. Like what, maybe recording this maybe 4 days after we had to make the decision. But I'm optimistic and enthusiastic that we're going to turn a corner and that this is going to be the best year we've had. For Commonsku and for this industry.

Yeah, one more very brief inside story is that I then, at the close of that meeting where we decided to cancel the in-person, then we were going to do virtual, my of course responsibility was suddenly to reach out to all these speakers who had spent all this time and energy preparing. Terrible job. Well, no, no, what I'm mentioning is that the reason I'm bringing it up is I was actually quick to recover from the great disappointment because I suddenly started getting these amazing messages from from speakers, you know, totally understand, totally support, and I'm there with you. I'll be there on the 18th. Can't wait for this. And so that really added fuel. So I think it's an interesting thing that happened in the industry too, is the way we encourage and inspire one another, even where we're not even trying.

Yeah, no, I, I agree with that. And I'm so thankful to the attendees, to our sponsors, to our speakers, like literally We were bracing for a you-know-what storm like no one's business once we made this announcement. And we were fully expecting it, and we were going to lean into it and own every single negative comment that came our way. And the worst comment or response we got, which wasn't even bad, was, "We feel terrible. We can't make the 18th. Can we have a full refund?" Which we, of course, offered. And those were in the minority by an extreme amount. The number of people that we were very happy and understandably provided a full refund to, numbers in single digit, low single digit percentage of the entire numbers. And the number of additional people that have come in and are inviting their colleagues now to join this experience has validated for us, A, that our attendees are the best in the world and we love you, but we also recognize this isn't a charity and that people are putting their hand up to invest time and energy to be at something that will really add a lot of value to their experiences. So I'm very humbled to have just been witness to all the support that we've, we've experienced as we had to make this tough decision.

So thank you. Yeah, agreed. Well, mark— folks, be sure and mark on your calendar, go register at sqcon.com, January 18th. From 11:00 to 5:30 ET. That's right, Mark. 11:00 to 5:30 ET. Make sure I got the time right. Everything is so fluid. We literally just published the schedule today, so go check it out. And we can't wait to see you there.

Yeah, can't wait. And Bobby, thank you for everything that you've done. It hasn't been an easy job, and you've done an absolutely incredible, incredible job of putting this together. So thank you. Thanks, my friend. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of SKU Cast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SKU Cast on iTunes or to our blog at community.commsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.