March 12, 2025 • 22 mins
Dive into purpose-driven promo! Kara Keister of Social Good Promotions shares how to connect commerce with impact, focusing on sustainability, transparency, and giving back. Learn how to make a difference with every order.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Promo Perspectives, a podcast presented by SAGE,
dedicated to giving promotional products suppliers and distributors tips, tricks,
and insights to help grow their businesses. I’m Gabe Gotay, senior marketing coordinator here
at SAGE. Recently, we’ve been talking about sustainability and responsibility in promo.
In our live-streamed episode this month, I shared some clips from an interview that I did with Kara
(00:23):
Keister from Social Good Promotions. Today, I’m going to be sharing that full interview with you.
Hi everyone, I’m Kara Keister. I am the owner at Social Good Promotions. We are a distributor
in Ohio. I started in the industry actually 15 years ago. I did have to go do that math really
quickly. Fifteen years ago, I started as a sales rep in, actually, it was a direct sale uniform
(00:49):
business. I’m super thankful for my time there. It taught me everything that I needed to know about
this industry and all of the loveliness that is there. I’m one of those people who fell backwards
into the industry. I always make the joke that you either were born in or fell backwards in. I
definitely fell backwards, but I love it here and I’m very thankful that I took that leap. In 2018,
(01:14):
I made a decision that was for myself and my family at the time, and I actually decided to
take a break. I was actually going to leave the industry. However, that only lasted like a hot
minute. I spent some time volunteering during that time period. I met Roger Burnett, who had this
amazing idea to take what Promo Cares was doing and make a distributorship that was profiting
(01:41):
from this exact idea that promo superpowers could be utilized for good. I’m thankful every day that
I took those calls and I took those meetings. In 2019, we launched The Little Engine That Could,
Social Good Promotions. Five years later, through the pandemic, we are surviving and thriving.
(02:02):
I’m currently sitting on the PPA board as the regional relations liaison to the PPAI board,
so I’m still volunteering and my hand always goes up in the air, and I’m really excited to
see what our business and our industry can do to keep shaping the world that we’re living in.
(02:24):
Like Kara just said there,
using their promo superpowers for good is the vision behind Social Good Promotions,
but I asked her to expand on their mission statement and what all it encompasses.
Yes, so when Roger and I originally started the business way back when, we were very,
very specific about what we wanted to do. Now that our values have definitely evolved since then,
(02:47):
our vision has always been to use our promo superpowers for good,
and our mission is to connect commerce with purpose to make the world a better place. I am
so thankful that we have grown a team that buys into that and lives and breathes it every day,
so much so that every year on the third week of January, to celebrate our incorporation date,
(03:13):
we actually produce an impact report. So we’re walking the walk as much as we possibly can.
She said that part of their mission is to connect commerce with purpose, and on their website, they
talk about the importance of storytelling with promo. I asked to expound on those ideas and whose
purpose and whose story was it (03:32):
the suppliers, Social Good Promotions, or the end users?
Yes, it’s all of those. It’s every single one of those. So promo with a purpose really
means that – merch is great, we all know that, right? Merch is great, we live and breathe it,
it’s our favorite thing to do – but there are options out there now that allow us to make
(03:55):
choices where our dollars are doing more than just purchasing merch, whether it’s giveback,
eco-conscious product lines, if it’s sustainable manufacturing, if it’s a company that’s just doing
really good things in the world. That’s what we’re out there looking for, and what we’re looking to
do is connect that commerce and the purpose. So what you’re buying with the purpose that you want
(04:19):
to fulfill. So marketing, first and foremost, is the goal, right? We want to fulfill the
marketing need, but we also want to know about our client’s values. What do they value? What’s really
important to them? And how can we find a product that really meets them where they are? Right? For
(04:39):
us, it’s the fact that this is what we are doing all day, every day, right? So this is our bread
and butter. We want to pick from those defendable suppliers and those lists and those catalog pages
that are doing something more in the world. And for our suppliers, we want to tell your story.
(05:00):
I am blown away by what Promo Cares started years ago in this space to start telling
stories of what our suppliers are really doing out there in the world, and it’s not just about
eco or sustainable. It is about what they are doing to make the world a better place.
Their mission statement also mentions transparency. I asked her to explain
(05:23):
what that looks like and why it’s so important.
One of our core values is transparency, and I’ve learned that throughout my career,
and I think every salesperson has probably learned that throughout their career. I think
it’s really important to be upfront with your people, your clients, and your suppliers. So
we tell our suppliers from day one, this is what we’re about. We want you to be about it
(05:47):
too. We understand if you’re not, but we’d love to partner in this way. We tell our clients who
we are on a regular basis. What’s the phrase? You know, when someone shows you who they are,
believe them. We want to live and walk by that. We hope that they understand that, but we also are
(06:10):
really in tune with making sure that especially our clients understand what’s going on throughout
the process. So if something goes awry, we’re not going to hide it. We’re going to tell you. I had
one this week where we thought everything was on track, right? And lo and behold, it’s stuck in
transit. It’s not getting here in time. Right? The first call that I made was to the client,
(06:34):
and I said, I don’t have a solution yet. I’m working on the solution, but I needed you to know
about it. Right? It’s that important to us. It’s also really important to me that my supply chain
understands where this product is going. So I’ve had conversations with our reps, our local reps,
that said, hey, I’m using this product because it fits this value alignment with the customer.
(06:58):
Help me help them meet their marketing goals. And with my team, I think that, you know, transparency
is key with your team. That’s how you build trust. It’s how you grow leaders within a space.
A key takeaway from some of my earlier conversations with Kara was that eco-friendliness
was just one consideration among many when it came to sustainability and responsibility. I
(07:22):
asked her what other things is she looking for when determining defendable suppliers.
We have like a three-prong kind of approach to it. First and foremost for us is giveback.
So we’re looking for product lines that have a giveback associated with them. So if the supplier
has committed to earmarking a dollar amount to go back to XYZ, we’re always looking for that.
(07:45):
We are absolutely looking for eco-product and sustainable manufacturing practices. We have
to usually dig and ask those questions, though. Some of our suppliers are getting really, really
good about coming forward with that information. You know, as part of their marketing strategy,
which I thank you all for doing that. And third, and the one that I really love,
(08:07):
is we do some digging on corporate social responsibility and what our suppliers are
doing to make the world a better place. We have uncovered things as grand as sponsoring
a village in Guatemala or building a Habitat for Humanity house on a weekend as a group, right? To,
(08:29):
hey, we had some overruns that we sent to California to rebuild schools with, right? To fill
backpacks so that kids can go back to school as soon as schools are available. We’re asking those
questions because we want to know what you’re doing to fulfill that goal within their own walls.
(08:53):
Now that I knew a little bit more about what they were looking for in a supplier,
I was curious how they went about finding those suppliers and how they invested
their supply chains. Was that information readily available, or was it things she needed to ask for?
So, two ways – we do it. Let me put this disclaimer, you know, transparency is key here,
so let me throw this out there. We are a small distributor for sure. We are still growing,
(09:17):
so we are not asking for, you know, down to the molecule of gasoline that was used to get us here,
right? We’re not asking for that, but we are asking, and we are researching. Many of our
suppliers are really good about publishing the information now. Some of our larger suppliers,
you can simply just click through their website and you can find their corporate
(09:39):
social responsibility mission. Shout out SanMar, shout out PCNA, shout out Goldstar. You’re talking
about it on a regular basis, and we love that. Not everyone is doing that yet, and that is okay with
us too, but we’re asking. It’s the first question that we’re asking. If we are jumping on a call,
if we are meeting you at a trade show, if it is, especially multi-line reps are really great about
(10:04):
this for us, we oftentimes have to ask them, hey, can you go back to your supplier company and find
out what this is, what this means to you, so that we can add you to what we call our defendable
supplier list. And again, that defendable supplier list is giveback, eco-sustainable, and CSR.
Next, I wanted to know what Social Good Promotions was doing to mitigate their own carbon footprint.
(10:29):
So Social Good Promotions, as a whole, part of our initial onset is that we are a fully remote
business. So we don’t have intentions of being brick and mortar. I can’t say that that’s never
going to happen. My goodness, things change so quickly, but our intention from the onset was to
(10:49):
be a fully remote business. I make this joke all the time. One of our employees lives a block away
from me, and we oftentimes jump on Zoom rather than jump in the car and run over to our house.
Things like that, that are that simple. We also have implemented that a lot with our clients and
(11:10):
a lot with our suppliers. So yeah, we still are road warriors, but not to the extent that I was 15
years ago when I started in this business. I spent so much time behind a windshield. I think if COVID
taught us anything, it’s that business can still be done. Yes, I agree. I hear everybody that the
(11:30):
personal interaction is still important, and I do agree with that, but I do think that business can
be done while really keeping in mind how far you are actually physically going to do that,
right? In addition to that, one thing that I’m really proud of is two years ago we implemented
a no new packaging rule. So we do some internal decoration, and our rule is it either goes out in
(11:56):
Better Packaging, which is the brand name Better Packaging compostable sealers, so mail mailers,
or we reuse cardboard, and then we use a compostable sticker on that cardboard that says,
hey, this is why your cardboard looks like it’s been used before, so our clients understand why
(12:16):
we are sending it to them that way. That was something really small but really simple.
I was curious if, on top of selecting defendable suppliers and doing what
they can internally to minimize their own carbon footprint, did Social Good Promotions
also help their customers make decisions to minimize their impact on the planet?
Maybe by guiding their order volumes to help minimize waste from shipping?
(12:38):
We do, probably not to the extent that I would like to, quite yet. Most of our clients aren’t
ready to have those conversations yet, right? They oftentimes we are still working within
budgets. We don’t know what we don’t know quite yet at this point. However, I do ask my team to
position themselves as the expert and have as many of these conversations as we possibly can.
(13:02):
So if that means that we’re trying to get a bulk order in, but not everybody placed their order,
maybe we’re using a SurveyMonkey or an online web store to correlate your orders, right,
or aggregate your orders. Maybe we didn’t get everybody’s size right. We’re not going to do
a second run of one or two jackets. We’re going to pad that order a little bit. Let’s think about
(13:25):
this. It’s going to save your pocket as well as the shipping costs and shipping energy that
it takes to get that to us. So we are having those kind of discussions. Something else that I thought
of that we are actively working on, we’re getting more into the awards and recognition space, and
(13:47):
glass is heavy, right? Glass is heavy, and it’s expensive to ship. We were at a show last week,
and I said, okay, our goal today is to find a glass supplier in the Midwest
that would reduce the shipping time to our client so as short as it possibly can. Not just because
we want it to get there in one piece and quicker, but because we know that it can go on a truck bulk
(14:14):
packed with other items to that supply to that client, and it’s not getting on a plane to fly
to UPS in the Midwest to get on a truck to get on a van to end up at our supplier or at our client.
So far, Kara has shared with us how they achieve their mission at Social Good
Promotions in regards to the suppliers they choose, what they do, and how they work with
(14:36):
their customers. So I asked her what would she like to see from the tech and services
side of the industry to help make a better impact on responsibility and sustainability?
We’re already starting to see some of those options available. We do have the carbon footprint
calculator. If you are not aware of that, that does exist now. Now again, we’re not tracking
(14:58):
the gasoline molecules as a small business, but the option for it to be there is really awesome.
What I do know from that is that if a supplier is doing it, they have that traceability for us,
which means they absolutely are doing it internally. That puts them right smack in
the defendable category for us, and it allows us as a small distributor to play with the big boys,
(15:25):
right? So if I have a client like, I don’t know, let’s throw something out there, like a Google
or a Microsoft, who says, hey, I want to buy from you, but I need to know this information,
you know what? I know where to go. I know what supplier to use. I know what product to use. I
can actually pull that information really easily, whereas I don’t know that we could
always do that in the past. I love the drill-down capabilities within SAGE, being able to search by
(15:51):
women-owned supplier, being able to search by eco-conscious product, being able to search by
minority-owned. I think that those are really important, and it creates a space where we as
distributors can in fact meet marketing goals for our clients while also addressing their values.
(16:17):
I asked Kara if she had any particular goals where would she like to see Social
Good Promotions or the industry at large in the next five to 10 years?
Yeah, I do. I sure do. I talk about these a lot. The one for our company has always kind of been
the guiding light and the star. I mentioned our impact report. This year, we are at 87% defendable
(16:44):
supply chain. So the suppliers that we have deemed as defendable under our three categories, we were
able to point 87% of our spend back to those suppliers. I know that that already sounds big,
but I really want it to be 90. So I really want to live at 90%. It’s not, I can’t say that we’re
(17:06):
ever going to be 100%. There are instances where we have to use a different product or it doesn’t
fulfill the marketing goals, and lo and behold, we still are a distributor working for our clients,
so we are, you know, we do sell things that don’t fall right under our categories, but I
want to live at 90%. That last 3% is going to be a really heavy lift for my team, and you know,
(17:29):
revisiting our mission, vision, values on a regular basis, I think will help us get there.
For the industry, this is the one most have probably heard me say before. I love seeing the
face of this industry change. I love it. I want to see more of it. I am so excited to see some young,
(17:53):
fresh talent join our pool. I was pleasantly surprised walking around PPA Expo earlier this
year, just seeing different groups, different faces, fresh takes on what it is that we do
as an industry and as a marketing medium. Drew Homegreen, he has said that, you know, his whole
(18:20):
mission is joy, and I’m starting to see that, and I really, really like that. It’s, you know,
the last five years have been rough. I don’t think that anyone could say that living through that set
of unprecedented times was easy, and I’m excited for what feels like a new leaf and a new page.
(18:46):
Outside of just how they sell merch, Social Good Promotions also encourages corporate
responsibility by incentivizing their team members to volunteer. I asked her to explain a little bit
more about that and if there were any causes in particular that were important to her personally.
We are a small team. I will start out by saying then that we are less than
five as a total business right now. It’s important to me that I grew up
(19:11):
with a sense of service above self, and I have volunteered much of my time over many,
many years of my life. It was important to me that I have people surrounding me that
are also interested in doing that. I point back to our impact report. With less than five of us,
we donated 422 hours of our time in 2024. That is everything from coaching Little League teams to,
(19:42):
you know, spending some time at an animal shelter to, I volunteer for Special Olympics,
it makes my heart so happy, to sitting on boards, you know, volunteering with regional associations,
helping to better the industry. Anything that we can do to get our hands on, we’re really happy
with. One thing that I would love to mention is we do partner with DCX. We love, shout out Rocky,
(20:08):
we love you. We, I love what they do with their group of employees as well. It’s built
into our DNA. We share that with everyone down to our DCX employees. In our handbook,
we actually offer 40 hours of paid leave a year for our team to go volunteer however they want to.
(20:29):
Lastly, I asked Kara if she had any final messages that she wanted to share with the
audience. Before we get to that, just want to thank her again for coming on the show.
She makes a great point that eco-friendliness is just one of many factors when it comes to
long-term sustainability and responsibility in our industry. Thank you so much for listening
to this episode of Promo Perspectives, and make sure to go subscribe wherever you get
(20:50):
your podcasts. We have one more episode coming out on the topic of sustainability
where we’re going to share the supplier side of what it means to be responsible
and sustainable. Thanks again for listening, and now here is Kara’s final message to bring us out.
Yeah, you know, I think final thoughts wise, I’ll say, anybody who’s ever heard me on stage before
(21:12):
or on a podcast before, I say it all the time, just start. You don’t have to change the world
today, but little effort, small efforts add up to a larger whole. So you don’t have to change your
whole business model to add eco-friendly product into your line. You can change one pen on your,
(21:37):
you know, template presentation and just see if it works, right? You can change one mug. I love
what Goldstar has done. Pick something out of the Goldstar catalog and put it in your,
put it in your next presentation. It’s, you know, it’s excellent. It’s retail, it’s retail savvy,
it’s gorgeous. Just throw it out there. Change one thing at a time. Use recycled cardboard. Try
(22:03):
it. See if anybody even picks up that maybe your cardboard wasn’t brand new. You know,
there are little steps that we can take, but start somewhere, start small. But please start today,
because we can’t, we can’t get better if we don’t try. And please,
feel free to reach out to me at any given time. Our website is www.socialgoodpromotions.com,
(22:28):
and my email is [email address removed]. We, I don’t know everything by any stretch of the
imagination, but I do know what we are doing, and I’d love to share some best practices with
it with anybody who would listen. You know, those little things all add up.
Welcome to Promo Perspectives, a podcast presented by SAGE,
dedicated to giving promotional products suppliers and distributors tips, tricks,
and insights to help grow their businesses. I’m Gabe Gotay, senior marketing coordinator here
at SAGE. Recently, we’ve been talking about sustainability and responsibility in promo.
In our live-streamed episode this month, I shared some clips from an interview that I did with Kara
(00:23):
Keister from Social Good Promotions. Today, I’m going to be sharing that full interview with you.
Hi everyone, I’m Kara Keister. I am the owner at Social Good Promotions. We are a distributor
in Ohio. I started in the industry actually 15 years ago. I did have to go do that math really
quickly. Fifteen years ago, I started as a sales rep in, actually, it was a direct sale uniform
(00:49):
business. I’m super thankful for my time there. It taught me everything that I needed to know about
this industry and all of the loveliness that is there. I’m one of those people who fell backwards
into the industry. I always make the joke that you either were born in or fell backwards in. I
definitely fell backwards, but I love it here and I’m very thankful that I took that leap. In 2018,
(01:14):
I made a decision that was for myself and my family at the time, and I actually decided to
take a break. I was actually going to leave the industry. However, that only lasted like a hot
minute. I spent some time volunteering during that time period. I met Roger Burnett, who had this
amazing idea to take what Promo Cares was doing and make a distributorship that was profiting
(01:41):
from this exact idea that promo superpowers could be utilized for good. I’m thankful every day that
I took those calls and I took those meetings. In 2019, we launched The Little Engine That Could,
Social Good Promotions. Five years later, through the pandemic, we are surviving and thriving.
(02:02):
I’m currently sitting on the PPA board as the regional relations liaison to the PPAI board,
so I’m still volunteering and my hand always goes up in the air, and I’m really excited to
see what our business and our industry can do to keep shaping the world that we’re living in.
(02:24):
Like Kara just said there,
using their promo superpowers for good is the vision behind Social Good Promotions,
but I asked her to expand on their mission statement and what all it encompasses.
Yes, so when Roger and I originally started the business way back when, we were very,
very specific about what we wanted to do. Now that our values have definitely evolved since then,
(02:47):
our vision has always been to use our promo superpowers for good,
and our mission is to connect commerce with purpose to make the world a better place. I am
so thankful that we have grown a team that buys into that and lives and breathes it every day,
so much so that every year on the third week of January, to celebrate our incorporation date,
(03:13):
we actually produce an impact report. So we’re walking the walk as much as we possibly can.
She said that part of their mission is to connect commerce with purpose, and on their website, they
talk about the importance of storytelling with promo. I asked to expound on those ideas and whose
purpose and whose story was it (03:32):
the suppliers, Social Good Promotions, or the end users?
Yes, it’s all of those. It’s every single one of those. So promo with a purpose really
means that – merch is great, we all know that, right? Merch is great, we live and breathe it,
it’s our favorite thing to do – but there are options out there now that allow us to make
(03:55):
choices where our dollars are doing more than just purchasing merch, whether it’s giveback,
eco-conscious product lines, if it’s sustainable manufacturing, if it’s a company that’s just doing
really good things in the world. That’s what we’re out there looking for, and what we’re looking to
do is connect that commerce and the purpose. So what you’re buying with the purpose that you want
(04:19):
to fulfill. So marketing, first and foremost, is the goal, right? We want to fulfill the
marketing need, but we also want to know about our client’s values. What do they value? What’s really
important to them? And how can we find a product that really meets them where they are? Right? For
(04:39):
us, it’s the fact that this is what we are doing all day, every day, right? So this is our bread
and butter. We want to pick from those defendable suppliers and those lists and those catalog pages
that are doing something more in the world. And for our suppliers, we want to tell your story.
(05:00):
I am blown away by what Promo Cares started years ago in this space to start telling
stories of what our suppliers are really doing out there in the world, and it’s not just about
eco or sustainable. It is about what they are doing to make the world a better place.
Their mission statement also mentions transparency. I asked her to explain
(05:23):
what that looks like and why it’s so important.
One of our core values is transparency, and I’ve learned that throughout my career,
and I think every salesperson has probably learned that throughout their career. I think
it’s really important to be upfront with your people, your clients, and your suppliers. So
we tell our suppliers from day one, this is what we’re about. We want you to be about it
(05:47):
too. We understand if you’re not, but we’d love to partner in this way. We tell our clients who
we are on a regular basis. What’s the phrase? You know, when someone shows you who they are,
believe them. We want to live and walk by that. We hope that they understand that, but we also are
(06:10):
really in tune with making sure that especially our clients understand what’s going on throughout
the process. So if something goes awry, we’re not going to hide it. We’re going to tell you. I had
one this week where we thought everything was on track, right? And lo and behold, it’s stuck in
transit. It’s not getting here in time. Right? The first call that I made was to the client,
(06:34):
and I said, I don’t have a solution yet. I’m working on the solution, but I needed you to know
about it. Right? It’s that important to us. It’s also really important to me that my supply chain
understands where this product is going. So I’ve had conversations with our reps, our local reps,
that said, hey, I’m using this product because it fits this value alignment with the customer.
(06:58):
Help me help them meet their marketing goals. And with my team, I think that, you know, transparency
is key with your team. That’s how you build trust. It’s how you grow leaders within a space.
A key takeaway from some of my earlier conversations with Kara was that eco-friendliness
was just one consideration among many when it came to sustainability and responsibility. I
(07:22):
asked her what other things is she looking for when determining defendable suppliers.
We have like a three-prong kind of approach to it. First and foremost for us is giveback.
So we’re looking for product lines that have a giveback associated with them. So if the supplier
has committed to earmarking a dollar amount to go back to XYZ, we’re always looking for that.
(07:45):
We are absolutely looking for eco-product and sustainable manufacturing practices. We have
to usually dig and ask those questions, though. Some of our suppliers are getting really, really
good about coming forward with that information. You know, as part of their marketing strategy,
which I thank you all for doing that. And third, and the one that I really love,
(08:07):
is we do some digging on corporate social responsibility and what our suppliers are
doing to make the world a better place. We have uncovered things as grand as sponsoring
a village in Guatemala or building a Habitat for Humanity house on a weekend as a group, right? To,
(08:29):
hey, we had some overruns that we sent to California to rebuild schools with, right? To fill
backpacks so that kids can go back to school as soon as schools are available. We’re asking those
questions because we want to know what you’re doing to fulfill that goal within their own walls.
(08:53):
Now that I knew a little bit more about what they were looking for in a supplier,
I was curious how they went about finding those suppliers and how they invested
their supply chains. Was that information readily available, or was it things she needed to ask for?
So, two ways – we do it. Let me put this disclaimer, you know, transparency is key here,
so let me throw this out there. We are a small distributor for sure. We are still growing,
(09:17):
so we are not asking for, you know, down to the molecule of gasoline that was used to get us here,
right? We’re not asking for that, but we are asking, and we are researching. Many of our
suppliers are really good about publishing the information now. Some of our larger suppliers,
you can simply just click through their website and you can find their corporate
(09:39):
social responsibility mission. Shout out SanMar, shout out PCNA, shout out Goldstar. You’re talking
about it on a regular basis, and we love that. Not everyone is doing that yet, and that is okay with
us too, but we’re asking. It’s the first question that we’re asking. If we are jumping on a call,
if we are meeting you at a trade show, if it is, especially multi-line reps are really great about
(10:04):
this for us, we oftentimes have to ask them, hey, can you go back to your supplier company and find
out what this is, what this means to you, so that we can add you to what we call our defendable
supplier list. And again, that defendable supplier list is giveback, eco-sustainable, and CSR.
Next, I wanted to know what Social Good Promotions was doing to mitigate their own carbon footprint.
(10:29):
So Social Good Promotions, as a whole, part of our initial onset is that we are a fully remote
business. So we don’t have intentions of being brick and mortar. I can’t say that that’s never
going to happen. My goodness, things change so quickly, but our intention from the onset was to
(10:49):
be a fully remote business. I make this joke all the time. One of our employees lives a block away
from me, and we oftentimes jump on Zoom rather than jump in the car and run over to our house.
Things like that, that are that simple. We also have implemented that a lot with our clients and
(11:10):
a lot with our suppliers. So yeah, we still are road warriors, but not to the extent that I was 15
years ago when I started in this business. I spent so much time behind a windshield. I think if COVID
taught us anything, it’s that business can still be done. Yes, I agree. I hear everybody that the
(11:30):
personal interaction is still important, and I do agree with that, but I do think that business can
be done while really keeping in mind how far you are actually physically going to do that,
right? In addition to that, one thing that I’m really proud of is two years ago we implemented
a no new packaging rule. So we do some internal decoration, and our rule is it either goes out in
(11:56):
Better Packaging, which is the brand name Better Packaging compostable sealers, so mail mailers,
or we reuse cardboard, and then we use a compostable sticker on that cardboard that says,
hey, this is why your cardboard looks like it’s been used before, so our clients understand why
(12:16):
we are sending it to them that way. That was something really small but really simple.
I was curious if, on top of selecting defendable suppliers and doing what
they can internally to minimize their own carbon footprint, did Social Good Promotions
also help their customers make decisions to minimize their impact on the planet?
Maybe by guiding their order volumes to help minimize waste from shipping?
(12:38):
We do, probably not to the extent that I would like to, quite yet. Most of our clients aren’t
ready to have those conversations yet, right? They oftentimes we are still working within
budgets. We don’t know what we don’t know quite yet at this point. However, I do ask my team to
position themselves as the expert and have as many of these conversations as we possibly can.
(13:02):
So if that means that we’re trying to get a bulk order in, but not everybody placed their order,
maybe we’re using a SurveyMonkey or an online web store to correlate your orders, right,
or aggregate your orders. Maybe we didn’t get everybody’s size right. We’re not going to do
a second run of one or two jackets. We’re going to pad that order a little bit. Let’s think about
(13:25):
this. It’s going to save your pocket as well as the shipping costs and shipping energy that
it takes to get that to us. So we are having those kind of discussions. Something else that I thought
of that we are actively working on, we’re getting more into the awards and recognition space, and
(13:47):
glass is heavy, right? Glass is heavy, and it’s expensive to ship. We were at a show last week,
and I said, okay, our goal today is to find a glass supplier in the Midwest
that would reduce the shipping time to our client so as short as it possibly can. Not just because
we want it to get there in one piece and quicker, but because we know that it can go on a truck bulk
(14:14):
packed with other items to that supply to that client, and it’s not getting on a plane to fly
to UPS in the Midwest to get on a truck to get on a van to end up at our supplier or at our client.
So far, Kara has shared with us how they achieve their mission at Social Good
Promotions in regards to the suppliers they choose, what they do, and how they work with
(14:36):
their customers. So I asked her what would she like to see from the tech and services
side of the industry to help make a better impact on responsibility and sustainability?
We’re already starting to see some of those options available. We do have the carbon footprint
calculator. If you are not aware of that, that does exist now. Now again, we’re not tracking
(14:58):
the gasoline molecules as a small business, but the option for it to be there is really awesome.
What I do know from that is that if a supplier is doing it, they have that traceability for us,
which means they absolutely are doing it internally. That puts them right smack in
the defendable category for us, and it allows us as a small distributor to play with the big boys,
(15:25):
right? So if I have a client like, I don’t know, let’s throw something out there, like a Google
or a Microsoft, who says, hey, I want to buy from you, but I need to know this information,
you know what? I know where to go. I know what supplier to use. I know what product to use. I
can actually pull that information really easily, whereas I don’t know that we could
always do that in the past. I love the drill-down capabilities within SAGE, being able to search by
(15:51):
women-owned supplier, being able to search by eco-conscious product, being able to search by
minority-owned. I think that those are really important, and it creates a space where we as
distributors can in fact meet marketing goals for our clients while also addressing their values.
(16:17):
I asked Kara if she had any particular goals where would she like to see Social
Good Promotions or the industry at large in the next five to 10 years?
Yeah, I do. I sure do. I talk about these a lot. The one for our company has always kind of been
the guiding light and the star. I mentioned our impact report. This year, we are at 87% defendable
(16:44):
supply chain. So the suppliers that we have deemed as defendable under our three categories, we were
able to point 87% of our spend back to those suppliers. I know that that already sounds big,
but I really want it to be 90. So I really want to live at 90%. It’s not, I can’t say that we’re
(17:06):
ever going to be 100%. There are instances where we have to use a different product or it doesn’t
fulfill the marketing goals, and lo and behold, we still are a distributor working for our clients,
so we are, you know, we do sell things that don’t fall right under our categories, but I
want to live at 90%. That last 3% is going to be a really heavy lift for my team, and you know,
(17:29):
revisiting our mission, vision, values on a regular basis, I think will help us get there.
For the industry, this is the one most have probably heard me say before. I love seeing the
face of this industry change. I love it. I want to see more of it. I am so excited to see some young,
(17:53):
fresh talent join our pool. I was pleasantly surprised walking around PPA Expo earlier this
year, just seeing different groups, different faces, fresh takes on what it is that we do
as an industry and as a marketing medium. Drew Homegreen, he has said that, you know, his whole
(18:20):
mission is joy, and I’m starting to see that, and I really, really like that. It’s, you know,
the last five years have been rough. I don’t think that anyone could say that living through that set
of unprecedented times was easy, and I’m excited for what feels like a new leaf and a new page.
(18:46):
Outside of just how they sell merch, Social Good Promotions also encourages corporate
responsibility by incentivizing their team members to volunteer. I asked her to explain a little bit
more about that and if there were any causes in particular that were important to her personally.
We are a small team. I will start out by saying then that we are less than
five as a total business right now. It’s important to me that I grew up
(19:11):
with a sense of service above self, and I have volunteered much of my time over many,
many years of my life. It was important to me that I have people surrounding me that
are also interested in doing that. I point back to our impact report. With less than five of us,
we donated 422 hours of our time in 2024. That is everything from coaching Little League teams to,
(19:42):
you know, spending some time at an animal shelter to, I volunteer for Special Olympics,
it makes my heart so happy, to sitting on boards, you know, volunteering with regional associations,
helping to better the industry. Anything that we can do to get our hands on, we’re really happy
with. One thing that I would love to mention is we do partner with DCX. We love, shout out Rocky,
(20:08):
we love you. We, I love what they do with their group of employees as well. It’s built
into our DNA. We share that with everyone down to our DCX employees. In our handbook,
we actually offer 40 hours of paid leave a year for our team to go volunteer however they want to.
(20:29):
Lastly, I asked Kara if she had any final messages that she wanted to share with the
audience. Before we get to that, just want to thank her again for coming on the show.
She makes a great point that eco-friendliness is just one of many factors when it comes to
long-term sustainability and responsibility in our industry. Thank you so much for listening
to this episode of Promo Perspectives, and make sure to go subscribe wherever you get
(20:50):
your podcasts. We have one more episode coming out on the topic of sustainability
where we’re going to share the supplier side of what it means to be responsible
and sustainable. Thanks again for listening, and now here is Kara’s final message to bring us out.
Yeah, you know, I think final thoughts wise, I’ll say, anybody who’s ever heard me on stage before
(21:12):
or on a podcast before, I say it all the time, just start. You don’t have to change the world
today, but little effort, small efforts add up to a larger whole. So you don’t have to change your
whole business model to add eco-friendly product into your line. You can change one pen on your,
(21:37):
you know, template presentation and just see if it works, right? You can change one mug. I love
what Goldstar has done. Pick something out of the Goldstar catalog and put it in your,
put it in your next presentation. It’s, you know, it’s excellent. It’s retail, it’s retail savvy,
it’s gorgeous. Just throw it out there. Change one thing at a time. Use recycled cardboard. Try
(22:03):
it. See if anybody even picks up that maybe your cardboard wasn’t brand new. You know,
there are little steps that we can take, but start somewhere, start small. But please start today,
because we can’t, we can’t get better if we don’t try. And please,
feel free to reach out to me at any given time. Our website is www.socialgoodpromotions.com,
(22:28):
and my email is [email address removed]. We, I don’t know everything by any stretch of the
imagination, but I do know what we are doing, and I’d love to share some best practices with
it with anybody who would listen. You know, those little things all add up.
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