No Sleep in Brooklyn! (All the Highlights from skucamp 2022)

Attendees from all over the globe rolled into the beautiful borough of Brooklyn last week. From Hawaii, Australia, and Great Britain, and from West Coast to East Coast, skucampers descended on Brooklyn’s Ace Hotel to make vital connections with new friends and learn crucial tips to help grow their business and sharpen their leadership skills.

The day opened with a surprise video featuring (and organized by) our very own VP of Supplier Partnerships, Dave Shultz and clients Kirby Hasseman (Hasseman Marketing), John Vo (WHOOPLA), Stephen Musgrave (Genumark), and Matt Wagner from Fields Manufacturing.

After some skucampers enjoyed a refreshing run on the Brooklyn Bridge, the full day’s educational event opened with Michael Scott Cohen of Harper+Scott as he shared, “Embrace the Struggle: A Modern CEO Mindset.” Harper+Scott has long been revered by many for their incredible growth and their exceptional market position, and in his talk, Michael shared the pains and lessons learned as they climbed from dollar $1 to over $50 million in sales in just several years. A candid talk, Michael shared how leaders can embrace the struggle and see it for what it really is: an opportunity for growth. 

Lee Fine and Robert Lederman from Juice Marketing shared how our differences are what we celebrate, and the fact that it’s not what we do that makes us different, it’s who we are. Drawing on their journey from inception to today, Lee and Robert talked about how to dare greatly and, mostly: how to always be open to YES. And in an industry full of people who are willing to say YES, Juice has proven that to say YES also means saying YES to the most daring projects that live outside your comfort zone, maybe even outside your capabilities, in order to open new opportunities, learn, and grow. 

In our panel on marketing, three exceptional brands were represented by three maverick marketing leaders: Jen Beldam, Founder & President of Northern Craft Supply Co., Kate Nash, Director of Promotional Sales and Marketing at Raining Rose, and Kathy Cheng, President and Founder of Redwood Classics Apparel. Each panel participant talked about how marketing in the past was based on volume, frequency, and voice, but marketing to today’s savvy buyer is about connection, authenticity, truth-telling, transparency, and conscientious selling. Jen, Kathy, and Kate each explored how they align their mission and their brand to the niche markets they serve. 

Joseph Sommer, Founder and President of Whitestone, gave one of the most popular talks at skucamp on his topic, “Build It, Break It, Built It Again: Adopting a Growth Mindset.” Joe illustrated their growth and rise, including costly mistakes made along the way, while demonstrating the key steps in their journey. And Joe highlighted their focus at each stage in their journey, from $1-$3 million and then from $3 million to $10 million. A crowd favorite because of his transparency and details, Joe helped the audience identify and formulate their own focus for growth.

Each year at skucamp, we try and bring in an outside guest to educate us on a topic we might not familiar with. This year, Vrindavan Rao of Illuminate NYC gave an overview on “How to Build Stronger Teams Through the Enneagram.” Vrin outlined the traits of three types of personalities on your team: the “go-getters, the dutifuls, and the withdrawns.” Speaking to a riveted room, Vrin’s energy brought awareness to leaders and teammates on how they can identify with their own Enneagram type and begin to see how self-awareness and team-awareness, leads to better collaboration. It was a hushed crowd and an eye-opening session, and we are grateful to Vrin for opening our minds! 

Russell Bird (CEO) and Jocelyn Bird (Creative Director) at The Promo Addict, joined Deron Stults (President) and Jill Stults (CEO) of Bagley on “Growing Your Business Through Strategic Partnerships.” Every distributorship is comprised of partnerships, whether these are through business partnerships, supplier partnerships, or client partnerships. Russell Bird and Jocelyn Bird talked about the weekly meeting format they follow from The Entrepreneurial Operating System called “Level 10:” and how it helps them, as partners, prioritize the course of their business. Jill Stults and Deron Stults shared how vital their supplier partners are to their business, treating their suppliers like clients, and the changes they’ve made to their culture to make their employees feel more like stakeholders. 

Catherine Graham, CEO, and Aaron Kucherawy, Vice President of Customer Success at commonsku, demonstrated how to weave the day’s learnings on leadership and scaling through the commonsku platform. From employee engagement to analytics, customer segmentation, and better data, the commonsku power duo shared how to power the platform to create more transparency, trust, and real-time data to make stronger leadership decisions in business.

And the day finished with back-to-back panels featuring supplier CEOs and Distributor CEOs.

The supplier panel featured Dan Pantano, President & CEO at alphabroder Prime Line; David Nicholson, Vice Chairman with Polyconcept North America, and Jonathan G. Isaacson, Chairman & CEO of Gemline. An incredibly popular discussion with attendees, topics included the move to more distributor enablement; IT, digital transformation, and automation and its catalyst for future industry growth, and the potential impact of inflation and geopolitical instability. With plenty of laughs and hearty disagreement, the discussion was a great reflection of the incredible progress leading suppliers in this industry continue to make in sustainability, tech, and product development.

And the distributor panel featured Jill Haspert, CEO at Foxtrot Marketing; Mitch Freed, CEO at Genumark, and Zac Fowler, President at INM Group, who talked about the new priorities of today’s modern distributor. Each spoke candidly about compensation challenges, hiring, reorganization, and a new wave of employees who require unique development opportunities as they navigate fast-growth organizations. 

The day closed with a rousing party held at Union Hall with music led by commonsku’s own David Shultz and Matt Wagner of Fields Manufacturing. 

Day two included a factory tour led by David Miller, President of NC Custom, and Lance Stier, CEO of NC Custom and the head of business development and strategy at Nassau Candy. Thanks to our friends at NC Custom for rolling out the red carpet, providing lunch, giving us the Willy Wonka tour of our lives, and being such generous and gracious hosts! 

Each year as we plan skucamp, we strive to connect as many people as possible through community-led education and to bring real-time challenges to the forefront so that we can all learn from each other and grow. From struggling as a leader, to growing your team through the ups and downs, we hope this year’s skucamp was one that makes a difference in your life and the lives of those around you. 

We can honestly say that we are fortunate to serve each and every one of you and are thankful for those who joined us to share your wisdom. You make this community what it is and we’re proud to be running this race with you!

Ps. Miss skucamp? Don’t worry, skucon is right around the corner and registration is open now, join us for the industry’s most epic, kick-off event of the year!