PPB March 2020

mom like me, try to take shortcuts where and when you can. I just started using frozen broccoli—dinnertime gamechanger. When you are not working, what are some of your favorite go-to hobbies? My favorite hobby is being a mom to my three kids, ages 16, 14 and 10. My other top hobbies are being a fan/spectator at all three of my kids’ games and meets, reading, cooking and spending time with family and friends. Do you have any guilty pleasures? I would have to say popcorn, but in order for it to be a true guilty pleasure it must be LesserEvil brand popcorn—the Oh My Ghee! or Himalayan Pink Salt with coconut oil flavors, to be exact. I cannot resist a freshly opened bag. Everyone in my office knows this about me. Every Friday, I always buy tons of cookies and a couple bags of LesserEvil popcorn—yum! — Danielle Renda NENETTE GRAY Founder, CEO Lemonade Creative Marketing Baton Rouge, Louisiana Nenette Gray knows how to make lemonade out of lemons—just take a look at her business. After Gray, owner of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, distributor Lemonade Creative Marketing, was laid off from her full-time job in 2010, she mustered a positive, can-do attitude and decided to open her business. She’s been making lemonade ever since. Gray says when she initially decided to start the business, it was going to be a marketing consulting company, but then she quickly found she could grow the business faster if she focused on using products to solve marketing challenges. Lemonade Creative Marketing offers services in promotional branding, creative campaigns and trade show and event marketing. As a marketing agency focused on branded promotional merchandise that excites, inspires and engages, Gray is committed to helping businesses “squeeze every drop of potential” out of their marketing goals. How did you get into the promotional products industry and what were you doing previously? I got started in the promotional products industry part-time selling t-shirts for class and family reunions. It was something I really enjoyed doing as a hobby while working in the pharmaceutical industry. Then in 2010, my company laid off my specialty pharmaceutical division and about 1,400 people— including me. That’s when I decided to turn the lemons of losing my pharmaceutical job into lemonade and started with my business full time. How would you describe your company to a client? Overall, I would say that we are a marketing agency focused on branded promotional merchandise that excites, engages and inspires. I picked those words because that’s the premise of our business. We want to make that type of emotional connection. In what ways is your company different from others? The big difference is we are not focused on selling a product; our focus is on gaining an understanding of our clients’ marketing goals and objectives and helping them work toward achieving them. What is your proudest career accomplishment so far? I think just being able to grow the business over the past nine years and being self-sufficient as a single mom. Being a single mom is a challenge, but to be able to start and grow a business to the point where it can take care of a family is probably what I am most proud of. What are your plans/goals for this year? Are you trying anything new? The plan is to continue to grow; we’ve been fortunate to grow year after year. One area that we are focusing on growing for this year is collegiate licensing. We are currently licensed for three local colleges, one of which is national champion Louisiana State University. We are going to put some focused effort into growing that collegiate-branded merchandise market. If we do as well as we forecast, then that will be a big area of growth for us. What are your biggest challenges and how are you working to solve them? Finding employees who can understand our industry and can deliver service at the level of our Lemonade expectation. We aren’t looking for placeholders; we are looking for people who can positively impact our clients. Again, finding and retaining good employees is one of our biggest challenges and what I am doing to alleviate that is I’m working with some of the various programs they have locally that are focused on reducing employment and matching local talent. What is your favorite product or campaign in which your product was used? Why is it a favorite? One of the [campaigns] that I got excited about was actually a Women In Business | FEATURE | MARCH 2020 | 61