PPB March 2020

How did you get into the promotional products industry and what were you doing previously? I was advising chief sustainability officers and marketing departments on how they should take their CSR—their corporate social responsibility—dollars to create both a business return, but also create impact in their communities or in society. For me, I was really motivated to help companies use whatever procurement dollars were focused on gifts to do good. How long have you been in the industry? Just over two years. Because we are a young company, we have to be innovative; we live and breathe innovation. As soon as we realized that there could be an opportunity and that we were creating a product or, really, a solution that might be interesting to distributors in the promo world, it was a no-brainer to cultivate these relationships and extend what we offer to distributors and their clients. With our gifts, we had the initial ability to brand the outside of the gift box. That was the first way in which we entered the promo product world, and since then the ability to really integrate a brand within our gift has expanded. How would you describe your company to a client? We are a corporate gifting company with a social mission. We help our clients send gifts that arememorable and help themachieve their business objectives. Whether that is to retain employees, strengthen client relationships or convert prospects into clients, whatever that business objectivemight be, we use gifts as a tool to do so. In what ways is your company different from others? What makes us different is that we’ve embedded doing good inside our gifts, and in a way that is much more tangible and experiential than, let’s say, making a statement like, ‘We donate five percent of our profits to this organization.’ Our gifts live and breathe doing good, and that’s because every single gift does good. It’s not a report, it’s not a statement we have on our website, but it is experience through the act of giving a gift that everyone finds delightful. What is your proudest career accomplishment so far? My proudest career accomplishment is building a team who loves coming to work every single day and who is not only proud of their individual contribution and what we have created together, but also proud of the positive feedback we get from our clients. It’s really cultivating a team who loves coming to work and finds purpose in everything we do. What are your plans/goals for this year? Are you trying anything new? Our first goal is continuing to double our revenue year after year. Another goal is to continue to findways to enhance our offerings and create that surprise and delight, which is what our clients are looking for. What are your biggest challenges and how are you working to solve them? Some of our biggest challenges are just making sure that we constantly have a fresh product, new solutions and new enhancements with respect to our gifts. We have to ask ourselves what other value ad, products or services we can offer so that distributors always feel like we are providing themwith new choices and new solutions before they are looking for it. The most important thing is being very active in discovering our purposeful purveyors, our product suppliers, because they are the ones creating the exceptional products that are also doing good. What is your favorite product or campaign in which your product was used? Why is it a favorite? We worked with a large distributor in the health care industry on their client’s year-end gift, creating five different gift solutions and making it a seamless process for the distributor so that the end client is not only satisfied with the product but the entire service as well. What are your tips to achieve a work/life balance? Honestly, the greatest tip is to have kids. I have three little kids at home, and I love them. I love what I do, and I’m proud and passionate about Packed with Purpose, but I’m equally committed to being a good mom and raising three kids. I have twins who are three and a four-year-old daughter, so having a focus on my family and my children is a wonderful balance between working all day. And quite frankly, making sure you have a chance to get your head out of work makes you better at what you do professionally. Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time? We love to travel. I’ve lived in Latin America extensively so traveling, for me, is a real part of my life. Recently, we went to Peru with our three kids. We were probably the only family with three kids under four years old who were climbing Machu Picchu, so that was pretty memorable. What advice or resources do you have for other women business owners or those planning to start their own business? There are two things I would say. One is to just go for it. Dream out loud and talk about what you are creating and what you are trying to do so you can get other people’s support, feedback and advice. The other thing is don’t let fear stop you. We all have fear; you just have to push through the uncertainty because there is always a solution and a way to bring your idea to life. — Kristina Valdez Tina Berres Filipski is editor of PPB , Danielle Renda and Kristina Valdez are associate editors of PPB . Women In Business | FEATURE | MARCH 2020 | 67