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FEATURE | Rising Stars William Lovelace Age 28 Founder & CEO Diamondback Branding Austin, Texas W illiamLovelace grew up with two different career paths inmind, and after completing a certificate in firefighting at South Plains College in 2010, he became a professional firefighter in Artesia, NewMexico. But eventually a passion for his side business—one he’d had since he was 15, engraving high- quality pens—drew himback and in 2012, he left firefighting and he and his wife moved to Austin to expand the business to include tumblers, dog tags and other products under the name Diamondback Branding. In 2015, he brought the company into the promotional products industry. Six years ago, he was working out of his garage; now he’s just moved the company into a 27,000-square-foot space, and sales in 2019 exceeded $10 million. “During the beginning of the pandemic, William fought long and hard to figure out how to keep every single one of his employees while continuing to give standard paychecks,” says employee Stephanie Macpherson, one of his nominators. “He had planned this before there was ever talk about a stimulus from the government. The solution was to invest a good amount of money into turning Diamondback Branding into a PPE manufacturing facility within just days.” Nominator and employee Kaitlin Kurtz says, “Last year, Diamondback Branding, LLC hit its best year in sales, decorating a massive number of products—somuch so that we had a hard time keeping up with all the orders coming in. We had to double our staff.” What impact has the COVID-19 lockdown had on your life both personally and professionally? Overall, I think COVID-19 has had a pretty significant negative impact on both my personal and professional life. The biggest impact for me was having to work three or four times as much to keep our company afloat through this all. Before the lockdown, Diamondback was on its third consecutive million-dollar month. I am hopeful that the industry and the world will be able to get through this and move forward into the new world, however that may look. What have you learned about yourself during this time? I learned that the resilience of my team and the family atmosphere that we built was key in getting through the rough time. What concerns you most about the future of the promo products industry? Data and fear. I think that the promotional industry, as a whole, is behind in technical data transmission. There are too many manual steps between suppliers and distributors that need to be removed. Fear itself, I see as the most dangerous aspect facing the promo world right now. Most of this industry was built on handshakes and networking relationships. We must be careful not to let COVID-19 scare us from being people and doing business. What are you most optimistic about moving forward? The way I look at it, the world will still be spinning tomorrow. It’s unfortunate the negative impact that COVID-19 has had on small businesses. We, as a team, will just look for other companies. As one fails, another is launched or grows larger. There are plenty of opportunities for growth in the promotional products industry. Who or what inspires you and why? I am inspired to be different. I feel the need to prove that anyone can do anything. I did not need a degree to start a successful company. We did not need strict corporate policies to run a successful company. What would you like to accomplish over the next 24 months? I want to improve myself as a solid leader. From leading my family to leading Diamondback. I want to embrace some of the fears I do have, to help myself grow—things like public speaking, attending more networking events and being more outgoing. How can the industry attract, recruit and retain more young professionals? [The industry needs] more technology and more young people in general. It was very frightening going to our first PPAI Expo. I still remember several encounters with people who would not talk to me at the booth because we did not look like a big, established company. It’s almost like we had to claw our way up the ladder of old habits and old companies. Embrace new companies, embrace new people and get young speakers at events. What’s the best advice you can give others who are just starting out? Don’t give up. If you had told me 10 years ago I would be leading a multi-million-dollar company with nearly 40 employees, I simply would not have believed it. Time moves fast, so move faster. Rope your dreams in and make them happen. 32 | SEPTEMBER 2020 |