PPB November 2021

industry from a young age. “My aunt, Sherri Lennarson [former PPAI board chair and 2022 Hall of Fame inductee], worked there while I was growing up. She would come to picnics and bring a branded cooler or, once at a birthday party, she said she would bring balloons. They were a misprinted balloon order that she kept because the balloons were still good.” After graduating college, Brown went on to work in minor league baseball and marketing. “I had been buying promotional products in all of those jobs,” says Brown. “When I worked in minor league baseball, I got to work in the gift shop, so I would order promotional products to sell with the team’s logo. Then, I went on to experiential marketing where we called them ‘premiums.’” Brown says her experience as an end buyer helps her to remember the details that some clients and others outside of the industry may overlook. “On my side, we need to have vector art and we know what that means. I don’t ever want my customers to feel like I don’t have empathy for them if I say they need vector art and they have no clue what that means,” she says. “I try to use that experience to be kind and understanding to my customers, so they feel comfortable with the process.” With two entrepreneurial parents, Brown had always looked forward to being her own boss. “They both own small businesses and are self- employed,” she says. “I never really knew any other life and for a parent, specifically. I had worked in corporate America when I first graduated college and when I first got married. So, when I got pregnant with my first child, I started to think about what my life would look like as a working mom. It was harder for me to visualize daycare and working because I just hadn’t experienced it personally. While I was pregnant, my husband and I decided that I would stay home, and I did that for a couple of years before I got into promotional products.” With her family in mind, Brown started Ohiowa Promo in July 2020. “The primary vision was to have as much flexibility in my job and in my life as I could, so I could also be a really good mom,” she says. Years earlier, a wedding guest inspired the name of her business. “I live in Ohio now, and I am from Iowa,” says Brown. “In Ohio, if a Buckeye fan sees another fan, they’ll yell, ‘O-H,’ and the other person is supposed to yell, ‘I-O.’ So, as we were driving home from our wedding, I was opening everyone’s cards and one of the guests had written, ‘O-H…I-O…W-A.’ We were like, ‘Woah! Ohio and Iowa are connected.’ So, we’ve been referring to ourselves as ‘Ohiowa’ for years.” When explaining Ohiowa Promo, Brown says she adapts her message to whoever she’s talking to. “The way I describe it is by saying, ‘We can put your logo on pretty much anything.’ I am not offended by words like swag or tchotchkes because everybody has a different experience with promotional products.” After running her business for over a year, Brown says the flexibility is still what she’d hoped for. “I love that I work full-time, but when my kids get off the bus in an hour, I can go get them from the bus stop.” She says it’s funny how much her life now resembles her mother’s. “My mom had I realized I love the industry, and I can see myself doing this for a really long time. Abigail Brown | NOVEMBER 2021 | 81 CONNECT