Making It Happen New PPAI board member Kara Keister tells PPB how she discovered the business, why CSR matters and what she’s looking forward to. By Rachel Zoch FIVE MINUTES WITH Kara Keister, MAS Promise Keeper Social Good Promotions Kara Keister, MAS, doesn’t like to sit still. That go-getter attitude comes in handy in her role as “promise keeper” for Social Good Promotions, the Midwest-based distributor she helped launch in 2019. She describes “promise keeper” as a counterpart to the company’s promise makers – the sales and marketing team working directly with clients to create promo programs and curate products to make their brands shine. “My job as the promise keeper is to make those dreams come true – all of the crazy back-end stuff,” Keister says, “so I deal with all of our supply chain, all of our production, keeping everything on track, making sure everything is delivered on time.” She admits the role has been more challenging than she had anticipated – thanks in no small part to the pandemic – but she loves the feeling of getting things done, as well as the challenge of coming up with imaginative solutions. “I really like to be creative,” Keister says. “I had that when I was little, and then you start adulting and don’t always get to use that that muscle so much. I always used to joke that I also love to shop, so this career is perfect for me, because I shop all day using other people’s money, which is really wonderful.” Like many promo professionals, she found her calling almost by accident, starting as an outside sales rep with City Apparel in 2010 after earning her MBA. “It was not on my radar,” says Keister. “I did not think that sales was for me. I said no a million times until finally I said, ‘I’ll give it a shot,’ and it turns out, thankfully, they believed in me and they were right. I actually really love sales.” PPB spoke with Keister to learn more about her company and what she wants industry peers to know about CSR efforts, as well as her goals as a Regional Relations Committee delegate to the PPAI Board. (The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.) As a volunteer with Special Olympics Ohio, Keister traveled to Disney World in June with the USA Games team as a coach. 58 | DECEMBER 2022 | THINK
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