David Blaise, Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales

What do the industry's first video podcast, audio podcast, Extreme Makeover and theme song all have in common? Industry entrepreneur, author and business consultant David Blaise. In 1998, he created Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales, the industry's premier "success system in a box." Since then, he has built the most recognized and successful training brands in the industry, including Top Secrets of Multi-Million Dollar Producers, Sledgehammer Marketing, The Ultimate Makeover System and The Power of Promotional Products. Currently, David's company helps thousands of industry professionals each year to increase sales, improve profit margins and grow their businesses on a guaranteed basis.

Jay Busselle, Affinity Express

Jay Busselle began his screen printing and graphics career reportedly sometime in the 80s while in Mr. Perry's graphics class during high school. Jay started printing “unofficial replica” T-shirts of his favorite surfing, skiing and skateboarding companies, as well as a few bands which will remain nameless. He landed his first real industry job while in college as a cut-and-paste artist for a Yellow Pages publishing company. It didn't take long before he was working for a screen printer, and soon thereafter his family owned a promotional advertising agency. Over 30 years, hundreds of promotional events and tens of thousands of T-shirts later, Jay is pretending to grow up! He’s been ranked #13 on the Stitches Power 75 list, is a highly rated industry presenter and an accomplished graphics software trainer. Jay is currently marketing and selling digital media and graphic production services at Affinity Express.

Matthew Cohn, ASI

Vice Chairman of the ASI Family of Companies (composed of The ASI Show!®, ASI Computer Systems®, and ASI®), Matthew Cohn has launched businesses in publishing, e-commerce, trade shows and medical information. Matthew has also served as President, Education Chair and Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization and is on the board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young President's Organization (YPO). The Philadelphia Business Journal recognized him in their "40 Under 40" awards, and he was named among the "Top 100 People to Watch" by Business Philadelphia magazine, as well as one of the "100 Most Influential People" in the trade show industry by Tradeshow Week. He has been a featured speaker at national conferences such as American Society of Association Executives, Direct Marketing Association, Internet World, Annual Catalog Conference, Seybold Seminars, International Association of Exposition Managers and SISO.

Heather DiPrato, ASI

Heather DiPrato, MASI is senior vice president of distributor services for ASI. She has dedicated more than 20 years to the ad specialty industry, and is responsible for managing ASI’s Major Account Division which includes Counselor magazine’s prestigious Distributor Top 40 and Multi-Million Dollar Round Table (MMRT) members. Heather is passionate about technology and product development. Working together with ASI’s technology division, she and her team assist ASI members in generating more sales while streamlining their business processes to increase productivity and profitability.

Lillian Glass, Dr. Lillian Glass

Known as the "First Lady of Communication," Lillian Glass, Ph.D., is one of the world's most well-respected and foremost authorities in the field of communication. As a renowned body language expert she demonstrates her skills in numerous fields. She combines her unique background to educate the public in both an entertaining and compelling manner. As a sought-after author, expert witness and media personality, she shares her perspective concerning news events. Dr. Glass has written more than 14 books, including the best-seller, Toxic People, and the body language book, I Know What You're Thinking. Her clients include celebrities, major corporations, politicians and world leaders.

Carleen Gray, Stahls'

Carleen Gray, VP and chief marketing officer, oversees and directs GroupeSTAHL marketing efforts around the globe and provides members with expertise in all facets of strategic and tactical marketing, sales promotion, brand management, creative product introductions and niche market development. Carleen brings industry experience as a previous director of marketing for Stahls' in St. Clair Shores, combined with 10 years experience working with internationally known marketing companies and corporate clients in the automotive industry.

Joe Haley, ASI

Joe Haley is a 20-year veteran of the advertising specialty industry and is the managing editor of ASI's magazines. Joe has been involved with ASI TV from the beginning, starring in and producing “The Joe Show,” and filming, editing and posting hundreds of editorial-based videos at trade shows and in-house.

Colleen Hartigan, Madeira USA

Colleen Hartigan is a 32-year veteran of the embroidery industry. Recently retired as executive vice president of Madeira USA, she now works as a consultant for Madeira USA and Madeira Garnfabrik, sharing her extensive knowledge of the embroidery industry and the embroidery process. A seasoned speaker with a long history of educational training at trade shows and private seminars, Colleen shares her expertise in all facets of creating and selling embroidery. She focuses on product education and the use of the right products to improve customer satisfaction and sales.

Natalie Henley, Volume Nine

Natalie Henley is vice president of marketing at Volume Nine, a leading Internet marketing company. A speaker, trainer and consultant, she specializes in digital marketing strategy. She has an extensive background in market research and PR for Fortune 50 companies, and has spoken for numerous groups and conferences, including ClickZ, Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), Vistage International and Media Bistro. She has also been published and quoted in numerous publications including Home Business Magazine, Speaker Magazine, Direct Marketing Digest and Inc.com.

Jessica Hutwelker, Match-Up Promotions

Jessica Hutwelker is the director of national accounts at Match-Up Promotions (asi/264230). She’s been in the promotional products industry since 2005 as a part of a team that has grown their business from $6.4M in 2005 to $15.6M in 2013. She recognizes the importance of relationships and values, and daily echoes Match-Up’s mantra: Partnership Over Profitability. In 2013 she was selected as a Powerful Partner by PPB Magazine.

Darlene Kirk, THINK Promotional Products

Darlene Kirk is the founder of THINK Promotional Products (asi/242801). She’s spent over 25 years in the marketing and product-development field, designing marketing campaigns around new product and service launches in the corporate gift industry. She’s worked with leading brands, including Nike, Titleist, Wilson Sports, Norwood Promotional Products and Bic Graphics, and has developed new products around the globe. She’s also developed affiliate relationships that expose her to marketing trends that keep her on the cutting edge of new marketing concepts.

Peter Knappenberger, ASI

Peter Knappenberger is ASI's director of distributor services for the southeast region. Peter's expertise is in technology, sales and marketing, and has been helping ASI distributors to grow their sales since 2006. Before ASI, Peter spent 14 years with an import and export firm, where he was general manager. During his tenure, he grew the company sales from $7 million per year to over $24 million.

Jake Krolick, ASI

Jake Krolick is ASI's creative director. He's been with ASI for eight years, and was previously ASI's digital marketing manager. A born communicator with a deep love for the art and craft of advertising, Jake has extensive experience in video and new media and helped ASI launch a successful video program. Outside of his role at ASI, he has extensive experience working in the music industry doing photography, video and creative promotion for bands and venues across the U.S.

Nathaniel Kucsma, ASI

Nathaniel Kucsma is ASI’s director of marketing research. He joined ASI in March 2014, bringing with him over 15 years of domestic and international marketing research experience. Prior to ASI, Nate has worked at well-known companies such as Dow Jones, MetLife and ETS.

Jimmy Lamb, Sawgrass Technologies

Award-winning author and international speaker Jimmy Lamb has over 20 years of apparel decoration business experience. Lamb has extensive knowledge in many facets of digital decorating and embellishing including business startup, applications, techniques, marketing, sales, mobile, digitizing, production and management. He has owned and operated a successful production facility, started a retail franchise operation and has provided production solutions to a variety of Fortune 500 corporations involved in customization, decoration and embellishment. He’s presently ranked as #26 on the list of the most powerful and influential people in the decorated products marketplace by Stitches magazine, published by ASI. Currently, he works with Sawgrass Technologies as the manager of communication and education.

Bobby Lehew, Robyn Promotions

Bobby Lehew is the chief branding officer at Robyn (asi/309656), a branded products company recognized three years in a row by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Bobby has been recognized in various publications and speaks and writes frequently on the subjects of personal and corporate branding. A 20+ year veteran of making-things-happen with branded products, you can read more about Bobby at bobbylehew.com.

Marki Lemons-Ryhal, Marki Lemons Unlimited

Marki Lemons-Rhyal is a fifth-generation entrepreneur with over 20 years of marketing experience. Having established herself as one of the leading, award-winning social media speakers in the country, she teaches social media and technology classes for the National Association of REALTORS®, CHASE, Goldman Sachs 10k Small Businesses, REALOGY, and Chicago City Colleges. She uses her dynamic, professional attitude and vast experience to proactively offer sound industry analysis and professional guidance.

Heather Lutze, Findability University

Heather Lutze, founder of Findability University, is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant who literally wrote the book (two of them, actually) on search engine marketing: Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing and Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing. She has demystified Internet marketing for countless business owners, she’s a member of the National Speaker's Association, a Vistage International Speaker, and has shared the stage with Tony Robbins Business Mastery in Fiji and London. She’s also been on Oprah, and will happily tell you all about it if you ask!

Craig Mertens, Digital Art Solutions

Craig Mertens is the president and CEO of Digital Art Solutions. He co-founded the company to provide products and services to companies in the apparel decoration, sign making, awards and promotional products industries. Craig’s approach to building a profitable business is based on a concept called ASSET: (A)rtwork + (S)oftware + (S)upport + (E)quipment + (T)raining = Success. With over 30 years of industry experience, Craig has been teaching electronic art production and marketing for the last 16 years. He’s the inventor of the process of creating rhinestone heat transfers and rhinestone decals with a vinyl cutter.

Greg Muzzillo, Proforma

Dramatically growing your sales and profits – even achieving $1 million in sales – can be easy if you’re living a wholly charged life. Proforma founder and CEO Greg Muzzillo will share the easy-to-implement personal and professional secrets he used to build a $25 million distributorship from the ground up in this powerful session. This course is designed to help both business owners and sales professionals create an actionable plan to achieve their first $1 million year or add $1 million to their annual sales. Proforma has more than 100 individuals who have achieved $1 million to over $25 million in sales using these very secrets and strategies. Additionally, in 2012, Inc. magazine included eight Proforma distributors who work with Muzzillo in its prestigious list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies.

Steve Oswald, ASI

Steve Oswald is ASI’s marketing art director, and has been creating in Adobe Illustrator for over 20 years. During his 26 years with ASI, Steve has helped to direct and shape the advertising for many of ASI’s first-class brands. He has extensive experience creating vector artwork for decorating promotional products, including screen-printing, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing.

Lisa Peskin, Business Development University

Lisa Peskin is the co-founder and CEO of Business Development University (BDU), a results-driven sales training, coaching and consulting company. She has more than 25 years of experience in sales performance and management, and has helped thousands of selling and non-selling professionals dramatically improve their business development efforts and results through training, just-in-time support and programs designed to maximize opportunities and drive ROI.

Ford Saeks, Prime Concepts

Ford Saeks is the president and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., an integrated marketing services firm. His efforts have helped companies generate a total of over $1 billion in sales worldwide. With over 25 years’ experience (ranging from retail to wholesale), he has founded over 10 companies, authored five books, secured three U.S. patents and received numerous industry awards. Ford specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, monetize social media and ignite creativity.

Jamie Tumas, ASI

Jamie Tumas is director of the east coast sales team for distributor services at ASI. In addition to leading a team of account executives, he manages a large base of his own accounts. His extensive experience in e-commerce, customer service and sales management enables him to help distributors utilize ASI's tools and services and find unique solutions for their businesses.

Dave Vagnoni, ASI

Dave Vagnoni is a senior editor for Counselor magazine, and is also ASI’s manager of special projects. In November of 2008, he debuted on ASI Radio and continues to contribute as an occasional guest. He also supports ASI TV in a variety of roles. Previously, Dave worked as an Emmy-nominated TV reporter at multiple network affiliates, mostly recently at WHTM-TV ABC in Harrisburg, PA. He was recognized as one of the top TV writers in the country in 2004, honored by his peers with a National Edward R. Murrow Award. He has appeared on CNN, Headline News and Comcast Sportsnet in Philadelphia.

Chris Vanderzyden, Chris Vanderzyden Global

Chris Vanderzyden, author of 7 Steps to Entrepreneurial Victory, is a Fox News contributor, business-development consultant, speaker and entrepreneur. She was previously a CPA for Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), and was president of a national advertising specialty company, where she grew sales into the millions. Her unique experience in the financial and marketing disciplines, coupled with her action-oriented approach, increases margins and creates a business of sustained success.

Ron Williams, Fey Industries

Ron Williams is the marketing director for Fey Promotional Products Group (asi/54040). He’s the author of numerous articles, and his ability to develop, implement, manage and analyze marketing strategies is well known throughout the industry. As a retired healthcare provider, he possesses critical knowledge about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how it will affect large and small businesses – and the opportunities available to distributors.