Chicago, IL - Reality TV co-host and FUBU founder Daymond
John delivered a rousing motivational keynote on Thursday at a trade
show hosted by the Advertising Specialty Institute®, urging a standing-room-only audience of entrepreneurs to “just keep swimming.”
Throughout his fast-paced presentation during ASI Show® Chicago
at the McCormick Place convention center, John challenged suppliers and
distributors in the $23 billion promotional products industry to follow
his five “Shark Points” to achieve success in both life and business.
But in the end, he said, “It all comes down to love.”
John punctuated his talk – which was funny,
poignant and jam-packed with inspiration – with videos, sound effects,
funky music and personal photos of celebrity friends like Michael
Jackson, Muhammad Ali and Prince. “Never forget that you are the brand,”
he said, advising the audience to choose a handful of precise words to
describe themselves, adding, “When you know that, then you can master
the pitch. On Shark Tank, we do not invest in companies, we invest in
people.”
Raised by a single mom in Queens, New York,
John got his entrepreneurial start selling hats, marketing his fledgling
brand by spray-painting FUBU throughout the city. After achieving
phenomenal success, he transitioned to TV, co-hosting the Emmy
Award-winning Shark Tank, in which budding entrepreneurs compete for the
chance to make their dreams reality.
“The keynote with Daymond John was very
inspirational and definitely gave me fuel to go back and kick my own
brand to a new level,” said Brian Stout, of Go Earn It (asi/208849).
“The biggest thing by far I got from him was that you need to represent
the brand – you are the brand.”
ASI Show Chicago, which opened Tuesday, was
attended by 615 exhibitors and 3,776 distributors from 44 states and 13
countries, including 541 companies from Illinois, 242 women-owned
companies and 215 minority-owned companies. All told, 19 distributors
also chose ASI Chicago, the largest promotional products trade show of
the summer, to host their sales meetings, 15 of which are Top 100
companies.
Distributor Christine Marion, of Fully
Promoted (asi/384000), raved about the show. “ASI Chicago is the one
show I come to that the vendors want to take the time to share with you
their great ideas, new products and, most importantly, how to use them
and how to solve problems. Our group comes to shows like this to get
ideas, learn how to use products differently, build relationships and
network.”
Supplier Carthage Barry, of Landway
(asi/66238) said his company has exhibited at ASI Show Chicago for over
10 years because it’s the biggest show in the Midwest. “Attendance this
year has been great,” said Barry. “I’ve had a lot of good conversations
with distributors, some new, but also a lot of our existing customers.
We’ve been around for a while and have established ourselves in the
industry, so it’s great that our customers now make it a point to stop
and see us.”
Rita Ugianskis-Fishman, senior vice president
and general manager of ASI Show, said she was thrilled with the
encouraging response and was already looking forward to ASI’s 2018 shows
in Orlando, Dallas and Chicago. Registration opens July 31.
“ASI Show is proud of our long record of
consistently delivering trade shows that offer great value for both
attendees and exhibitors,” said Ugianskis-Fishman. “No matter how far we
advance in terms of online gatherings, nothing will ever replace the
value of face-to-face product sourcing, networking and relationship
building.”
Timothy M. Andrews, ASI president and chief
executive officer, said he was particularly delighted with the strong
attendance on Education Day and hoped all distributors continue to
advance their sales and marketing skills by taking full advantage of
ASI’s free online classes. “Education really is the key to success,”
said Andrews.
On Wednesday, at a prestigious black-tie event
at the historic Morgan Manufacturing, ASI also announced winners of the
2017 Counselor® Awards, including Boundless CEO Henrik Johansson as
Person of the Year and PFConcept CEO Ralf Oster as International Person
of the Year.
The awards, chosen by the editors of ASI’s
award-winning Counselor magazine, recognize outstanding individuals and
companies in 11 categories.
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