Mark Jenkins, MAS+, regional vice president at Geiger (PPAI 105182, Platinum) – the No. 5 distributor in the PPAI 100 – will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t like attention. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that many of the support letters his PPAI Hall of Fame nomination received would describe his contributions to the promo market as unheralded.
To Jenkins, it never mattered that he got credit. What mattered was the progress his service helped to create. A tireless worker whose volunteer résumé includes contributions to charitable foundations and double-digit industry committees and groups over the past two decades, including the PPAI Board of Directors, Jenkins has truly devoted himself to the promotional products market since first joining it in 1987 with Balloon Supply of America.
The culminating honor of that quiet service, perhaps ironically, is a deserved spot in the PPAI Hall of Fame.
PPAI Media: Mark, thank you for all you’ve done for our industry, and congratulations on this award. How does it feel?
Jenkins: This feels really good. I have to say, 10 years ago when someone mentioned, ‘Oh, you’ll be in the PPAI Hall of Fame someday,’ I thought, actually, I won’t. I will probably say no. ‘Thank you, but no. That’s not for me’ – and that’s how I felt 10 years ago, legitimately. Even working on it and getting other people inducted, which is part of the process as a board member or as a past board member and chair, it was never on my radar, really. And I was ready to say no.
But it has evolved a bit over the last five years or so, that I’m like, ‘Yeah, this feels good.’ And it’s good for folks like me that don’t necessarily bask in that to be recognized this way. It takes all different kinds of people to run businesses and industries and volunteer at trade associations like PPAI, and I think it’s good to have folks like me represented.
PPAI Media: Is it a product, you think, of maybe growing more reflective as you’ve become more experienced?
Jenkins: I think so, for sure. I have done that, and I’ve watched other people in the same position, and I appreciate how they’ve handled it for the most part. And it’s like, well yeah, you can do that. You can do all of this your own way and in your own style. I do think it’s just a validation that this has happened.
PPAI Media: In what ways have you evolved during your time as a promo professional? How has this line of work helped you grow?
Jenkins: I’d like to say I’m more technically savvy, but I’m not at all where I want to be. That’s one of the challenges, I think, for people of my generation. But beyond that, I think I’ve just become a bit more of a mentor than I ever thought I would be, and there are a lot of people that I look to and they look back for input, and I like that part of it.
Mark Jenkins, MAS+
Regional VP, Geiger
I never would’ve thought I would be spending my time mentoring anyone, to be honest. It just wasn’t my personality. It wasn’t in my wheelhouse. But I really do enjoy that, and what I do now is a lot of that with people’s businesses, too. So, as I’m talking to people about their businesses, and their client base and all the rest, it’s much more an advisory role. I do enjoy that.
PPAI Media: What do you find rewarding about mentorship?
Jenkins: People seem to really appreciate it. People that I speak to, I’m mostly finding younger suppliers that are either new to the industry or just kind of new in general, and they’re very appreciative of it. They soak it up, and they genuinely appreciate the knowledge and the advice. And it’s kind of hard to come by, so I think there’s a real need for it.
I enjoy it just because they seem to really appreciate it, and it’s, obviously, very fun to watch their successes and to hear how they’re going to use it or not use it for their businesses.
PPAI Media: Does the one-on-one connection style of mentorship maybe suit your personality more?
Jenkins: It does. I’ve spent a lot of time at events and elsewhere finding places to go away from the groups, away from the video camera, away from the videographer. Never my thing.
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People are surprised by that. I’m in a sales role, essentially, but I think very successful people, you have to turn it on for your job, of course. But you don’t have to turn it on all the time. It takes a variety of people to do these things, but I think a lot of people are really good at turning it on for their job or a situation, but it’s what you’re comfortable with.
I try to make it a superpower, right? I try to be humble. Being humble and being modest, I think, is a good attribute. However, there are times where I probably should’ve taken the podium and I didn’t, or I let someone else do that. In the end, it’s worked out just fine without that. I find other ways to get things done without being the loudest person in the room. I just don’t necessarily like to hear myself talk, and I definitely don’t need other people to hear me talk.
PPAI Media: Modesty and humility may be your nature, but you clearly have been impressing people all along. You were a company president before age 30. How did that come about, and what was your introduction to the industry like?
Jenkins: I started with a manufacturer, a supplier in my hometown in Ohio, right after college. It was the only employer that I sent a résumé to. I was looking elsewhere, bigger cities, but saw some interesting things happening in the community and then figured out that there was something happening at that company. So, I was invited to come aboard and start a division for them. They were a long-term supplier. I actually started in a wholesale retail division of the company and got that rolling. And then, after some success there, the promotional products division, which was larger and more established, became open. I took that over, and that’s really how it started.
It was kind of a Midwest, not exactly factory-to-office success story, but sort of. I mean, it was very much a hands-on situation. And that grew, and then all my other steps within the industry were built on that. It allowed me to move on to other things.
PPAI Media: What was it like to be in a leadership position at such a young age?
Jenkins: At the time it seemed very natural. The opportunity was there, and it was mine for the taking, so I took advantage of it and felt like we did some good things along the way.
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It was a very unique opportunity. There was just a lot of support, a good solid staff. It was small-town stuff with people that I knew from other avenues, and we were all working for the same company. I met my wife there. It didn’t seem like a crazy, off-the-charts type thing at all. It just happened.
PPAI Media: At what point did you start to think of yourself as an industry lifer?
Jenkins: It wasn’t too far into it that I decided I really was interested. It was the old trips to Dallas to the PPAI trade show and the summer shows or whatever. I really enjoyed the environment. It seemed to me that it was a really good place for companies our size to land, a fairly easy industry to navigate and decide what you wanted to do in it. And it meant a lot of choices and a lot of opportunities.
Just the hands-on part of the organizations – the work, the product, the people – it all fit together, and it just seemed like a great place to nurture our kind of company and our people. It gave them opportunities for the education and the things that are not as organized with other industries.
PPAI Media: Speaking of education, you’ve always been a proponent of professional development in promotional products. You’re one of fewer than 30 people to have earned the MAS+ certification. Why has that always been such a personal emphasis?
Jenkins: I think I was exposing myself to different parts of the industry. You know, I worked for one supplier for a long time, and so it came from recognizing that I needed to have more knowledge of our customers and what they’re really doing, what my competitors are doing at all different size of suppliers.
It wasn’t just the education and the topics – it was also the community in that process, too. A lot of that was in person. Most all of mine was in person. There weren’t really online opportunities when I did all that, so I got to benefit from all that interaction and all the different events, and to see those events come and go and grow and change was part of it, too. It was important, especially with the PPAI volunteerism, to make sure that I saw all levels of the education track so I could speak to it to members and speak to it in the boardroom.
PPAI Media: Speaking of the PPAI Board, what finally possessed you to run for it after the years of committee work, and what did you enjoy about that time?
Jenkins: I had done some volunteering on the committees and had some interaction with the PPAI staff there. And I actually had a past chair, I think, or immediate past chair reach out to me about it.
I really hadn’t thought about it, to be honest. But I guess I kind of jumped at it because I was ready for something new and different. And I knew I enjoyed being exposed to a wider world of all of these ideas and people that I wasn’t going to be exposed to in my current job. I’m glad I did it, because that opened up a lot of things.
I was already traveling a lot for my company, even some international travel, but not in the way that I ended up doing once I became involved with PPAI and the volunteerism there. I enjoyed the trips to Hong Kong, to Dusseldorf, and not just the places. But I saw the innovation and products and different ways of doing business. Also, meeting the people and having those conversations that I wouldn’t have been able to have if I wouldn’t have been involved with PPAI.
PPAI Media: Promotional products have been your entire career, and the business has brought you so many of the professional and worldly experiences that you’ve had. You’ve given so much to it. How do you feel about the industry?
Jenkins: I mean, that’s obviously been our livelihood as a family, right? So, it’s been really important. I’ve taken my job way too seriously, probably. But it’s always been the primary thing that is the foundation for everything at home, and the security at home, and all the rest of it.
But it’s also been a great place for relationships. My best friends are in the industry. With my travels, it’s just the way it worked. They are important to me. They’re important to my family. Some of my best friends, I’ve been friends with for over 20 or 25 years based on our travels together or our work together.
Obviously, everyone says timing is everything. And the timing was perfect for me when I started, where I started, and the timing just continued to be really good. Obviously, we all make mistakes, but I just feel like mine were minimalized by the opportunities that were almost endless.
