Lately, I've been discovering joy in what has essentially been my life's work. Hyperbolic as it may sound when discussing a career in the promotional products industry, I've been surprised to find that seeds planted five, ten, even twenty years ago are just beginning to bloom.
Playing the long game, it turns out, isn't a bad strategy.
What I do daily isn't all that different from what we all do: identify problems, identify solutions, and then match them together. More tactically, my work is focused on bringing teams together to solve big-picture challenges through broad, structured plans that can be implemented and delivered quickly. Most often, I work within a sprint-based model common in the tech sector. While the terminology may differ across industries, the larger challenge is one many of us share: balancing immediate business needs with longer-term investments in growth and people.
The model is structured, fast-paced, and reliant on quick pivots to achieve meaningful wins over a defined period of time. Progress can be remarkable. Team alignment is essential to creating these leaps forward, and there's little time for hesitation. The goal is to innovate, rally around a shared vision, communicate with candor, and, if failure arises, fail fast.
What isn't celebrated as often are the byproducts of this approach. One of them is that an ongoing cycle of high-performance execution is exhausting. Protecting morale and ensuring the sustainability of these cycles is a layered and complex challenge for leaders who want consistent results and energetic, innovative teams.
One remedy for burnout is balancing sprint schedules with projects that don't deliver immediate results: long-term investment initiatives that serve a broader purpose and operate on timelines of two to six years, sometimes longer. These efforts are not as easily defined. Time has a way of reshaping even the best-laid plans, while technology, culture, social norms, and the economy continue evolving alongside them, often in unpredictable ways.
These are the projects that are more difficult to articulate to teams. The "why" behind them can be harder to rally around, and they're often more challenging to champion alongside the immediate revenue priorities and growth objectives every leadership team must manage. Yet these are the projects that don't just win hearts; they transform organizations and, in some cases, create ripple effects that shape communities and lives for years to come.
We celebrate them afterward as examples of grit, resilience, and vision. And yet, in my experience, they are often the most difficult to secure attention, support, and budget for when sitting around a conference room table.
In our modern world of quick turns and 24-hour delivery cycles, how do we reclaim attention for the long project and the slow win over time?
Let me offer an example.
Alongside my work restructuring our tech stack and building the strategic roadmap for meeting the needs of our internal and external stakeholders, I have poured countless hours into something much simpler: showing up. On campuses. In classrooms. At community events.
Slowly, carefully, and intentionally, I've left traces of what our industry does, why it matters, and where it can make a meaningful impact on the world.
It sounds lofty, right? It is. Audacious, maybe even a little bonkers.
What I've learned comes from nearly twenty years of seeing how we can improve what we do and how I can better serve others. It starts with measuring and reporting transparently before we ever list something as a selling point. It continues by taking the extra step: referring a candidate, helping a student, or filling a gap for someone who simply needs an opportunity to get started and be seen.
I've spoken with students as young as 12 and watched them grow through their educational journeys. I've met freshmen on college campuses and later interviewed them for full-time roles.
Two of my favorite long-term connections began over ten years ago when I recruited two young people into this industry shortly after high school and college. I met both of them when they were 24, early in their careers and just beginning to find their place in the industry. Today, they're engaged, still working down the hall from me, and watching them build a life together has been one of the great gifts of my own life.
It's a reminder that careers are never just careers. The opportunities we create often become part of people's lives in ways we never anticipate.
Showing up requires sacrifice. It means another hour on the clock. Another Zoom meeting with a community partner. Another conversation with a referral who may not generate measurable ROI this quarter.
What it does generate, however, is a fundamental shift in how you engage with the people around you.
When we talk about changing hearts, trust me when I say your own is the first one on the list. Giving without an immediate SMART goal, aggressive metric, deliverable, or defined endpoint reminds you why the work matters in the first place.
For me, that's what makes all of this worth it.
Kate Alavez is President of PromoShop, Inc., where she champions people-first leadership, innovation, and sustainable growth. A recognized industry leader, she serves on the PPAI Board of Directors, was named to the Counselor Power 50 in 2024 and 2025, and received PromoStandards' Distributor Person of the Year award in 2024.
Passionate about developing people and building communities, Kate hosts a leadership-focused book club, leads Nexus, an industry technology group advancing innovation and collaboration, and manages a Girl Scouts Service Unit supporting more than 200 girls and 50 volunteer leaders. In 2026, she joined the boards of the Anselmo Academy of Music and the Arts in New York City and the Bloom Again Foundation in Los Angeles, furthering her commitment to education, empowerment, and community impact. Kate holds an MBA from California State University, Monterey Bay.