Three years ago, Walter Hill Jr. sold the customers and transferred the staff of his successful distributorship Icon Blue to Top 40 distributor PromoShop (asi/300446). Rather than retire and let a lifetime’s worth of knowledge of the promo industry and entrepreneurship fade away, the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award winner decided to set his ideas about running a business onto paper. Hill recently published Think Red Flags: A Proactive and Profitable Approach for Your Small Business.

In this episode of Promo Insiders, Executive Editor Theresa Hegel sits down with Hill to talk about how he started learning valuable business lessons at a young age, why his “red-flagging” approach is not a step-by-step guideline, but rather a way of thinking, and what the promotional products industry should do to recover from the pandemic more quickly.

Podcast Chapters (only available on desktop)
1:00 How the promo industry has changed over the years
6:13 What working at his father’s parking lot taught Hill about business
8:46 What is “red-flagging”?
14:03 More red-flag moments
20:45 Tips for recovering from the pandemic

Rather than retell his life story, Hill wanted to share the secret to his success. He also interviewed entrepreneurs in six business categories, including real estate investing, to give the book a broader business appeal. The red-flagging process, Hill says, involves identifying potential snags ahead of time and addressing them before they can become a problem. “It’s a way of thinking,” he says. “It’s almost so simple and that’s the reason it’s often overlooked.”

Hill recalls receiving his very first exercise in red-flagging as a 10-year-old collecting quarters from people who parked in his father’s lot. Many motorists simply refused to give Hill the quarter he’d requested. He asked his father whether they could tow the cars of people who weren’t paying, and when his father said they could, Hill started telling people reluctant to pay that their car wouldn’t be there when they returned. It was a simple solution that brought with it a powerful lesson: “When people tell you no, it’s because you haven’t given them enough of an incentive to say yes,” Hill explains.

As an adult, Hill was attracted to the promotional products industry because it was all about relationship-building. Rather than having to focus on how to “sell, sell, sell” every day, Hill could build a rapport with clients, earning loyal, repeat business in the process. He also built strong relationships within the industry and says he was often blessed with colleagues willing to give him a helping hand. With Think Red Flags, Hill says, he has an opportunity to pay it forward and help other entrepreneurs be more successful.

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