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Dan Messerschmidt, JDS Industries
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

(January/February 2025)  At my first APA board meeting as president, I set  the tone for the year by showing Simon Sinek’s TEDxPuget Sound talk “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action.”

Sinek presented that TED Talk in 2009, but the concept is always relevant because it’s based on how people think. On the TED website alone, the talk has been viewed more than 66 million times, becoming the third most-watched on TED.com—and many millions more have watched it on YouTube.

Dan Messerschmidt, JDS Industries
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

(November/December 2024) We’ll be walking the show floor of the International Personalization Expo in Las Vegas before you know it. Thousands of personalization pros will join us at the Horseshoe Las Vegas for the biggest show in the industry, Feb. 4–7. We will be there because we are all investing in the success of our companies—regardless of your business type or size.

Dan Messerschmidt, JDS Industries
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

(September/October 2024) APA’s roots are carrots. Allow me to explain. APA   members have deep roots in corporate recog-nition. And in corporate recognition, the phrase “carrot and stick” describes the use of a mix of rewards (carrots) and punishments (sticks). You and I know that in the workplace, carrots are more effective motivators than sticks.

APA was founded in that belief. Sixty years ago, our association was started “when visionary Stan Seaman brought together 12 awards retailers and one supplier to form the Northern California Trophy Dealers Association,” APA’s website explains.

Dan Messerschmidt, JDS Industries
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

 

(July/August 2024) For a lot of small businesses, hiring staff is hard. It’s an extra job to do, one that requires different skills than personalizing products or operating a company.

But when you think about it, needing to hire staff is often a good problem to have. If you’re adding to your staff, it’s likely due to the growth of your business, which is definitely a positive. If you are replacing an existing employee, you have an opportunity to add someone who will bring excellent skills and a great work ethic that could help re-energize existing staff.

Even with a lot of hiring experience, we’re always looking to get better. After all, it’s crucial that we hire team players who get what it is that we do and why we do want to be part of that success.

Dan Messerschmidt, JDS Industries
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

 

(May/June 2024) The modern world can be isolating. We’re so busy that building genuine connections can seem like a lost art—or a luxury we can’t afford to make time for. But humans are social creatures. Craving connection isn’t a weakness, it’s a fundamental need.

Psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow is famous for creating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which outlines basic needs that must be met before we can address our psychological needs and eventually try to achieve self-fulfillment.

Belonging and love are smack-dab in the middle of Maslow’s pyramid. Once we’ve fulfilled our basic needs (physiological needs and safety), we need relationships and friends or we can’t advance to trying to meet our needs for respect, recognition, self-esteem, and eventually, self-actualization.

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