Transforming Family Legacy into Inc. 5000 Success: The Branded Things Journey

Meet Sarah Whitaker, CEO of The Branded Things 

Seven days before the world shut down in March 2020, Sarah Whitaker made a decision that would change everything. She bought the domain TheBrandedThings.com.

"We had big plans," Sarah recalls. "And then those plans went sideways. But honestly, that pause gave us time to think differently about... everything."

What seemed like catastrophic timing became the catalyst for transformation. Within five years, The Branded Things would land on the Inc. 5000 list—a goal Sarah had quietly written on her professional bucket list years earlier, one that felt "really far off, maybe a little unattainable."

Watch Sarah's story here →

A Legacy Written in Handwritten Purchase Orders

When Sarah Whitaker's grandfather started Williams Advertising in the 1980s, the promotional products industry looked very different. It was an era defined by handwritten purchase orders, paper catalogs, and phone calls defined the day-to-day operations. 

Sarah didn't initially set out to join the family business, and she certainly didn't plan on falling in love with promotional products. "I think early challenges for me were just coming in with this marketing mindset," she explains. "And then by accident I got to learn about the promo side that has shaped where we are today."

Transforming into The Branded Things

By 2020, Sarah had grown Williams Advertising into a full-
service marketing agency serving local and regional clients. But something wasn't quite right. The promotional products side of the business kept getting lost in the mix of traditional marketing services.

"We wanted a space, especially on the web, to be able to talk about all things promo," Sarah explains.

"We were muddying things up when we're talking about social media marketing and digital marketing and things like that. We can go so deep in branded merch that we needed a whole space for that."

More importantly, she recognized something fundamental: Williams Advertising and what would become The Branded Things served two completely different clients with different needs and expectations. One was local and full-service. The other needed to be national and hyper-specialized.

The Branded Things wasn't a spin-off or a side project. It was Sarah giving promotional products the dedicated identity and focus it deserved.

The Pause That Changed Everything

Then came March 2020. The domain was purchased. The vision was set. And the world ground to a halt. Along with many other businesses adapting to the immediate challenges of the pandemic, Sarah recognized an opportunity to build the foundation of The Branded Things.

At that time, still a budding company, Sarah used commonsku to alleviate the “massive pause in operations” that helped Sarah build the sort of infrastructure allowing her to work to scale a team’s efficiency into national growth. 

"What I love about the commonsku platform is the ease of how it fits within our processes. It also doesn’t let you do something that’s not in the right order. Everything is there for a reason and works properly if what you input is done properly, which makes for nice checks & balances on your internal processes.” Read more here →

"When I think back on the days of rekeying information," Sarah reflects, "the fact that I can click a magical button and it goes where it's supposed to go—whether that's the client or supplier—that is huge for us."

The pandemic pause that could have derailed everything instead became the moment The Branded Things built its engine for growth.

From Dream To Reality: Making the Inc. 5000

When the Inc. 5000 announcement came in 2025, it felt surreal. Not only had The Branded Things made the list, they ranked in the top half of companies nationwide, the top half of marketing and advertising firms, and the top half in their state. 

"There were so many cool things that came with it that I didn't anticipate," Sarah reflects.

But for Sarah, the recognition meant something deeper than rankings. "There are so many times I have conversations with a marketer just starting out and they don't even know that this is a career path," she explains. "To be in the industry considered in the larger industry of marketing agencies is really cool for promo."

"The leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future, today announced that The Branded Things is on the annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list provides a data-driven snapshot of the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment - its independent, entrepreneurial businesses." 

“We've had these moments of discomfort or overwhelm when we know we needed to add a team member," she shares. "Just bringing that team member on and experiencing that kind of relief—those are growing pains we've definitely been through several times."

But the real indicator that they were heading in the right direction? The work itself started to change.

"When we've kind of stepped away from those more basic projects and gotten to do things that really let us stretch our creative muscles, that's when it's like, okay, we're really headed in the right direction," Sarah explains. "Hearing feedback on a campaign that we've really had influence in—those are the best moments."

This is where Sarah's philosophy diverges from traditional sales approaches. "I would honestly say I'm a terrible salesperson in that I would rather sell you less," she admits with a laugh. "I want that person to love the merch. When you make that impression on somebody, that's far better than if you just sort of are out there for a bunch of people."

It's a counterintuitive approach in an industry often focused on volume, but it's working. One of their recent rebrand influencer kits generated responses where clients went "bullet point by bullet point of the items and why she loved each of them and why she felt they were so on brand."

"The feedback across the board was 'this is so sophisticated, this is so great,'" Sarah recalls. "All of these things that we wanted people to feel—the responses were that that is how they felt."

The Lesson: Technology Enables, Strategy Scales

Looking back on the journey from her grandfather's handwritten purchase orders to national recognition, Sarah sees a clear pattern: transformation requires both vision and infrastructure.

The vision alone—creating a dedicated branded merch agency—wasn't enough. Neither was the infrastructure alone. It was the combination: knowing where she wanted to go and building the systems that would get her there efficiently.

"I do think commonsku has helped us think outside of just
promo production," Sarah reflects. "The content, the events, the speakers—they get you thinking about the bigger picture and what clients are really seeing. It's definitely influenced how we approach everything."

From the 1980s to 2025, from handwritten orders to Inc. 5000, The Branded Things proves that family legacies don't have to be preserved in amber. With the right mindset, tools, and willingness to transform, they can evolve into something even the founder couldn't have imagined.

Explore more customer stories → 

Not a customer of commonsku? Explore our resources:

Learn more about us → 

Take a tour of the platform → 

Schedule a quick demo with us →