Standing Out From the Crowd: The Story of Birch Tree Promotions

Standing Out From the Crowd: The Story of Birch Tree Promotions

"I was sitting down in the kitchen feeling very alone and worried. I looked out and in the middle of the pine trees were two birch trees and they were lit up by the moon,” recalls Katie Basson, CEO & Owner of Birch Tree Promotions.

"It occurred to me that birch trees sort of stand out from the crowd."

Watch our interview with Katie here →

An Unexpected Career Pivot 

Katie’s path to promo was anything but conventional. She started as a first-grade teacher, with an undergraduate degree in psychology. But after her first-son Sebastian was born, she left the classroom and embarked on a new role as the creator of "The Bits Kit," a behavior modification tool for children.

Going all in she had: boxes manufactured overseas, secured a patent with a lawyer, learned QuickBooks, and traveled to daycares and schools teaching people how to use it.

“I learned a lot about business,” Katie reflects. “It was a really instructive time in my life. A lot of learning about myself.” 

The experience gave Katie something invaluable: the confidence and knowledge to run a business. Then came her shift into an office manager position at a promotional products distributor in nearby Newport, where she quickly moved into sales and discovered she loved the work. 

“Working with clients and helping people find gifts for the events… I loved it all,” she says.  Flying around the country, driving to meet clients in Boston, building relationships—she was thriving.

Until that July 4th email. 

When Your Client Becomes Your Champion

“I was pretty upset,” Katie recalls. The termination from the distributorship came at an unexpected time in her life, and she wanted to continue the work she loved with her local clients. It was nothing short of devastating. 

But as she pondered her future in the quiet hours of the night, she began to think: maybe she should start her own business.  

Birch Tree Promotions Was Born

The name "Birch Tree Promotions" was a mouthful—Katie still apologizes to people the first time they have to type it out. But there was a method to the madness. She wanted an image that would stick, something memorable and distinctive. 

Even more meaningful: Birch is Katie's mother's middle name. The symbolism runs deep—it's both a tribute to family and a representation of strength, resilience, and growth.

The Early Stages of Running a Business

After the firing, Katie returned from Maine uncertain about her next move. Then her phone rang.

One of the clients that Katie had been working with heard what happened. And they had a proposition: “If you start your own business, we’ll be your first client.”

"I still work with them," Katie says. "It's been almost 20 years."

This relationship was a testament to something Katie continues to build her business around today: genuine human connection.

“We are not B2B, we are human to human.”

In an increasingly automated, transactional world, this personal touch has become Birch Tree’s signature. 

The Journey to Promo

"I didn't even know how clothing got embroidered before I started the business," says Sebastian, Katie’s son. He’d grown up “literally in the room next to where my mom was running the business,” and dabbled in embroidery.

"It really does feel more like I'm in Santa's workshop a little bit where I get to sort of put these personable touches on clients' projects," he explains. Writing personalized notes to every client, commenting on specific aspects of their logos, sharing what he enjoyed about working on their project. Sebastian found himself “loving this job more than I’ve ever had.” 

Fast forward to Christmas break, several years into Birch Tree’s success. Sebastian and his fiancée Aly had been watching Katie struggle with contract embroiderers who didn’t share Birch Tree’s human-first philosophy.  So they cooked up a plan: What if they started an embroidery shop specifically for Birch Tree? 

For Katie, the proposal was surprising. Sebastian was an
English major, an intellectual and deep thinker. He wasn't studying business or manufacturing. But he'd also always been a tinkerer—building things, painting, taking things apart, screen printing as a kid, even building skateboards.

"I was thinking, I wonder how you're going to meld those two aspects of your personality," Katie admits.

She didn't have to wonder for long. They jumped at the opportunity, flew to Dallas for Impressions Expo in 2022, bought an embroidery machine, found a space, and Sebastian dove in headfirst, with zero experience.

When Curiosity Meets Community

While Sebastian was learning embroidery, Katie had been wrestling with another challenge for years: workflow management.

She tried everything. She hired engineers. She took a database design class. She attempted to build her own system multiple times because she somehow knew there had to be a better way than managing everything through QuickBooks, PDFs, and file folders. She needed something more integrated and intuitive. Then came a pivotal moment.

While on a frustrating call with an engineer, Katie was approached by a sales rep from commonsku supplier, chameleon like, who stopped by for a visit. The rep said, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but there’s a company called commonsku that I think does exactly what you’re trying to do.” Katie couldn’t believe it. 

From Order-Taker to Strategist

The transformation was profound. Working with commonsku’s customer support team, it took about six to eight weeks for Katie to let her “old habits die hard.”

Before commonsku, Katie felt like an order-taker, waiting for clients to reach out. She could manage incoming requests but had no bandwidth for proactive, creative engagement. After commonsku, she became a strategist. 

"Nothing's slipping through the cracks here because it doesn't go away and it's all connected and I can review it and look through it anytime I want," Katie explains. "It's made me so much more proficient at what I do. It's made me much more productive."

She could create Pop-up Shops at a moment's notice. Reorders that used to take significant time now take minutes. Ideas from fellow distributors shared without hesitation.

“Being at all of the events. You know, you meet other people who are sort of in the trenches doing the same kind of work you do. And I've always been really shocked
at how much people are willing to share their best practices with you. They're willing to share their ideas even. They're willing to be creative with you and brainstorm.”

"I could stand up on the ceiling and just start shouting it from the rooftops," Katie says about commonsku. "I love it and I love the people."

Standing Out From the Crowd

Today, Birch Tree Promotions is a true family business. Katie works from home, just as she has since 2006. Sebastian, along with his younger brother Ethan, runs the embroidery operation with a team. 

"Out of what could have been just a terrible disaster in my life launched me on an entirely new path," Katie reflects.

"From being a first-grade teacher and then a tutor and then just doing some office managing work. Now all of a sudden I'm an entrepreneur and a successful one at that, and I'm developing all these contacts and growing in a way that I wouldn't have if I had just stayed on my path that I thought I was going to be on.”

Sebastian sees it too: "I kind of got the feel of it over time and I do feel like there was a personable touch missing from a lot of what people were doing."

That personable touch—the willingness to be human in a B2B world, to write handwritten notes, to attend clients weddings as friends, to say yes to one polo shirt, to take responsibility when things go wrong, to ask questions and admit you don't know everything—is what makes Birch Tree stand out.

Just like two birch trees illuminated by moonlight, standing bright and distinct in a forest of identical pines.

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