Joseph Sommer never wanted to fit into the so-called “societal box.” He wanted freedom: freedom to live by his own rules, have control of his own life, and know that if he somehow failed, he was the only person who could ultimately be held responsible. Even in middle school, he told himself that one day he’d take matters into his own hands by being his own boss.

“Entrepreneurship to me is a beautiful, creative outlet to show the world what you believe and what you can create – through hard work, collaboration, and your own values for how you approach customer service, sales, business operations and finance,” he says.

When he was 19, someone showed him how to sell promo products on a BlackBerry, at the click of a button. He learned that this is a career where you could sell products to anyone, in any business or industry, with low barriers of entry and minimal capital requirements to launch. That was very appealing to him, so he went back to college and built a business plan selling promotional products.

That’s how he founded Whitestone Branding (asi/359741) at the age of 23 from his one-bedroom apartment in NYC. Today, the distributor has grown to $16 million in annual sales, and is projected to reach $20 million by the end of the year.

In the first few years of his business, Sommer said it was strictly about hustling, which meant building a network and developing a skillset as an entrepreneur before he reached the next cycle of growth. He vowed to not get distracted by shiny objects and stay true to the idea that he had to take care of current and new customers. “The only thing that matters in the beginning is sales,” he says. “First you have to be a salesperson. If you can do that, then you’ll figure out the rest.”

It was only after three full years of grinding that Sommer reached his first million in revenue and made his first hire. After that, his business began compounding. “I had to become a leader and implement a plan for growth,” says Sommer, who grew up in Bethesda, MD, and spent the first decade of his career in New York City before moving to Austin three years ago. “We created systems and processes to go from $1 million to $10 million in sales in 5 years, and ended up achieving $16 million.”

“Entrepreneurship to me is a beautiful, creative outlet to show the world what you believe and what you can create – through hard work, collaboration, and your own values for how you approach customer service, sales, business operations and finance.”Joseph Sommer, Whitestone Branding

Sommer leads democratically, and constantly asks for feedback to figure out pain points. He also cultivates a company culture that puts goals in place for absolutely everything, including individual monthly sales goals, customer sales forecasts, hiring goals and quarterly sprints. But beyond motivating employees through goal-setting, Whitestone (which ranked #1 for medium-sized distributorships on Counselor’s 2024 Best Places to Work list) also fosters a progressive company benefits package including perks like a stipend toward one’s “bucket list item” and a remote culture that’s vibrant, healthy and connected.

“The key metric of success for me starts with how we treat our people,” Sommer says. “Our number-one core value is ‘human,’ which means to us that we make products by people for people, and we treat people how we want to be treated in every situation.”

His leadership rubs off on the people he works with. One of his first hires was Dominique Volker, current vice president of Whitestone, who credits Sommer for her start in promo and teaching her how to sell. “When I started, I wasn’t considering sales at all, and Joseph gave me the push and confidence to take on large accounts,” says Volker, who was a finalist last year for ASI Media’s Distributor Salesperson of the Year. “Through that belief in me, along with lifelong learning he brings to sales methods and processes, I was able to achieve my own success.” 

Samantha Kates, chief sales officer at Top 40 supplier Spector & Co (asi/88660), says that Sommer has been inspirational to her in more ways than she’s ever shared with him.

“Sometimes you just meet those people who are destined for greatness,” she says. “I often think about his tenacity, his courage, and his willingness to learn and grow. … Joseph embodies so many qualities of a great leader; smart, curious, ambitious, focused, but what really sets him apart seem to be two things: not following the herd and being willing to do the work.”

In the future, Sommer says he hopes to grow his company to $100 million in revenue and harbors aspirations to become recognized as a Top 40 distributor. But most importantly, he wants Whitestone to continue to be a home for motivated, passionate and creative professionals in promo.

His colleagues have no doubt he can achieve his goals. “I will never understand how he has the time for the work he’s achieved, the commitment to his team and company, his personal life, his dogs and still got up one day and said, ‘I think I want to run the Boston Marathon’ and then did it,” Kates says. “I remember seeing him cross the finish line. I had a huge smile on my face, thinking ‘this is just a typical day for him.’”