News, Nuggets, and What’s Worth Knowing

🧂 A Dash of Industry Insights

🖥️ Upcoming Leadership Webinar: On July 23, our friends at achieve Engagement are hosting a must-attend session on how culture, accountability, and performance intersect. Tracy Dodd of Culture Partners will share actionable frameworks to help leaders drive alignment, lead through change, and build high-performing teams. You can register here.

🌞 Summer Swag is Heating Up: We're gearing up for our Summer Solstice pop-up shops, loaded with the hottest swag for sunny vibes. Want in? Reply SUMMER and we’ll send you the next steps to launch your own custom store for just $10/month. It’s low effort, high impact, and everything is on-brand.

🎉 Giveaway Winner Alert: Shoutout to last week’s winner who scored our biggest giveaway yet: a free pop-up shop + $250 in store credit. Missed out? No sweat, this week’s giveaway is spicy!

⛳ Golf Swag in Full Swing: The 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont just wrapped up, and the merch tent was buzzing. Branded gear was flying off the shelves. The takeaway? Great swag doesn’t just rep your brand, it builds community.

Behind the Scenes

🛠️ Building the Tech that Powers Brand Sauce

Big things coming. We’re launching a brand-new site to power thousands of company stores, from one-man startups to Fortune 500s.

These aren’t just online shops. They’re living, breathing extensions of your brand. Places where every hoodie, tumbler, and gift card says we see you, we appreciate you, and we’re building something bigger together.

Whether it’s onboarding new hires, surprising top customers, or making Employee Appreciation Day unforgettable, this new platform is designed to turn transactions into emotional connections.

Huge thanks to Justin and Ian for bringing world-class design to this next chapter. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Lights, Camera, Action

🎥 Ross's Video of the Week

What happens when one of the most powerful figures in music takes off the mask?

In this raw, unfiltered interview, Scooter Braun opens up about guilt, identity, and the cost of chasing success at all costs.

From managing global icons to navigating personal breakdowns, he shares the truth behind the headlines—and how losing it all led him back to himself.

You can watch here.

Weekly Client Spotlight

⭐️Client Spotlight

🤝Meet CIAT

The California Institute of Arts & Technology isn’t just shaping the next generation of tech professionals, they’re also building a culture of appreciation along the way. From branded swag for new students to custom gifts for faculty and staff, CIAT understands that recognition fuels retention. We’re proud to power their on-demand swag store and help turn every milestone into a moment worth celebrating.

Our Collaboration

From diaper duty to debugging code, dads at California Institute of Applied Technology are doing it all and getting the recognition they deserve.

This week, we helped CIAT launch a brand-new collection just in time for Father’s Day. From dad hats and matching hoodies to infant bodysuits. This isn’t just about swag, it’s about building culture.

Props to CIAT for using the Brand Sauce platform to show love in a meaningful way. This is what it’s all about.

🤝 Partner with CIAT

Want an intro to meet their team? Email us at [email protected].

Weekly Giveaway

Charge up in Style

This week, we’re giving away the ultimate charging solution: the Triosity ($95 MSRP), a 10,000mAh wireless powerbank by our friends at RUPT. This sleek, travel-ready charger can wirelessly charge your phone, power your Apple Watch, AirPods, and juice up to 5 devices at once.

👉 To enter, reply to this email and tell us the best part about your job, and we’ll pick a winner based on the best response.

Weekend Update

Around the Water Cooler With Ross AKA The P.O.D. Guy

🏀 The Power of Trying Something New (Even When It’s Scary)

I grew up playing a lot of basketball. My travel team in Hopkins, Minnesota, won the state tournament four years in a row from 5th through 8th grade. We were lucky. Our coach, one of my teammate’s dads, was incredible. Without him, we probably would have been an average team. But because of him, I fell in love with the game.

Fast forward 30 years. It was my turn to coach.

My stepdaughter Ryleigh wanted to play on a basketball team, and I told her I’d coach. My daughter Maxie isn’t into sports and didn’t want to play, but when she heard her sister was joining and I would be coaching, she agreed to give it one season.

As a parent, that kind of moment is tricky. Part of me thought, don’t force your kids to do things they don’t enjoy. Let them be who they are. But another part of me believed our job is to expose our kids to new experiences. They won’t know what they love unless they try it.

Maxie was a trooper. She played the whole season, and in the final game, she scored two baskets. She stepped into something she didn’t want to do, and I’m so proud of her.

What she didn’t realize was that I was trying something new too. I had never coached basketball before. I was nervous. But it turned out to be fun, fulfilling, and full of lessons for all of us.

The biggest lesson I hope I passed on to Maxie, and reminded myself of, is this:

Trying new things, especially the ones that scare us, helps us grow.

Whether you’re a kid picking up a basketball for the first time or an adult stepping into an unfamiliar role, the discomfort means you’re learning. I’ve been taught to have a growth mindset. The best leaders are the most curious. Always learning. Always exploring.

Thank you, Maxie and Ryleigh, for pulling me out of my comfort zone. Thank you for trusting me as your coach.

And as a bonus, my son Bo stepped up as my assistant coach, and we went 8-0. NBA here I come… 😉

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