The future's not ours to know. With a degree in Judaic Studies from American University, Julianne Weiner never planned on selling promotional products. Then again, who really does? It seems the majority of distributors fall into the promotional products industry on a fluke.
After earning a degree in speech communication along with a writing degree in upstate New York, Seth went from college to college selling promotional products to fraternities and sororities, which led him to start Sonic Promos in September 1997. 
Back to flukes, Julianne was volunteering as an advisor at a youth group conference in Ocean City, Maryland, in December of that same year.
Seth was working at the Jewish Community Center during the summer and had registered to work the youth conference as well. Add to the mix an older gentleman who knew both Seth and Julianne, yet Seth and Julianne didn’t know one another.
The older gentleman knew they’d both be attending the youth conference on that December weekend, and he was trying to play matchmaker but hadn’t had any success yet with setting the two up.
In a life’s twist and turn, he was taken by surprise later—after they’d been out on a date—and learned they’d actually met on their own at the youth conference.
It’s so interesting how life has its own unique way of working out after all.
In 1999, they got engaged on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, and married on a date that is incredibly hard to forget—April 15th—in the year 2000. Seth and Julianne like to joke that no one gave them wedding gifts because it was tax day. But that’s not the case at all.
The Chuppah, a bridal canopy held by four poles that the bride and groom are married under, is a patchwork tapestry handmade with love. 
Seth says, “We actually sent out squares of fabric to all of our attendees and asked them to design their fabric pre-wedding. We explained, ‘We are making our own Chuppah, and we’d like for you to be a part of it. Here is your square. Please send it back to us.’”
“Mom had a friend who sewed it all together. Some people took photos of ancient family weddings and turned them into heat press and then had it applied to the piece of fabric with a note that said, ‘This is your great grandparents getting married.’ And some people did inside jokes. Some were like they handed their kid the Sharpie and said ‘Good Luck.’ Some people had embroidered ‘Love Forever’ with the date.”
Julianne chimed in, “At the reception, we took it off its post and had it on display so everybody could go and see the finished piece and view their own square in the Chuppah. It now hangs on the wall in our bedroom.”
Throughout dating and with marriage, there was a lot of talk about work. Julianne says, “From the time I met Seth, he talked about Sonic constantly, consistently, always! And after Ben and Bria were born, Seth asked if I would work part-time and handle some of the things I’d heard about, like vendor relations.”
How did he handle the business on his own up until then? Oh…Seth won’t disagree when Julianne says he used to have a temper. “Fortunately, he has mellowed significantly over the years,” she says. Having Julianne on board certainly took the stressors off and helped ease those moments when Seth would want to throw the phone—when talking to a customer or supplier—straight through the wall. Not an uncommon emotion when you’re handling promos solo.
Julianne turned out to be an asset to the business, but it wasn’t all work-no play. Seth got to have a little fun along the way. At a PPAI show, Julianne was going booth to booth and people were greeting her with, “Nice to meet you ‘Ona Can’.”
What she didn’t realize is Seth registered her as “One Can.” At the PPAI show, people were pronouncing what they thought was her name as “Onacan.” She earned the nickname from limiting herself to only one can of beer or beverage. In fact, a funny thing happened on their Jamaican honeymoon. Being a lightweight, Julianne approached the all-inclusive bar and asked the bartender to mix a drink with very little booze. She didn’t want to taste alcohol or feel too many repercussions from the drink. 
When she bragged on how fantastic her drink was, Seth asked the bartender to mix the same for him but to add a little more Rum. The bartender spoke up, “There is no Vodka or Rum in this at all. It’s Island Fruit Punch.”
Getting down to business, Sonic Promos is a not just an ordinary promotional marketing/distributor agency, Sonic is also a branding agency and engagement agency.
Seth explains, “Like if you are giving someone a tumbler, you are doing it for a reason. We work with the clients to figure out what the reason is. We do a lot of writing and content. We are technologically focused, and we handle stores and do online engagement as well.”
He adds, “Our clients don’t look at us as a promotional product seller, per se. It’s more like, ‘Why do you want 500 Yeti’s?’ And they are like, ‘We are going to give them to all of these people coming to our virtual booth.’ And I ask, ‘Why don’t we engage the response first.’ That’s what our clients know us for.”
The who, what, where, when, how and why question strategy is how Seth has built and grown Sonic Promos, which employs people in Chicago, Ohio, West Virginia, plus their home-base in Maryland. It says a lot about Sonic’s strength and stability when during the pandemic, they didn’t have to lay one individual off. Instead, they have hired two additional employees.
Seth and Julianne’s marriage and business together is much like their Chuppah, built on bonds of strength and love and woven together by people who’ve helped make the fabric of their lives and business.
No joke—and you could have fooled me—the picture at the beginning of the article looks like a young couple who just married. But it’s actually how Seth and Julianne—still a young-looking couple— celebrated their twentieth anniversary in 2020.
Instead of toilet paper, let’s roll out “One Can” for Julianne and an Island Fruit Punch with added Rum and Vodka for Seth as they celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary this April 15th , wishing them the best of their life for the rest of their lives!
Kathryn Kaufmann is a freelance writer and the author of Marriages Meant to Be, Dating Daisy Fields and The Priest and the Princess. Her books can be found on Amazon, BN.com, and autographed copies can be purchased through www.BooksandSwag.com. She also owns Authentic Creations, an ASI Distributor located in Birmingham, Alabama.