Barton Henderson Esq. is a passionate entrepreneur who focuses on community impact and company branding. In 2013, Barton founded Henderson Promos, LLC, a full-scale promotional products firm which helps produce measurable growth within companies through innovative marketing techniques. Barton also owns a successful property investment company and a national PPE distribution company. Most recently, Barton launched Grassi USA, an artificial intelligence driven landscaping company which uses robotics to reduce noise and air pollution and deliver a better quality product in the landscaping industry.
FMM: You are a serial entrepreneur with passion for community impact. Tell us about your background.
Community Impact Background
I derive happiness and a sense of self-purpose when helping others. From an early age, I can remember doing beach cleanups with my dad and going to soup kitchens with my mom. In high school, I regularly participated in ESL classes, teaching English to people who spoke Spanish as their native language. I volunteered for a myriad of organizations in high school because I thought it was important and because my school, Christian Brothers Academy, highly encouraged volunteerism. All of it opened my eyes to the inequities of this world, but also the generosity and selflessness of those who serve others. Because of my volunteer experiences, I was able to practice gratitude from a young age. It is my life’s mission to lift others up and to help those around me to reach their full potential. I will never stop doing this because it drives me and excites me to see others smile and realize a better life for themselves.
Entrepreneurial Background
When I was about 8 years old, I bought candy at Franklin’s five and dime and sold it to local business for a profit. When I was 12, I had my own landscaping & company, AKA, me walking around town with a mower and some clippers. At my mom’s office when I was about 7, I would make photocopies of my hand and sell them to people in the office. I worked in an ice cream shop, I bartended, I was a server, I installed roofs for a construction company one year, I always took on odd jobs, I did it all. I loved being on the move and trying new things.
While I was in college, I worked on several political campaigns from county races to US Senate races. After graduating, I went to Washington D.C. to intern for US Senator Brian Schatz. While I was interning, I got into law school and had a tough decision to make. Did I really want to saddle myself with debt and put off my life for another three years by attending law school? Up until now, I was able to pay my way through college, debt free, by bartending and serving and working 50-80 hours a week. I promised myself one thing, I would only go to law school if I could pay for it or at least help alleviate the debt. Most of all, after going through 4 years of undergrad, I was sick of putting my life on hold until I graduated. I was not going to go through law school and waste another 3 years of my life without starting to build something of my own.
After wrestling with a ton of ideas, things like starting a vending machine company, a painting company or selling items on eBay, I landed on printing T-shirts. I went out and bought a heat press to print shirts. I was ready to launch a company and start law school. Law School was one of the hardest things I have done in my life. I would meet my study group by 5AM ever morning, we would study and attend classes all day, I would get home at around 8 or 9 PM and print t-shirts, in my kitchen, until about 11PM or later, then, wake up and do it all over. By the time I graduated law school, I was making more money selling T-shirts then I would have as an attorney. I was selling to local colleges, businesses, and just about anyone I came into contact with. In the three years of law school, I had grown from selling 10 different types of t- shirts to more than 300,000 promotional products. I was selling things like mugs, surfboards, golf bags, anything you can put a company logo on. While attending law school, I was also getting my MBA. I didn’t do it just to get another degree, I did it because business was simply more engaging and more interesting to me. While I passed the bar exam in New York and New Jersey, I didn’t want to practice in a traditional way, I didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk all day. I wanted to go out and interact with people. I didn’t do internships and apply for law firm jobs or clerkships like others in law school, I grew my own company instead. After graduating, I continued to run my own company and was offered a position as a business development attorney at a legal technology company.
FMM: How is Henderson Promos, LLC helping the community?
When people choose Henderson Promos, they can know that we spend time, money, and resources locally. While we are a national company, we believe that having a local footprint is paramount. We buy local and make it a policy to support other local business in every way possible. We are fully immersed in the NJ nonprofit community. The year before COVID hit, we worked with more than 80 nonprofits. Between my wife Kristina and I, we sit on multiple nonprofit boards and committees. To foster relationships within our local nonprofit community, we are running a nonprofit conference later this summer. We will be bringing more than 100 nonprofits in one room. The conference will help nonprofits learn from leaders in the industry, help them build connections with one another and get the word out to local volunteers. We have not yet released the details of the event but plan on doing so along with the announcement of our New 501(c)(3), The Bart and Kristina Henderson Foundation which will be known as The Henderson Foundation.
FMM: What do you enjoy most about Henderson Promos, LLC?
I love owning a company that allows me to interact with and work with so many different people. Everyone you meet needs promos – from the fortune 500 company or national nonprofit to the local contractor or father throwing a Sweet 16 for his daughter. Meeting new people and learning about other businesses keeps things fun and exciting. We are worlds apart from our competition. When you buy a t-shirt from another promo company, all you get is a t-shirt. When you purchase a t-shirt from Henderson Promos, you get great quality t-shirt but you also get an advocate for your business in the community, a company feeding you leads, a company inviting you to events, and a company helping your nonprofit or company grow.
Yes, we have people to help consult you in the promo buying process, but you are also working with a company that helps you grow. In 2019 we tracked 128 leads for clients, in 2020 we gave more than 80 leads despite the pandemic and in 2021 we are on track to give more than 150 leads to clients. These numbers do not even count our events. We hold client events that give clients the opportunity to engage with other businesses. Beyond this, we donate back to and volunteer for nonprofits. Instead of just getting hats for your nonprofit golf outing, often times you get a partner sending people to buy tickets for your nonprofit event and also Henderson Promos sponsoring the event in one way or another.
FMM: Tell us about Grassi USA.
Grassi is a cutting-edge, robotic lawn system that is integrated with human landscapers. It is eco-friendly by significantly reducing noise pollution with the use of electric equipment, instead of loud gas-powered machinery. The Grassi team sets up a robotic mower at a client’s house and it stays docked there. Our robotic mower cuts daily so your lawn is always at its best. Our human landscapers visit weekly with electric lawn tools to weed whack, edge, and blow out the property. Each property’s lawn service includes customized mapping and specialized navigation software with the robot. Our trained professionals adjust the sensors, blades, software, and provide other maintenance to the robot.
Grassi is the future of lawn care. Techies love the cool factor about a robotic mower quietly zipping around their lawn, then finding its way back to the docking station to recharge. Clients who switch from their old landscaper to Grassi also generally save money and have a greener, healthier lawn – all while being environmentally responsible. We plan to expand nationwide and become the first profitable national robotic landscaping company to maintain lawns.
FMM: Earlier, you talked about launching your own nonprofit, the Henderson Foundation, can you tell us more about it?
For years, Kristina and I have been struggling with where to donate time, deciding what nonprofits and projects to work with, and also how much to give to nonprofits. There are times when we can’t get enough work done for our company because we are committed to many events or committees. At some point, you need to step back and analyze the situation. After a ton of thought and discussions, we think we have come up with a solution that will allow us to give more back to the community in an organized and meaningful way.
Donating just 10¢ or volunteering for just 1 hour is enough to create momentum to generate massive change in this world. Through inclusivity and encouragement, we hope to inspire people to give back to the community through volunteerism and philanthropy.
The Henderson Foundation will (1) give people the opportunity to volunteer with a myriad of local charities and (2) allow people to fund meaningful projects through micro donations as small as 10¢ each. It is a goal to also (3) help bring the nonprofit and for-profit community closer together through events and partnerships like the Nonprofit Conference we are holding. The Henderson Foundation will help organize volunteers and raise money for project specific goals. For instance, if a local soup kitchen needs to renovate to become ADA compliant, if a nonprofit rehab facility needs a van to transport patients or if a child can’t afford a medical brace he or she desperately needs. We are going to pick projects we are passionate about. Those chosen will be project specific funding that will allow nonprofits and residents in the community to build a better life for those around them.
FMM: You recently launched a #MaskingUpFromCoastToCoast campaign. Why was this so important to you and your family?
At this point, demand for masks and respirators have equalized due to implementation and distribution of the vaccine. When we first set out to provide masks to people, there was a global shortage of life saving personal protective equipment (PPE). This was before the vaccines were out and the only protection people had from COVID was PPE. People who had to stand in food lines did not have the money to purchase masks on top of their already tight budgets. My wife and I did not think that being in poverty should put anyone at greater risk for getting the virus. We knew we could do something about it so we did what we could to help. By the time we were done we had donated over 100,000 masks to people in need.
FMM: Your years of service, can you share a few stories that inspired you?
I am blessed with empathy as it was thrust upon me from an early age. I recall a wonderful childhood, but all of it was not quite as idyllic as I may remember. Perhaps, I grew up a bit quicker than most. I would often find myself at the house of a drug dealer, in the car at 3 AM searching the streets, or somehow as a 11-year-old unravelling an implausibly sketchy situation. My brother, Seth, was a compassionate individual, steadfast in his loyalty and chivalrous as he had been raised, but he was a drug addict. At the young age of 10 when my parents divorced, I became the steward of my older brother. Until he passed away at the young age of 26 from a heroin overdose. I say that I was his steward because I was the only person he would ever really listen to. Perhaps it was because he loved me so much and did not want to see me get hurt or maybe it was that he respected me. Either way, it gave me a different perspective on life.
When I was 12 and friends were worried about not getting their homework assignment done on time, I was worried about my brother because I could not reach him for 3 days. I was worried that he could be dead, hurt, or simply getting high. I can’t say that there was ever a specific moment or even a feeling that pushed me towards helping others after my brothers passing. I think it was in me before my brother passed away, but the empathy I learned in my childhood has shaped my development as man. Through both volunteerism and my own experiences, I had seen things, experienced a more tryingl life than many, and met people who I knew I could help. Time and time again, what inspires me most are the people who volunteer and work for the nonprofits. Many of them have mentally and physically taxing jobs. Despite this, they show up, day in and day out because they care. I get a tremendous amount of inspiration when I see these people working to make the community a better place. While I breeze in and out of projects, committees and nonprofits, they are the courageous boots on the ground that are on the front line daily.
FMM: What are you looking forward to in 2021?
I have an ever-growing list of goals I hope to tackle in 2021. Among them growing my nonprofit to make our volunteerism more impactful. We plan to continue to grow our vacation rental real estate company. I will be handing off more and more responsibility at Henderson Promos while continue to grow Grassi. I am currently working on writing more, content creation, and doing more speaking engagements. In an effort to live life to the fullest, my wife and I are also exploring the opportunities of a travel series television show. Most of all, I am looking forward to engaging in the community through The Henderson Foundation. I hope to capture as many smiles and garnish as much inspiration this year as I can.
hendersonpromos.com , grassiusa.com
