Meet Mannix Marketing’s Director of Digital Sales and Strategy
It isn’t often that the games we play as children turn into our adult jobs, but how delightful is it when play turns into work and never stops being fun and rewarding?
Well, young Valleri James didn’t play teacher or doctor or dream of becoming a movie star. She played office. And it turns out that persuasive eloquence and coming up with solutions to problems are just a few of the skills Valleri’s farsighted playtime revealed as more nature than nurture for our Director of Digital Sales & Strategy.
No longer playing, but still very much enjoying her time in the office, the grown-up Valleri runs the very successful sales team at Mannix Marketing. Day-to-day, Valleri is brainstorming with clients to maximize their return on investment, guiding her team, and working with CEO Sara Mannix and other team leaders to steer Mannix into the future.
Valleri’s success is not due entirely to her natural talents and inclinations, however. She has worked hard to develop her dexterity as a salesperson and business strategist, from time spent establishing her own very successful Arbonne direct sales business while her children were young to nine years expanding her B2B skills and results at Mannix Marketing.
Valleri attributes her success to the dual inspirations of her mom and Sara Mannix. “My mom was also in sales, and I think she influences me in the fact that she always raised me to go for it – to do whatever I wanted to do and that I can be or do anything that I want. Similarly, Sara encourages us as employees to do the same thing – to brainstorm ideas, come up with strategies, and to approach her with them.”
In fact, it is this openness to ideas and change that Valleri values most about her position at Mannix. “The company is innovative. We’re always thinking about what’s next, what’s next, what’s next.” This culture of innovation meshes well with Valleri’s personal philosophy that “you can do anything that you set your mind to.” Explaining further, Valleri said, “I always believe in having a positive attitude about everything, that being negative isn’t going to get you anywhere – it’s only going to hurt you. I think that when you have a positive outlook on things, the sky is the limit.”
When asked what about her would surprise her coworkers, Valleri didn’t even hesitate. “I really like to stay home. I’m very quiet and I think you guys would be surprised that I’m very shy socially. I recently read an article about being an ambivert [someone who has both extroverted and introverted personality traits]. The article really resonated with me. I don’t mind the extroverted things that I do, I just need to balance it with the introverted things. That’s why I think ambivert is such a great term. I am fine to go out and talk and be on, but I definitely need to be off, too.”
Well, Valleri, if we were astonished that you’re not always social, we certainly aren’t surprised that ambiverts make excellent sales people!
