PPB September 2021

Continued on page 30 Danielle Olszewski Age 28 Digital Revenue Manager Vantage Apparel Avenel, New Jersey D anielle Olszewski was introduced to the promo industry in an unexpected way. “When I was eight years old, my godmother and I were shopping for holiday presents and I asked her what she does at work. She pointed to a jacket and said she sewed logos and labels on jackets every day. I instantly envisioned my godmother working at Santa’s Workshop with clothes and machines everywhere, and thought she was the coolest person in the world.” When Olszewski started work as a project manager at Vantage Apparel in March 2018, she learned that her godmother used to work at the same factory. Although the woman has since retired and moved back to Poland, she still has good friends who work at Vantage. “Now, so does her goddaughter!” says Olszewski. “The universe speaks to us in many ways.” Olszewski graduated fromMonmouth University in 2015 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and a Certificate in Information Technology (CIT). Her first job was account manager for a fragrance manufacturer. “I loved building relationships with international distributors, online retailers and sample box companies,” she says. “At the time, I was looking for a new career path and was hired at Vantage because of my background with a new CRM software.” Marci Newsom, western regional sales director at Vantage and one of three nominators, notes that Olszewski was voted Project Manager of the Year during her first year with Vantage. That’s likely because of how swiftly Olszewski learned and exceled at her new responsibilities. As a result, she’s moved up quickly in the company. Newsom also gives her co-worker credit for her valuable contributions to Vantage’s bottom line over the past year. “Not only is she great with apparel, decoration and helping distributors on the creative side, but her patience in working with distributors on webstores has been outstanding. We call her our Webstore Guru,” says Newsom. “Our webstore sales have grown 82 percent since last year. COVID has had a big impact on how we are selling these days, and Danielle has had a big role in keeping Vantage sales strong.” Chief Experience Officer Rob Watson, another nominator, is Olszewski’s supervisor, and reiterates how quickly she has become the company’s go-to for webstore programs. “Danielle was originally a project manager for Vantage and took the initiative to get involved in the early creation of our webstore and digital strategies. We started to carve out her five-year career goals, which centered around ecommerce and digital engagement. Fast-forward two years later, she’s been promoted to digital revenue manager,” he says. “She has a passion for the industry, for her team and most importantly, to see her customers thrive. She pushes our development team to release new features that benefit our customers’ success. In just a short time, she’s become one of the industry’s most dynamic shining stars and so well-deserved of this honor.” He adds that she’s also an industry spokesperson for webstores and the digital sales channel, having built more than 200 stores and helping distributors generate over $10 million in annual sales in the past 12 months. When not at Vantage, she runs a social media page for her cocktail pudding dessert shot business. Biggest challenge in the past year: My biggest challenge in 2020 was gaining the confidence to convince our industry peers that on-demand, one-off decorated orders will grow their business and generate additional revenue. This was an opportunity I noticed in the industry within my first few months at Vantage but needed the courage to speak up about it. Initiating conversations with experienced industry leaders or gathering senior department managers to discuss changing one bulk order to 4,000 individual orders is not an easy task. There were so many days where I would FEATURE | Rising Stars 24 | SEPTEMBER 2021 |