When you look at successful partnerships—Gates & Allen, Page & Brin, Jobs & Wozniak and Ben & Jerry—you see two common trends: a shared passion and a deep respect for what the other person brings to the table. Josh & Amiee are one of these types of partnerships.
After eight years of Josh being award-winning in sales, client retention, and repeat business and ten years of Amiee being highly successful in designing systems and team-building with thriving employee retention and productivity, and both of them being committed to speaking and training to help others, they decided to partner up.
Beyond the idea their individual areas of expertise work well together, they also share three important values—Fun, Family, and Freedom –which translate into everything Vast Action, Inc. does today.
Josh and Amiee believe Freedom is achieved through self-reliance and continual skill development, as well as living in authenticity—the freedom to be yourself and do what makes you happiest. They make sure to provide support and opportunities for their clients, employees and themselves to grow.
Valuing Fun means they foster a fun working environment and connection culture in their own company as well as creating fun, make-you-smile communications to their clients and for their client’s clients. That’s a mouthful! What is life if we can’t focus on always being friendly?
Last but not least is their value of Family and not just the kind you’re born into. Anyone who works with Josh and Amiee – on the team or as a client – knows they’re part of a family. Whether it’s small tokens of appreciation or a 3-day team weekend at the beach, they strive to make sure clients and employees know they’re not just a number. It has to be working, since they have team members who call the office their home away from home.
Can a successful business owner be goofy? Yes. Josh proves it. He loves to have fun and make people laugh. Whether he’s hiking, traveling, or working, the other backpackers, travelers, and team members have a great experience and remember he was there. While growing up in a small town in Michigan with loving parents and as the middle child of 5 boys, Josh was a rebel in his early years. He still is actually …only now he rebels against the mundane and the mediocre. Josh’s mission (for himself and others) is to Grow, Contribute and Appreciate. He’s passionate about the idea that we should all live our lives being fully present in everything we do—dreaming big and having as many first in a lifetime experiences as we possibly can. In his college years, he had to borrow $150 from mom to start a new job in sales. That's when his life began to change. He found something he was awesome at and went on to build a multi-million-dollar distributorship and win multiple national sales championships. As one of the founders of Vast Action, Josh has helped the company grow to great heights. He always has his eye on the future of the organization and the success of the team. He’s the one training our team and our clients on providing world class service, creating lifelong customer loyalty, mastering the sales process and achieving and sustaining high performance.
In her free time (what?!? Free time??), Amiee loves adventure and travel, going to stand-up comedy shows, movies, and hosting epic parties, gatherings, and experiences. Though patient is not always a word used to describe Amiee, engaging, honest, hard-working, courteous, supportive, quick to respond and a systems genius often are. Amiee is from humble beginnings and is a first-generation college student who graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors and her Marketing degree. She opened her first business at 21-years-old and saw award winning success within a few years. She’s been speaking to and coaching entrepreneurs, small business owners and young people for more than 15 years and helping them achieve their personal and professional goals. As one of the founders of Vast Action, she’s been integral to the growth and success of the company. Her focuses are on systemizing your business, creative marketing that gets results, and encouraging and developing the Vast Action Team toward their personal goals and the organization’s objectives and mission.
Becky is our nature lover. When she’s not in the office, she is out hiking, camping, swimming, running—anything to get her outdoors. Her skills include being able to do several flips in a row on a trampoline, soccer, volleyball, basketball, learning things quickly, surviving a flood (worst in 100 years) that took away her entire home, and successfully managing relationships in a house full of women. She grew up with three older sisters and is now raising her own daughter and their goofy, fluffy dog Toby. She’s awesome at many things… just not receiving compliments. At Vast Action Becky is our team leader. She manages the office and makes sure all of our projects are completed with attention to detail and on time. We’d be a mess without her.
“I'm rarely late to work, but I'm usually late to everything else,” Dani says. “Is that common for people who are the oldest child in the family?” Speaking of family, it’s one of the most important things in Dani’s life. She’s super close with her parents and siblings. And aunts, uncles, cousins and their family dog—a Great Pyrenees named Charmin. She loves helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses, the adrenaline rush from roller coasters, hanging out with her little brother, and Captain Crunch, which she didn’t try until she was 23. What she doesn't love is that she still gets carded for R rated movies. At Vast Action, Dani is our get-it-done girl. Whether it's an admin project or scheduling a marketing campaign for a client, she can be counted on to finish a project and do it faster than anyone else. She wins almost all of our office races!
She is the mom of 3 super busy kids, 3 cats, 1 dog, and a bunch of fish. She spends a lot of time shuttling her teens to sports competitions and choir performances, chaperoning Girl Scout campouts, and growing a side business refinishing furniture. A native of the Hill Country, she spends her free time (when she has any) hiking through state parks, two-stepping with her husband, Evan, and enjoying Texas BBQ. Gloria enjoys the way quiet, focused, detail-oriented work brings balance to her otherwise chaotic life, and is a strong believer in doing even small things in a great way. She may be the most level-headed, caring, and understanding of all of us, which makes her the best person on our team to ask for advice.
After growing up in Texas (a fourth generation El Paso-an) and graduating from UT (Hook ‘em, Horns!), Kinn spent the past two decades in California working in the Consumer Products division of The Walt Disney Company. He enjoys an eclectic mix of interests, including genealogy, “The Curse of Oak Island,” grilling, Dennis Miller, psychology and faith, writing, pop culture, and exploring near his new home in the Texas Hill Country. Kinn met and fell in love with his wife, Tanya, on-line. She hails from Canada, so multiple international flights were taken before convincing her to move down here and marry him. Then, they added a loud (but still loveable) cockapoo named Tucker to their family. Kinn helps our team wherever needed, but his primary role is to write copy for all manner of marketing. And, as referenced in his title, he has a great sense of humor and isn’t afraid to use it.
Jonelle loves to horse around – literally. Horses are a life-long passion of hers, one she decided to take more seriously in her 20’s. When she’s not chasing after her “littles” (twins Quinn and Hudson), Jonelle loves taking her horse, Madison, for rides in the Texas Hill Country. Truth to tell, she can’t imagine not having horses in her life. Jonelle also enjoys hiking and being outdoors (except during Texas summers!). She grew up in Southern California (Go Kings!), and despite a short sojourn in Chicago before putting down roots in Austin, still considers herself a Cali Girl at heart. Jonelle’s role at VA is admin-focused, so she’s kept busy processing orders, supporting reps in the CRM, doing CRM updates, helping with stats, and branding new clients with the VAI logo.
A native of Chicago, Deana escaped the brutal winters of the Windy City to make a home in the Hill Country of Central Texas with husband David (married in 2001) and daughters Nicole and Ella. Before joining us, Deana worked in the banking and technology industries where she was able to exercise her task-oriented nature. In Deana’s words, “I love to get things done and check things off my list.” However, Deana also has a nurturing side, as evidenced by her time spent volunteering with National Charity League, fostering neonatal kittens, and tending to her indoor plants (according to Deana, her living room looks like a greenhouse). She’s also served as a PTA Board Member for two schools and was on the Campus Advisory Council in Austin ISD. And, of course, she loves spending time with her family, especially tackling challenging recipes to prepare delicious meals for them. Besides cooking, Deana also enjoys gardening, sipping coffee in a quiet bookstore where she can dream about her next beach vacation, and reading. Her two all-time favorite books are “When Breath Becomes Air” and “The Nightingale,” and she’ll also read anything by Liana Moriarty or Jennifer Weiner.
Loretta is no stranger to the world of Cutco. Before joining our team, she worked 20 years at Vector Marketing in a role which empowered her to support (and befriend) numerous Cutco reps and managers. Loretta originally grew up in Philadelphia, then moved to New Jersey as a teenager. She met her husband, Tony, when she was 19, and they’ve now been married for 22 years. Together, they’ve raised son Anthony and daughter Carmella, not to mention a ginger cat named Bodhi. Loretta and Tony live next to a lake in the idyllic log cabin community of Medford Lakes, NJ. Loretta is passionate about surrounding herself with live plants, cheering on her Philadelphia Eagles (Big Time – Go Birds!), loves cappuccino and espresso, canoeing, and the Bravo Channel (she’s convinced she should have been in the cast of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”). Her dream to celebrate her wedding anniversary in Italy has been postponed multiple times. Fingers crossed, 25 will be the magic number!