When Denise Blaisdell interviewed for a job with Two Men and a Truck, the man she was speaking with asked her a pretty standard interview question: Where do you see yourself in five years?
She did not hold back.
“I said ‘your chair’,” Blaisdell said with a laugh. “And he said ‘No one is sitting in my chair’.”
Fast forward six years and she was sitting in that very chair, as a regional VP for her company, and talking about how she wound up moving 18 times in 19 years, most recently to Monmouth County to expand the footprint of the moving company.
“I’m a woman in the trucking industry,” Blaisdell said. “I’m not normal”
While she holds a unique position in her industry, she shares plenty of common traits with the women featured in this issue, who are also movers and shakers in their industries. Resilient, authentic, fierce, positive, trustworthy, confident … those are the words that these women used to describe themselves, but also their peers.
They are, in a sense, their superpowers; parts of their character that have allowed them to succeed and thrive.
THE CONNECTOR
Almost 20 years ago, Sandra Valencia was sitting at the just-built Pier Village, enjoying a drink with a friend and thought: Wow, I would just love to have a place down here.
“I manifested it,” the Long Branch resident says now, reflecting on that day.
After 20 years on Wall Street, Valencia underwent a career change about seven years ago, when she traded the closing bell for closing deals as a real estate agent.
“I think for me, it helps that what I do for a living is something that I really love and it involves interacting with people and helping them in their new chapters,” Valencia said. “I love to be the trusted person who can help them get grounded somewhere.”
The road to this point was not easy. “A lot of curveballs,” she says. One of the factors that led her to leave The Street was that her father became ill and needed her care. She took a leave of absence from her job, got her real estate license, and leveraged the flexibility to care for her ailing father. She eventually transitioned to real estate full-time, but in 2020 came face-to-face with another challenge.
“I was in the middle of negotiating a bid for a client, right as I was on the phone with her, I got the phone call from my doctor on Sunday at noon. I looked and said ‘This can’t be good’.”
It wasn’t. Valencia’s doctor told her that she had breast cancer.
“When I finished sobbing, I closed the deal, and then I turned my phone off and sobbed for two more months.”
Her cancer is in remission now, but there are constant reminders; the medications and screenings will do that. But it has also given her renewed purpose.
“Fighting and beating cancer, don’t lose faith, go for it because you only have one life and have the present moment. It changes your perspective,” she said. “You start to ask yourself, why am I here?”
For Valencia, she’s found the answer to that question: connections.
THE TRAILBLAZER
Denise Blaisdell is not the person clients expect to see when they call the moving company.
“A few people have said to me, ‘I thought I was getting Two Men in a Truck. I got a pretty blonde in a Camry’,” she recalled with a laugh.
Looking at where she is now, it almost seems that Blaisdell was destined to be in this industry. That happens when you’ve had 18 addresses in 19 years; you get experienced with packing and moving. But it wasn’t always so obvious. When she was 20, she was working with Habitat for Humanity. At 21, she was modeling in Los Angeles. After that, there were stops in New Orleans post-Katrina, followed by studying Yoga in India and teaching physics and math in the Middle East. It allowed her to stack up learning and life experiences.
That math skills played a critical role in where she is now. As she was looking to expand her franchise territory, the data kept pointing the Boston native to Monmouth County, and specifically Long Branch.
“I looked at all of the open territories in the U.S., High school graduation rates, how often people live in homes, commute time. The metrics kept leading me here.”
The same analytical thinking is also used to benefit clients. Blaisdell is able to look at a person’s possessions and make sure they aren’t over or under-ordering trucks and supplies during a stressful time. “I understand the anxiety that goes into a move,” she says. “You can’t fight with math.”
Getting to this point, of owning franchises in multiple territories while also serving in an executive role for the company, was not easy. There were challenges and stigmas to overcome, but she let her work, and work ethic, speak for her – and won.
“I’m a little crazy to be doing this,” Blaisdell said. “But being able to smash those gender norms, I just love it”
THE CALMING VOICE
Rosalia Criso has been working for almost as long as she can remember.
“I grew up in pizzerias. I was the girl behind the counter,” she said. “You have to be an approachable kind of person to do that. That’s what I do.”
Only now, instead of smiling while serving a slice, she’s putting customers at ease as they navigate something that requires a lot of dough: home remodeling projects.
Her husband, Kenny, is a plumber, and a few years ago he floated the notion of opening a design center where people could see and feel the products for their kitchens and baths, rather than just looking and buying online.
“It sounded like way too much,” she admitted. “But as I was researching it more, I found out that there weren’t very many of them, and I thought that maybe this could work.”
It turns out that she was right. There was a void in the marketplace and Criso and her husband were able to fill it. Now, her approachable nature is being leveraged to put clients at ease as they navigate a project that is oftentimes overwhelming.
“It’s a big investment. I’m there for them. A lot of people feel like they’re going to get ghosted; I'm not like that,” the owner of GS Designs in Neptune City said. “I’ll guide you, but ultimately it’s the client’s decision. It’s their home that they’re going back to, and I want to make sure that they love it.”
THE MULTI-TASKER
It’s been about two decades since Melissa Kopec purchased the preschool that her two oldest children attended, moved the location, and started a new role as the owner/operator while her three other children walked through the halls of Ivy Hedge in Oakhurst.
“It wasn’t really daunting,” she says, almost downplaying the scope of such an endeavor. “but it was a reward to have (my children) with me and to see them all.”
While she admits there were challenging times, Kopec was able to lean into her own experience as an educator and quickly learn the ins and outs of running a private school. It was an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up.
More recently, another opportunity presented itself, and she again sprung into action, suddenly finding herself running two businesses.
“My children are all athletes, and they told me about Arctic Fire Cryotherapy in Shrewsbury,” she said. The West Long Branch resident soon found herself going to the location after exercising and loved how it made her feel. She started working there one day a week, and one day, as luck would have it, an opportunity to take over the business presented itself and she ran with it. It can make for long days and a lot of miles logged on Routes 35 and 71, but it has been rewarding for her.
“If it’s something that really brings you joy and you have a passion for it, go for it. It’s hard work; don’t think that anything is going to happen overnight. It’s hard work, there’s no overnight success.”
THE GO-GETTER
Amy Dimes is the type of person who does not take “No” for an answer.
“My family always jokes and says ‘Nobody says no to Amy.’ That’s kind of how I’ve always been,” she said. “I’ve always had the attitude that you just do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
At an early age, Dimes was thrust into the business world and absorbed as much of it as she could. Her father was a small business owner, and she’d spend the weekend at his mechanic shop, helping out where where could. As she got older, her stepfather put her in an environment that was a little more corporate, and she was able to watch and learn before ultimately branching out on her own.
“I got used to being at a table with really powerful men and learned how to not be intimidated by anyone.”
After college, and with a host of experience already, she found herself in the hospitality industry, and quite literally worked her way from the ground up. One day she would be working the check-in desk, another day she would be on the roof of the hotel with her engineer, helping to raise the flag above The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, where she eventually became the general manager.
“Hospitality is essentially taking care of people,” Dimes said. “I primarily did weddings, which is the biggest day of a lot of people’s lives. And it’s not just the bride and groom, it’s mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.”
While she enjoyed playing a crucial role during a touchstone moment for so many people, and still keeps in touch with some of her clients from that time, the toll of spending Mother’s Days and Easters with families other than her own began to wear on her.
“I had to reclaim some of my time,” she said
When a recruiter contacted her about bringing City Lifestyle to Long Branch, it was the textbook definition of the right place, right time.
“I gotta say, when the opportunity came up, I really jumped in head-first,” She said. “I felt like it was a gut decision and it was something that I was going to love to do. Going from a secure job, with a steady income to needing to make your own income and make your own luck. That was very attractive to me, that I could have run my own business and create my own product.”
With her franchise steadily growing, Dimes is able to lean into what drew her to this decision in the first place: community.
“I love people, I love community and I’m a hard worker. I just never give up,” she says. “When I see a goal, I go for it and push forward. I will roll up my sleeves and do whatever it takes to get things done. That’s probably my superpower, I have a passion for it.”
"If something brings you joy and you have a passion for it, go for it."
"But being able to smash these gender norms, I just love it”