At Brooks Resources, we pride ourselves on the commitment, dedication and longevity of our staff members, so we will be highlighting individuals from our team regularly here on our blog. This month, we sat down with Director of Marketing, Valerie Yost, who has been with the company for 15 years.
Q: What’s a typical ‘day in the life’ in your role?
There’s no real ‘typical’ day for me. My role is fairly broad allowing me to work with every single person in our organization in one way or another. My primary duties are to develop and execute marketing strategies for our projects and companies. That could involve traditional advertising, media and collateral, but it also includes events, digital/social media and PR. I’m involved in a lot of meetings, and brainstorm regularly with our team and our trusted consultants.
Q: What are you passionate about when it comes to your job?
Building community. In addition to being involved with the physical aspect of creating neighborhoods and places for families to call home, I also get to create events and opportunities to support the greater Central Oregon community through my work. This is a very rewarding part of my job.
Q: What is the best way to start the day?
A cup of tea and some tunes to help get me through emails.
Q: Who inspires you?
That’s a hard question because many different people inspire me in different ways. But I’d probably have to say my late Grandma Jean. She always knew how to create beauty with whatever she had and had an unshakable Christian faith. She wasn’t rich, but all those who knew her were certainly richer having her in their lives.
Q: What’s your favorite thing(s) to do when you aren’t working (hobbies)?
I have a craft shed that I built next to my house (right now, it is serving as my temporary “work from home” office space). I have it crammed full of sewing projects and craft supplies that help keep me and my kids creative. It’s my little retreat and I love sitting at my sewing machine with the doors wide open and creating things for the people I love.
Q: What skill would you like to master?
I’d like to master gardening this year. I typically have a black thumb, but at the insistence of my kids, we’ve built raised beds in our backyard and are planting a small vegetable garden. Who knows if it will produce anything, but it is a great learning experience for our family. I’m excited about it!
Q: What is/are your favorite thing(s) about working for Brooks Resources?
We are a family at Brooks. When something happens to one of us, we all feel it, whether it’s joy or sorrow. My favorite thing about working for Brooks is the people I get to work with every day. Secondly, giving back to the community is ingrained in our corporate culture and I’m very proud to be a part of that.
Q: What’s on your bucket list this year?
Survive having kids home for six months straight?!? This year has been a strange one to say the least, but it’s given me great time with my family and opportunity for reflection. However, my goal after this is behind us, is to take my family on a modest vacation where we can enjoy each other somewhere other than our house! Before the shutdown, it was going to be my ‘year of live music’. Maybe next year…
Q: Tell me a little bit about your family (kids, pets, etc) and how you spend time together.
My husband Jeramy just started his own business last year. It has been rewarding to work on it together over the past several months. We live in Tumalo with our kids, Natalie (12) and Jameson (10) and mini Aussie, Daisy. We like to do DIY projects around our home, host outdoor movie nights, travel, and spend time with friends and family.
