Finding a Better Way: Emily Lozano of Starfire Direct

There are few people who embody the INFJ personality type better than Emily Lozano. Passionate and ambitious, logical and thoughtful, and above all—capable—Emily’s INFJ personality is the rarest of the 16 Myers-Briggs Personality Types, occurring in just 1.5% of the population. Known as the “Advocate”, INFJ’s tend to relate to the world with their principles and personal values at the forefront—making the world a better place for themselves and those around them. Complex and versatile, Emily’s unique and vast skillset allows her to thrive in many areas of the daily goings-on at Starfire Direct. From excel spreadsheet equations to maintaining product listings, marketing to blog writing, Emily takes every new project in stride—always asking herself and the team, “How can we make this better?”

One of the most essential qualities that Emily brings to the Starfire Direct team is her ability to adapt and evolve. Originally brought on as a temp to the “Online Catalog” team five years ago, she worked on uploading products one at a time, in the then small company of just around ten staff. Six months later, she was hired as a full-time employee. Now the Product Manager—the leader of the renamed Ecommerce team—Emily is responsible for all the products on the site. The way they are presented, the images, the descriptions, her team handles everything that goes into getting products up on the website. In her own words, “Part of my responsibilities include onboarding new vendors, planning site projects and overseeing implementations, and putting in some elbow grease with the rest of the team to get projects finished.” If you’ve never worked in the Ecommerce world, you’d never know just how much work goes into getting these product listings up. “When I started with Starfire,” Emily remembers, “we were uploading products manually, one at a time. The first major project I took on was to improve our uploading efficiency.” Always looking to find a better way to do things—working smarter, not harder—Emily helped Starfire Direct make the switch to a new website host and ERP software. She also helped to build a template for uploading products, taking the manual one-at-a-time process, and turning it into a streamlined method that allows dozens of products to be uploaded at once. That project, in itself, is a good representation of the type of forward-thinking energy that Emily brings to the team.

_{Left and Right: Pictures taken during Emily's trip to Costa Rica, Middle: Emily after a successful hike in the San Bernardino mountains.}

Emily’s problem-solving nature makes her the perfect leader for an Ecommerce team—but a terrible person to watch a mystery movie with. She is infamous for figuring out spoilers and endings before they are revealed. As you may have guessed, Emily is also an avid reader. Partial to a good work of fiction, she is notorious for reading an entire book in a single evening. “I especially enjoy sci-fi and fantasy genres,” Emily admits, “there’s a sort of delight in escaping to a completely fantastical world that may or may not be similar to reality.” In addition to her love of fiction, she enjoys reading the occasional biography or autobiography—especially ones that tell the story of those who have lived experiences far different from her own.

She is also a proud homeowner. Purchased just a few years after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Business (with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship and Accounting) from Grand Canyon University, Emily was just 24 when she bought her condo. She shares her space with her amazing mom, her three pooches, and a ton of houseplants. “I’ve always been a plant person—I was the happy caretaker of the [Starfire Direct] office plants—but when I started quarantining in March of 2020, my plant collection really bloomed. I have a growing collection of indoor plants that bring me extra stress and endless joy.”

_{Left: Part of Emily's plant collection, Right: Emily's fur-baby, Sophie.}

With plenty of Saturday trips to her favorite plant nursery in nearby Fallbrook, Emily’s free time is often spent caring for her three fur babies as well as her more chlorophyll-inclined children—though she recognizes and emphasizes the importance of self-care. She knows that in order to keep learning and bettering herself, sacrificing her mental and physical wellbeing is simply not an option. “I want to be a better person tomorrow than I am today, but part of that is knowing your capabilities and not pushing too much.” Because taking care of yourself is the first step in being able to take care of others. Through going to the gym, hiking, reading, and spending time with her pack, Emily reinvigorates and reenergizes herself so she can keep finding ways to make things better in her home and career with Starfire Direct.