James is a pop culture expert with 20+ years of experience in retail specializing in Comics, Books, Collectible Products, Table Top Games and Board Games. James has a keen ability to identify hot trends and licenses early on with an instinct as to what consumers want for each property and how best to deliver it to them. James intends to continue to develop and grow new skills while honing existing skills with interests in consumer product development, licensing, marketing and communications. He is well versed in social media with active accounts on trending platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Tic Tok (50k+). He is well versed in working with and maintaining strong relationships with industry developers and vendors.He has also worked at the store level at every level from housekeeping to Store Management giving him a unique insight into the needs of employees from the ground up.Specialties: Building & maintaining relationships with other companies, people and groups by being positive, compassionate and brutally honest. The relationships he has build have had long term benefits for company programs and profits while maintaining honesty and integrity at all times.Can identify and act upon current & developing trends that will help benefit sales in a retail marketplace.James has a sharp sense for identifying the right product for the right brands & has brought to market several successful lines of figures & collectibles. He has also consulted on multiple action figure lines with Hasbro, McFarlane, Jakks Pacific, Funko, Extreme Play and others.Marketing & Product promotion through social media and other advertising vehicles. Ability to identify & remedy shrink potential in a retail setting.Able and willing to travel extensively as needed in order to find new & exciting products or to help maintain vendor relations.Has excellent public speaking skills Has given presentations to large groups of managers as well as participating in live panels. He has presented for multiple schools including the Kirby School and Oxford Comics Network. James enjoys expressing ideas through writing and photography. He has written articles for internal news letters as well as training documents for Human Resources that assisted in the education and training for store associates.