Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Van Maanen.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story really starts in South Dakota, where I grew up and spent most of my life before relocating with my family to North Carolina earlier this year.
I’ve always had a strong drive to build — whether that’s a business, a process, or a career path. My professional journey began with Samsung, where I worked as a Territory Representative covering more than 270 stores across South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana. I spent most of my time on the road, visiting stores, training retail staff, and helping partners increase sales performance. It was a crash course in communication, problem-solving, and managing complex relationships across a large region.
While I was at Samsung, I took my first entrepreneurial leap and purchased a moving company — Dakota Moving. I ran it while working full-time, which meant long days and late nights. The company grew, but over time it started to take over my life. I realized I loved building and leading, but I wasn’t passionate about the moving industry itself — so I made the difficult decision to sell Dakota Moving and refocus on work that aligned with my long-term goals.
After that, I opened and operated three T-Mobile stores in northern Minnesota. I loved building those teams and seeing the impact of great leadership. Unfortunately, after the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, a wave of converted Sprint stores cut our sales in half, and the business eventually failed financially. That experience taught me a lot about resilience, market shifts, and staying adaptable when things beyond your control change.
From there, I went on to sell cars at Vern Eide Motorcars, which may sound unrelated, but it sharpened my consultative sales skills and taught me the value of truly listening to people. While working there, I launched a side business called Consultants In-A-Box. I built it to help small and mid-sized businesses streamline operations using tools like Monday.com and Make.com. That venture was created with a very specific purpose — to gain the experience I needed to eventually move into a Sales Engineering role, a goal that took nearly eight years to achieve.
Through that consulting work, I had the chance to partner with companies like Hot Spring Spas and Bullhorn, helping them automate processes and connect their systems. My time working with Bullhorn gave me a deep appreciation for enterprise technology and the challenges businesses face when scaling operations efficiently.
After years of building those experiences, everything came together when I joined Make.com, where I now work as a Value Engineer. This role perfectly combines everything I’ve learned along the way — business ownership, sales, operations, and technology — all centered around helping customers achieve real outcomes through automation.
On the personal side, I’m married to my wife Alicia, and we have three kids — Abel (12), Addison (11), and Olivia (6). Moving from South Dakota to North Carolina was a huge step for us, but it also symbolized the completion of a journey I’d been on for nearly a decade: building the skills, experience, and confidence to reach the kind of role I’d always envisioned for myself.
So overall, my path has been one of persistence, learning, and growth — building businesses, taking risks, learning from failure, and always working toward a bigger goal.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Back in 2015, I went through a divorce while I was running my moving company and working full-time for Samsung. My ex-wife was battling depression and anxiety, and that period was extremely hard emotionally and financially. I was working nonstop, trying to hold everything together, and eventually I had to sell the moving business to reset and start over.
I’ve also faced a lot of challenges in my career. I’ve been laid off several times, and there have been stretches — like when I delivered food for eight months — where I just needed to keep going while figuring out my next step. I’ve always tried to do things my own way — looking for smarter, more efficient approaches — and that hasn’t always fit into corporate environments that prefer more rigid processes.
I’ve also been misunderstood at times. I’ve had moments where communication didn’t land the right way, or where people didn’t see the intent behind what I was doing. One manager even once asked if I had the “mental capacity” to do my job — which was a pretty painful thing to hear. But ironically, I was doing parts of that job that my peers didn’t know how to do. That experience stuck with me — it made me realize that being different in how I think or communicate doesn’t mean I’m less capable; it just means I see things from a different angle.
And the truth is, I’ve never thought of myself as special. I was a B or C student in school and a pretty average athlete. Nothing ever came easily — I’ve had to learn things the hard way. But what I’ve always had is persistence. I might not be the smartest in the room, but I’ll keep showing up, learning, and figuring things out until I get it right.
There have been bright moments too — like when my manager at Vern Eide told me I was the most talented person he’d worked with in 20 years. In my first two weeks, I sold 14 cars, when most people sold around 12 in a month. I didn’t do it with sales tactics — I just connected with people, had fun, and genuinely cared about helping them make a decision that made them happy.
That same approach — being human, being kind, and finding better ways to do things — has followed me through every job since. So, no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. It’s been messy, full of setbacks and lessons, but it’s also made me resilient, empathetic, and deeply appreciative of where I am today.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In my current role at Make.com, I serve as the lead Value Engineer for our global channel partnership with Monday.com. Essentially, my job is to help some of the largest organizations in the world design and scale automation systems that connect their tools, teams, and data — making their operations more efficient and intelligent.
What I love about my work is that every project is different. I’ve had the opportunity to work directly with large enterprise customers, solving complex challenges that often don’t have a clear blueprint. Whether it’s automating multi-department workflows or bridging gaps between legacy systems, I get to build solutions that make a real difference in how businesses run.
But what I’m probably most proud of isn’t just the external projects — it’s the internal ones. I’ve also spent a lot of time helping our own internal teams at Make.com solve workflow issues and create smoother systems. I like to think of myself as someone who brings a servant-leadership approach — I’ll help anyone who asks, whether it’s a teammate, a partner, or a customer. I really enjoy being someone people can count on when things get complicated.
What sets me apart, I think, is the way I think. I’ve always approached problems differently — I see systems and patterns, and I enjoy reimagining how things could work better. Make.com has been the first place where that way of thinking has really been embraced. It’s a culture where we’re all in it together, where collaboration and experimentation are encouraged, and where I feel like I can be myself without walking on eggshells.
At the end of the day, what drives me is helping others — whether that’s solving a customer’s business problem, supporting a teammate, or improving a process behind the scenes. That’s what I enjoy most and what I’m proud to be known for.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I try to keep things simple when it comes to what I consume. The book that’s probably had the biggest impact on me is Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. It completely changed how I think about communication, influence, and really listening to people — not just in business, but in everyday life.
I also check out Gary Vee’s content from time to time. I like his mix of realism and optimism — the reminder that hard work, patience, and kindness still matter.
Outside of that, I try not to get too caught up in the noise. There’s so much content out there that it’s easy to mistake scrolling for learning. For me, doing my best work usually comes from real experience — actually solving problems, having honest conversations, and learning from the people around me.
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