Veronica Lujan

That has been my motto for twenty-five years of relationship-driven sales, community relations, and business development across Southern California. My career has been sitting between an organization and the people it wants to reach, and turning that into profit, growth, or change. I have owned territories, carried quotas, coached sales teams, secured sponsorships, managed budgets, recruited and trained volunteers, and planned and emceed large public events.

Whether it is in front of a city council, across the table from a decision maker, on the microphone at the event, or with the team running the load-in before it, the execution is the part I enjoy most. I build programs as infrastructure rather than one-off goodwill: mapped partners, a real calendar, trained people, and measurement that ties back to revenue. That is what makes the work a necessity instead of a cost.

Founder & Principal at The Community Blueprint LLC (2026-01 – Present)

• Launched an independent practice building community relations programs for privately owned automotive dealer groups across multiple OEM brands.
• Researched dealer territories and built complete 90-day community infrastructure plans — partner-gap analysis, a phased engagement calendar, and a measurement framework tied to store CRM data.
• Ran full-cycle business development: outbound prospecting by LinkedIn, phone, email and in person; discovery with owners and GMs; written proposals; pricing and negotiation. Reached decision-maker conversations with four dealer groups.
• What I learned is the reason I'm looking for a seat, not a client: community relations has no budget category in most stores, so the GMs who want it can't defend it upward as outside spend. One prospect hired the function in-house rather than contract it. This work belongs inside the building.

Community Relations Manager / Customer Relations Manager at Caruso Ford Lincoln Mazda (2022-01 – 2025-12)

• Owned the dealership's entire community relations function: partnerships, sponsorships, civic relationships, events, and public communications.
• Led citywide special event sponsorships, securing financial commitments from businesses and partners face to face.
• Worked directly with Long Beach city council members and the city manager; presented to city councils and civic organizations.
• Planned and emceed large-scale dealership and community events; wrote and produced scripts, speeches, proclamations, press releases, and social content.
• Translated agency and vendor reporting for GMs so the store understood what it was actually buying.
• Contributed to Caruso Mazda reaching a #1 service drive ranking through retention strategy and community programming.

Internet Sales Manager at Metro Nissan Montclair (2025-01 – 2026-01)

• Managed a high-volume internet lead pipeline with 40+ outbound calls daily, consistently meeting KPIs for lead response time and showroom appointments. Ran full-cycle sales from digital inquiry through demonstration and contract negotiation.

Automotive Sales Professional at Mazda of Orange / Hemet CDJR (2021-01 – 2022-12)

• Met sales objectives while training representatives on service-to-sales conversion, CRM mining (eLEAD, AutoAlert, Mastermind), and follow-up strategy.

Head of Outreach and Partnership at CANiVISION Global / Canipreneur (2020-01 – 2021-12)

• Built and owned outreach and partnership development for a cannabis media and business platform, working as an independent contractor across multiple event producers.
• Produced industry events end to end — booked and hosted speaker panels on building and scaling cannabis businesses, sold and coordinated vendor space, and ran leadership summits and watch parties bringing the community together.
• Served on the 2021 Board of Directors of the International Cannabis Business Women's Association, running the organization's social media and programming calendar.
• Awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the California State Assembly for empowering women business owners in the cannabis industry through education and advocacy.

Business Development Manager, Southern California Territory at Builders Homesite Inc. / The BDX (NewHomeSource) (2017-01 – 2020-12)

• Owned the territory from Bakersfield to Calexico, selling digital media, listings, and advertising to 100+ homebuilders, developers, brokers, and real estate professionals.
• Sold at the executive level to national builders including Lennar, Pulte, and KB Home — partnering with their leadership on who each new community's buyer would be and how to reach them before a single home was sold.
• Delivered large presentations to builder ownership and to the agent teams working each community; used conversion reporting to prove ROI.

Performance Manager / Advertising Consultant at AT&T / Yellow Pages / YP Marketing Solutions (2001-01 – 2017-12)

• Sold print and digital advertising to local business owners for 12 years through cold calling and field prospecting, ranking in the top percentile of producers.
• Promoted to Performance Manager: coached up to 50 account representatives on million-dollar accounts, increased team quota attainment 85%, ranked #1 on the West Coast, and won the 2014 CEO Winners Circle.
• Regional subject matter expert on PPC, Value-Trak, and YPConnect through the print-to-digital transformation.