Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Val Dixon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Val, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

In retrospect, I appreciate every effort applied on my behalf from my parents. For the first six years of my life I grew up in a two-parent home with my siblings. Everything changed and my parents divorced. My mom came out the closet and expressed her love for women onward until this day.

This was drastically different from what I was used to, and obviously something I never experienced before. I quickly adapted to the new environment, but as a child I hated my situation. Now as an adult, I love everything about my childhood because it prepared me for who I am today.

Until my eighth grade year, I was ashamed of my mom being gay and didn’t want anyone to think I was gay or make fun of my mother and I. This secret kept me isolated until I broke free of the terrors of what everyone would think. I was in class and a friend of mine asked, “Val, is your mom married? I know she got a man, she look too good!” And in that very moment, my heart sunk beneath my intestines and I took a deep breath to respond, “Actually, my mom is gay … and has a girlfriend.” I always imagined after speaking my truth I would receive some type of laughter or negative feedback, but quite frankly I received the exact opposite. Even though I was a kid, I knew how playful and unaware kids could be so I always avoided the conversation to avoid feeling shame or embarrassment because kids are mean ultimately and I didn’t want them to joke on me.

I wouldn’t wish divorce, or having a gay parent, on anyone’s family but this was perfect for my journey. Later in life, closer to me finishing college, my mother revealed unto me that my father always had a plan for me to be different. Ironically, even after he passed, my mother continued her efforts in raising me differently. I grew up with three other sisters (I’m the baby of four) and they all went to the same schools, graduated from the same high school, and didn’t play sports. For my journey, my elementary school (Woodcock Elementary) shut down and I started going to Old Shell Road Performing and Creative Arts Magnet School, where I developed my love of dance — meanwhile all my sisters went to Woodcock. At the time Old Shell Road ended at third grade, so I started middle school my fourth grade year at Dunbar Performing and Creative Arts Magnet School — when my sisters went to Phillips Preparatory Middle School. All of my sisters, including my mother, graduated from B. C. Rain High School, but I graduated from Davidson High School. I never rode the school bus to school and I participated in Track & Field in high school.

From my dad’s efforts, he always emphasized the importance of critical thinking and thinking for yourself. It was rough a lot of the time because I felt like I was walking on eggshells with him. I didn’t know if I was saying or doing the right thing because everything was a riddle of some sort. He believed women should know how to cook and clean, so for the longest I dreaded going over to his house knowing I was going to be cooking and cleaning all day. Now as an adult, I appreciate him implementing self-sufficiency in my life because I can take care of myself and others. When my father started to get sick, I was taking care of him. He also taught me how to drive by the age of 12. My father was a visionary, and it was kind of like he knew he wasn’t going to be in my life for too much longer considering it always felt like a learning moment with him in all aspects.

Those small differences implemented in my life made a huge impact on my perspective and my approach in life. I was able to develop a sense of self in a very individualized way. I didn’t have a blueprint to follow or teachers who taught every generation of my family looking out for me. I did everything from scratch just about. The best thing my parents did for me was to allow me to make decisions for myself and support me 110% no matter the outcome. When I wanted to be a Girl Scout my mom didn’t second guess it, and when I wanted to stop she didn’t question my reason for quitting. When I had dance recitals and big performances at the Civic Center, I could always easily spot my mom recording my every move. When I stopped dancing and started running track, my mom shared that she was a track star and even went running with me a few weekends for extra practice.

One thing my parents did right was going back to the drawing board to make a few changes in raising Val Dixon. I’m sure they didn’t foresee their divorce being a part of my journey but that pivotal adjustment ignited my openness and my endless views of various perspectives. I can give all the glory to my parents and God above, but essentially I should pat myself on the back as well for being so receptive and retaining everything even while my circumstances weren’t ideal.

Val, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started Listen to the Money Talk (LTTMT) producing podcast interviews for local entrepreneurs and creatives in the city of Mobile, and after almost two years I realized that I could switch lanes to try something different. I started creating interviews from a perspective where only the talent is on camera and they pull the questions out of a box. My mother, Lisa Thompson, created this box branding it with my logos and picture frames to create the box itself. Soon after the question box series I was pondering on my next creative endeavor, so I tapped into creative direction.

I have a very close friend, Marcus Goins, who’s a cinematographer. He shoots music videos here and there and asked me to creatively direct a few videos and photoshoots with him. This new lane gave me the chills I used to get when I first started doing podcast interviews. It’s refreshing and it allows me to put my college degree to work. I learned so much in school I could open up my own school — haha. I increased my skills in SEO, decoded jargon in my field of work, lots of internships and networking, learned how to use a camera in manual mode, and learned how to edit the content I capture. I also picked up a few classes in graphic designing and several other art courses. I collected the tools and resources to be able to do everything on my own if necessary. But my main goal for accumulating these trades is to be able to articulate properly in this field. In order to communicate with other creators I must first understand the foundation and the simple things.

I’ve worked with clothing brands in putting together content for their clothing releases, individual entrepreneurs who need social media campaigns or planning for campaigns, and I’ve used my digital marketing skills for my clients as well. Most recently, I’ve been working with an artist named Shardae and she asked me to be her manager. Although I feel like I need a manager myself, I couldn’t resist the urge to see where this endeavor takes us. Working with Shardae is like working with another Val — she knows what she wants, how she wants it, and all she asks for is creative insight and alternative perspectives. She’s very open to different and isn’t afraid of a challenge. I like her music and that’s enough for me (I’m very picky when it comes to taste in music).

I’m working on collecting “my people” and it can be very traumatizing in a world where people aren’t healed or truly found their passion, but working with Marcus and Shardae fuels my hope to finding the perfect team one day. I aspire to have a team who collectively just wants to create by any means, have sufficient communication skills, and the grit to persevere through anything. One day, I dream of being inquired to pull off a huge production with a huge budget to execute, but I’m going to need my team first.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is to sit at the top of my own media conglomerate. In today’s time, we are lost as a collective. The main issue with the lack of guidance is the media itself. I don’t believe I’m going to change the world, but I aspire to inspire. I want to inspire people to be more authentic, stay true to themselves, dive deep into their roots, and so forth.

Listen to the Money Talk is a euphemism meaning, “follow the spirit” or “listen to your intuition” and I firmly believe with a little faith, discernment, and intuition can carry someone great distances. Personally, I only pray for the tools that source has placed within myself to grow and maximized the power I possess.

I have this keen sense of detail and a wicked alignment that places me in positions I couldn’t even plan for. I pride myself on reliability and knowing that people can trust me. I collect networks like I collect change on the ground, everything counts. I believe if I collect enough I can collect myself a whole agency, eventually several marketing firms, and ultimately a plethora of companies who collectively are aiming in the same direction I’m aiming: to inspire authenticity with pure intentions.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

My love of learning is endless. My father and mother raised me under the influence of many different philosophies, and once I got to college I was able to learn the philosophers behind them in my philosophy classes. I applied my love of learning after graduating college and decided to start studying astrology and numerology. I am a firm believer in living in harmony with nature. The only way to do that is to learn yourself, and the only way to do that is to learn the aspects you possess within.

Astrology is deeper than one zodiac sign, ultimately we all have multiple zodiacs within us and they each have their own aspects which makes each and every one of us uniquely individualized. Numerology is the scientific explanation of all things of life. You can use numerology for names, birthdays, workplace, home addresses, social security numbers, biorhythms, and more. Numerology breaks down patterns in your life based off of your destiny number, like your life cycles, personal year/month/week/day forecasts which is insanely accurate when you do the work.

The more you understand yourself, the more understanding of others you’ll become. Working with people requires self-healing and getting over traumas you may have endured on your journey. I’ve worked in customer service for over seven years, and I can guarantee all those years of experience is not the key to working with people. Sure, you learn a lot working in a field for a lengthy period of time, but if I used those years of experience and never started to heal myself then I wouldn’t be here today. Customer service is more than just smiling and waving, but it takes empathy and awareness to maintain sanity in this field. I absolutely love helping others and building new relationships, but it’s not as natural for most people. I have a servitude spirit and even when I don’t want to help, I find myself still helping because I feel so compelled to do so — if I’m able.

Here are a few philosophies I’d recommend:
– Confucius’ Confucianism
– Santideva’s teachings
– John Stuart Mill’s teachings about “dead dogma”
– Epictetus’ teachings
– Aristotle’s Golden Mean

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itssjustval/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/val.l.davis.9/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LTTMT
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/listentothemoneytalk/

Image Credits

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