We were lucky to catch up with Valencia Burton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Valencia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I hope to be remembered as someone who was a bright light. Someone who made the world better by being here. I think at our core that most of us do. Looking back over my life, there are some themes. I love restoration and I believe in beauty. It took me a while to recognize these themes in my life but my past, present, and even future aspirations speak to them. Calligraphy is known as a lost art. These days cursive is a dying art. It’s brought me joy to learn the art and value of calligraphy. It’s freeing to create something beautiful and even more so to know that you’re keeping an art form alive.
Bringing new life to something old is also what inspires me to flip furniture. I’m taking a piece that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill and breathing new life into it. Where others see scratches, dents, and dings, I see potential. I see beauty behind the scuffs.
My latest endeavor is becoming a certified Life and Empowerment Coach. For me it’s about holding up that mirror to reflect ack to clients the best, most capable parts of themselves. To show them that there is strength in what they and others may call a weakness. I’ve had some amazing sessions so far and even though I’ve gone into them to help clients unlock their potential, I’ve had some massive aha moments of my own. In taking journeys alongside clients to widen the keyhole through which they look at themselves and the world, I’ve been experiencing my own paradigm shift. I see now that the themes that led me to calligraphy and furniture flipping are the same ones that have led me to a calling as a Life and Empowerment Coach. Ultimately, I want to be remembered for restoring hope. For helping people to remember who they are, and to trust why they’re here. For showing people that perfection has never been a requirement, and that the sky really is the limit. That’s the legacy I want to leave.
Valencia, 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?
Some things about myself. This is always a hard question because I never know how deep to go. Hmmm, how I got into my industry. My primary industry has been calligraphy. I started Holliday Burton, LLC. because I had a dream one night about beautiful letters being written. There were flourishes materializing everywhere. Funny enough, I don’t even know what the letters in the dream spelled out! When I woke up, I started Googling “beautiful letters” and it was only up from there. Sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. I got into calligraphy through a dream I had, and I just dove in feet first. I invested in courses with Kestrel Montes, Younghae Chung, and a few other calligraphy greats and I was hooked! Since starting calligraphy in 2022, I’ve been honored to create commissioned pieces for weddings, anniversaries, and more. I’ve even taught courses on brush lettering.
Furniture flipping is something I’ve kept compartmentalized as a hobby. It’s a new thing that I love, and I want to do it without the pressure of building a business attached. Balance is so important to me. I never want to feel like butter scraped over too much bread and allowing some talents to remain hobbies instead of becoming full-fledged businesses is how I protect my balance. Refurbishing furniture has given me the freedom to restore heirlooms for clients and to even work on pieces pro-bono. The proudest moment in flipping furniture I’ve experienced is restoring two pieces given to me by a friend whose father had recently passed. It was important to honor his memory by making the pieces beautiful. My friend and his mom were overjoyed when I sent them photos of the finished pieces. It’s those moments that warm my heart and confirm that I’m doing something right.
Calligraphy, furniture flipping, and now coaching… Becoming a Life and Empowerment Coach feels like an arrival to me. I get to facilitate growth in so many people on a regular basis. Being a coach also requires me to consistently educate myself and work on my own self-improvement. I refuse to feel dishonest while helping others. If clients are moving to greater states of awareness through our work during sessions, it would be hypocritical of me to not focus on my own awareness, learning, and action outside of them. My coaching company is called Val Burton Life and Empowerment Coaching. My mission is to empower clients to live a life that is authentic and brimming with a sense of self-worth and possibility.
What I really want any client to know about me, whether calligraphy, furniture flipping, or coaching; is that I am a dreamer and doer. Anything new is a risk but if I feel an earnest drive I’m going forward. I have the belief that I’m unlimited in what I can learn and do. Even through life’s difficulties and though progress may feel slow at times, if I just keep going; I can do what my soul is calling me to. That goes for anyone. You can be a calligrapher, a pilot, a coach, and carpenter. It’s easy to say it, but I’m working to lead by example through following my own dreams. That’s the crux of what I want people to know about me.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In June 2024, I made the decision to leave my full-time job at a local hospital. I’d been doing calligraphy for nearly two years at that point and flipping furniture for a few months, but I had only devoted part of myself to being an entrepreneur. I left that job without a plan, but just a knowing that I was no longer meant to be there. It was a deep conviction and I’m happy to say I haven’t looked back. By November 2024, a close friend of mine who used to be a coworker at a previous job told me I should be a Life Coach. I laughed out loud because I felt like the state of my own life far from justified that career path! I was in a state of transition. How was I supposed to coach anyone through life’s issues when life was issuing me challenge after challenge?
This friend reminded me of all the times I’d helped her through life’s trials. She reminded me that I really listen to people. I empathize with them, and hold up a mirror so they can see the best parts of themselves. She mainly reminded me that my gifts aren’t for me and that a fruit tree doesn’t eat its own fruit. The fruit that my life produces is ultimately to feed the spirits of others. This friend inspired me to seek out coaching programs that would help me build on the talents I already possessed. I had the heart for coaching, but I needed more education. I joined Lumia. It was a great choice that’s allowed me to build a stronger foundation as I work towards my ICF (International Coaching Federation) certification. I’ve also learned that every coach is different and that daring to embrace that is the best thing I can do. I’ve been able to take the innate talents I have, multiply them, and feel confident in my ability to facilitate change in others’ lives. Being in a transitional phase was exactly where I needed to be. Feeling lost helped me to find my way to coaching and I’m immensely blessed by that.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
“Coach the Person, Not the Problem” by Marcia Reynolds was eye-opening for me. In it, Reynolds talks about the heart of coaching and why it’s so important to hold onto it. In the book she reminds us that our job is to coach the client and not their problem. We could all go down a rabbit hole talking about our issues, but for a client the value is in going down a rabbit hole of solutions and expanded possibilities. Reading Marcia Reynolds’ book really helped me to better understand one of the most complex principles in coaching. It sharpened my focus when it comes to the way I approach sessions. Even though I dance in the moment with clients, I’m still required to keep structure so that we keep moving forward with the Person and not the problem.
When we go into a helping profession, sometimes different methods and structures can seem formulaic. In trying to adhere to the frameworks you’ve learned, you can lose your “why” if you’re not careful. What I love about Marcia’s book is her ability to honor the structure of coaching, but acknowledge that the heart of it is always paramount. Being a coach is not about perfectly following a framework, and definitely not about the outcomes I desire for someone else. It’s about me showing up with a listening ear, a curious mind, an open heart, and knowing that being present and loving someone just because they exist is the start that’s needed. The finish will happen just as it needs to and the client and I will cross that ribbon together, not by my design but by their own.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/val.burton.coaching?igsh=MWY5dHE4ajJodncwNw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/valenciacalligraphy?igsh=M2ZnenBlbnJsc3h0&utm_source=qr
