We were lucky to catch up with Valencia George recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Valencia, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest, life changing risk I ever took was, leaving the only home and place I knew to go to a total different Island where I knew no one to start my life over. In 1994 I left St. Thomas where I was born and raised to go to St. Croix with just a change of clothes and $10.00 bucks in to my name. I had a rough childhood and I taught it would be best to go somewhere where no one knows me. I met this wonderful woman when I arrived on St. Croix. She took to me as if I was her long lost daughter. I told her what I was going through as a young lady at that time. This woman took me in to live with her. She helped me get a job, finish school and in return I took care of her and helped her pay bills. I would never forget this lady. If it wasn’t for that leap of faith I wouldn’t have met her. I am still living with the kind words of wisdom she has taught me. That’s what got me to where I am today.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Valencia George is has a passionate history of hard work with an emphasis on continuing education, and it shows in the career and education path she has chosen for herself. Growing up in the US Virgin Islands, her experiences led to some remarkably diverse careers. Her journey started right out of high school in the construction industry as a Construction Project manager where she gained qualifications in safety compliance, time management, vendor management, materials management and job estimation. Other skills included quality control, team building, building codes, blueprints, construction planning, scheduling, and budgeting. This skillset has led to opportunities working on projects for the Virgin Islands Housing Authority and other commercial contracts between St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John.
In addition to working in the construction industry, she has worked for Dept. of Labor as an Unemployment Insurance Specialist for 5 years. In this role she was involved in the review, examination, adjudication and investigation of claims for unemployment insurance benefits, the continuation of benefit, the resolution of contested claims and benefit disputes, and the determination of coverage.
Concurrently, while working for Dept of Labor she pursued her Associates Degree in Criminal Justice. Her personal experiences with abuse were her inspiration for the pursuit of this degree, as she wanted to fight for those that cannot fight for themselves in order to give victims their voice and power back. After completion of said degree she acquired her dream job at The Virgin Islands Police Department as a forensic science technician. This role included assisting FBI, police, and criminal investigation detectives in collecting, processing, and analyzing evidence from a criminal investigation. As this is such an important job, she had to exercise extreme caution to ensure the integrity of the evidence and the methods of collection. The accuracy helped to ensure that evidence is not thrown out by a judge because of improper collection or preservation work. It is crucial since they use this information to help tell the story of what transpired at the crime scene in order to build their cases against alleged perpetrators.
Moreover, higher learning and building wealth are also particularly important to Ms. George. She returned to school and graduated with her Diploma in Cosmetology, Esthetician, and Nail tech. For the past six years she has owned and operated her own salon and created a hair care product line.
In the same spirit of creating generational wealth, she again continued her education. She is now a Supreme Court certified mediator and arbitrator which serves her well as a founding partner with the George & George ADR Group. As an alternative dispute resolution (ADR ) boutique firm, their primary focus is on the beauty and cosmetic industry. This includes hair salons, day spas, barbershops, and suite renters through arbitration, mediation, and negotiation. But that didn’t stop her. She continued her education a step further and became a Paralegal.
Ms. George is a very family-oriented woman and currently resides in Orlando Florida with her family. In her spare time she shares her personal and professional experiences via community groups designed to inspire and motivate women of all ages.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My Co-founder is my brother Joseph George. The way we are funding our business is we are working day to day jobs and taking our pay checks to fund

How’d you meet your business partner?

My co-founder/business partner is my brother. Me and my brother Joseph George have been close from young. We seems to have the same interests in careers. One day we were on the phone conversating and I told him I miss doing Forensics, So that’s when the idea came to us. That we should open our own firm. This is how George and George ADR Group was born

Contact Info:

• Website: http://georgeandgeorgeadr.com
• Linkedin: Valencia George

Image Credits
Sterling Photography