We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Valerie Carter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Valerie below.
Valerie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The Love & Victory Show with Val, LLC was not what I thought it would become. I originally started the podcast because I wanted to promote my non-profit. You see, one of my sons served three tours in Afghanistan. Let’s just say by the time finished serving our country, he had come back another way. As a mother, I can’t even begin to describe the pain I felt knowing the obstacles that my son would be facing. I already grew up with a sister who had disabilities, but adding my son into the fold really pushed me to take action. So, I made a decision to do something.
My husband and I started our non-profit, L&V Enterprise Resources Inc. to help others with disabilities in a more tangible way as our experience with getting help for our son proved far more challenging than it ought to have been. When my non-profit got going, my team asked if I thought about doing a podcast. Not realizing what all goes into a podcast, I said, “Oh sure, why not.” Little did I know what I would be getting myself into. After our podcast debut, we were quickly introduced to the world of radio, and then things took off. The radio and podcast were simply meant to highlight the non-profit- but God! Let me tell you this, I quickly realized God gave us something special and I went all in.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The Love & Victory Show with Val, LLC is a radio and podcast that is all about having candid conversation about anything. The goal for each dialogue is to have authentic conversations with authentic people. What we are most proud of in all of this are the relationships we form with others. For example, one of our regular guests on the men’s monthly radio show started out as someone from our audience. He watched our radio shows weekly, engaged with us in the comments, reached out to us, and ultimately got to know us. But to even get to that point took a whole lot of work.
Now when I say that this was a journey, you won’t believe what a learning curve this process was. Seriously, I realized no one “just” becomes a host. On our first podcast, I was gripped with so much fear that I couldn’t say the name of my own show! When you start anything, you have to understand who you are. Are you willing to change? Are you willing to put your most authentic self out there, or are you going to hide behind the screen? How does your identity affect your brand? I would recommend answering these questions before putting yourself out there. Then there’s the team you have to consider. Who you surround yourself with will affect everything. Then you have to make sure that everything you do inside and outside the office agrees with your brand. You have to make sure you are making the right visual and auditory choices in your production. This whole process has forced me and my husband to be adaptable. I’ll say this, if you’re not willing to grow, you risk getting left behind.
In today’s day and age, everyone wants to speak but no one wants to listen. We made it our mission from day one to create a space where people from all walks of life can have safe, open, and candid conversation about anything- and I mean anything. After each show, we see the impact our conversations have on our guests, our audience- even ourselves. This is our path, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. God is at the center of this journey, and I can’t wait to see where He is taking us.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
People talk about big marketing stories with a sort of grandeur, often talking about how high risk makes high rewards. However, there are campaigns other companies promise that never come to fruition. Allow me to give you some wisdom. This past year, I was looking for different ways to promote my radio and podcast when I came across a company who promised that they could do it all. I was wanting to “up my game” so to speak, and it seemed like a great opportunity as they were a recognizable company who I had heard good things about. After a lot of thinking, I decided to seek out their services, made an agreement with them, and then I waited. The truth is this was a rather expensive avenue I was hoping would pay off, but time really reveals a company’s character.
My team and I were left waiting for pieces to fall into place that were never there. We were told we would start seeing traction in a fair amount of time. But after months of waiting, I had to come to grips with reality and terminate our agreement. Not only did they fail to uphold their end of the bargain, but I was left in the same place as I was months beforehand. I was frustrated knowing I was left exactly where I had started with an even bigger dent in my wallet. Just when I was starting to doubt myself and what I was doing, God stepped in. He put strategic people on my team that launched us forward faster than I anticipated. On YouTube, we went from about 200 subscribers to over 2,500 subscribers. On Facebook, we were sitting on maybe a couple hundred followers, but now we are over 7,000 followers. On Instagram, we grew from the couple hundred followers to over 6,000 followers. All of this in the span of about 4 months!
I don’t say any of this to be boastful. I say this because I want to tell you that who you surround yourself with will affect your potential. The deals you make with others will impact your brand and how other companies look at you. Whether you have had setbacks like this or if you had massive success, I want to encourage you to have integrity. Integrity is something that no one can take away from you, nor is it something that can be bought. If you and your company can retain your integrity, then no matter what storms you face, you will overcome them.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
I think the best source for new guests is anywhere people connect on a regular basis. For America, this happens to be the internet. When I started The Love & Victory Show with Val, LLC, I began with the people I already knew. I began the podcast with interns who worked under my non-profit L&V Enterprise Resources Inc. They helped me set everything up for my podcast. However, only a month into my adventure, I was invited to be a part of a radio station. I went immediately to my husband. I knew absolutely nothing about radio shows, but I knew my husband could help me figure it out. Through the connections, ideas, and prayers of people we met at the station, I was inspired to really stretch myself. I didn’t want to limit myself, my brand, or my message to just one group of people, so I made it a point to be diverse.
Let me clarify something. When I say I want to include diversity, I’m not saying it with all the political nuances because politics is not my emphasis. I simply believe diverse perspectives, stories, and experiences are important for growth in being a well-rounded person. The way one person sees something may be something you had not thought of before. We all have stories of someone who said that one “thing” that changed their life forever, and I want to be a part of that. If a unique perspective has the power to make a positive change, why should I limit myself to people who look or think like me?
From there, I was strategic in hiring my behind the scenes team. Looking at a digital world, I decided to hire digital natives. My radio and podcast team are full of people who bring so much to the table I wasn’t even aware of. For example, when it occurred to me to start researching guests through social media- it turns out they were already doing it! I knew right then and there social media would shape how I find guests, and how guests find me.
On my website, I created a guest request form anyone can fill out for the radio and podcast. Just like our humble beginnings, we carry ourselves with integrity, but the impact our integrity has expressed itself in is phenomenal. I can’t even begin to describe the range of unique people we have had fill out our form. I’m simply proud that the content we create reflects the heart of our brand: growing from brokenness to wholeness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lvwithval.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lvwithval/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lvwithval/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lvwithval
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lvwithval