We were lucky to catch up with Valerie Desire recently and have shared our conversation below.

Valerie, appreciate you joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment that I’ve made as a content creator is when I purchased my first ring light.

When I first started creating content, the lighting that I used absolutely terrible. I used a small desk light when I would film my content for Instagram and Youtube, and the quality was terrible. I can’t believe that anyone actually liked my content back then.

When I bought my ring light, I just graduated from college in 2020 during the pandemic. I decided that I wanted to truly dedicate more effort to making content creation a full-time career. So my first step was to start creating better content and to do this, I needed better lighting.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Valerie! I am 25 years old makeup content creator.

My interest in makeup started in 2016 when I decided that I wanted to go to senior prom but didn’t know how to do my own makeup. So I started watching makeup tutorials on youtube to teach myself. From there, I became obsessed with the makeup gurus on youtube and continued to watch their videos after I went to prom. Some of my favorite creators were Luhsetty, Patricia Bright, and Aaliyah Jay! These lovely ladies inspired me to want to start creating content too. It took me two years to get the courage to start creating content. I didn’t post my first video until 2018.

Even though I start making content in 2018, I mark the year 2020 as the year that I started my journey, just because this is when I actually became consistent and started to take it seriously.

Currently, I create makeup content on Tiktok and Instagram. I love posting makeup tutorials, makeup product suggestions and get ready with me’s where I do my makeup and spill tea on my life to my supporters!

My biggest accomplishment this far has been my ability to create a tight-knit community on my platforms. I love how the same people always comment and like my posts. I also love when someone comments to tell me how my video has inspired them to try out certain products or try new makeup looks on themselves.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson that I had to unlearn was being scared to invest in my dreams financially. I didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I was always taught to save and to avoid spending money by any means possible.

Because of this, I was always afraid to buy the things that I needed to create content, such as equipment and new makeup products.

Since I’ve let go of this fear, things have been working out for me for the better.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think people who are not creatives may struggle to understand how I manage to stay consistent as a content creator. It is easy for me to do so because I love what I do. I spend the majority of my daydreaming about content ideas and makeup looks that I want to do, so whenever I have free time to create, I always take advantage of the opportunity.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beatsbyvalerie/?hl=en
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beatsbyvalerie