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Unveiling The Threads of Grief and Grit with Valerie Mayen · Groove with Portia

0:06
Welcome to Group Porsche, the podcast that uncovers the hidden treasures within grief.
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I'm your host, Porsche the Producer, and I'm inviting you to join me
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on a transformative journey where we will exchange laughter, of course, the best
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medicine of them all, reflect on cherished memories, Remember that time that the
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little boy grabbed my hand instead of his mother's at the amusement park yikes,
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And of course, discover gratitude while navigating one of the life's hardest challenges lost.
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So get ready to grow with me, Porsche the Producer, let's dive
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in. Hey listeners, welcome back to Group Porsche. I am your host,
0:48
Porsche the Producer. And of course, before it begin, for those
0:51
of you who are tuning in, make sure that you like Sharon subscribe to
0:54
my YouTube channel to keep up with the latest and greatest of all, Grew
0:58
with Porsche. So today I have the honor of being joined by an individual
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who is creating social change through fashion. Now, just to give a little
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background about who I'm joined by today, let's just say you've probably seen her
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on the big screen a few times. She is She was once part of
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Project Runway Season eight and She was also invited back on for All Stars season
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five and now through her journey of being on the big screen, even though
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she's still kind of doing little things here and there, now she's kind of
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threaded things together and started her own unique journey of fashion by producing her own
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company called yellow Cake Shop. So welcome to greul Porsha, Miss Valerie Mayon.
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How are you doing today, Valerie? I'm good, you know,
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Valerie, every day is great. That ends in why, And you know,
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I just love the fact that, like for our listeners and people who
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are seeing this obviously on YouTube, you just glow right, You've got the
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why see in the back and it's just like adding to your whole vibe.
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And of course I had the opportunity to meet you in person, so I
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know the type of person you are, So Valerie first starters. I always
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love love to start off my conversation with gratitude. What are you grateful for
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today? Oh man, that's a really great question. There's so many things,
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you know. Um, I'm grateful just to be breathing and above ground,
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Grateful to have some new staff in the studio to assist with the workload.
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Just you know, things are things are going great. I really can't
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complain. So, um yeah, grateful for my girls. I love my
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kids. Um yeah, I think that's three. Right, that's a good
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a good amount to start with. I feel like you can find gratitude in
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everything, though, Valerie, Right, Like you have to, you know,
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even in the I would say not so great season that come with entrepreneurship,
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right, because we have those down seasons where we're looking at the clock,
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where we're looking at our bank account, like, hey, where's the
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money coming in? Or let's say, if we're in the process of pivoting,
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and then there's this what I call the anxious excited energy where you're excited
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about what's to come, but then you're also anxious about the unknown. Now,
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yeah, like we always want to know everything. Yeah, that's definitely
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a really great way of putting it. I mean, you know, my
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team and I we do this thing we call daily huddle, and we try
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to do it as often as we meet, and basically we kind of do
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like a temperature check, right, So we try to ask each other three
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questions, right, you know, what's one way to describe yourself. What's
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something fun you're looking forward to? And what are you anxious or concerned about
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and typically the one question we always answer or ask ourselves, as you know,
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what's the one word to describe yourself? And often than not, I'm
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always one of my solf saying like, it's not usually one word, it's
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like a it's like a hybrid word that we make up. It's like I'm
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feeling anxiously excited, or I'm feeling overwhelmingly optimistic, or I'm feeling you know,
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so it's just like it's kind of a mix, you know, like
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We've got a lot going on right now, and I'm I'm excited about the
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change and the prospect of progress, but I'm also nervous about like, holy
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shit, can we get this done? You know, are we gonna make
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it? Like what are we gonna do? In between? Like there's always
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the unknown. So Valie, what's the word today? Is it anxiously unknown?
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Or what's our word today? Yeah? I think my word today was
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Yeah, I think I was I was anxiously excited, like I'm excited about
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all the progress we're making, but I'm still anxious about it. Like I
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couldn't even really eat my whole breakfast this morning because I was just like in
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knots. You know, I was like, oh my gosh, we have
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there's so much to do, and I think and I know we could probably
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get it done. It's just a matter of like when and how and what
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headaches are going to happen in between, you know, So I feel it.
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I can definitely relate because I'm in that season even for me, right,
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people know, obviously grew with Porsche. Grew Porsche will be four this
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year, and it's hard for me to even wrap my head around how far
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I've come in my journey as as a podcast or as a producer and a
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chorus pivoting careers into another endeavor that I'll launch soon. But even still,
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right, it's that anxious Oh my god, I'm so excited and nervous.
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What if it's not going to work out? Am I thinking too big?
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Am I dreaming? Yeah? Totally, because you're like, Okay, I
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got all the pieces of parts in play. But then when you actually when
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you reach a benchmark, you're like, oh my gosh, like what did
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I just do? No, So it's it's it can be a lot sometimes,
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And Valley, I'm glad that you said that what did I just do?
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Because when I think about your journey right of you being on Project Runway
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not just once but twice. Right, and even though you weren't first in
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both of your times being on that show, right, for some people,
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those experiences can make or break them, right, and so for you,
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just out of curiosity, how did you navigate that grief journey of obviously you've
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participated in both of these opportunities being able to excel your career in the fashion
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space. But then it's kind of that like, Okay, I lost,
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but now what So what would you say, Valerie, was the hitting gift
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during your grief journey of going through Project Runway not once but twice. Yeah,
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that's an interesting question. I think maybe we'll ask me that. Um,
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you know, I think the first time I did it, I was
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I was definitely bummed, and I was upset, and I was kind of
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unsure what to think about myself as a designer and my own worth and you
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know, what does that mean for me? As you know, as on
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my journey to success or whatever kind of small amount of things I thought I
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would achieve. And it was hard because in my first experience, you know,
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we had to stay on set, we were sequestered, so once you
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were out, you you know, you went to the floor where all these
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sequestered designers were and had been. And the ones that had been there for
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long or they were over already, they were you know, taking naps,
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they were eaten junk food and watching TV. But for me, it was
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it was kind of like, Okay, so now I just have to sit
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here in the dark, and like I can't talk to my mom, I
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can't call my friends, I can't listen to music. I guess I have
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to sit here and wait. And meanwhile, the people that you know are
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still in play and they're upstairs right above us, you know, living their
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dream outs still and so it was hard. You know, the first night
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when I was on the runway and I was eliminated, I could feel it
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was going to happen. I knew that I could sense that I was next
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in the lineup. You know what, as much as we want to believe
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that reality TV is real, the way things, the way the chips fall,
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sometimes the way that the judges are producers pick who the winner is.
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It isn't always up to the best designer. It's not really determined by who
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has the best work. It's sometimes is based on a lot of different variables.
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But but I kind of had a sense that it was going to be
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me, and so I had prepared myself a little bit in my heart,
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but I hadn't really mentally prepared myself. So I was I was really devastated.
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I really thought at that point, you know, after I passed the
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first episode, after I passed the fifth episode, after best the seventh episode,
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I was like, Okay, I maybe be able to get pretty far,
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you know, like I might have a shot. And yeah, it
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was. It was a disappointment. I mean, I went to my hotel
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that night. My other roommates had already been kicked off, so about myself,
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and it was just it was it was lonely. It was you just
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you couldn't do anything but cry, just the ugly cry by yourself until you're
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tired and you fall asleep. You know. The second time I did it,
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when I did All Stars, it was a different experience because we had
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our own rooms, we were allowed to leave once we were eliminated, so
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it was a slightly different experience, but but it was similar in the sense
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that I still, even though I knew how the process worked, I hadn't
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my hopes up when I said, maybe it will be different, you know,
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maybe I'll really be able to win because I'm better now, I'm more
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you know, adapted with my skills. I'm have a clearer vision of who
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I am. And I was kicking ass in All Stars, like I was
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in the top for every almost every episode. Even for the episode that I
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wasn't in the top. It wasn't because my garment was sucking. Is because
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my partner just foamed it in, you know, And and I was.
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I was making some of my best work. And so when I was eliminated
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the same thing, though, I had an idea that it was going to
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be me because I didn't have enough drama surrounding me to make a good storyline.
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And I wasn't being loud enough or crazy enough or like wild enough with
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my one liners to be interesting for television. And so it just made the
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most sense for them to cut me, because I was the one that was
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kind of being the most of vanilla, right. But I was making some
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really good work. But the other designers, even though the work was not
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as good, maybe they had good stories following them and they were they were
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causing, they were making good TV and I just wasn't making good TV.
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Even though you would think, right, you're making good good design. It's
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a design show, It's not. It's really it's really a competition. You
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know, it's really a competition. Design is a reality design show, you
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know, it's it's it's a game show, is what it is. But
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even then, I was still I was still really let down because I really
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thought this time, like I could probably do it, you know, I
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was. I was more prepared, but you know, I was able to
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go home. I was able to be with my you know at the time,
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was my boyfriend, you know, And I'm able to be with some
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friends and family, and I was able to console myself in other ways that
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I couldn't before. So I think that's just how I had to deal with
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it, the way anyone deals with disappointment. You know, Valley, when
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I'm hearing from both times of you being on Project Runway, was that drive
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of it's going to be me. It might not be me in this season
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or that season, but that drive that it's going to be me at some
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point. And Valerie, can you elaborate more on that, because obviously once
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you came home this second time, right, what was that at grief journey
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that eventually led to your growth and no pun intended was the sewing thread to
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creating yellow Cake Shop. Yeah, you know, when I came home,
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Um, I think I was a little bit more. I don't want to
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use the word depressed because that seems too it just seems too severe, but
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I was. I was definitely really hard on myself. I cried a lot.
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I found it hard to be motivated to do anything because I was just
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I felt like I'd lost my my drive and my my momentum. I felt
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like I wasn't worth myself as a designer. I was stilling all kinds of
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imposter syndrome, like to the nth degree, you know, And so yeah,
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it was. It was hard for me to get my shit together and
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try to do anything productive because I was. I was really disappointed. And
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I think in my head I had when I went on the show. I
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didn't go on the show thinking like, yeah, I'm gonna win, this
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is minus in the bag, no one, I've got it, you know.
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I didn't think that because I knew that I didn't know right, Like
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I knew that I could only do as good as I as I could do
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personally. But I also didn't know what curveballs I'd had. I didn't know
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what roadblocks I'd come into. I didn't know you know, who might be
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there would be better than me, because that's possible too. But but then
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as I progressed every episode, as and as I was seeing the pattern that
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I was seeing with you know, my work and the judges, I really
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started believing like, okay, like maybe this is the season where they let
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me win, you know, because again, it wasn't up to us,
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you know, no matter how good we are or how good we aren't,
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it wasn't up to us. So I think when I got home, I
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really put a lot of I think stock into thinking that that show was to
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determine how how successful I would be, right like winning that show or losing
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that show would determine my trajectory. And so it took me a while to
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get out of that funk. And then when I finally did, and I
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started getting back to something like I started you know, feeling some small wins
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in some other places, and I started getting some momentum with this collection I
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was making for my own personal you know, showcase that I was doing at
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the time that really helped me, I guess, you know, get a
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little bit more traction, and it kind of, you know, shook me
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out of my funk, I guess, but it definitely took some time.
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You know. Even my husband now who with my boyfriend at the time,
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he told me, he was like, I can't tell you what to do,
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and I definitely, you know, won't ever tell you what you can't
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do. He's like, but if ever you want to go on that show
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again, you know, he's like, I would strongly encourage you not to
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because he's like, it just he's like, it obliterated your confidence in a
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way that I've never seen before. It and he's like, you know you,
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he's like, you you don't need that. And he's like, if
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anything, it was a distraction, and he's like, I'm glad you did
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it, and I think it was good for you, Like, but it
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was a really big distraction. And so I don't disagree with him, but
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I don't fully agree with him, you know. So I'm glad I did
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it. I had the best time. It's something that I'll always have,
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you know. It was It's a cool experience. I made some of my
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best work. I learned a shit ton, I met some cool people.
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But but yeah, I would say, leaving that show, I knew that
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I couldn't. I couldn't wallow forever, right, And I didn't want to
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it. It's just it's not who I am, Like, I don't like
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being idol. And I also, you know, I didn't as much as
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I've felt in my mind or you know, I believed in my head that
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that show defined me a little bit, I didn't. I didn't want it
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to. And I didn't want other people to think, oh, well she
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lost, so she's a failure, and look at her now she's working in
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Starbucks, you know, not the working in Starbucks as a failure. Right,
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It's just not for me, Like I'm I don't drink coffee. I
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don't even like coffee. Like for me, it's it's fashion, it's creating,
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it's it's making something out of nothing, you know. And so I
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didn't want other people to look at me and say, yeah, see I
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knew it, like not everything. Most people on that show don't even end
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up doing something in fashion, and most people in that show don't end up
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becoming anything. You know. It's just it's just a flash in the pan,
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you know, it's about fifteen minutes of fame situation, and I didn't
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I didn't want that for me, and I wanted I was motivated to prove
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myself wrong in my own mind of what I knew was capable of, and
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I was motivated to show other people this is what I'm really capable of when
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I'm not under pressure, when I'm not on the reality show. What I'm
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not you know, under the thumb of producers and you know television and ratings,
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this is what I I can do on my own terms. Valerie,
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first and foremost, what I love is and especially what I hear is again
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that fire in your soul to prove everybody wrong. Right, instead of you
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becoming discouraged and saying, you know what, I'm done with fashion, I'm
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a failure. There was that part of you that's like, this door is
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closed, but my chapter is just beginning. This was only a stepping stone
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to show only a teensy little bit of my true talent. And so your
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story sounds similar to mine. Those of you who know I used to be
15:43
a television producer for a big network, and for me, I found myself
15:50
discouraged for the longest time, and this is the first time I've ever shared
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this. So Valerie, thanks for holding the platform for me. But I
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was scouraged from doing anything television, anything video for years. I mean when
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I tell you I was scarred for life, Valerie, I would pick up
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a pen and my hand would just shake from the traumatic experience of that time.
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And then it took one of my coaches, God rest her soul.
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Shout out to Gil Flowers Rest in heaven. It took her to remind me,
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Porsche, just give it a try, just give it one more shot,
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because she could see the fire in my soul. And last year I
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did that by creating the first commercial four Grew with Porscha, which is still
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on my YouTube channel. Yeah, and sometimes we just need that little hey,
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don't forget who you are and so Valerie for you before we jump into
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the next part of the conversation. For our audience, who is tuning in
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if they're interested in connecting with you, obviously checking out your amazing, beautiful
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lines of fashion, where can they find you? What social media do you
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prefer? Sure, Yeah, you can find us on Instagram. That's probably
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one of the platforms that we're most active on. We're at Yellow cake Shop
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all one word, just like the dessert, you know, yellowcake with shop
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at the end, the American spelling not the British spelling. So it's all
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one word yellow cake Shop. That's our Instagram and on Facebook we're at yellow
17:42
Kake Shop Clee that's cl for Cleveland, and online you can find us at
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Yellowcakeshop dot com. So it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. People can email
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us at hello at Yellowcakeshop dot com, but just put in yellow cake Shop
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all one word, Cleveland, Fashion Valerie whatever. You can find us pretty
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mu anywhere on Google. Excellent, excellent, Valorie. I gotta ask this,
18:04
You know, I can't help but to continue to go back to how
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that moment for you, that drive again continue to fuel you to open your
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own fashion boutique. Right, For some people, those experiences discourage them right
18:22
from ever stepping foot into this arena they're calling ever again. And so for
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our audience who's tuning in, Valorie, what tip can you leave with them
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to when they have that discouraging moment, right when they know that their passion
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for what they're doing is still there, but they have that big discouraging moment
18:48
based on societal standards, Right, what tip can you leave with them to
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keep going, to find themselves again and remind themselves of why they started in
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the beginning. Yeah, I think that's you know, the question is answered
19:04
right there. You know. I think if someone wants to keep going and
19:07
they're not sure how, I think really reminding themselves of why is a good
19:11
start, you know. So, I think a lot of entrepreneurs have a
19:15
hard time letting go of a dream or an idea or a business because they've
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been doing it for so long and they're so invested, whether it's emotionally,
19:23
financially, you know, physically, that they don't know how to cut their
19:27
losses and they're they're afraid that if they do that, it's all for nothing,
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or they're afraid that if they do that, they'll be a failure.
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And sometimes you do not have to cut your losses. But there are other
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times when you really should keep going and you just have to power through,
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try to get to the next level, or you need to keep going,
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but maybe use different approaches, you know, get some different tools, you
19:45
know, get some different people in on the bus to really you know,
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get you to you know, to where you need to go on this journey.
19:52
Right. So you know, for me, I think I asked myself
19:56
to why at the time, but I was also younger at wasn't I was.
20:00
I'm encumbered. I didn't have kids, I wasn't married, you know,
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I had very I had responsibilities, but they weren't nearly what they are
20:07
now. And so it was easy for me to stay yes, and easy
20:11
for me to keep going because I still didn't feel like I had given myself
20:15
the the full spectrum or even the real you know, a real college try
20:21
at at this thing that I wanted to try to do. You know,
20:22
I started yellow Cake before I went on Project Runway, but it was pretty
20:26
minimal. I was I literally was, you know, sewing with you know,
20:32
a plywood on top of cinder blocks, right, that was my table.
20:34
And I had this machine that I bought when I was in college for
20:37
like a hundred bucks from an old man in Cleveland Heights. Like I didn't
20:41
even have real equipment, you know. I was making stuff from materials that
20:44
I didn't even know I couldn't be working whether or shouldn't be working with.
20:47
And so I just kept at it because it interested me and I really enjoyed
20:52
it, and it made me curious, and I was like, you know,
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I haven't even really showed myself what I could or couldn't do. So
20:59
I kept at it because I knew that I was good enough. I just
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didn't know how good I was. And for me, I think the litmus
21:06
that I used to gauge that was how willing people were to give me their
21:11
money for the things that was making. You know, So like in the
21:14
art world, a lot of people, there's two different camps, right,
21:15
you know. Some some people will tell you that, you know, art
21:19
is valuable no matter who makes it, no matter what it is, no
21:22
matter you know, whether it's sales or not. Right. But but for
21:26
me, I'm more of a practical person. And you know, I think
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it's a Latin American woman. I have the fire, and I have plenty
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of fire and passion, right, I have plenty of ambition and passion for
21:37
doing these things. But I also have this practical side of me. You
21:41
know, I didn't have the luxury of being like, sure, I can
21:44
just pay for the sake of painting in my studio that I pay for on
21:47
the side, because I have the money to just blow on a studio or
21:49
whatever. But I'm practical because I have to make money to live. I
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have to make money to save for my future. I have to make money
21:56
to be able to afford things that I need in this life. You know,
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I don't. I don't have a stafe data, I don't have inheritance,
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I don't have a rich husband. So I have to do these things.
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I get to do them, but I also have to do them.
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So I think for me, you know, I really looked at what it
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was that I wanted to do what I hadn't done yet, and then why
22:18
do I want to do it? And for me at the time, the
22:19
reason I wanted to do it was because I really wanted to contribute to the
22:22
world in a way that I thought would be impactful, using the skills that
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I knew I had. You know, I didn't go to business school.
22:30
I didn't go to school from medicine or law. I wasn't a teacher,
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you know, I didn't have a traditional job, right. I didn't know
22:37
enough about you know, tech or science or you know anything else that might
22:42
have given me a traditional path to a career. But I knew how to
22:45
make things, and I knew how to make them well enough that people were
22:48
willing to spend money. And so for me, what I learned in the
22:52
art community from school and from other artists that were in the practical conceptual,
22:59
you know, instead of art as business and commerce, was that if your
23:03
art sells, then it's valuable and it's good art. If your art doesn't
23:06
sell, so it's just a hobby and it's not good art. And so
23:08
I was in the business of having a business. I didn't want to hobby.
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I wanted a business. And that's the key Sauce right there, is
23:19
that, Hey, I'm creating this. People are doing the marketing for me,
23:26
right and a lot of us create his valerie, I'm just like you.
23:30
This started grew up, Porsche, started as just me interviewing cool people
23:34
around the world because I like telling stories. But then it started to gain
23:41
traction all over the world, and I would have never thought like, holy
23:48
crap, this has opened up so many doors of opportunity without me even realizing,
23:55
Oh, Porsche, this is this is big what you're getting into because
24:00
these conversations fuel me, these conversations of helping people to see how their grief
24:07
journey, how that loss. Right, we tend to put so much negative
24:12
connotation on the loss that we experienced, but really that game and you said
24:18
it, Valerie, that gain of cutting your losses, right, Like,
24:22
yeah, I've had this experience on Project Runway, but it didn't break me
24:29
and spent it was the break down to the breakthrough algorithm. Yeah, and
24:37
Valorie, for you, I mean, I gotta just ask this too.
24:41
So now that you've obviously reached a new level in your career, right,
24:48
and as you said it in the very beginning, because you're very much I
24:52
call a serial passionate person. Right, You've got so much abundant energy.
24:59
How do you value balance that or take that break sometimes from doing so much
25:07
creative stuff? How do you find that balance? Because I find that hard
25:11
sometimes because I can record episodes a gruel Porsche like it's no problem, But
25:15
then sometimes my brand is like, okay, Porsche, we need to take
25:18
a break now. Coffee is all dried up? Right, Yeah, that's
25:22
hard. You know. I think I was answering this question not long ago
25:26
for another podcast I was doing. And you know, there's there's definitely I
25:30
think a couple of different camps in schools of thought. I don't I believe
25:37
there is a way to achieve some kind of work life balance, But I
25:40
think that looks different for everybody. You know, some people that really love
25:42
to work, they think that working you know, a longer work day and
25:47
having a smaller portion for rest and family is okay, you know. And
25:51
some people think that, you know, balance for them it needs to be
25:53
you know, nine to five, go home working on weekends and then you
25:59
know, just the tradition, you know, typical work structure. But but
26:02
everyone has a different schedule of his different needs, and so for me,
26:06
I don't know if I've achieved any sense of work life balance that I think
26:11
really works for me. It's optimal and it's optimal sense, but I do
26:14
think that I'm I'm actively seeking different tools and methods and approaches to be able
26:19
to somehow get closer to something that works for me and my family. You
26:22
know. I I definitely work less than I used to work, if that's
26:26
even possible. But um, you know, I think having my kids it
26:30
forced me to like I have to be there for them. I can't not.
26:33
You know. Luckily, I have you know, a partner who's you
26:37
know, he's pretty hands on, and we definitely do our best to share
26:41
the load as much as we can together. So I'm lucky in that sense.
26:45
But but I also, you know, my heart literally does not like
26:48
to be away from my girls. If I know they're at home and he's
26:52
at home and they're having dinner and I'm here still working, I can't really
26:55
focus on work, you know. So I really have to try my hardest
26:57
to get work done in the times that work best for our family so that
27:00
I can be there for them. But there are also times that I can.
27:03
There are times if it's in my schedule and I've got an evening event
27:06
or i have a weekend retail show. If it's in my schedule and I've
27:08
mentally prepared myself for it, then you know, that's what it is right
27:11
now, and it's what it has to be. So I think that I
27:14
am limited in some ways right now because of my schedule and because of what
27:18
you know, physically I can and cannot do. But then there are times
27:22
that I really, you know, do my best to seek out tools,
27:26
like you know, I have ADHD, right I mentioned it into the last
27:30
podcast too, And I've always struggled with focusing on certain tasks and being able
27:34
to stick to certain things, and you know, efficiency is not my strong
27:37
suit. Like like a lot of creatives, I work best under pressure and
27:41
I hate that, but that's really what I can focus most because I have
27:44
to. But you know, I've got this new planner that works really well
27:47
for me. I'm learning new techniques about how to, you know, try
27:49
to achieve a minimum amount of things in a day instead of trying to do
27:53
twenty different things in a day. You know, I think I said this
27:56
before too to someone else, that a lot of entrepreneurs and create of entrepreneurs,
28:00
we over est to what we can do in a day, but we
28:03
underestimate what we can do in a year. And so it really comes down
28:07
to just breaking things down. And they always say, you know, how
28:08
do you eat an elephant? Right? One by at a time. And
28:11
I'm always like, yeah, well what if you don't eat elephant, you
28:12
know, like then how do you eat anything? And so it really is
28:15
just just breaking it down and backing into it. And I'm a huge proponent
28:18
of lists, right but I put lists in like twenty different places sometimes,
28:22
and so I've gotten into the habit and I'm putting my list in my iPad
28:26
so that I can email them to people are texting them to people or so
28:29
then to myself if I need to. And I've gotten in the habit of,
28:32
you know, putting in my planner into one place, So I don't
28:36
know if I've achieved any kind of work life balance I aspire to. And
28:40
I think I'm getting to a point where it feels more achievable and a little
28:45
bit more sustainable for me, But for everyone that's different, you know.
28:48
But I do think that I think a lot of people are starting to,
28:51
you know, really become more keen on this is that hustle culture does not
28:55
serve anyone, you know. And resting our bodies is it has to happen.
29:00
Like if we don't rest our bodies now, we're not going to be
29:03
prepared for the work we have to do tomorrow, you know. And so
29:06
you know, we're not robots, right. We have to recharge. We
29:10
have to you know, fuel our creativity not just through work, but through
29:14
play and through rest and through you know, connectivity. And there's there's just
29:18
so many of the things that we need to do as humans that I think
29:21
for creatives, we we often forget because we're so driven in what we love
29:26
to do that we we forget about it, right, you know, like
29:29
I could sell all date if I had the time, but I don't because
29:32
I have to also answer emails and work with my team and go to meetings
29:36
and pay suppliers and the ten networking events and go to educational seminars, you
29:40
know, and and getting to do the fun stuff isn't even on my gender
29:42
most days. So so yeah, it's it's a challenge, but it's not
29:47
impossible. Valley, I love you literally said my favorite phrase of creatives work
29:55
best under pressure, and I have to admit that pressure even for me as
30:02
a one woman band show. I don't know what it is. It's like
30:07
some type of adrenaline rush you get, Ballerie. I have to ask this,
30:14
what was one project that you turned around in twenty four hours? Oh?
30:19
Man, I can't even sick. There's so many. It's stupid,
30:22
Like you know, there was so Sometimes if I have an event I have
30:26
to go to, and if it's a unique event or special event, I'll
30:30
I'll decide I'll make myself address like because why not, right, I have
30:34
plenty of things that choose from, but I decided to make myself something completely
30:37
new or you know, just because I want you or I can. And
30:41
so I think there was an event I had to go to. It might
30:44
have been a client's wedding or an awards stern winner or something, but I
30:47
decided to myself addressed and it wasn't until the like day before the event that
30:52
I had to And you know sometimes I can not got address in two hours.
30:56
But now that I have you know, different tastes and you know,
30:59
different ideas, and my body's different too, Like I can't do that anymore.
31:03
So it now it takes me anywhere from four to six hours. But
31:07
you think, oh, four to six hours, that's like a day,
31:07
right, But then there's texts and there's emails, and there's you know,
31:11
the kids need stuff and like and then you know I have ADHD, so
31:14
I get distracted, like you couldn't believe. So it's it's it could be
31:18
tricky. I mean. So, yeah, I made this dress. I
31:19
started on a Friday, I think at like two o'clock and I didn't finish
31:23
it so five am the next day because I had so many different things in
31:26
between. And then I've ran into some trouble and some challenges with the garment
31:30
that I'm out of the fabric and you know. I finished it. It
31:32
looked great, but then I slept half the day and then I barely made
31:34
it to this thing in time. So I was like, you know,
31:37
you do these things to ourselves and we just we wonder why. But but
31:41
yeah, it looked cool. I finished it. I don't know if I
31:44
ever do that again. I probably will, but I don't think I'll plan
31:45
any better. Yeah, Valley, I can relate. I could definitely relate
31:52
to that. One time. I had a video project that I knew about
31:56
for three weeks and it was something about that pressure. When the person emailed
32:04
me, Hey, how's this video coming along? And I said, oh,
32:07
man, I said, okay, portion it's game time, Valerie.
32:13
When I tell you, I cranked that video out in seven hours, full
32:19
script, full visuals, voiceover transitions, and I think I had over sixty
32:28
something clips in that video that I turned around and I said, man,
32:32
I give myself a pad on the bat. It's amazing what we can do
32:37
as creatives when that you're up against the clock. Yeah, and you're like,
32:44
oh my gosh, you imagine what I could do when I had like
32:46
boodles the time. But you know that just soimes that doesn't for themselves,
32:50
Like I could have a month to do something and then I'll be doing it
32:52
the night before, you know, so it's it only happened. That's why
32:58
I liked to whatever I have customers, I like to chop it up into
33:00
small you know, segments and fittings, because then I know I'll get the
33:04
things done in time and I'm not doing like a giant finished product, you
33:07
know, in one night. I can do it, you know, in
33:08
small you know spurts. But yeah, otherwise I'd be totally screwed. Well,
33:15
like they say, the saying goes saved by the bell for a reason,
33:20
I think a lot of us creatives are saved by the bell because if
33:24
that time factor didn't play a role, a lot of us would be just
33:30
sailing literally just putting off everything to the very last minute, or not getting
33:36
it done at all. Exactly Well, Valerie, I gotta say, first
33:40
and foremost, thank you so much for this conversation. I think number one,
33:45
we've taken away so many different, no puns intended threads of wisdom from
33:51
you from your journey of number one, keeping that flame going, that passion
33:57
of even though this opportunity tunity on project Runway could have no Puntington excelled your
34:02
career in a big way, and a lot of people give up once those
34:08
opportunities fall through. But for you, you found that hidden gym in your
34:14
grief journey to really excel and also show people that hey, just because this
34:22
didn't work, other options are available. Fact, that passion that fuel all
34:28
those things were present for you, and so valorie for our listeners who were
34:32
tuning in. If there's somebody who was wanting your shoes, who wants to
34:38
find a way or that that flame again to continue their passion when one door
34:45
is closed for them, what words of inspiration can you leave with them today?
34:52
Oh that's a really good question, you know, I think I would
34:59
tell them. Most people say you could do anything you put your mind too,
35:02
right, And I don't know if I agree with that, you know,
35:06
because yeah, I could put my mind to deciding I want to become
35:09
a pickle, but I don't know if that's going to happen. So I
35:14
would say for me, what works best for me is when I find the
35:19
people that I trust most in my circle. Whatever is you want to achieve,
35:23
try to find the people that are already doing that. Or try to
35:27
find the people that are closest to achieving what it is you want to achieve,
35:30
and if they'll let you, you know, talk to them, offer
35:34
to pay them for their time and services or wisdom, you know, consulting.
35:37
But but do what you gotta do to find the answers you need so
35:39
that you can move forward confidently. You know, if you want to take
35:44
a shot in the dark and go forward, I see your pants, go
35:46
for it. But I'm a person likes to take calculated risks, and then
35:51
it gives me more confidence to know that I'm doing the right thing when I've
35:53
done my research and I've got the support of my peers or people that I
35:57
trust that have done it before. So yeah, you know, Hega bets
36:01
takes some risks, but don't be stupid. Yes, I agree, do
36:08
that research and always remember one of my mentors said it best risk is the
36:15
down payment for the reward. Oh yeah, well, everybody, that was
36:23
Valerie Man of Yellow Cake Shop that you heard from. And that concludes another
36:29
episode. It grew a Porsche season number two. Thanks for listening, Piece
36:34
and hair Grease, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to grew
36:38
with Porsche. Remember to subscribe to my channel for the latest episodes and of
36:44
course follow me on social media. Can follow me on Instagram at Porsche the
36:49
Producer Anyway, guys, until we meet again, peace and hair grease.
37:00
One in w