Show Notes

• Birthed in rough beginnings
• The words Lia’s mother spoke into her life
• The color yellow
• Daring to dream bigger
• Masters degree to cosmetology school to designing jewelry
• QVC
• Speaking your dream into the world
• February 24, 2020
• Lia’s favorite piece that she designed
• “If you want love, you have to be love”
• The impact of surrounding yourself with amazing people
• Spreading her mission to Africa

Connect With Lia Valencia Key

Website: https://www.valenciakey.com/ (15% Off Code: LifeExcellence)
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/valenciakeydesign/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valenciakey
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lia-valencia-key-8967729

Summary

Lia Valencia Key went from homeless to 100 million homes when her jewelry line, Valencia Key Jewelry, was launched on QVC, one of the largest television shopping networks in the world. Lia’s jewelry was also featured in Oprah Magazine’s 2020 Favorite Things issue. Lia shares how your predicament does not determine your destiny, and the power of choosing joy.

Full Transcript

Brian  

Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success. Lia Valencia Key is the founder of Valencia Key Jewelry, a company whose mission is oriented around joy and positivity. Although she was raised in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood, and at one point lived in a homeless shelter with her mother and two siblings, Lia’s mother instilled in her the belief that her predicament did not determine her destiny. Leah’s sparkling earrings not only became part of her jewelry line, but they also serve as a reminder of the light inside her. Learning that all dreams are possible, Lia earned a master’s degree, became a licensed cosmetologist and stylist, and eventually founded Valencia Key Jewelry. Her jewelry line was launched on QVC, one of the largest television shopping networks in the world, and was also featured in Oprah Magazine’s 2020 Favorite Things issue. Lia is a living example that all things are possible by rooting into the power of choosing joy, believing and radiating light. Lia is an encouragement to all those around her and she maintains:  if I can, you definitely can. Welcome Lia, and thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.

Lia  

Thank you, oh, it’s such an honor to be with you, and our hearts to connect and shine some light in the world. Thank you for this opportunity.

Brian  

Thank you. It’s great to see you again. Lia, your story is remarkable by any standard, but much more so because of your humble beginnings. Tell us about your childhood and what it was like growing up.

Lia  

I love starting there, Brian, because I feel that every part of your journey defines who you are and you get the choice to share that part of your journey to the world so it can be a testimony not just for you but for others. You see me sitting here and I have these bright colors on and a big smile and you would automatically assume like oh, she’s light; she must have just been birthed in light and joy, wow. I would love to say that. I was actually birthed in very rough beginnings. I was born in the most impoverished neighborhood in the inner city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I love describing the neighborhood I was born in so you can get a picture of it. If you think of trash riddling the streets, drug transactions on every corner, violence breaking out, that’s the neighborhood that I was born into. There was an immediate moment where our poverty went from poverty to destitute when my mother broke her ankle in several places. She could no longer afford to do the little work she was able to do to keep this one bedroom apartment – basement apartment – that we lived in under someone’s place. She’s getting us home from school – and this is when I saw true pain – we get to the door and there’s a padlock on the door. That means all of our belongings are locked inside this one basement, little run-down apartment, and we literally have no place to go. So my mother, with her three children, is sitting with tears rolling down her eyes, and the only place that we could go to was a woman’s homeless shelter. If I could describe a homeless shelter for anyone who’s never experienced one, the first one we landed into, if you think of a big gym – this gym is filled with cots and cots are these metal beds that you fold out and they’re one feet apart, filling the entire gym – each mother gets one cot to a family. So you’re huddled up on this bed with children and the little belongings you have and there’s moaning and sorrow and tears and the whole room is just filled with hopelessness. But what I love to share about that moment is – I call it the first light that was turned on into my life, Brian, it was a light because my mother looked down at her three children – myself, my brother and I – and in the midst of this sorrow, she spoke words into our life and said your predicament does not determine your destiny. And that power to me…so anyone who’s listening wherever you are, your predicament does not determine your destiny. It could be a good predicament where you want more; it still doesn’t determine your destiny. And that really was just a seed for me because I would love to give…age range, I blocked out but I was in about third grade, so I was super young. We stayed there for several years and I actually become a product of my environment. I love to speak in third person here; little Lia started to become everything she saw. So I started to be negative, I started to use bad words, I started to fail in every possible class in school – gym included – I was failing, because that’s what I saw and I didn’t really know any better. But the second light that got turned on in my life was me coming back to the homeless shelter and my mother stopping me at the homeless shelter door. She asked me two questions. Lia, do you want to be a follower? Or do you want to be a leader? And Brian, I really…I didn’t understand it. I’m [in] fifth grade by now and it was confusing what she was saying. But she continued and as she explained, she said, because right now, Lia, you’re following. You’re following your environment and guess what? You’re going to become exactly what you see or, Lia, you can choose to lead, you can choose to lead your life, you can choose to find your light inside of you, and you can choose to lead to your destiny. And she walked away with two words:  you choose. Power, Brian power.

Brian  

I love that. And it’s a sad, very sad, story growing up, but I love what you’ve done with that, and the lessons that your mother has instilled in you. We, you and I, met a couple years ago and you’re the kind of person that people never forget; first, because you’re one of the most joyful, positive people I know and second, because literally every time I’ve seen you – and today, of course, it’s also the case – you’ve been dressed in yellow. Where did the yellow come from? And when did you start radiating such contagious positive energy?

Lia  

Thank you. Those words are honestly a prayer answered; everything I pray for, so thank you for saying that, it means my prayers are being answered. The truth is, I believe that light was turned on the moment my mother blessed me with the understanding of choice. Immediately I remember that moment because I felt like a light was turned on in my life – even as a little child – because I knew I didn’t feel good in that darkness. I knew I didn’t feel good being dark and acting dark. So just giving permission, there’s power – whoever’s listening – there’s power in words and those words give permission. Sometimes you think, oh, these are words that people may already know. No, speak them out because these words give people permission and that permission turned the light on to me [so] that I remember thinking, oh, I can choose, like, I know there’s something inside of me. I love these things. And I just started to choose it every moment from that moment on. I literally started to become light and find it, seek it out. I asked all my teachers for help; tell me how, tell me where, tell me why. That just started to continue to fuel my light and now everywhere I go I decide no matter how I’m feeling, no matter what my predicament is, I decide to root myself in light, because that’s what has allowed me to shatter glass ceilings from where I come from. Yellow – the interesting part is yellow didn’t come until later down the line. I was living this light moment but yellow didn’t come until about 2015 when I realized – my mother passed early and right before she passed, she saw me shining my light and she gave me these little small earrings right before she passed and she said Lia, oh you are shining, you’re shining so bright. Always wear your earrings. Let them be a wearable reminder that whenever you think you can’t find your light, just look at them, touch them, feel them and remind yourself that all you have to do is choose the light. So I started to hand sketch jewelry once my mother passed, this therapy thing of wearable reminders to find light. But throughout my journey I realized there were no symbolisms that had this luxury, quality feel with this positive intention. They kind of were either only inspirational and they were like a band, a plastic band or beads or something, or they were super luxury with no heart of light and no heart of love so that’s when I set out on the quest to create Valencia Key through being inspired by wonderful women – by Jamie Kern Lima, New York Times bestseller, “Believe It” book; Tatcha – Vicki Tsai founder of Tatcha Skincare – these wonderful women showed me that when you have love, and you take love and an intention, and you pour it into a quality product, it can actually become life changing to the receiver. So I said I’m on a quest to create Valencia Key. And Valencia means brave and key means to unlock. So there are these wearable reminders that anywhere you are, whoever you are, you can be reminded to always unlock your light. But I knew I needed a color because words only come after someone gives you the opportunity to listen, Brian, but color connects immediately. You don’t have to say a word to see a color and I was on a quest for it. I was trying on so many colors and when I tried on yellow, it was literally me:  yellow is possibility, yellow is joy, yellow is optimism. And every time anyone looks at yellow, they immediately…their eyes dance and twinkle and sparks a little joy in their soul. So I’ve been committed since 2015 to yellow. [Laughter].

Brian  

Well, that’s the perfect color for you and also sunshine; you are a ray of sunshine. I want to talk a lot about your jewelry but I want to go back to something you said earlier, when you were talking about choice. I was just talking to somebody today about how we can’t always control what happens to us but we always have control over how we react to it. And that’s choice. I wonder just at what point in your life did that “aha” come to you, that realization that you did have the power to choose, that some things that happened to you early on you couldn’t control but you even then had the ability to control your reaction to those things that happened to you. And also going forward; you have – to this day – you had then and you have now, the power to choose. Can you share more about that?

Lia  

Yes, it’s really the root of who I am and it’s been birthed since my mother…my mother was paralyzed…I self-diagnosed her as paralyzed by fear and paralyzed by society; generational curses and society stereotypes of where you’re born, who you are. So she was physically paralyzed by that and couldn’t break out of that to become all the greatness that she was inside. But one blessing that she did have was the power of speaking and she would speak these words into my life, and my sister and brothers lives; like your predicament doesn’t determine your destiny, you choose – do you want to choose the light inside? And she spoke this choice so matter of fact [sic] that my spirit…where you choose it, and immediately as soon as I realized this choice concept paired with your predicament doesn’t just…so listen to these two words that I got – and it’s so blessed that I understood it at a young age – meaning your predicament doesn’t determine your destiny; means whatever you see around you, is not defined by where you are, who you are and where you’re going. So that means now I have the power to choose who I am, where I am, where I’m going. Those two phenomenons together are just literally magic. What I think happens in the mind is I think a lot of people look where they are and it eliminates the power of choice because they allow it to define them. But when you understand that this current situation doesn’t define you, then you can kick in choice because you’re like, oh, no, no, I know where I’m going, all I have to do is choose it. This is not me right now, that’s me. It’s in my inner whisper. I call it the inner Godly whisper whenever anyone gets a whisper, whether we acknowledge it or not. You get a whisper and the whispers are normally opposite of your current predicament and circumstance. They’re normally where you’re like, oh, I don’t…society says I should follow into these norms. And it’s like, that’s not me, I want to go get my college degree, I want to travel the world, but nothing around me says that that’s possible. Literally nothing around me connects those two dots. But that inner whisper is telling you the truth. That is your destiny. And I feel that as soon as we consistently listen to that, then we can kick in the choice to choose it.

Brian  

And it’s like a muscle too; the more we do that, the more evidence we see that – that we do have that power – therefore the more empowered we are and the more choices we make, and it just continues; we build momentum.

Lia  

It is a muscle, that’s so true. I think it’s the muscle that I consistently work on because nothing is easy, not for me. I don’t know, there are some people that are wonderfully blessed and it’s just rolling easy, but nothing in my life is easy. I got to choose knowledge. I think knowledge is the great equalizer and is a great key to unlocking things in your life. I realized, the more you learn, the more exposure you get, the more glass ceilings you can shatter. But every time you seek something, there’s always an opposition there. For me – and it’s so interesting, the first moment I decided that I was going to seek college out, no one in my family had ever even understood what college was or that it was a possible thing. I decided that it was for me because I heard that in a whisper, say yes, and I went to seek it. But at the very same time my mother got deathly ill. So I feel whoever is listening, when something is meant for you, there are going to be obstacles that are going to fly up in front of you, on the side of you, around you. And the question is, how much do you believe it? You have two choices; you’re either going to believe what’s happening in the real present time, or are you going to believe what your true destiny is as whispered for you? One or the other you can believe. When you believe what you see and what’s happening around you, then you stay there, and you stay stuck and you become that. But if you choose to dare to dream bigger than what anyone can possibly see for you, that’s where the magic starts to happen.

Brian  

That’s very well said. And obviously you’ve had many big dreams. So you mentioned education, you got not only your bachelor’s degree, but your master’s degree in education. Then interestingly, you went to cosmetology school and after that you started designing jewelry. So walk us through that sequence of events. How did you go from a master’s degree in education, maybe thinking about teaching, to then cosmetology school and becoming a hairstylist, and then designing jewelry and eventually starting Valencia Key?

Lia  

It’s wonderful how awesome dreams are because they don’t make sense initially. I say dreams are like puzzle pieces and you just go find that piece and do it because eventually it’s going to fit into the next piece. So I go and get my master’s in education and I actually do teach for a little bit. That was wonderful for me because I love educating, I love sharing what I know, but I knew that there was an inner whisper of art and creativity. It was so opposite of me having a master’s degree but I choose joy every time, like I have bracelets, and one of my bracelets has Joy Check – every moment of my life I’m checking into where my joy is because for me my driving factor is I saw [that] my mother personally never experienced true joy. She was bound by all these society bondage experiences; poverty, all these mind things, that she could never experience what joy is. So my life is a quest of joy. When joy comes to me, it can seem so opposite, but I’m choosing it, meaning master’s degree. The world’s thinking is great salary position, wonderful, but it was no longer the pinnacle of joy because I knew my heart was calling for art and calling to be creative. So I decided to make a whole pivot and go back to cosmetology school because I was like, oh, I can do art and create and style on people and they could be my own living exploration of what my light is on their person – how cool was that? And I went after it. I chased it so big that that actually got me to dream to be at QVC because I knew I didn’t necessarily want to have a master’s degree. I had to go back and sweep floors at the salon. So whenever you dream, the dream comes with a little sacrifice sometimes. And that’s the question, how big do you want it? Because life is…a lot of my designs have these peaks and valleys and curves in them because that’s how I’ve experienced my life. There’s always a peak, and then sometimes whoosh, a little valley comes, but the valley’s not for long because it’s just prepping you for the next peak. So I’m sweeping floors in a salon for a master’s degree that’s prepping me to dream to work at QVC salon, and I’m learning all of these different techniques. Through a wonderful heart, Stephanie Humphrey, connecting me, I got to work in the QVC salon styling hosts. And these wonderful QVC hosts, or dream makers, they’re taking people’s business dreams and sharing it to the entire world with love and passion. And then you have business owners who actually have a dream, and they’re doing everything possible to make this dream happen. So I’m seeing all this in the salon and I’m styling all these wonderful people. And that is what sparked me because being connected with Vicki Tsai of Tatcha Skincare and Jamie Kern Lima of IT Cosmetics, they saw my light as a stylist at QVC salon and they just said come along with me. So anyone’s listening, I think if you’re like, well, how can I help someone? How can I be a vessel of light? I think the one way is to bring someone along with you. Just allow them to be with you, allow them to shadow you, allow them to see what’s possible in the world. Because from my living experience, every time I was exposed to possibility, I knew that I could do – dream another dream and that dream took me to knowing. I had hand sketched all of these wonderful jewelry designs that were symbols of intention of life and these wearable reminders. And seeing wonderful women do it, I said, okay, it’s possible for me to create and bring love into the world that can inspire people. Truthfully, if you can wear something that I’ve created then whatever you dream is possible. That’s my intention; I come from the darkest neighborhood that one can find on the map, where people barely make it out of living there. If you can wear my pieces that means life is possible and light is for you just as much as it’s for me.

Brian  

You talked about something earlier, you mentioned sacrificing on the way to your dreams. That’s my paraphrasing, but talk a little more about that, because I think that’s important. A lot of people have big dreams, but they don’t want to do what it takes to achieve those dreams. Can you share a little bit about that?

Lia  

All a sacrifice Brian, anyone who’s listening: it is a sacrifice and it’s really…that’s when you know if it’s worth it for you. That’s when you know if you really want it, that’s when you know if you should really start believing. I say believing is an action word because when you dream, a dream, to me, is a vision. And so in our whisper, it’s something beyond, something you can tangibly grab right in front of you. That means it’s a big step. It’s a big leap. So then the next thing you have to do is believe that it’s possible, right? But in order to really believe – if you take the word believe in what its real form is – that means you have to make an action to do it. And with every action, there’s going to be a sacrifice, meaning when I got into QVC, I worked 72 hours straight sometimes, I was a freelancer, and anyone that would give up their hours because they couldn’t come in, they were sick, I was grabbing them. And so I would go in my car and sleep in my car for maybe an hour and come back in and go be exposed to all these dream makers and all of these go-getters and all these dreamers – that’s a sacrifice. It’s not going to come easy, there is going to be “no.” It took me five years actually to get into QVC as a stylist; meaning no, you’re not qualified; no, you’re not the one; no, you can’t do it – like hardcore “no.” But I believed so much, I would keep sending another resume, I would keep telling everyone that I wanted to work there, and I would keep honing my skills and training myself to go after this dream. Is the sacrifice worth the pain? It’s gonna be a little painful and uncomfortable along the way, people are going to tell you that your dreams don’t make sense. How can a girl that was homeless, then a hair and makeup artist, create a line that people can wear around the world, that was featured in Oprah’s magazine and on QVC, and just had a PBS TV show for 26 minutes? Like everyone say, that’s not possible. But if you believe it so much, you’re gonna keep doing the things, even in the look of insanity, so much that it becomes possible.

Brian  

And so connect the dots; you were at QVC and you had started to design jewelry?

Lia  

Yes. And sketching.

Brian  

And so how were you able to eventually get on to QVC, not behind the camera, but actually in front of the camera showing your Gratitude bracelet first and then lots of other jewelry after that?

Lia  

You remember, yes! So here’s the thing in life, whatever you decide you want – be it. So people think, oh, because you were in the salon your jewelry just got on QVC. No, it’s absolutely actually the opposite. QVC is very legal, they have standards and quality and procedures. So it took me actually, I think, five years for my creation, my first piece to actually getting on QVC. And let me tell you how it happened -word of mouth – I’m telling you. Any dream you have speak it into the world, it’s my number one tip. But when I ask you to speak it into the world, don’t speak it asking people for favors and to help you. If you speak above and speak your dreams out, the white angel that’s supposed to bless you with that dream is going to grab a hold of it and take your dream and allow it to soar. What that means is I started literally with Google. I knew I had these hand beautiful sketches and a sketchbook, I had these wonderful loving hearts that I now call sister, they’re mentors, they were in whole different industries than me, but one thing they did tell me was do it. Go for it. Try it. So I had those words of encouragement. And the first thing I did was just Google how to take hand sketches and make them an actual jewelry piece. I would Google different ways, like all these different ways. And then I finally found out you had to do 3D design. I’m like, okay, what is 3D CAD design? Google that. So it’s this whole search and quest, it’s like a treasure hunt to me; dreaming is like a treasure hunt and when you really want to make dreams happen be ready to be on a treasure hunt. Every little nugget takes you to another little box and then you unlock that box. That box took me to manufacturers; how do you find manufacturers? I found manufacturers. I got on a plane and I was like, I could communicate with people through email but I’m a very small business, no one’s going to want to really take a chance on me with a small business and with not a lot of money. So I said I know what they have to do, they have to see me. So I got on a plane and I flew out to these manufacturers. I went to many manufacturers, a lot of them said no to me, because I was super small. And I finally got one to take a chance on me, to make molds, my very first design which is the Synergy necklace. And I got that first design made and all I did was wear it. I wore it every day and I walked around all the loving hearts that I was styling and I shared my dreams of what I was creating. And that synergy was this balance of how I create balance with mind, body and soul. And these loving hearts that went on QVC, on air, were like oh, I love your light, I need a piece of that. I need to wear it on QVC because when I’m on air, I want that light with me. And that was my whole birth of intention, to wear it when no one can be with you. So wonderful hearts just start wearing it every single day and they start telling their friends and I started telling people that I wanted my jewelry on QVC. I didn’t want it on QVC just because I was there, but I knew that QVC was a place where you can share your dream and why. My pieces are not to be on a shelf. My pieces are meant to be gifts to you or loved ones, for them to be wearable reminders of your bravery, reminders of your light, reminders that it’s possible. But the only way for someone to know that is for them is to understand the story and the why. So I would share that five years, maybe four years, later, after just sharing it with everyone, I got two text messages; one text message was that Lia, you’ve been talking about your jewelry being on QVC, QVC is having a Big Find competition where they’re looking for small businesses and all you have to do is apply. I thought, oh, I’m not ready yet. I know I’ve been talking about it but I’m not ready. And here’s where the power that will inspire you happened. A second text message came in – different person, did not know the first person – saying the very same thing. Lia, you’ve been talking about QVC, this is your time, you have to apply. So I’m like okay, maybe I’m not ready, but I’m sure going to go out for it. And by this time, I have been working for QVC for at least about seven or eight years. So that means I’ve watched QVC sells over and over again. So I did a mini QVC sell, I had yellow draped from head to toe. I had my bed of yellow roses that I ran my jewelry across and my friends filmed it. I sent that first submission in, I got a callback – second submission callback – and there are thousands of people who apply for this opportunity. And just through my passion of being everything that was intended for my brand to be, the judges saw that light and saw that connection and they accepted me as a QVC jewelry brand, through the Big Find competition on QVC.

Brian  

That’s awesome. What a great story. And so what was that like? Was that…I want to say February 24th?

Lia  

Yep, that was my launch.

Brian  

2020? 

Lia  

Oh, you have a great memory.

Brian  

I did my homework.

Lia  

I love homework.

Brian  

What was it like? So you had been with QVC for five years, never in front of the camera and then all the sudden you’re in the limelight with the lights and with your jewelry. How was that feeling?

Lia  

It was like, aaaaahhh! if it had a sound, that’s what it would sound like. But you know what it was, it was love. It was the most…if you ever want…I wish I could have filmed the building that day. I get emotional when I think about it. To me, love makes all things possible and when people love you in such a big way, the biggest dream that you have becomes possible. Because everyone just poured out in QVC; like the camera men, the host, the models, they were all there and like this, it was probably even wrong, because not that many people should be even on a set at one time. But people have felt my love throughout the building for that many years and they just showed up to show me that they loved me and that everything that I’m doing was so beautiful and that they encouraged me to bring these pieces out into the world. Because the light that I choose every day to give is needed, and people need to wear it and be it, and I was just so encouraged and inspired that day out. I’ll never forget it.

Brian  

And so what impact has your success on QVC had on your business and on your life? Obviously that was a huge turning point in your life.

Lia  

It’s you’ve given me my family. I mean, literally my family. It’s taught me so many wonderful things. It’s taught me how to go after your dreams. It’s taught me how to be detailed and how to express myself in the most clear way. It’s taught me when you have an intention and you can put a wonderful loving intention in a tangible piece that someone can have for themselves it literally can transfer to another heart everything you dreamed it to be. It’s lifted me up, to keep me inspired, to keep dreaming. The name QVC has allowed me to walk into so many doors because when they hear it, they know is not easy to get into. So that means you must be really working hard to get there. It is literally my heartbeat and my family that I’m so honored to be a part of; I call it adult Disneyland, like the greatest place on earth.

Brian  

Definitely from a business standpoint it has been for you. Do you have other distribution channels besides QVC? Or do they have an exclusive?

Lia  

I’m also in Miraval Resort in Texas and Arizona, which is a wonderful luxury resort, it’s been my dream to be luxury. I call it inclusive luxury, and the reason why…you know that word luxury gets thrown around, but what is luxury? Luxury means every part of whatever you’re receiving is thought of with care, quality, and intention. All the details, all the facets, the material is high quality, high detail, high intention and that’s what I’ve been able to walk into. Where do you find something that is high quality, but it also welcomes everyone and it inspires everyone? Normally you see luxury and it’s this exclusive, it’s like only for the select few that can get it. But this is inclusive luxury where everyone who can dream and go after it can wear these and shine bright with it. I love that I have wonderful hearts that wear Cartier bracelets layered with a Valencia Key Believe bracelet, like I might be – yes! that’s what I’m saying! It’s so good. So I’m in these wonderful places that have beautiful clientele, these wonderful spa resorts that also have the intention of peace too.

Brian  

Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve designed?

Lia  

Oh, it’s like telling someone to pick your baby! I love all of them. But what I would say that most people can gravitate very easily to are my bracelets:  Believe, Joy, Peace, Love. They are stainless steel so anyone can wear them, easy for skin so no sensitivity, it just molds to your wrist. You don’t have to worry about it. It’s classic, it kind of just disappears into whatever style you’re wearing. So if I had to pick to give someone something, I would start at one of the Check bracelets just because I know it’s a guarantee; women wear it and they’re like, I never take it off. That’s what I intended it to be.

Brian  

You obviously love life and I love that about you; your passion, your positivity, your joy, your happiness. Lia, what do you enjoy most about what you do, and this life that you’ve created for yourself?

Lia  

I enjoy being able to take my passion for inspiring people to be like joy, love in the world and going after their dreams and having people be able to have a tangible piece that they can always have with them:  whenever they forget it, whenever they need it, whenever they want to celebrate. I just think that is so magical, because many people get to share their words on social media and things like that but words sometimes fade and you sometimes can forget them. So to have physical pieces that people always wear…I know one of my friends, there’s a client who purchased one of my Gratitude bracelets, and she messaged me and she told me, my husband is going into the hospital. And they were rushing to get him to the hospital. But as we were rushing and packing him up, she said I rushed and I grabbed my Gratitude bracelet. And she went and grabbed it and as she was sitting in the hospital, she said she was able to touch that bracelet and actually physically circle around the pieces and remind herself all the things she’s grateful for in this very challenging moment. So I was able to set her back into a mindset of gratitude when it was chaotic and she could have lost her heart and went to the dark side; it was able to keep her into a very positive light mindset. He’s doing well now and she was able to handle that with such love and such peace. And that’s what I love [about] them most, being a part of these beautiful journeys.

Brian  

That’s wonderful that she shared that story with you, and that you were able to hold on to that is one of the benefits of being able to provide such a wonderful piece of jewelry for her.

Lia  

It’s such a blessing.

Brian  

Lia, switching gears, and I wanted to make sure I asked you about this, you alluded to it a little bit earlier but I want to talk about the concept and the importance of surrounding yourself with success. We talked about your mom. And obviously your mom had a huge impact on your life with the words that she’s spoken to you even at a time and a place when it was probably hard to figure out what all that meant. But of course, you’ve attached meaning to all that now. You’re also fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people who pour into you, who cheer for your success, and obviously, you’re that kind of person for others too. Share with us the difference that makes and tell our listeners and viewers what we can all do to surround ourselves with positive role models, and also be a beacon of light and positivity for those that we come into contact with. Because you do that so well, on both sides of that – on the receiving side, surrounding yourself with amazing people, and also being one of those amazing people for people in your sphere of influence.

Lia  

Thank you, thank you for bringing that up. Because I think it’s one of the most important keys that you can be and have in your life. But the first thing you’ve got to start with is being there. It’s so challenging to not be what you want. So if you want love, you have to be love. If you want light, you have to be light. And the thing is, you have to be it 24/7, every day a week, morning and night, when you wake up, when you go to sleep, when someone calls you. Literally it has to become the blood that runs through your veins. I made a collection called Rooted; you have to root into all of these things. What I would first say is define who you are. I’ve defined myself as love, I’ve defined myself as joy, I’ve defined myself as light, I’ve defined myself as peace and I’ve defined myself as persevere-er. There’s a [inaudible] all these words, but these words now I take and I root deep in them. So every moment of my life, I’m checking in to make sure I’m everything that I said I am even when it’s not natural to me. Sometimes you don’t want to be joy but if you’ve defined yourself to be joy, you can check into joy and what that looks like. And then when you – like you talked about Brian – making this muscle memory and when you do it consistently, it becomes natural to you. That’s just who you are in the world. And then when you become that naturally, consistently, I promise you, literally you become a magnet of everything you are. People who are joy want to be around more joy. People who are love want to be around more love, people who are light want to be around more light. So you, honestly just by being it…you can be in a room – it happens to me all the time – I can be in a room and I literally can say nothing, I can just be standing there with a big smile on my face with an open heart just soaking in all the energy, just happy and grateful to be there and some wonderful heart just comes up to me and says a kind word to me. That’s because I’m standing in the energy of who I want to be. And then once you decide you are it, now you surround yourself and those people are going to come to you, I promise you, like energy that is unlike no other. But then you have to do self-selection of the people who aren’t there. Because it’s great to be surrounded by people who are, but you also have to have the courage and the bravery to sever yourself away from people who are everything you said you’re not going to be. That’s why I say it starts with you to define who you are, because then now you need to know who you need to remove yourself from. So then after you’ve done that you get to look around you and you’re literally surrounded by everything and everyone that you said you’re defined to be, and it becomes this continuous growth ceremony because you’re just growing on top of each other, this greatness.

Brian  

I love that, I love the way you described it. It’s absolutely perfect. The last part of what you said, the distancing yourself or separating yourself from people who aren’t that, that’s sometimes more difficult than the other part.

Lia  

That is, that’s the most difficult. So I’d love to share with anyone listening, I have a beautiful, awesome intern. He’s a young gentleman, and I love encouraging young hearts. Last year in college – and I feel like it was divine for him to come to me, and it’s part of his life – we were just talking and I got to share with him:  who are you surrounding yourself with? Are they on your journey? Are they on the same hard path that you’re on? If they’re not, you’re going to have to take a strong stance to love them from afar, appreciate them from afar, but walk your own path. What people think is when they cut someone off, that means they don’t love them anymore. No, you can love someone beautifully. You can pray for them, but they just can’t be in your circle, they can’t hang out on your couch every day, because everything that’s in your ear is going to be what you become. So those type of people, you love them from afar, you put them in a nice beautiful place on the shelf, whatever shelf you want to put them on, and you send them kind words maybe randomly and maybe you feed more positive, encouraging words, but you don’t keep them in your heart and in your ear so it becomes a changing for your life. I think it’s beautiful to know that you can still love someone but not keep them surrounded by you.

Brian  

That’s very well said. Lia, you design jewelry for a living but I have a feeling that your purpose goes far beyond Valencia Key. At the end, what’s the bigger game that you’re either playing right now that we don’t know about? Or that you want to play in the future?

Lia  

I’m playing in the game right now. I just think it’s going to keep rippling out to the world that Valencia Key is a conduit to souls, hearts, and minds. My purpose on earth is to literally inspire more light, more love, more joy in the world and to people. It’s through the vessel of Valencia Key. So what that means is this is just going to keep growing bigger, and we’re going to keep changing more hearts and bringing more light. It’s going to go global so that people can be these light vessels to actually become a conduit of change, not just for themselves but for others, to know that whatever you dream is possible and that love and light is what truly shatters any glass ceilings that you may come up against in your life.

Brian  

I love it and I want to be a part of it. Let me know [cross talk]. 

Lia  

You already are! I started this mission, new, a year ago. My father’s from Africa…so this is how it’s just going to keep growing, we’re going to touch. The connection is for people to wear Valencia Key who have the means to do it and then they can be inspired to do more things in their world. But by purchasing Valencia Key now we’re also reaching back and we’re pulling people up from environments where I come from, where people don’t know what’s possible. So I go back to homeless shelters and I go to schools in the inner city neighborhood. I talk about and teach workshops on how do you unlock light, how do you dream when you’re born in an environment [like where] I was born and you don’t even know that dreaming is possible, so how do you dream. My father was from Africa and he told me that he was born in the village and most hearts that are born in the village of Africa never make it out the village. That was always stuck in my soul and I’m like, wow. I got to go to Africa a year ago and experience the village and it is exactly what he said and maybe even more sad because there’s so much talent and art and creativity and light and gratitude in the villages of Africa but it’s confined in the village. So I set off on a quest to create a mission and I just created these wonderful handbags, I hand sketched the designs but then I worked directly with wonderful hearts in the villages of Africa. We get them income for creating these bags, but not just income, because income will help them get education, and education will help them create generational change. But also I train like, how do you create a business inside of a business? What is an invoice? What is a system, what is a structure, so that they can literally grow not just their creativity, but their bandwidth to be sustainable on their own and actually be whatever they want to be, go to any country, live in the village and build the village up – whatever that is for them – it can just create this bigger infrastructure of change globally. So that’s what Valencia Key is.

Brian  

Awesome. I love it and I can’t wait to see what you do with it. Lia, thank you very much for being on the show today. It’s great to see you and it’s such a blessing to share your incredible story with our audience.

Lia  

Thank you. I’m so honored. I’m so honored to be here that I want to give a 15% off discount to anyone that’s listening. I’m calling it “LifeExcellence” and you’ll get 15% off if you just go and get some love and light on ValenciaKey.com, just because I’m honored that you saw my light and that you wanted to share it with all of your wonderful hearts here.

Brian  

I love that. Thank you very much for that and thanks again for being on the show. Lia, thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in to LifeExcellence, please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with jewelry designer Lia Valencia Key on social media and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.