“If you want people to try something new, lead them with something familiar.”
That’s Val Haller’s, founder of valsList – a music site that helps busy adults keep up with new music – secret weapon. She will throw a Van Morrison or a Tom Petty onto a playlist so we “older” music lovers will feel comfortable while taking in songs from new emerging artists.
What Val doesn’t know is that she does the same exact thing with people – this “something familiar” thing of hers goes way deeper than music. It’s in Val’s DNA. When I first met Val I felt like I had known her for years. We have been friends for three years now and I sometimes think we grew up together. Do you know someone like that? Someone you are drawn to because they feel so familiar?
In Episode 5 of the lovespeaks series podcast, Val will feel familiar to you too. We are speaking music – which is Val’s talent – but like usual, we go off on tangents about lots of lots of other life stuff!
My favorite Val line “What are you gonna do, fire me?” speaks so loudly to me. Val launched valsList when she was 50 years old with an idea and 50 years of talent. As a female entrepreneur I value her attitude. It serves me well and I think you will adopt it too once you listen to Val speak about her courage to starting a dream right in the middle of her life.
Val says “I’m an enigma. I’m this older person in the industry. No one knows where to slot me. So I’m speaking up.”
Take a listen to my episode with Val and let it inspire you to speak up for what you love and to embrace your talent. Bonus – you will up your cool factor after the listen – no matter what age you are.
