Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Aiello.
Hi Valerie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, I think I can say that I started becoming who I am by going to epic all-ages shows, working at record shops, and hanging out with so many cool friends growing up in Austin, Texas. I often think about how lucky I was growing up in a city with so much live music and late-night chips and queso every single night of the week.
After college, with a Communication Design degree in hand from Texas State University in San Marcos, I moved to Los Angeles. While in LA, I spent my professional time designing over 100 album covers and packages, producing several music products and brands such as Rockabye Baby! Indie Translations, and Texas country releases as Producer & Art Director at CMH Records in Silverlake. After working a few years being a digital nomad from a laptop on client graphic design projects, I finally settled back in Austin to work exclusively on producing my own projects and ideas for the marketplace.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been a really smooth road. I am really good at everything, and things just fall into the right place for me all the time. Kidding! I’ve had tons of setbacks, mistakes, and lots of cool projects with tons of potential just simply fizzle out. Let me just share two top challenges and solutions that I confront all the time as an independent product developer.
1. Feeling like a failure: Projects consistently take so much longer than you think they should. You can get a little depressed when you can’t show off your work because a product is taking forever to produce. From the outside looking in, it can look as if you don’t actually achieve anything. People will ask you, “what do you do?” or “where do you work?” When the answer is that you work for yourself, and you make something that’s not for sale yet, or not “successful yet,” it is not the most exciting moment.
Patience and continuing to build your own ideas daily seem to be the best solution to this challenging feeling. Forget about looking successful in the eyes of other people. Forget about not achieving all your own goals on a timeline you’ve set for yourself. Stop feeling bad, and keep working! Building a unique business and working on creating what’s inside your head is the reward, not money. Keep moving forward, fellow losers!
2. The fear of not looking cool: I struggle with this the most! I don’t think it’s about caring about what everyone in the world thinks about me, but rather the fear of not looking cool to people who I really value their opinion. It’s terrifying. As I get older, this does get easier, but I still feel it. Maybe some of you can relate.
The one thing that has really helped me get out of my shell is to show up online, and do a daily podcast. Even though I know I’m not the greatest podcast host in the world, the process of speaking into a microphone, editing and publishing my thoughts to the world in a show feels really authentic. My podcasting skills are not perfect yet, but I seem to easily shake off any negative thoughts that linger in my brain of the fear of not being cool. I feel like most people understand that producing a podcast is a process, and you have to start somewhere. Speaking into a microphone and publishing a show is really giving me confidence to get out of my own way. It’s really helping me communicate and to post more authentic content online that feels 100% uniquely me; and ultimately feeling cool.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I like to say, “What’s on my release schedule now?” Currently, I am focusing on a new product line, the “Goal Party Diary Series” which is a diary organization book decor system. Ten books are available now where books are sold, and more are coming.
I work with my husband on three virtual reality games, “Pin City,” “Pom Pilots,” and “Mini-Fuzz,” slotted to be released in 2021/2022, available to be purchased and played on the Oculus headset. I’ve got a pile of new ideas that will hopefully be available soon. As I consistently release products, I’m sort of going with the flow, letting go of pressure, and simply have fun creating as things become available for purchase.
My daily podcast, “Idea Diary,” on iTunes or Spotify, is where I am mostly hanging out if you want to pop into my world to see what I am up to.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Whether you are just starting out or working for a lifetime, and realizing you want more out of life. Just Start. You don’t get what you want, you get what you are. Start. Create a schedule that fills your day with the activities you want to be doing. Build your own unique life. Try scheduling yourself for 1% of daily activities of your choice until you have achieved 100% of your time doing exactly what you dream you would be doing. You don’t need permission to start today, become who you are, now!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.valerieaiello.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/valerieaiello
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/valerieaiello
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/valerieaiello
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@valerieaiello?
Image Credits
Faith Benitez
