Kathi
Hey, my friend What's up and welcome back to another episode of Do Life Big today you are in for a real treat. Because we have a super special guest, Lia Valencia Key. Literally, you are going to be blown away by this episode for real when you hear about her and hear her journey and all that she's overcome and all that she's created who she is today. It is going to be the most inspirational story you've ever heard. Jaw-dropping hands down. 1,000%. So buckle up and get ready for this. So Lia, welcome to the show.
Lia
Chills just hearing it out to meet her.
Kathi
Who is that chick? She seems really cool.
Lia
Amazing. I want to meet her. This is an honor to be with you. Thank you so much.
Kathi
Oh my gosh, I have been waiting months to have Lia on the Do Life Big Podcast. I had first heard of Lia, when I attended this empower her live event back in Arizona. I think it was in October. Was it October? Yes, October, October. And she just comes walking up to the stage on her bright, beautiful yellow and her awesome happy Joy vibe that she's got. And she got on that stage. And it was jaw-dropping her entire story. I was blown away and was like, I have to find a way to get this chick on my podcast because my listeners would just die to hear what she has to say. And I know you've been on Oprah, I know you have your things on QVC. You know, when you when you talk about things like this, and you introduce people right? And you say things like that it's really easy to maybe think, oh, wow, well, just somebody else who got lucky or just somebody else who was just kind of handed this incredible life and it's just easier for her. But you know, the LIA that we see right here right now today is definitely not the same Lia from back in the day. So I would love it if you could just kind of introduce yourself a little bit, and then we'll dive in.
Lia
Yes, thank you. I agree. I feel like you hear the like, the light and I think hearing people's accomplishments is so amazing. Because whenever I pray that every heart that's listening, when you hear these things that I persevere to and through my prayer is that you see it as inspiration for you to know that it is possible for you. Like they you, we are humans all in the same and we have different struggles. But we do have obstacles no matter where you come from. I'm gonna share my life journey and my journey is still rough. Like as I hear those pretty accolade them I still pretty if they pull back the curtains of the struggle as I'm in right now. So I'm gonna tell you my young birth struggle to now but I also want you to know that like, it's continuous. The journey is always like evolving. And there's always these changes. But I want to be living light for you that whatever's inside of your heart. Yes, it is possible.
And so you hear me and I'm always smiling and joy and I love that yellow moments. But you know, I wasn't born in that I was truthfully born and myself diagnosed darkness. Meaning I was born in the most impoverished neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I like to describe the neighborhood that I was born on because it was trash rented on the streets, drugs, transactions on every corner violence, all of these things happening in the neighborhood. I was born and I was raised by a single mother, three children so myself, my brother and my sister and we we're in poverty.
But poverty went to destitute when my mother broke her leg in several places, and she could no longer afford that little one-bedroom apartment that we were living in. And that really rough area. I vividly remember and I actually like blackout trauma. I tried to but there are some just like key moments that I remember clear. And one was my mother getting us home, my sister, my brother and I from school, and there's a padlock on this door that we call it home. So all of our little belongings were inside and a mother with three children had nowhere to take her children that immediately took us from poverty to destitute. And we landed in a woman's homeless shelter.
And I paint the picture of the homeless shelter because visuals, to me are so powerful for you to experience it with me, you think of a gym room and you think of cots. If anyone knows what a cot is, it's six metal hard little fold out beds, and these little cots one foot away filling the gym room. And each mother gets one cut to a family, which means the entire families so it's a family of four for us, are balled up together on this one card with their only little belongings. And so the room is filled with crying and profanity and sorrow and hopelessness, which I equate to darkness.
But in that moment, this was the first seat of light that was planted. And my spirit and I give you an age range. I was about age 8, 3rd grade, I remember in school grade. So I'm super young. And my mother looks down at her three children. And in the midst of all this around this, she looks at us and says your predicament does not determine your destiny. I have that like I pause on that. And I want hearts to digest it because it's a so many things happened. I'm 44 now. So from that point, honestly, it was just a seed because truthfully, when she said it, I was like this looks pretty destiny to me.
But as I love sharing the power of the spoken word. And I love calling it a seed because it it didn't catch immediately. I didn't understand it immediately. But I'm 44 today living out that light of a seed that was planted in me. And I'd love for you to take a moment any heart that's listening, like, what word seeds are you planting in your life? What are you speaking in your life, your children's life, your friend's life, people around his life, because it will grow. And so then you have to determine what you're gonna plant in your life. And so my mother chose in the midst of all that horror to plant life, to plant that our predicament that we were in at that moment was not our destiny.
And so we lived in the homeless shelter for several more years. And truthfully, like I said, it was a seed that did not catch at that moment. So I started to become my environment, I started to become super negative, using every curse word that a baby should never know. Every grade known to school, lunch, recess, all those that didn't have grades, I was still failing them because I was looking to my environment to see what I was and what I should be.
And this is what I love to share. The true first light, like pure light that was turned on into my life was I'm coming back from school to the homeless shelter. And I see my mother standing at the homeless shelter door and I'm walking and she's not looking happy. And I'm thinking like, Oh, what did I get caught for today? To calculate like, what do I fess up to right? I know what what do I hold? Right? And I get in front of her and she says Lia, do you want to be a follower or leader? And pause? So let's fast forward I guess I'm about 10,11. Right? I'm on and about fifth sixth grade still super young.
I like to share that age because of the mindset that that I'm in a sponge and she says because right now Lia you're following and guess what you're you're gonna become everything that you follow Lia. Or Lia, you have the power to lead your life. You have the power to choose your inner light inside of you and lead it all the way to your destiny Lia, and she said you choose. Immediately she walked off. No reprimanding. No discipline. She unlocked the power and light I have choice and like what true leadership was in my life at that very moment and left me there for me to deal with it. And I think that's such a beautiful, I'm so grateful my mother is no longer with me. I will explain that story. But I'm so grateful for that moment today. Because I embodied first of all, I was like, whoa, wait, you get to choose. And now I thought you are what you see, like, this is what we do. This is what we are, everything you see around is the norm, become it, be it. And so I also knew it didn't feel good to be that way. I wasn't in, in oneness with who I really was being that way. But it's what I saw.
And so I was like, Oh, God, it has it is a whisper inside of me, it is a light inside of me. And this understanding that I could choose it and that I could block out the noise of the external world. And I could go with and myself, and listen to my inner light, and, and lead that for me, not for anyone else, all the way to my true place of being in this world. Oh my god, unlike everything for me the next day, I went to school, and I asked my teacher, how do I get better grades? How do I see out of the environment I'm in. So I love taking the moment there for everyone, when we're on a quest to shift or growth. Because sometimes where you are isn't bad too. I like to say like, That's Paul's like, you don't have to be in a bad place to know that you have another light or a light inside of you. And there's a destiny calling you somewhere. And so it's like, how do I get there?
Kathi
Right? It's so true.
Lia
My answer is and what I've used since a baby, and I'll use Psalm 44. I used to what I ask. One statement, but two ways. So I asked up to my higher power. Whoever you believe in whatever you believe in, I know that there's a bigger source I call God, whatever you want to label it bigger than me. And so I asked all of my clear once up, I asked them up, and I speak in belief that they should be so because they were the light that was put inside of me that I see as my destiny. And then I asked out.
Now I want to be clear on my ask out, because I don't want you to be confused. You're not asking for people to technically help you. You're not asking for an expectation. You're literally the ask, truthfully is a speaking of what you want to do and accomplish in the world. And you're speaking it out to any ear that will listen with no attachment of support and expectation from the ear. You just want it to land outside of your body so it moves around you because what I know to be so is you're asking up is going to whisper to the right Earth Angel that's aligned in your journey to help you even if it's one foot closer to your dream that's going to connect you're just speaking it out so the angels can hear it and the right one that's aligned for you will show up.
Kathi
Oh, I love that. That is unbelievable that and like what gifts to for your mom to ask you those incredible questions at such a young age and plant that seed I mean.
Lia
Wow! I loved… You know, it was so interesting, I think in poverty like there was no time to be coddled as a child like, so I love that she's my mother spoke to us. Very clear and very concise and adult like like having full conversations. And now watering situations down because in the rough situations we were in there were no time to water things down and cuddle and baby I think I'd categorize my mother or self diagnose because I think that I'm an unofficial doctor.
I self diagnosed my mother as being paralyzed by generational curses and fear. And she had so much power. She was one of the most intelligent people I know. And she has so much knowledge inside of her but she couldn't physically break out of that because I felt like I felt like fear was shackling her down because, you know, my grandmother was poverty. My grandmother's mother was poverty and she saw All of this man passed down and she couldn't move through that.
But I feel like her speak in these clear, concise ways of living in life. And our lives. My sister and brother NAS lives was one last try to get a generational breakthrough. You like if she had, she couldn't do it. But if she could do one thing, I'll at least try to speak life into their life. I'll speak opposite of what is and what has been passed down to me and hopes that these words will break into their mind that will catapult action for them that I physically can't do. And I'm honored that I'm 44, living the day, breaking through those generational curses and make an action through the words.
Kathi
Seriously… Such an inspiration such goosebumps when I listen to your story. I mean, doesn't it just make you feel like, Oh, I love it. And, you know, so you started. So you took her advice? You love that little seed grow. And you started by, you know, making that first little step, the very next day of asking your teachers like how can I get better grades in school? And so how much longer did you go on living in the homeless shelter, like what happened next?
Lia
Oh, I lived in poverty, I lived in public, what we call public assistance. So it's from the housing homeless shelter to then we were shifted to a housing project, which is a homeless shelter, just a different facility, because they just start shifting you around. When you're living within the system of poverty. And I lived that all the way up into college, I never, we never came out of poverty. So my hope, what I realized was education. And so what I really know today is to me, and there's many more, but there's three guaranteed ways to equalize and uplift and shift someone's predicament, and one is education. Two is exposure, and three is opportunity.
And when if you can get a mix of those three powerful things, your life can totally be changed. And I say it because I'm a living witness. I knew that education was going to allow me to see something different. And then on my get to college, which I didn't really know why I was going to college, I knew it was out of my predicament. So I knew I had to see something different. I knew I had to be beyond where I was, or I'd stay where I was, right. And so just just the exposure, and the opportunity of going to college would shift me out of where I was. And so I knew college was for me, not college, per se, but the transfer out of my neighborhood. And so I became the first and only person in my family. And in that area in my genre to go to college. And I it was all hard though. Like I say it real easy now.
It was not easy. It was super hard. I think it gets harder when you're going against the flow of the water, the flow of the foot, water is coasting and given up. And so coming to the things around you, right, that's still hard, dramatic, but it's comfortable. And you see it and you know it, you don't gotta figure it out, it kind of just comes to you. And then you get a messin’ like, darn this happened, but you're in it. The hardest part is to swim opposite away from it. And now, you got to figure things out. You got to dream things that you don't even know is possible, you got to find areas that don't even exist. And so till this day, it's harder and harder for me to figure things out of what I want to be. But I know if I don't want to be in this, whatever this is, and it could be great. So I love speaking to people that are already great. Like, maybe you have a wonderful career. And you're great and if society looked at it, you are checking off the boxes, but your inner light, your inner whisper your divine destiny is telling you there is something else for you. That's a very uncomfortable place to be.
And it's very hard to break out of comfortability but what I would say is that immediate action is power. And if you can believe yourself over anything external, there are some beauty so I believe when things whisper to me and they always sound crazy, like one, that I could go to college. I wasn't singing then I got on on a roll and then and then I got accepted into a university. And then I didn't even know how you got to a university was so interesting. My mother said, so my mother who said my predicament is not my destiny. When it came to real reality.
I come home, like, I got into college. And she was excited. And she's like, well, what? And then she starts breaking down in tears. And she's like, but you can't go. And I'm like, What do you say? Like, you're the very one. You are how I got here. You said my predicament doesn't determine it. You said, follow and lead your life. And she was like, Oh, that is also true. But financially, like I physically can't get you there. I can't afford she's never been she doesn't know. I can't afford college. Even if I couldn't afford to get you to college. I don't know about books, we can't even eat here. There's no financial way that you could do that.
So when you live in reality, sometimes you gotta live outside of reality. And all of that was so true. But I believe the words that she said, and I'm like, what my destiny is college. And so I don't know how what I'm going. And I love sharing that. Because if there's something that seems so rational to you, because of your current situation, if you believe that irrational of your destiny, you will figure out the house. And you will speak your dreams out so many times. If somebody shows up, I just started to speak out not expecting anyone to help me.
But people say what are you doing it to school? What would you do I want to go to college, I want to go to college, and then I will always have a quiver in it. And I remember one of my aunt said, but why do you? Why is it a question? When you say I want to go to college? It doesn't seem so matter of fact. And I was like, well, because truthfully, I really can't afford me to go to college. And she was like, Well, what do we need? And then she was like, well, we'll get you there. And then another aunt showed up, you need a computer, then we'll get you a computer. And then when I when they got me to college, and it showed up and I found out that there was a thing called Work Study, and then I could work. And so if you just speak it and you do the things that you believe that are outside of reality, things will slowly start to reveal itself.
Kathi
Oh my gosh, I love that so much. It's It's so true, though. You know, if you want something bad enough, there is always a freaking way. There is always a way.
Lia
Well, there's a will I say to myself, I don't even know what where that quote comes from someone tell us? Yeah, there's a will there's a way and I believe it. Like, do you have a will? Do you have a drive? And, and a will means when the hardest obstacles come in front of you for the way that you want to be? Will you decide to keep pushing and thinking and strategizing and getting back up? That's will. Will is perseverance, even in the hardest of times? Because you know, you've got somewhere to go. And you won't let anything stop you. You will find a way.
Kathi
Yes, you've got to have that perseverance. Yeah. 100% got it. What? It's just such an incredible story. And I know you have your whole jewelry line. And of course, like, you know, I don't know if anybody can see this. But I'm wearing Lia's guiding star necklace that she designed herself.
Lia
Oh, that was good. I was saying when we first started, I was like, I was complimenting in my head. Like, that's so cute. And that came about so here. You gotta follow your inner heart. So I went all the way to college. And because I knew I had to get out, there was a reason for all of this. And then I went into education, and I do all these different things. And I'd love to share I mean, that's a whole nother podcast, just doing random things. And it's still towards your destiny. People will say, Oh, you're not focused. But everything that I've done that seems out of alignment has, has taught me something for my destiny, going to college and then getting an education. I realized that I was again, seeking the outside world. Like I was I was in another predicament but I was following the outside world again in fear that I don't want to be poverty. And so I was doing things to prevent high poverty again, like Oh, go get a college degree because education will help give you poverty. Well, actually education was gonna help me get out my environment. I realized that today and then it was work in this career because you want to it's a steady income, because you don't want to be poverty. Right and but I was my soul. My soul was empty. And I was not at my greatest I was not living in light. And I decided to hear my words, mother's words again. And I went inside of myself.
And I was like, Well, what brings me joy? And I knew creativity brought me joy. See, when my mother when I got to college, I think right before I graduated my mother that definitely ill, she had been ill for a while, but really ill and one of our last conversations that we had together, she said, only I see you shining your light, I see you moving towards your destiny. And she gave me his little earrings. And she said, Lia, I want you to always wear your earrings every day. And let them be a visual reminder. Because the world can get rough. And there gonna be times where you don't think there's light inside of you. And let those earrings be aware of or remind them, maybe you touch them, maybe see him in the mirror, that you always have light inside of you. All you have to do is unlock it and choose it.
Kathi
Oh my gosh, I love that.
Lia
Ah, those words resonate with me every day. And I start to get great joy and the creativity of hand sketching, symbolic wearable pieces. Now, I'm from homelessness, I don't know about creating a business. So that is not anywhere in my plan by any means. I literally was hand sketching this because my mother shortly passed, and it's kind of a memory of her and her guidance, which had gotten me far so far. I was hand sketching pieces like well, what would I wear that would inspire me to keep persevering or what part of me has been spreading our hand sketch a routed collection, that route and to peace route into love route into joy. Those are core ways of being that will cut through any noise and shatter any glass ceiling. Therapeutic for me, and I'm living now for the world trying to do this education thing, but I'm losing my light. And so I went back inside of myself.
And I'm like, Well, what? What turns your light on? What Where do you emanate your true joy and creativity, I would see myself hand sketching his jewelry. And I knew that that was creativity. And so I was like, oh, okay, God, that's funny. Because that's I don't want to be poverty again. And I don't know how to make money with creativity. I'm the world's not showing me that like, this is back in the day. Like you didn't have social media and Instagram to see all of these creative people. Right? Like so. No, you saw doctors and lawyers and these things teacher and people who could make an income and a career. And so I'm like, Oh, aren't that's going to feed me? This is interesting. Got cruel joke. So then.
Alright, but how can I make money if I really follow up my inner light, and I started to process elimination, what careers could do creativity and bring income. And the one that I saw was beauty, hair makeup, and I'm like, that is creativity. And it's a need for it. People are always gonna get hair and makeup done. I'm like, okay, we can serve both sources. Let's go back to school with a master's degree. And don't get a cosmetology license because my mother told me to always complete everything and do it fully. And got a cosmetology license with a master's degree which had me now sweeping floors and a salon with a master's degree and I love sharing that because it's like, are you willing to shed all of the glory for your inner truth or your inner light to shine because the glory you're gonna shine regardless if you are and oneness of your truth, where you won't shine is why I love yellow and were the embodiment of yellow comes from is this light that we are born with? Dims because we start to get out of oneness with ourself. And it becomes its brightest when you get one with yourself.
And I'm like, Well, I'm willing to sacrifice everything that I think is dark and challenging to become one with my true joy and my true light and coming into this creativity. So I'm sweeping floors, super humbling, but I knew if I swept floors in this salon specifically, I could learn a lot and that I knew I also and so when you think about your dreams, think about what makes you alive. And then I also like to say Think about what specifically you want to do with in that, because I realized, like, Oh, I'm gonna go back and do hair makeup. But I don't want to be in a salon, like for my long term career, but I knew I had to be in a salon to learn. So I'll use this as a stepping stool sweep floors to learn because learning and education is priceless.
Kathi
So true.
Lia
That took me to work in a met cosmetic, ringing up people. And I always tell you to ask, when I say ask, ask is an inquisitive knowledge seeking ask, not like wanting something from new people, but we're learning knowledge. So I would always ask when I ring people up, they would some people would have a professional code on their name. And I would always ask, Oh, what do you do? Because I love learning. Like, what is that? Where is it? What? And so I would learn different careers and creativity.
And this one lady said I worked for QVC. And I was like, what I never knew. She was like, Oh, it's a 24 hour television network, which is not more than 30 minutes away from us where I was working. And I'm like, 24 hours a full creativity because they've gotta be doing hair and makeup. Right? She was like, Absolutely, there's some line in there that never closes. Boom, that was my immediate dream. I grabbed hold to dreams like nothing. I'm like done. That's my dream. Then she said I'd spoke to her and told her my dream is that I'll connect you with someone in department. Well, here we go. I get there. And they asked me that I actually have my license. But I hadn't had my license yet. I was in school for it.
So well, that proves that I needed to stay in school. Two, three years later, I get my license. And now I tried to get back to QVC dream and no one's there. So it's more years, five more years of speaking QVC into the into people's hearts.
Kathi
And it's that perseverance you didn't give up.
Lia
Never give up. I'm sweeping floors. So five more years. I'm working for the most minimalist wage for five more years, and this creativity. And I just knew that I was going to work at QVC. But I didn't know why. So your dreams are going to be very abstract and they'll take you places that is bigger than what you even know is waiting for you. Pause on that, like, you have a dream. I had a dream to just create. That was my dream. I use hair and makeup as a vessel. I've figured out QVC was a place that was going to be a 24 hour just creating because I didn't have to keep clients. I didn't have to worry about where clients gonna book me it was just gonna happen. That was my dream. But the dream was bigger than that. Five years of me sweeping floors and learning and then anyone that smiled twice, I would tell them I want to work for QVC that's why smile barometer was because I figured you were more pleasant. You received my dream you were..
Kathi
You must you must be a happy supportive person. I'm just going to tell you.
Lia
Yes, theory. Everyone. Finally I told I was working to support myself at a bar bartending. And this gentleman comes and he smiles twice. That's my barometer. Now. He smiled twice now. And I realized because he just wanted to order his rum and coke and he was being timed. But I use it as my barometer. And I'm like, oh, I want to be QVC and he's like, okay, he says, his name was Fred. I remember those days. This is Louise over 15,16 years ago. He says, I work for Comcast. Interestingly, and my friend works for QVC, let me see what I can do.
Do you understand where you're speaking your dreams out you're not expecting anything but there is a heart and alignment Bob golf said I heard him speak one day. He's a awesome speaker legend. And he said the human is wired to help but they are wired to help in the way that they can. And so that's why we should live out of expectation. So when you're speaking your dreams out your seeds are just planting the people's hearts and brains and if anything ever comes up remotely connected to your dream, they will trigger into support you so my question landed on someone that had help already aligned and he said let me so he gave I gave him an information the next day, Stephanie Humphrey was his friend's name. Funny part is we're like says dear friends sisters to to this day, but that moment she had never met me a day in her life.
And what I want to say is on your quest to be in the world, and when I say be, it's like whatever you're trying to do. Create a family. Start a business, whatever your be is, how are you? What is your heart being in the world on your quest? That's gonna cut and shatter glass ceilings quicker than you can ever strategize and plan. Stephanie Humphrey texted me the next day and said, My friend Fred said, You were so much light, and joy, if there was any way that I could help you, please do.
Kathi
Wow.
Lia
Your heart light can transfer from human to human without even meaning the person if you decide to be rooted and kindness, if you decide to be rooted in light and love, and that's why I create these bracelets and jewelry. That symbolizes that because sometimes the world is very rough, like my mother said, and it can take us out of that way of intention. But when you wear them, it reminds you to setback into your truth is. Stephanie, if I'm free, gave me the name of the manager of the salon, contact phone number and email all of them. And then she said, who had never met me a day in her life? Please use me as a reference.
Kathi
Oh my gosh, that is mind blowing.
Lia
Are you in the world? How are you without wanting an expectation? Are you being kind for someone else to be kind to you? Or are you just being kind? That's a different way of being just because you decided that to I'm going to route it, even if I don't feel like it? So I had been getting No’s as I said for five years up until that date, but every no got me back in the salon learning different hair textures, learning hair, color learning, blowouts, learning cuts, I was learning through the No’s, I was crying in the no’s, through the nose. And by that time, I did exactly what Stephanie said, I used her as a reference, I got a call back, I got an interview.
Now I was ready to physically do a demo, I got accepted into QVC, which I think was another huge light turned on to me because now I'm styling Dream Makers, which are these QVC hosts that take people's dreams which are their business and radiate that out to people on air. And then I'm styling dreamers who I didn't know existed. Business creators, who literally have a vision and a dream, have a heart intention. And then they take something tangible and they pour that into a physical product and then they gift it to the world and it becomes life changing. And then that's what I start to see right in front of me to people I love to list. So many hearts have blessed me. Grace Marsh, Susan Slauson, these beautiful hearts have changed my life as I grew. But I love to share two names. Jamie Kern Lima, founder of IT Cosmetics, Believe It Book New York Times bestseller, worthy book just coming out soon. So please, everyone pre order, Jamie Kern Lima’s book worthy is going to be so good. So good. There's an event in February to the world, unstoppable.
Kathi
Oh my God, that sounds amazing.
Lia
It’s going to be so good. And it's a free link to join. I'll get you the link. So yeah, perfect, knowing that. And then Vicky Syed, founder of touches skincare, one of the most luxurious skincare brands known. These two hearts I met and the QVC salon, and they saw my light and my heart. And they said, Come with me. They took me under their wing, and I traveled around the world with them. And above and beyond. They allowed me to sit in rooms that I didn't even know existed.
They talked concepts around me that I didn't even know were true. And they showed me like when you have love of confidence or from skin a soul like these beliefs, and you pour them into something I saw that they were like really changing lives when people receive these products. And then as I was styling different people I would see the last thing that they would ask is what bracelet do I put on what what necklace do I seal this outfit? It's like the last seal of you're stepping into your light into the world when no one else can step with you.
And I started to realize like my whole life had been this darkness to light and being a beacon of possibility to others and to myself and I have been hand sketching these pieces that my mother told me to use as symbolic. So I wanted to put that light and that bravery in that courage into my hand sketch pieces. So that when where as where they were they reminded that that symbolism that all things are possible that if you're wearing something from a young lady that the world said you shouldn't even know about. If you have a dream that it's possible. There's courage and bravery inside of you, there's light inside of you, all you have to do is unlock it. And that's when the brave courage decision of trying to create Valencia Key started.
Kathi
Oh my gosh are you literally hand sketch every single one?
Lia
Every single design. Every single design I hand sketch. And I'm thinking, like, what do I want you to feel when you see it when you wear it, like the guidance star necklace that you're wearing, there's a certain amount of stars on there. And I'm like, what you can physically attach that light presence to each one. So when you click it on, it reminds you that you are a part of that light and that you guide your light and your light actually inspires others to shine with you. And it's been so transformative for me because I wear it. Yeah. But so many other beautiful hearts. Just give me so many beautiful reviews that they they take in in places that no one else can go with them as that courage.
Kathi
I know it is it's a really it's a blessing. It's unbelievable. And, you know, when I listen to you share some of these things. I love how you, you know, maintained that level of just like belief in yourself in like your vision and your dream that before you even got there, you know, before you had any of the things because I feel like a lot of times people get so wrapped up in saying things like, Okay, well, once I have the money, then I'll finally be happy and feel joy and be aligned and have the fulfillment once I'm in the right relationship, then I'll do this, why XYZ once I have the business once I quit the job, all of that, but you've got to have it before you even get to any of those destinations. Correct?
Lia
You've got to believe it as it and and here's the thing, like it needs to be deeply and that's why I say keep speaking it out. Because I believe the more you speak something out, the more real it becomes in your spirit. And there's two things are gonna happen. One, you say it so much. And like saying that go ahead and you stop saying it. You say it so much, that you start to put action to it. Because you said it so much that you're like so then what am I doing towards it? I believe that belief is an action word. And so why aren't well if you see my designs there, you'll see threes flow through them. Three symbols are different ways of three. And three is a beautiful for number for me, I love people attach them like what is your three lights.
But my aunt was one of mines and and she told me I'll always say and then you got Nancy, I'll always say that. And she was like, Oh how nice. But love is an action word. So do action of love for me, that will let me know you love me. And that as a young child, I started to realize, oh, there are some words that are action words. Like believe is an act, you can't say you believe something without physical action connected to it. You're just thinking about it. If you're just saying it and no action, you're thinking about it and it's great to keep thinking about it. But then when you say it, I say you see that out you see that out when it plans to an action now you're kicking into true belief. And then the take the pressure valve off as I design these hand sketches, right I hand sketch designs, and then I got to I have to send them to a manufacturer to actually get created.
And the first question that the manufacturer will ask me when they see my designs is okay, what millimeter is this portion? And I was like well, I went to poverty school. So what a millimeter is gonna figure that out first so I had to go figure out what a millimeter was, millimeters the smallest measurement on a ruler, smallest. What I learned in creating the Valencia Key Jewelry is the smallest measurement will make the biggest and most drastic impact. If you create a ring that is three millimeters in thickness, or two millimeters in thickness, one may have a more luxurious quality, lux feel one may feel cheap and weak, just a millimeter off.
And so if you can shift in so much drastic change in a millimeter well that is the same with our lives. Take the pressure off of thinking of the biggest things you need to do towards these beliefs. What's the millimeter action that you can do? And so I live in for my dreams millimeter train, millimeter actions, like I'm just doing the smallest thing towards my belief, just to prove that I truly believe.
And then one day I look around I'm like, no, no, I'm not styling hair makeup at QVC, my jewelry is physically on QVC. It's the millimeter of action and, and I also the way I stay in this power belief system, putting a deadline on things, I love a good timeline, my strategists and my planners, please don't shut down right now. It is beautiful to set goals. It is how you progress. I love it, support it. But what I do notice is some people say, Oh, if I haven't done this in five years, and it's not meant to, like do didn't know their destiny by, you know where your destiny looks like.
But do you know the timeline of that destiny, don't give up on your dreams, your dream is never gonna give up on you. Maybe it'll take five years, maybe it'll take 20 years. But what I didn't know that it would take me five years to get into QVC it didn't matter to me, I had two statements, either I'm gonna work in the QVC or I'm not gonna be living anymore. And so I say that now my business is super still very small. You hear all the beauty and I'm grateful for it. But it is super small. Sometimes I'm like, is the website working? Because I'm getting no orders?
Or I'm trying to understand how do I get enough and come in so that I can hire people to grow because people create greatness. And, and it looks very bleak. Right now I'm being honest, it's very rough. But I believe that Valencia Key is going to be a global life changing brand, that is a catalyst to inspire the hearts that were to live out in their light, and also be a catalyst to reach back into communities in areas that need physical action support, and use the finances to pull people along with us. And that's gonna happen, it does not look like that today, it looks like if someone opened my books, they would say shut down, you have a hobby, written for transparent. But I see the truth so clear that I'm going to keep going. And it doesn't matter how long it takes, I'm gonna keep speaking it. I'm gonna keep acting on it, and it will eventually connect. I know it to be true. So what is it that you need to stick in to believe in for your truth? Stay with it.
Kathi
Oh, my gosh, that's true. And you know what else I also believe, too, I truly believe that. Everything happens, exactly how it's meant to happen when it's meant to happen, whether you like it or not. This is how it's meant to happen.
Lia
I totally believe anyone that doesn't feel good, even when it's a huge mistake, or you made a big mistake. And it's like, yeah, it was a mistake. And you probably could have made a better decision. But what did you learn from that mistake? That's literally gonna be life changing for you that if you hadn't made that mistake, it would change the trajectory of your life.
Kathi
I know, this powerful. It's just absolutely incredible. So what would you say to someone who may be though is in that, you know, they're in that dark place right now that they're in that stuck phase of their life, and they know it, and they can feel it? But deep down like they know that they don't want to be like that. They don't want to feel like that. And they know that they're meant for so much more. But they're just like, you know, they're in it. What should they do first?
Lia
Well, one, you're not alone. You are not alone. You're not alone. I am in it. Also, and I feel it, but it's what are you going to choose? What actions are you going to decide to be? What are you got to decide to run and now that's not reality for you in the current predicament. And we can define ourselves even when it's not true. You can define to be in peace, even when there's chaos around you.
And so there's a couple of things that I give one, start to define how you want to think and feel right now, even when you feel the opposite. Do you want to feel peace? Then claim peace? Because when you claim peace, you'll find your way to peace, you'll start to say well, what do I got to start canceling out of my life? To get to peace? Who do I have to speak up to? To get it out my heart? Like who do I have to start defining barriers to create my PDU we'll start it if you claim it and root in it. That's why I love my rooted ring and my rooted collection.
Sometimes you did look at him, but like I'm claiming peace right now, if you want to claim joy, joy is not feeling happy and jumping around all the time. Joy is a joyful life. Joy has meaning I am defining light around me even through the darkest moments. So if you claim that right now you will find your way to joy.
And with these things, hexion, The brain is so beautiful, and I love her. And I say it when I say but she's petty, she will do all the things and say all the things to help you and also to destroy you because she's comparing things. And sometimes it's to your demise. So sometimes you gotta get out of your brain and into your heart. Because your heart is your light source, and your heart told you where your destiny is, your inner if you go deeper than your heart, it's in this gut, sole source, it tells you your truth.
And so align with your truth and say, Okay, if that's my truth, what smallest thing that I can do, that becomes oneness with my truth? Do I just need to get out and talk to someone to get it out of my body? That's super small. And then if you talk to someone and they start to kill you, or their tone is making you feel worse than where you started, shift the person and go to someone else. Don't category everyone and say, I can't talk to anyone. That's just not your person. Yeah, exactly. light source that you need to take. There's a light source for you turn on a podcast like this, that lets you know that every moment I'm in that same mindset, but I'm acting out of it. I'm shifting out of it every time I'm deciding what light looks like, and I'm becoming it. Those pictures of what light is? And what does it look like to be love? How does that look? I don't feel loved right now I feel alone, or I feel like I don't love myself. But if I knew what love was, what would it look like? What would it feel like? What would that action be? Paint the picture start acting like that. Because if you start to act like it gravitates to you and the more you walk in your way, you will become that it's the same thing as the dream. The more you walk toward the dream, the closer you get, even though it seems far away, but you have to keep walking. To get to your destiny, you got to either keep driving and keep walking.
Kathi
Yeah, exactly.
Lia
You can't sit still and it is not coming to you. So I'd encourage you. And then the last thing it is possible. Don't let your brain telling you that it's not I'm living physical proof, not old school proof from my young past that I told you currently now, I'm living proof that you can shatter these bonds of hardships or not good enough, or making big mistakes that I've made in my business and making self deprecating thoughts because you try to compare yourself to others. And beyond all that you still can shine.
Kathi
So true. And I love how you talk about just speaking it out into existence. Because, you know, the more people you tell the more you tell it to yourself, the more you say it to yourself, your brain doesn't know the difference between imaginative and reality. So you speak it to yourself enough is gonna friggin happen.
Lia
If you keep doing something toward it, it's a lot. Here's the thing when people are like, well, you're just lying if you're speaking it out. No, you're saying what you will be? Yes, not what you are, you're speaking the truth. Like I will have a successful global Brisbane business that changes lives. I am speaking that out into the future. And so when I say this will happen, then the brain if I keep saying it says well then what do you do? Right? What do you have to do physically to help that?
Get back up and create something or I've got to keep telling people my dreams and then someone will say Well, where's your challenge areas, Lia? Well, it's in financial structure. Anyone on here who knows about financial CFO, financial structure and you've already lived that life and could help pro bono, please call me I'm so I'll open up and then honest to people also, not hiding your insecurities, I think is a real power. I don't live in insecurities. I'm not hiding them. I'm telling people are my weaknesses.
Why? Because when I don't, and you don't have to tell people your business. That's two different things. But I'm saying like, if you open up to wherever your insecurities are a no one can cut you down with them. It's one, and then B, people will hear your need. And if they're strong in that area, or if they know someone that's strong in the area, they will immediately push you to someone for support. And if they're not, they won't. But you are shining your light on your areas where you need improvement. And every time you say it, you actually give yourself more power, because it doesn't hold you in the darkness anymore. It doesn't make you feel less than anymore. It just lets you know this is the area I need to grow in. And then someone's gonna be like, okay, here come with me, I can take you two steps, I can take you the whole way. Right, you two steps and just two more steps than you were before. Share your inequalities and your, your insecurities and your weaknesses and say in bold, not as a shame factor.
Kathi
Yeah, I know when those little actions that you take. I remember reading this book 10 years ago, when I started my first online business, The Compound Effect, have you read that? Darren Hardy, it's the same kind of thing and talks all about that working towards whatever it is that you want in life. And these baby little steps, these little baby actions every day compounding over time.
Lia
Yeah. And just getting back up. By getting back I just get back up if you, if today... If you got knocked down as we close. And today you're laying flat, like you're in your lowest whatever. Maybe today you don't stand maybe today you just kneel is getting up higher than where you started. And then if you start with a nail today, then tomorrow you squat and then the next day you stand and then the next day you walk and then the next day you're running like take the pressure off of trying to be the thing immediately it is time is given to you Yes, time is short. And that's why I say you got to keep doing the actions because we don't know how long we have left to live because my proof of my mother lives in such a short life. Her early 40s. And what I defined and that's what I want the Valencia Key, also to be symbolic us is living a full life of living of life. Like not holding back on fully living. And so you don't know when your end is but all you can do is say in this life I'm gonna keep moving at the capacity that I'm capable of doing and every day I'm going to try to push beyond my current capacity. You're living.
Kathi
You’re living. Right, and don't listen to the I call this your little bitch voice yeah you get this what I teach in my mindset program you get your rock star boys in your little bitch voice not listen to the little bitch voice.
Lia
No she's there she's not gonna go anywhere stop trying to get her to go she's coming she's always trying to fight her when we're not moving because we're all into her moment and we're given her the shine are giving him the shine right like stop giving them the shine and actually allow him or her to just hang out there and be like oh, that's cool. And everything you say thank you for that because now I'm gonna do opposite towards it.
Kathi
Oh yes exactly. Do the opposite. I love that.
Lia
Oh, opposite. Oh, where? Oh you saying I'm not good enough. Okay, thank you hang out there. I know you'll be back. But now let me show you.
Kathi
Exactly. Oh my god. So true. So good. Oh my gosh. I am so appreciative for having you on the show today, Lia. Oh my gosh. Do you have any lasting words that you want to leave our listeners with for today and then just let us know to where they can check out all your beautiful jewelry and get something beautiful.
Lia
My last words is that you are light. You are born light, you are born to shine. And whatever capacity that your light is meant to shine. And so every day every moment decide to radiate your light in the capacity in which you're capable and just shine a little brighter every day because when you decide to shine, it is a generous statement because you also inspire others who you don't even know are watching to shine with you. I'd love for you to connect with me. Go to my website ww... I'm so old you don't have to say ww. anymore.
Kathi
www..
Lia
Valencia Key. V-A-L-E-N-C-I-A K-E-Y.com. Go to Valencia Key and I normally don't get a piece of Valencia Key and and allow it the words that you allow to pour in your heart or anything we as humans love, we need symbolism. We need physical proof, and we need symbolism. It's just how our minds are wired. And then you attach whatever you want to your symbols. And so what I love is that you've allowed this moment we've had together to wash into your heart and become a beacon of light and your soul.
And now when you receive your Valencia Key, attach that feeling that light that mission, that courage, that possibility, to that piece and wear it every day, so that you can get to all parts of your destiny. Also, I'm on Instagram. I love Instagram, one day I'm gonna get over to TikTok, great for me on that. But right now @valenciakey on Instagram, @valenciakeydesign is where, please go, join. I don't call it following I say where I heart connecting connect with my heart there. And you will see all other lights shining in Valencia Key. So it's just not my story. The Valencia Key is our story. We are being of light together and then if you want to see my wildness story, go to Lea Valencia Key and see where I'm at because I love a good travel mile either one of those pages live Valencia Key or Valencia Key design which is wearing a little smile in your heart.
Kathi
Oh my gosh, I love it. And we'll make sure we have all that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Lia for being on our show today. This was an amazing, inspiring episode. I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. You know, I love you. I think you're awesome. And I will see you the next time. Bye.
