Val Rodriguez - Creative Director, Friendly Content Labs
A multi-passionate entrepreneur with a heart for creating impactful content, Val works as operations director for Queer Kid Stuff and creative director at Friendly Content Labs. When they’re not strategizing opportunities for Queer Kid Stuff’s growth, they’re collaborating with brands and social media managers to create visually appealing, relevant, and interactive content that will capture customer interest at Friendly Content Labs. A close friend and fervent supporter of BWH, Val is someone who is constantly championing others, and we’re excited to shine the spotlight on them today.
The Basics:
Hometown: Mayaüez, Puerto Rico
Current city: Jacksonville, FL
Alma mater: Florida State University; University of South Florida
Degree: B.S, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences - Social Entrepreneurship; M.A, Global Sustainability - Building Sustainable Business
Very first job: Student Government Vice-President, Tallahassee Community College
Hustle: Creative Director, Friendly Content Labs; Operation Director, Queer Kid Stuff
The Interests:
Babe you admire and why?
Only one? Here’s three: Arlan Hamilton is a VC for underrepresented (read: underestimated) founders. Arlan had the curiosity and guts to dream big and relentlessly by breaking into a male-dominated industry and founding Backstage Capital. Norma is the director of sales at Florida Blue, a fearless champion for Puerto Rican families in Orlando, and my phenomenal mother. The way she’s managed it all will always bewilder and inspire me. Kelly Vaughn is a badass entrepreneur and freelancing thought-leader that has taught me so much about client-related work and freelancing as a whole. Her book ‘Start Freelancing Today’ was one of my first work-related purchases. She runs a kickass agency and shares insightful e-comm related content on YouTube that everyone in this space needs to be consuming.
What’s your favorite way to start or end your weekend?
I’m a huge homebody on Sundays and prefer to end my weekend organizing my space and getting ready for the week ahead. My Sunday funday plans involve peer-pressuring my partner to join me in deep-cleaning our house while blasting music, lighting a candle, making a list of everything that’s going on in the upcoming week, and feeding my body something warm.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?
“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.” —Hafiz. I’ve spent most of my life challenging my fear and anxiety to a game of ‘chicken’ and I haven’t always won, but I’m a believer in what we can accomplish as individuals when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones and love to encourage folx to do it! So often we place expectations around ourselves for what we “should” or “need” to be doing with our lives, but no such limitations exist.
The Hustle:
Tell us about your hustle.
I work as the Operations Director for Queer Kid Stuff. We make edutainment content for all ages around social justice and LGBTQ+ issues. Our mission is to spread queer joy, and we do that through providing resources for educators and caregivers, championing kid activists through our Podcast ‘You, Activist!’, and hosting virtual programming for schools, libraries, and organizations. Apart from strategizing business growth opportunities, my day-to-day responsibilities at Queer Kid Stuff involves booking virtual events and project managing our virtual team. At Friendly Content Labs, I collaborate with brands and social media managers to create visually appealing, relevant and interactive content to capture customer interest. We’re a creative marketing agency specializing in digital content for socials and e-commerce. In addition to taking the creative direction lead on product and lifestyle photography, we work with a network of creatives to build websites, film micro-videos for paid ads, design sales funnels, and brainstorm customer experiences. The day-to-day operations involve looking for inspiration for content creation, drafting proposals, cold-calling, and networking with creatives.
What inspired Friendly Content Labs? What’s its mission, and what has the journey looked like so far?
Unlike my last two ventures, I didn’t mean to start Friendly Content Labs. I was struggling emotionally and financially after having to put my company, benni, on pause due to COVID-related production challenges. I was grieving the loss of my business and felt like a major failure. I was 26, ambitious, with a Master’s degree relating to business—and I felt like I didn't have anything to show for it. After my therapist tasked me with an assessment ranking my character strengths from 1-25, she suggested I look for work that allowed me to use my top 5 strengths, to journal about my experience with benni, and to focus on what it taught me. I realized my favorite parts of working with benni were collaborating with brands, making content, and creating community. I started thinking about an agency role that allowed me to utilize four of my top five character strengths and started applying for agency-related jobs. I felt silly applying to jobs requiring agency experience. I had all this hands-on experience building brands and bringing products to market, but no previous formal communications or marketing education. I applied to so many jobs and kept hearing the same feedback if any at all: “Please reach back out once you’re further along in your career.” I became obsessed with freelance content, followed a couple of influential agencies, built my website in two days, shared it with some friends and got my first paying shoot—all within a week of launching.
Staying fresh and innovative in today’s digital world can be a challenge. How do you stay creative, and where do you look for inspiration?
I am less interested in staying innovative digitally than I am in staying genuine. To find inspiration for content, I look to the founders of the brands I’m working with. I ask them questions that pry into their “why.” What problem are they addressing, what values do they feel their brand embodies, who do they know is using their product and coming back for more? Although content is a creative process, I set guidelines that help me streamline so I can be more effective with my time and produce deliverables that speak to the end-user.
How have your past professional and academic experiences and lessons prepared you for the work you do today? How have they not prepared you?
I can say with certainty that there was no previous formal or informal experience that prepared me for running a business through a pandemic. With that being said, I can speak to two of my biggest critiques of entrepreneurship-related academia: over-planning, and the concept of a syllabus. My teachers brought a corporate perspective to entrepreneurship that isn’t realistic for startups. When you’re starting, you don’t know if you even have a product-market fit, and the strategies that you employ to find out will not be found in a 3-5 year business plan. There’s also no syllabus to look back to and track your progress, and “passing” and “failing” are completely arbitrary concepts. There are different strategies for different stages of your business, and the faster you put your product or service out into the world and start receiving those feedback loops to interpret, the faster you’ll know what to do.
Do you have any advice for those thinking of taking the freelance route?
Network with freelancers and follow freelance thought-leaders on Twitter. So many of them (especially women) are constantly putting out free content and looking to engage. OH and maybe subscribe to my productivity newsletter: friendlyfreelancer.com!
In the last year, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your career?
Time-tracking by far. I use Toggl and recommend it to everyone!
What’s something you’re proud to have accomplished in your career thus far?
Failing! I’ve had multiple failing ventures, and although it’s taken me some time to become comfortable owning it, I’m proud to have dreamt ideas up and shared them with the world. I’m not proud to have failed, but I’m proud of the growth I’ve experienced and the fact I can do so much more than I ever thought I’d be capable of. That feeling’s the one that keeps me going.
What’s one of the biggest obstacles you’ve faced in your work? How’d you overcome it?
Imposter syndrome. One of the challenging aspects of being an entrepreneur is being a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. While I’m fairly confident in my abilities to problem-solve, it’s difficult to translate my skills onto a piece of paper when they don’t fit neatly under a specific job title—and that process can make me feel inadequate. I can’t say I’ve overcome this feeling, but I monitor my self-talk vigilantly to ensure my self-doubt isn’t crippling my growth opportunities. It’s a lifelong, worthwhile process.
Who are some folx in your field that you look to for inspiration?
I’m in love with everything the Tropico Photo and Weekend Creative duos create!
How do you rest, recharge and find inspiration?
Catching up with my LDR best friends, sweating for fun and stress relief, and spending some time breathing fresh air always makes me feel rejuvenated. All three of these activities take me outside of my own head and remind me that nothing is more important than my relationships, my well-being, and the collective experience of being alive to share it all.
Career and/or life advice for other babes?
What you do doesn’t define who you are, and who you are right now isn’t who you’re destined to be forever. You’re allowed to change your mind, to try new things, to launch something just because you want to, or to close a business because it no longer brings you joy. Do whatever pleases you, because you can, and you deserve it.
Connect with Val:
Email / Instagram / Friendly Content Labs / Queer Kid Stuff
This interview has been condensed and edited.
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