Val is an Emmy award-winning producer.
She founded Visual Bridge Communication to help high performing entrepreneurs and business professionals,
like you, capture, share and connect with your audience through the power of your story. She will show you how to align your visuals with your story and brand, and teach you how to look and feel great on camera.
She combines her communication and change management skills to help you find your story, share your culture and foster change in your organization. A powerful storyteller and visual media specialist, she will not only capture your story, she'll help you discover one you didn't know you had.
Find out how she can help you find your authentic, memorable story that's easy to share with your target audience to grow your business and create transformative change!
Effective story telling creates an emotional bridge with your audience.
Our stories are our unique signatures that capture our life’s struggles and successes.
They are how we understand who we are and the world around us. They are powerful vehicles to ignite change in our lives and organizations.
Stories are the kindling that sparks imagination and innovation and unite us in a common direction.
"Seeing people's faces light up when they
find their passion through their story is
one of the greatest joys of my work."
Telling stories is a meaningful way to unleash the power of your journey from struggle to success.
Lots of people have trouble finding and telling their story.
Let me help you find yours!
My road to “story finding”
Like a lot of kids, I had my life planned - I was going to go to college (I had set my sight on a floating university), travel the world and become a journalist or a diplomat. This plan is what kept me motivated to earn good grades and scholarships throughout a chaotic and challenging childhood.
My dream crashed when I learned the floating campus was sold to another university, one I could not afford. Not one to give up, I turned to a local well-respected university to get my journalism degree.
After learning it would take me 6 years to graduate (there was no way I wanted to hang out in school that long!), I discovered speech communication where I could graduate in four years. Happily, I landed an internship at a travel magazine - it was a way to get writing experience and the promise of travel.
In my junior year in college we found out my mom had terminal cancer. I was highly motivated to finish school - I wanted her to see the first of her four daughters graduate from college. That was a turning point for me. She raised four girls by herself and I wanted her to know all her work did matter before she left this planet.
Sadly, my mom passed before I finished school, but being her caretaker gave me deep sense of empathy, something I believed has helped me throughout my storytelling career.
My grief at losing my mom so young stayed with me through college and into my television training. I took an internship at a television station which let me develop my skills and helped me manage through my grief.
I started out in front of the camera and I thought I was awful. I hated the way I looked, how I sounded, the way I gestured. Improving my on camera skills was a lesson in humility.
As a result of many attempts to improve my on camera skills, I discovered all the fun was in behind the camera as a producer. I made the switch and never looked back. As a producer/director I learned to interview, write, produce news, sports, public affairs, corporate videos, commercials, cultural arts and local programs about community.
Literally hundreds of people passed through the station doors each year, and we told their stories. After a couple of years I was managing the station and was honored to witness the power of telling their stories in shaping our community.
Alas, the owner died, the company was sold and I moved to work in the public sector in communication where I earned my masters in Organization Development. I loved being able to identify and surface the unseen elements in the environment into my scripts.
After many happy years, a series of changes in leadership led me to explore opportunities using my communication and organization development skills to help people learn to find and tell their stories authentically. Today I help others find their story and teach them how to use it to find new directions, create change and support their brand and product.