Meet Nicole Valadez of Trill Multicultural

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Valadez.

Nicole, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My entrepreneurial journey started as a young girl watching my parents provide for my sisters and brother at flea market concession stands, selling food and drinks to Hispanic immigrant families taking a break from building Houston with their bare hands. That didn’t cut it, so they started selling cassette tapes. Not long after that weekend business got some traction, my father got laid off from his day job as a painter. It was then that he decided to go all in and start his construction company.

Over the next decade and a half, I saw him endure and enjoy all the struggles and victories of a very successful entrepreneur. As a child, you don’t realize what these scenes are doing to you or for you, but they’re shaping your subconscious on what’s possible in your life and influencing what path you’ll choose when you begin to write your own story.

At 22, I was an administrative assistant at Chevron Corporation in Houston, working 40-hour weeks and taking 12 to 15 hours of college courses every semester. One year later, I had my degree and was doing global internal communications work for the company on a comfortable upward trajectory. A couple years after that, my business partner asked me to leave all that predictability and safety to start a company with him from a living room, now known as Trill Multicultural.

I didn’t hesitate to take the entrepreneurial leap. While I loved my colleagues and mentors at Chevron, I couldn’t see my life unfolding in a cubicle. I knew that I’d have to disrupt my reality and do something unexpected and risky to create a more exciting life for myself. That risk was establishing Trill Multicultural with my partners and co-residing in my beloved city of Houston and Washington, DC where our company is officially headquartered.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building a company is never a smooth road. People often fall in love with the idea of having their own business, but it will be the hardest thing they’ll ever do, period.

Trill Multicultural is a company that’s entirely virtual. That’s rooted – not only in our philosophy that great ideas can’t come from a cubicle, in addition to our own prejudices against walking into the same building every day – but in the idea that the worker of the future won’t tolerate the workplace of today. That means giving our team fluidity, flexibility and trust as it pertains to where they do their work.

That type of company sounds beautiful, but there’s struggle in sustaining it. It’s tough to build a workplace culture when we are spread out in Washington, DC, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Los Angeles. It’s a struggle to remain connected and avoid working in silo.

At the end of the day, if those struggles mean I can take a conference call from a beach in Mexico and not have to ask anyone’s permission, then they are well worth it.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Trill Multicultural – what should we know?
At a very basic level, we are a marketing and communications firm. Everyone nods their head, but what does that really mean? It means that large companies come to us when they want their customers to love their brand; to understand how their products and services can change their lives; that they are philanthropic and care about their communities; or to believe that they truly support Latino and Black cultures. We help them tell their story with action.

There are so many ways we do that. Our firm’s talent and capabilities are wide-ranging. One day it’s partnering our client with Houston Hip-Hop legend Paul Wall, finding a school with children impacted by Hurricane Harvey and taking them on a Christmas shopping spree at the mall – surrounded by media cameras telling a story about a brand that cares about the community it does business in. That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes tremendous coordination, planning and execution. In marketing speak, that’s event planning, partnership development, celebrity relations, and strategic communications all rolled up into one execution.

Another day we are building a national social media brand ambassador program made up of actors, artists and musicians who can tell a brand’s story in an authentic way that doesn’t feel forced. These people are promoting the company’s products and services and helping them be great in the community, like the Paul Wall example. It’s partnerships with purpose.

There are less sexy examples, like writing speeches for CEOs. We see those as equally important, of course, because it all comes down to helping people and companies communicate their vision with words and creative action. We are experts when it comes to that.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Risk is the currency we pay for an extraordinary life, and you can’t take any worthwhile risks without courage.

Whether you’re starting a business, taking a big promotion, or relocating to a new city, these things require you to dig deep and move into the unknown with confidence. Having courage doesn’t mean that you’re fearless. It just means you have the strength to take a chance and the guts to stick it out when things get hard.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.trillmulticultural.com
• Email: nicole@trillmulticultural.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/trillmulticultural
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/trillmulticultural
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trill-multicultural-llc/

Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.