Meet Greta Valenti | Director, Writer, Producer, Musician, and CEO of GROW VISION Creative Studios

We had the good fortune of connecting with Greta Valenti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Greta, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Everything that I have achieved so far in my life has come from taking risks. Maybe that comes from growing up a poor girl in Louisiana to a single parent mother who only made $24k a year, or it’s just a part of the nature I was born with, but I’ve always dreamt big and knew that I had to take big leaps if I wanted to get further ahead than the cards I was dealt.

From skipping a grade in high school, to being emancipated and moving to California by myself at age 17, to buying a house at age 20 with no money and against all traditional logic. I look back now because I survived. I applied for jobs I was not qualified for, but that I knew I could learn. And a couple times, I got them. I looked for opportunities to grow, to learn, to network, and little by little over the last 20 years, I’ve collected skills, friends, and have built a successful creative boutique production studio and agency, Grow Vision that I own with my partner who’s story is very similar to mine. We also have two musical projects Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse and Well Hung Heart that have both toured the world and played some amazing shows. All of these things whether it’s owning your own business, or getting up on a stage in front of people, require some level of risk.

None of these risks were spontaneous. They took years of continuous work to be ready for, and when they came I l luckily had the foresight to recognize the opportunity in front of me. That cycle continues to this day. Even though now I’m financially stable and building into the next phase of my career and life, I am still working to ensure my next risks have value and that I’m never wasting an opportunity. Not every risk I took along the way has been a success, I’ve had many failures, but that’s how you learn. And sometimes, I’m a slow learner, but I’m also doing pretty good for a little poor girl from the south.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As an artist/creative it’s always hard for me to describe succinctly what I do because I’ve always worked across so many mediums and media. I am a Director/Writer/Producer of everything from documentaries, films, and commercials to animations, live stream events, and music videos. I started as a graphic and web designer and I have my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Animation. I am also a musician (@beauxgrisgris & @wellhungheart) and I create my own original music as well as writing jingles for toy companies. In my space time, I am a pencil artist, painter and am slowly remodeling two houses (@bungalowparadise). This past year we built a recording studio as a part of GROW VISION creative studios to support the music division of our creative output.

I Produced (and my partner Directed) the TV show “Live From Daryl’s House” with Daryl Hall from Hall & Oates two years for Viacom Network under my company GROW VISION (@growvision). I’ve created a lot of fun and meaningful work for big brands like Taco Bell, Applebees, and educational toy company Educational Insights. I was Head of Marketing for a cannabis retail brand for two years. And most recently I directed a documentary that got a distribution deal with Gravitas Ventures and has won over 70 awards called “The Unbelievable Plight of Mrs. Wright” about about an amazing force of a woman, Diana Wright, who beat terminal cancer.

None of it was easy. it’s taken many years to get even one of those projects. I’ve had to work a lot for other people in order to be able to work for myself. I’ve learned that opportunities come and go and that you just have to ride the waves. Keep going and growing, and catch the next one that will come along. Nothing lasts forever – the good or the bad. You will get hit in the face a lot, but just keep getting back up. I’ve done a lot, but I still feel like I’m barely getting started.

As an artist, everything is viewed through our own lens, our POV of how we experience the world. We create based on our personal experiences, through stories, our imagination, but also what we are willing to learn. I have my history and experiences that have really shaped a perspective of wanting to listen, learn and to share other people’s stories. I find artistic satisfaction not from the embellishment of stories, but in the honesty of them. I also genuinely care about people and not interested in creating art that sensationalizes someone’s situation nor am I here to play savior. I aim to develop an outcome of genuine heartfelt empathy or to showcase a new perspective for people to learn from. I am constantly self-evaluating not only my work, but who I am as a person. As as artists, I do not believe we can separate ourselves from our art. Everything we create, even something as seemingly mundane as a website, comes with our bias that we must always be evaluating and adjusting, especially as people who walk through this world with some sort of privilege. When I work with another artist, company, or even when writing a script, I aim for a relationship of honesty not only with each other, but with our audience because for me that is how we built trust, confidence, and how I personally find satisfaction in the work that I do.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love personal artistic experiences from art to music to food. So I would definitely take them to MOCA, but then would also need to take them to more progressive studios like Hive Gallery in DTLA and Tlaloc Studios in South Central (which is next on my list). Then we would go for food at some of my favorite family-run restaurants around SoCal: Oshima for traditional Omakase sushi (Orange), Byblos Cafe AND Zena’s for two different takes on Lebanese cuisine (both in Orange), Francoli’s for Italian (Orange), Taco Adobe (Orange), Tio’s Tacos (Riverside), go to Dhat Creole for gumbo, catfish and beignets at the Riverside Food Lab, and finally Fable & Spirit for a Michelin-approved Irish Contemporary experience (Newport Beach). We would have to go see a rock and roll band at the pirate-ship themed Redwood Bar in DTLA as well as a night at the Greek Theatre. Of course we’d go to a beach and wave at the Hollywood sign and Netflix buildings, but it’s really those unique events, places, people, and culture throughout the city that make this place so special and unique. I know know there are a ton fo amazing food places around LA that I didn’t name, but wanted to give a shout to some under-recognized family-owned businesses in the outlier areas!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mother deserves all of the credit for supporting my goals as a child. Even if she didn’t know what it would take to accomplish something, she always told me to “Go for it”. And although that created some sort of self-delusion or naiveté early on, that ignorance helped me to do things I may have doubted. As we age we tend to take less risks or doubt ourselves more because we know too much. So I’m glad she gave me that encouragement early on, and as I jumped head first into things, I had to figure it out. Many people tend to overlook me as I’m a small woman who can often times be introverted. I don’t lead in the way that corporate, masculine entities perceive a leader. So often when I have tried to compete or have a seat at the table in these spaces, I have not been successful. So i decided to not play in their sandboxes. I work for myself and often the people that believe in what we do, have been other like-minded individuals: women, people of color, or lgbtq leaders. Those people are the ones who have given me a chance to be who I am, to tell new stories, to lift up others, and to thrive. And of course my partner in crime, Robin Davey, who supports and loves me for who I am, even when I’m not supporting and loving myself as I should.

Website: growvision.com (creative studio) beauxgrisgris.com (music)

Instagram: @growvision @beauxgrisgris @wellhungheart

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/growvision

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/BeauxGrisGris

Image Credits
Image credits include in file name or on photo. Otherwise provided by Greta Valenti.