Meet Valentine Ebunilo | Generalist & Entrepreneur

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

Hi Valentine, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risks are my foundation. It might sound shocking only because of the word risk, but to me the word “risk” is faith. GODfidence.

September of 2019. I left my job in Los Angeles, sold my car, packed a duffle bag and got on a plane to Atlanta. One or two friends, but no family. Found a random person on craigslist that I had never met before to rent a room from. No job, no car, all risk, or should I say faith.

If not for risks I would have been stuck. Everything I have done that has gone well for me has come on a risk. But I would say risks have has been a source of power to me. Risks challenge your fears of uncertainty. And once you get to a place of being comfortable in uncomfortable situations . The world is at your mercy.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My journey to where I am started when I was bout 7 years old. A production company came to my elementary school to audition little kids for a toy commercial. I guess I was what they wanted because they called me back for another audition, and I eventually got the part in the commercial. What was life changing though was the feeling I had shooting the commercial. I was overwhelmed with joy and passion, but I was there from 8am – 7pm for 3 days straight as a 7 year old. It was work, but didn’t feel like it in the least.

As I got older everything that I did I wanted to feel that passion I had when I was on set. If I didn’t feel it I knew it was a problem.

Unfortunately though I am a first generation Nigerian- American , which means both my parents where born and raised in Nigeria. So doing commercials or any path towards creativity was frowned upon in my culture.

I couldn’t let that stop me though. I tasted freedom and now I wanted it, badly.

After high school I went to a junior college, something else frowned upon at the time, not sure how my culture feels about it now, but at the time it was a four year institution or bust. I knew though that my path was not going to be easy, and I knew hard work was about to be my best friend.

I ended up transferring to Arizona State joined my fraternity and realized how good I was was connecting with people. Through events, parties , and meetings I started developing my skills in salesmanship. So automatically I though okay I’m a salesman. About a month before graduation I was sitting in my college apartment and decided I needed to have a brand associated with me. At the time I had no idea what it could or what it would turn into to, I just needed to establish myself somehow. So I created inMind Productions. I picked the name because people always used to tell me “you should be a lawyer , you should be a car salesman” because when I spoke to people I always tried to get into their head. Wether it be with questions, or whatever, I always dug. So I decided to call my brand “inMind”.

It was a challenge though having a brand with no direction. All I had was my vision , and you can’t always explain that to people the way you want to because sometimes you yourself don’t even know. So not being taken seriously was tough. People used to either laugh when I explained it , butcher the name by calling it mind-eye, or i- missed. The worse was being patronized. When someone felt I had no chance but pretended they believed so they could laughed when I left the room.

Along the way though as I took all the criticism it hardened me. I felt that if people were going to laugh at me might as well give them something to laugh about. The chip on my shoulder was created, but it wasn’t about proving anyone wrong though. It became about changing the reason people were laughing to begin with. I felt people were laughing because what I was trying to do was filled from top to bottom with uncertainty.

I feel it was only like this because the whole concept of my brand is based on being limitless. So ofcourse explaining that to anyone would be almost impossible.

I am a Generalist . Someone who is good at many but a master at none. Remember how I said I was a salesman, well that was just one skill out of many. I am also a barber, I do logistics, videographer, video editing, video directing, I have my own beard oil, and skin care products, motivational speaker , life coaching, my own podcast, event coordinator, I could honestly keep going. What I love about inMind is the ability to control my life and my time. I work when I want how I want. By not spealizing in anything I don’t depend on one person to see my value and pay me for it. This way I am able to use my skills to get paid in whatever it is I am skilled in, with the ability to even learn more skills, and since I know how to sell and connect with people I am able to sell my services. Whatever service that might be. Then I can stick my brand inMind on it and call it mine on whatever it is I do. Hence why the title of my company is inMind Productions & Products LLC. or inMind Prod for short.

What sets my brand apart is that it is now more than just services I offer. My brand has turned into an example of a way of life, a lifestyle, with freedom and happiness the main goals. I want people to know that I intend to use my brand to re-create the culture wheel of fear and uncertainty. Wether it be within my Nigerian culture or any culture that has fear in its foundation in regards to the way people should live .

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It’s crazy because I just did that for my 30th birthday in February. I had 6 friends fly to Atlanta for all over the US. California, Nevada, Arizona ,Ohio ,Texas,Florida it was amazing. First night we went to Escobars in Atlanta, Two Chainz restaurant. Next day it was Thumbs Up Diner in Edgewood. I am originally from Los Angeles and let me tell you, there is no breakfast spot equivalent to Thumbs Up. MLK birth home was also a spot we checked out . The world of Coca – Cola , and of course the Trap Museum, an Atlanta tourist staple destination.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Definitely Maire Rosa. The woman that looked at me without knowing me at all and said she would take a chance on me.

Covid was ramping up May 2020. I was jobless, car -less , and had just started barber school. She was worried as soon I was done with barber school I would leave her hanging. She had just met me after all.

Instead she hired me and on top of that allowed me work around my barber school schedule. Maire has had my loyalty ever since.

I would also like to shout out my fraternity. Kappa Alpha Psi, my chapter specifically, Gamma Iota , Arizona State University. My brothers there changed my life in ways that could not have been done anywhere else. K-A-Psi till the day I die .

Instagram: Professional page : @barber__v Personal page : @valinciago

Image Credits
Robert Thomason