Meet Virginia Griffin, she writes under her name V.S. Griffin, and lives in Houston, Texas with her four children. She was a part of the music industry as an accomplished, in-demand pianist for the majority of her career, but retired to pursue writing what she calls memoir fiction. Her published works include the debut novel Phoenix Rising; children’s activity books, The Alphabet Trail in Color, The Color of Life, and You are Somebody ; Also a self care mental health journal and 180 day planner, all while working on a new manuscript. When she isn’t writing, Virginia enjoys quality time with her children at museums, walks in the park, sports events and trying out new restaurants.
In addition to being a published author, Virginia is the owner of PGM, Inc LLC. PGM is a for profit corporation, the parent company for PGM publishing, a boutique publishing brand for independent authors that want to retain all ownership rights to their creative works and PGM Ventures which was founded to create affordable housing without the need or assistance of government subsidies such as Section 8 or Housing vouchers. PGM is rewriting the status quo in both of these industries.
“Success to me is being able to help someone else accomplish their goals, whatever that goal may be.” says Virginia. She considers her mindset as the highest priority when starting a business. “There will be lots of challenging moments and situations when building a business and if a person does not have the right mindset, then that person is doomed from the start.”
This comes from her personal experiences that inspired her to get into writing, and believes that people in general should be treated with a certain level of respect. “Companies can’t always focus on the profit margins. We have a duty to our fellow human beings to treat everyone the way we ourselves want to be treated.” states Virginia.
Just like the rest of our fellow human beings, Virginia also faced several challenges throughout the years. One of the biggest, was walking away from over 20 years of stability in the music industry to starting from scratch in the writing industry and the fear that followed of not being unsuccessful. Yet for Virginia, that fear was her motivation. She was not afraid of her goals that she was willing to reach, and that fear allowed her to move forward with the tenacity she continues to have in her professional career.
“I am an individual and no two people are alike. My life path has not been the same as any one else’s. Besides, the only competition I have is the woman in the mirror.” says Virginia, which is key when starting a business- knowing who you are and understanding the industry one is getting into. When an individual loves their career, the delivery and interaction with their customer base is different. Furthermore, the key to becoming successful according to Virginia is to “prepare to work harder than you ever have in life. In addition to the no’s you’ll receive on the corporate end (funding denials, credit, etc), you will face lack of support from the very people that you thought were 100% in your corner. Don’t allow that to deter you from pushing forward to achieve your dream.” That is how Virginia became successful throughout the years despite the challenges she faced.
With that success, Virginia is expanding her company and is providing employment opportunities for more people in 2022 so that these individuals can accomplish their own goals within the company, or as a stepping stone, something that Virginia didn’t have when she switched to writing. Meanwhile, Virginia is currently working on and finalizing the details of her next book that is due for release in early 2022.
For updates on Virginia’s new book “Gin on the Rox” and to get to know her better, check out her website vsgriffin.com and follow her on Instagram @AuthorVSGriffin.