Passionate and determined, Valerie Fitzgerald exemplifies for all working women and single Moms what it means to get knocked down but to never give up. “It means everything to me,” Valerie says of her life. “You need to have the dream of how you want your life to be, and then you need the heart to go and get it. Don’t ever give up – if you shoot for the moon and miss, you are still among the stars.”

Over the last fifteen years, Valerie has risen to the top of the real estate world by single-handedly building a multi-million dollar real estate business from the ground up, establishing her own charity foundation, and speaking to thousands of people around the country at numerous business conventions. Her talent for the real estate business along with her drive for success have put her on Coldwell Banker’s Top 10 Agents Nationwide list, and earned her the prestigious honor of being recognized as the real estate agent with the highest residential real estate sales volume in Los Angeles County in 2000.

Valerie’s successful real estate career has earned her the top Los Angeles Residential Real Estate Agent recognition for the Los Angeles Business Journal. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including multiple segments of “Entertainment Tonight”, MTV’s “Cribs”, The BBC and Byron Allen’s show “Every Woman”. As CEO of C.F. Entertainment, Byron Allen asked Valerie on his show to share with women across the country her story of arriving in Los Angeles with nothing but her broken down VW bug and her beautiful baby daughter. Her interview had such an impact on Byron Allen’s audience, that Johanna Castillo of Simon and Schuster, who happened to be watching Valerie’s interview, contacted her to discuss turning her story of determination into a book.