Spend enough time with Valerie Lavelle and you may end up at a local theatre performance, exploring Savannah’s paranormal side, meeting an independent artist, or joining the search for the city’s best jalapeño margarita.
That variety is part of what Valerie loves about Savannah.
A former military brat who has now called Savannah home for more than 15 years, Valerie has built a life here around creativity, community, and discovering the people and experiences that give a city its personality. Now, as the Community Membership Ambassador for Live Like Locals, she gets to turn that natural curiosity into something she does every day: helping businesses, organizations, and individuals become more connected to the community around them.
Finding Home in Savannah
Growing up as a military brat meant Valerie was accustomed to change and experiencing different places. Savannah, however, became somewhere she could put down roots.
More than 15 years later, she has gotten to know a side of the city that goes well beyond the places visitors typically see.
Her list of local favorites gives you a pretty good idea of her personality. She enjoys the Savannah Paranormal Museum, Ghosted Savannah, Club One, Colleagues and Lovers, and The Assembly of Phantasms. If something is creative, theatrical, a little unusual, or distinctly Savannah, there is a good chance it will catch her attention.
She also loves spending time with her husband and finding new things to experience around town.
For Valerie, living local does not mean going to the same places over and over. It means continuing to explore the community, supporting the people creating interesting things, and finding new reasons to enjoy the place you call home.
Finding Community Through Theatre
Theatre is a major part of Valerie’s life and one of the ways she stays connected to Savannah’s creative community.
She is involved with The Baystreet Theatre and Savannah Cabaret and enjoys performing in her free time. Being part of Savannah’s theatre scene has given her a firsthand look at how much talent exists locally, often in places people may never discover unless someone points them in the right direction.
It has also reinforced something that translates directly into her work with Live Like Locals: local communities thrive when people actually show up for them.
A performance needs an audience. An artisan needs people to discover their work. A new restaurant needs customers willing to walk through the door. A nonprofit needs people who understand its mission. A small business needs more than a social media account. It needs relationships with the people it hopes to serve.
Valerie enjoys helping make those connections happen.
Trading Corporate Life for Something More Local
After spending years working in corporate sectors, Valerie was ready to be part of something that felt closer to the community around her.
Live Like Locals offered exactly that.
As Community Membership Ambassador, Valerie works with businesses, organizations, and individuals who want to become more involved in Savannah and the surrounding communities. Her role is not simply about signing someone up for a membership. It is about understanding what they are trying to accomplish and helping them find ways to become more visible, more involved, and more connected.
That distinction matters because Live Like Locals was built around more than advertising.
The platform brings together digital visibility and real-world community engagement. A local business can be introduced to the Live Like Locals audience through social media, email, and the online directory, then continue showing up through monthly content, local search articles, newsletters, videos, and in-person events.
Instead of appearing once and disappearing, businesses have opportunities to become familiar names within the community.
That is the part Valerie gets excited about.
Helping Businesses Become Part of the Community
Valerie understands that many local business owners know they need visibility but do not necessarily have the time, audience, or resources to create it consistently themselves.
Live Like Locals memberships are designed to help bridge that gap.
A business joining the platform can begin with a launch that introduces it to the community, followed by ongoing content that keeps its name in front of local residents. Newsletter features help businesses reach people who are already actively following what is happening locally, while SEO-focused articles create opportunities to be discovered when someone searches online for a particular service or experience.
Then there is the piece Valerie especially values: getting businesses out into the community itself.
Live Like Locals events create opportunities for members to meet residents face-to-face through vendor spaces and other activations. It is one thing for someone to scroll past a business name online. It is another to meet the owner, try the product, ask a question, or have a conversation they remember later.
For Valerie, those two sides belong together.
Online visibility helps people discover you. In-person connection gives them a reason to remember you.
Creating Bigger Community Partnerships
Valerie also works with established businesses and organizations looking for a deeper relationship with the community.
Through Community Partnerships, brands can become integrated into events, video content, social media, newsletters, live broadcasts, and other community programming throughout the year.
The goal is different from purchasing a traditional advertisement.
It is about showing up consistently enough that residents begin to recognize the organization as one that actively participates in and supports the community.
For regional brands, professional services, healthcare organizations, real estate companies, financial firms, and other established businesses, that can mean sponsoring video series, participating in local events, supporting programming, and becoming part of the stories Live Like Locals shares.
Valerie helps businesses look at those opportunities through the lens of relationships rather than impressions alone.
Because when a business supports the events people attend, the stories they care about, and the organizations working in their neighborhoods, marketing starts to feel a lot more like community involvement.
Supporting More Than Businesses
That community-minded approach also connects with the causes Valerie personally cares about.
Mental health, animal rescue, and literacy are particularly important to her. She understands that nonprofits, independent artists, performers, and community organizations need many of the same things businesses do: awareness, relationships, opportunities, and people willing to show up.
Her involvement in Savannah’s creative community gives her an especially personal appreciation for the individuals behind the experiences people enjoy around town.
Sometimes the most interesting thing happening in Savannah is not coming from a large organization. It is coming from an artist, performer, maker, nonprofit, or small business owner who simply needs more people to know they exist.
Helping those people find an audience is part of what makes Valerie’s role meaningful.
Making the Introduction
At its core, Valerie’s job is about introductions.
Introducing residents to businesses they may love. Introducing businesses to new audiences. Connecting organizations with community opportunities. Helping artisans find places to showcase their work. Encouraging people to attend something they may never have tried on their own.
It fits naturally with the way Valerie already experiences Savannah: stay curious, show up, meet people, and pay attention to the interesting things happening around you.
As Live Like Locals continues growing its network of members and Community Partners throughout the Coastal Empire, Valerie will be one of the friendly faces helping businesses figure out how they can become part of it.
So if you see her at an upcoming Live Like Locals event, introduce yourself and tell her what you do. She may know an event you should be at, a community you should meet, or an opportunity that makes sense for what you are building.
And if you happen to know where Savannah’s best jalapeño margarita is hiding, definitely lead with that.