#58: Is Authenticity in the Workplace Dead? [Podcast]

Welcome to the podcast! Today's podcast episode is going to be a dive into the archives going back to episode #19. I've been very busy and haven't had a chance to record a brand new podcast, however I do talk about my recent experience speaking at Salem State University which is partially the reason I wasn't able to record a full new episode. Have a listen because everything in this episode is absolutely applicable to today, as it was when it was first recorded.

After hearing so much chatter about the CEO of Barilla Pasta and his anti-gay remarks, I have my own thoughts on this. I take a different angle than you may expect and share it all in this podcast.
Below are the items mentioned in this episode of the podcast.

Marketing to the LGBT community is not for everyone
Dealing with opposition when preparing an LGBT outreach
Guido Barilla - 1st apology, letter
Guido Barilla - 2nd apology, video
Huffington Post article on Barilla Pasta
Stats on LGBT shopping
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Check out the sponsors of this podcast, the Human Performance Academy, at Mentalcompass.com

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the podcast? No problem! Read the transcript below
So now let's just get into the meat of the episode today. And as I'm recording this I have no idea how long this episode is going to be, I'm just going to cover the things that I feel like need to be talked about because of what is happening in the news currently with Barilla pasta and the LGBT outrage, and the scandal that has been occurring. If you follow anything LGBT related, you have heard about this- I've seen the Twitter #PastaGate at this point. And there's a whole slew of controversy around the Barilla CEO, Guido Barilla, who basically said some words that were anti-LGBT, and now the community is up in arms. So rather than me perpetuate a lot of media hype, I really wanted to take a different angle on this. Because in most instances, I am the voice of reason; and I should say- I would say in almost every single instance, I take the stance of the voice of reason. So on my blog if you're reading something, I try to be very two-sided about things in terms of hearing one person's point of view, understanding someone else's perspective, and really just kind of blending the both of those in so you get a really comprehensive standpoint on something, versus me just giving you what my opinion is. I want to make sure that you have a full scope of the debate and the argument, and why something may not sound right and the ways to counteract that. So that is no different with what's going on with Barilla right now.

And what I want to start off with is talking about two recent blog posts that I've written. And they're very much intertwined with what's happening right now with what's going on with Barilla. And just recently I wrote a blog post titled, 'Marketing to the LGBT Community is not for Everyone.' And I find this post to be very relevant, and because in this post I just talk about how if you really want to market to the community you need to be authentic. You need to be genuine, you need to be transparent in what you're doing. You really just need to be doing it for authentic reasons. So if I say to you, "Why do you want to get involved with the LGBT community?" And you respond back to me with, "Because the community has a lot of money, and I want to tap into it." I'm going to push back on you and say, "I need more than that, that can't be your only reason, that can't be your motivating reason." And of course you're listening to this podcast because you're interested in knowing more about the community and how that can help your business. So clearly at the end of the day, I'm here to teach you how to go about this in a way that's going to produce more revenue and bring you more sales.