Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional

I am so pleased to present you with today's podcast interview with Amy Mayes of Amy Mayes Photography. She is a brilliant photographer and an LGBT Rights Activist. She shares many great insights on being an ally to the LGBT community and what that means to her and her business.

You are bound to learn a thing or two from today's show. As always, feel free to reach out with questions or comments - I'd love to hear from you!
Links mentioned in this episode:

NGLCCNY News Blog
Advocate v. Activist Blog Post
Amy Mayes Photography
Barbara Russo Strategics

Listen to this podcast by clicking the play button below.

Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below.
AUDIO TITLE:  Episode #45 - Interview with Amy Mayes Photography 
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, episode 45.
Intro:
Welcome to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast where you'll learn how to do business with and market to the LGBT community in an authentic and transparent way. We're talking about the $790 billion lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share and impact your bottom line. And now your host - she's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven and an advocate for the LGBT business community. Jenn, with two N's, T. Grace.
Jenn T Grace:
Well hello and welcome to episode number 45 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and today is October 30th, and I am really delighted to be bringing you an interview today that I wasn't planning on bringing to you for a couple of months now, but I have a great interview to share with you today with Amy Mayes of Amy Mayes Photography. She is a New York based- or New York City based photographer who is an ally to the LGBT community, who is also an LGBT rights activist. And I absolutely loved the conversation that she and I had, and I'm really excited to be sharing it with you. And what makes this conversation even more cool and fun in my opinion is the fact that Amy is a follower of the podcast, so it was kind of- it was interesting to kind of have the tables turned. So instead of listening to the podcast at the gym, the next time she's at the gym listening to it, she'll be listening to the podcast with herself. So I think that's pretty cool, so I am super excited about sharing the interview with you, she's just got some great, great insights as it relates to LGBT and being an ally, and how to really use that as an opportunity within your business.

So I'm excited about that, but as always before we get into the interview, I do want to just mention a couple of things. And today I'm going to be more brief than usual, and I know that that's somewhat probably famous last words at this point. But I want to mention three things. So the first of the three is on a personal note, that as you're listening to this, if you're listening to it when it actually airs on October 30th of 2014, by the time we speak on the next podcast which will be in the middle of November, I will finally have had completed the half marathon that I have been talking about with you guys for quite some time now. I have been- I've really been sharing my journey with you since I decided to do this over a year ago, and the day is finally coming. So in about a week I will be running the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in Orlando, Florida, and I'm super excited about it. I finally did my first training run of that full distance not last weekend, but the weekend before, so I made the full 13.1 miles, still standing when I reached the end of it, and I did it in two hours and 39 minutes, and 29 seconds. So my goal has been to do it in 2:55 or less, so I already beat my goal. So I am super, super excited. So I will certainly be updating you with information as i...

Direct download: Epispode_45_Gay-Business-Marketing_with_Amy-Mayes-Photography.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

I had a chance to recently sit down with Re Perez of BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE. I've known of Re for a couple of years through our mutual relationship with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. At this past conference I brought home some of his marketing materials and promptly reached out to see if he would be a guest on the show and he agreed.

It was great talking to a brand strategist. I think you will learn a lot of general branding and marketing information from this episode in addition to many valuable tips for effectively marketing to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Happy listening!

Here are some links derived directly from today's episode:

BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE.
Also, check out when the next webinar is here.
My book: No, wait… You do look gay! The 7 Mistakes Preventing You from Selling to the $830 Billion LGBT Market.

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below!
AUDIO TITLE:  Episode #44 – An Interview with Re Perez
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Episode 44.
Intro:
Welcome to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast where you'll learn how to do business with and market to the LGBT community in an authentic and transparent way. We're talking about the $790 billion lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share and impact your bottom line. And now your host - she's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven and an advocate for the LGBT business community. Jenn, with two N's, T. Grace.
Jenn T Grace:
Well hello and welcome to episode number 44 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace. I am delighted to be talking with you today as I always am. We are in the middle of October right now and it's starting to really get a little bit crisp around these parts up here in New England. I absolutely love it. I love the fall, I'm excited about it, and I just figured I would share that with you. I just got back in from an early morning run, and it was just gorgeous, and the leaves crunching under your feet which can also be equally as gorgeous as they can be a hazard to not falling on the ground which I did not do but I feel like it's in the back of my mind that I am waiting for it to happen one of these mornings. But it is what it is.

I want to just talk about a couple of things before I get into today's episode which is in interview with Re Perez of Branding for the People. And I had just an awesome conversation with Re and we talked about his role as a Chief Brand Strategist as well as the CEO and Founder of Branding for the People. Which is an NGLCC certified LGBT-owned business. And he just shares so much good information about how he came to starting his business, what those 'ah-ha' moments looked like that made him want to start it and kind of guide him in that path of doing so. And then because he is a personal branding expert, we really got to talk about some really interesting things that I think are going to help you be a more effective marketer, or either an effective LGBT person marketing to other LGBT people, or a more effective ally. So I'm really excited about that, so I'm looking forward to getting your thoughts on this. So we will get into the interview in just a moment.

Of course we do you know I always like to make a couple of announcements. And today's announcement- so today is, as this is being released, it is October 16th, and I am just a couple of weeks away from running my half marathon. And I am feeling quite confident at this point which has been kind of touch and go throughout; whether or not- you know some days I was like, "Oh I don't think I can do this," other days I'm like, "I've got it.

Direct download: episode-44-gay-business-and-marketing-made-easy-re-perez.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Today's episode was so much fun. I had a chance to sit down and speak with Colin Sines who wears many hats, all of which come back to LGBT marketing specifically in the area of travel and tourism. Colin and I met last year at the Travel Gay Canada Conference, which is coming up at the end of this month on October 23 and 24. More details on the conference here. It is very clear that he is an expert in all things LGBT marketing and the go-to person in Canada for those seeking these niche opportunities. He shares very personal insights of how he began in this field and also shares wonderful advice on how to get yourself started on this path. If you like what you hear, please leave a comment or share with a friend.

Here are some links shared in today’s episode:

OUTVisions LGBT Magazine for Professionals
Travel Gay Canada
Check out when the next webinar is here.
My book: No, wait… You do look gay! The 7 Mistakes Preventing You from Selling to the $830 Billion LGBT Market.

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below!
AUDIO TITLE:  Episode #43 – LGBT Travel and Tourism Expert Colin Sines
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Episode 43.
Intro:
Welcome to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast where you'll learn how to do business with and market to the LGBT community in an authentic and transparent way. We're talking about the $790 billion lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share and impact your bottom line. And now your host - she's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven and an advocate for the LGBT business community. Jenn, with two N's, T. Grace.
Jenn T. Grace:
Hello and welcome to episode number 43 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn T. Grace. And today's episode is going to be an interview, and that interview is with Colin Sines who is the President of Travel Gay Canada. He is also the founder, I believe, and publisher of Out Visions which is a magazine, and he'll give you some information about both of those organizations as we go through the interview itself today. However, I do want to mention that Colin is the absolute expert on LGBT marketing, especially as it relates to travel and tourism. So it was a complete pleasure to have been able to have this conversation with Colin and record it for the benefit of you, my loyal listener.

So I met Colin last year at the Travel Gay Canada conference which was last October. And the conference itself was fantastic and I had the pleasure of presenting, and it's actually- for those of you who have read my book, it's actually where I came up with the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, which I've now renamed to the Seven Mistakes Preventing You from Selling to the $830 Billion LGBT Market. So the Seven Deadly Sins were really debuted from a presentation that I was doing for them last year. It was something that I was kind of working on, but it was really the first time that I kind of threw them out in that particular order and format, and I got some really great feedback from a lot of those who were in that session. So I certainly kept on moving along in the direction of honing in on those Seven Deadly Sins, and now that is actually comprising the second half of my new book. So I just wanted to point that out because I think it's pretty cool. This year, unfortunately, I am not able to be in attendance at the conference. October and November and a little bit of December actually seem to be really, really busy, heavy conference times. I don't know- maybe it's just because Spring and Fall tend to be really heavy times when people have conference, but I had to make the choice between two different event,


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