Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional

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
Check out the online course!
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.

Direct download: epi-58-gay-business-marketing-is-authenticity-dead.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

In this episode of the podcast I talk with Ebone Bell - founder and managing editor of Tagg Magazine. If you have been looking to market to the lesbian community but haven't been certain on where to start, this podcast will point you in the right direction. Tagg Magazine is a lesbian publication and as the founder, Ebone knows more than a thing or two on how to effectively reach the lesbian market. You'll hear Ebone break down the myth that the LGBT community is monolithic and much, much more!
Links mentioned in today's podcast:

 Today's episode 
Tagg Magazine - Lesbian Culture, Events, & Entertainment

Listen to the 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 #57 – Expert Interview: Marketing Tips for Reaching Lesbians
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Episode 57.
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:
So I am super excited to have you on the show today. So I am talking with Ebone Bell. And you are the Tagg Magazine it person, is what I will call you. But your official title is you are the owner of it, you're the creator of it, founder, editor-in-chief, and basically the cook, line, bottle washer, and all that stuff as well I'm guessing.
Ebone Bell:
Exactly, you absolutely nailed it.
Jenn T Grace:
So I'm really happy to be talking to you today, and I really just want to- I'm really excited for the fact that you have Tagg Magazine which is a lesbian publication, and there are so few lesbian publications out there, that I'm so excited to have you on the show. Of course calling myself a professional lesbian and having a fellow professional lesbian basically being on the show, I think this is great to just kind of talk to us today about your business, about your personal story, and one question I'm really dying to know is what made you create Tagg Magazine?
Ebone Bell:
And that's a great question, and a question that I get all the time. Because people are like, 'Well what made you want to do a print publication where people are saying that print is dead. But essentially you know I live in the DC metropolitan area, and we have you know, other LGBT publications here which are great. But one consistent thing that I would always see, and still always see, is it was really geared a lot towards gay men and specifically even white gay men. You know when I would give presentations or sometimes still now I would have somebody count the number of men they see in the first ten pages of whatever publication, local LGBT publication is out there. And then I'd have them go back and count the number of women. The last time I did the presentation they counted 33 men and they counted two women. And some of those might have I think a couple or one of those happened to be an ad. So I always start off that way because that is the reason that we started Tagg Magazine. You know I took a huge leap of faith by wanting to do a print publication, but I really felt like there was a need for it, and the women's community has amazing people doing great things, and I wanted to be able to tell their stories, have resources for people, list events and kind of show how thriving the lesbian community is. So really that's why I started it and thankfully the community is really supporting this magazine in more ways than o...

Direct download: epi-57-ebone-belle-marketing-to-lesbians_1.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

 

Today's podcast episode is going to cover the ripple effect that supplier diversity opportunities can have on ​your​ business, whether or you are part of the LGBT community or an ally to the LGBT community. It doesn't matter if you are a diverse supplier or if you are selling to corporate - no matter what your business there is a world of opportunities that you are probably overlooking completely! Who doesn't want access to new opportunities to expand and grow your business? I don't think many people would say no to that. Today's episode will talk about all of the ways your business can benefit and grow as a result of these opportunities. You don't want to miss it.
Links mentioned in today' post:

Set up a call with me!
Today's episode
NGLCC Website 

 
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 #56 – Supplier Diversity
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Episode 56.
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 56 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace. And today I have a fairly meaty episode for you. So I want to talk about supplier diversity. Yes, again it's that phrase that you keep hearing me talk about but you may or may not know how that actually relates to your business. So I want you to from the get-go, basically understand that when I'm talking about supplier diversity, my mentality around it is that everybody has an opportunity, even if you're not someone of any type of diversity. But I guarantee you probably are, you just don't know it.

So that's going to be today's episode, but of course before we get into the actual meat of the episode, I want to just talk about three particular things. So the first of those three things is that I am looking for additional guests to feature on this podcast. So I have a pretty large network of people that I can go to and ask if they want to be on the show, and I personal just enjoy interviewing people that I somehow get along with, or somehow I see some sort of synergy between what they do and what I want to talk about here on the podcast. But I actually want to hear from you, and who you think should be on the show. I've been inviting people based on my own personal preferences, but at the end of the day, you're the ones listening to the show and I have a continuously increasing amount of listeners, and I want to know what you want to hear. So if you yourself would like to nominate yourself to be on the show, or you have a client or a colleague, a friend, a partner, spouse; whomever it happens to be that you think would be a good fit for this podcast, please let me know. I would love to hear from you. So you can do so by going to my website, going the Contact Me page, sending me an email that way and then I will get back to you and we'll see if it's a good fit.

So that is item number one. And item number two is that I am still accepting new coaching clients. I've been talking about it for- I don't even know, a couple of months maybe now, that I have been increasing the amount of coaching clients that I'm taking on. I only have five spots remaining at this point, so if you would like to be one of those five, please feel free to reach out to me on that.

Direct download: gay-business-epi-56-growth-opportunities-for-your-lgbt-or-allied-business.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

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