Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional

Storytelling with Tony Ferraiolo of  Tony Ferraiolo Coaching

New Haven, Connecticut 
Links mentioned in the show:

The Genderbread Person
What is Cisgender?
IPEC Coaching
But You Don’t Look Gay…
The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom
If I’m not lesbianed you can’t be transgendered…
http://tonyferraiolo.com/

 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: 30 Days, 30 Voices – Tony Ferraiolo
Jenn T Grace:
Welcome to 30 Days, 30 Voices: Stories from America's LGBT business leaders.
Intro:
You are listening to a special edition of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Tune in for the next thirty days as we interview one business leader per day each day in June to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. That's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month. You'll learn insights around business and marketing from those who know it best. 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. Thank you for tuning in to this special Pride Month episode of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Information about today's guest and links mentioned in the show will be available on the website at www.JennTGrace.com/30days-30voices. If you like what you hear in this interview, please be sure to tell a friend. And now, without further ado, let's dive into the interview.

I am pleased to be talking with Tony Ferraiolo today. Tony is a certified life coach, a speaker, a trainer and an advocate for transgender youth and their families. He is the founder of several organizations that support transgender youth as well as the cofounder of the Jim Collins Foundation. Most recently he is the subject of the new documentary A Self Made Man. Tony, I've given the listeners a really brief overview of who you are, but why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself and what your path looked like that led you to where you are today.
Tony Ferraiolo:
Absolutely. But first, thanks for having me on the show.
Jenn T Grace:
You are welcome.
Tony Ferraiolo:
It's great to be here. So this is what really happened to me. I'm transgender and I just turned 50, so back in the early 70s when I was a teenager, or actually an adolescent and I was growing up knowing that something was different about me, I didn't have any support from anyone. And that led me down a really dark path; it led me down a path of suicidal thought, it led me down a path of self-harming. It led me down the path of drug use and alcohol use. And when I realized at a very late age, like 41 years old that I was transgender, it was a celebration for about I would have to say a day and a half and then I got really, really scared. And I went down to a beach, a local beach, and I sat there with every intention to end my life. I could not imagine being transgender and having people support me and having people love me and having friends. I didn't know anybody who was transgender at that time. But something happened to me in the moment that I was crying and ready to end my life, that something inside of me said, 'Stop. Wait a minute. You have all the power to create yourself.' And I shifted instantly. Like I took my power back. And I started going down the path of transition for me, and I always say 'for me' because this is my story and everybody's transition is different. But my transition started off really trying to work on not being angry anymore and being able to face life with a positive thought, not a negative thought. And to do that I had to let go of a lot of the anger that I held for people who were abusive to me in the past.

So I did that,

Direct download: GBM_060413_TonyFerraiolo.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

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