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Thank you for listening to episode 71 of the podcast. On my last podcast I was able to answer a question from a reader and it was nice to get back to that type of podcast! I decided this week I would get to a few more questions I've received from LinkedIn connections that address reaching LGBT consumers. I also chat briefly about my recent marathon experience and international postage :)

If you have an LGBT-related question please feel free to drop me a line, I'd love to hear it.....and you never know.....your question may be featured on an upcoming podcast!

 

 

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 #71

Jenn T Grace: You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, episode 71.

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 an $884 billion lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share, and impact your bottom line. And now your host; she teaches straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn- with two N's, T. Grace.

Jenn T Grace: Well hello and welcome to episode number 71 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and today I am going to be answering a handful of questions that I have received from LinkedIn. In the last episode I'm pretty certain I had mentioned that I had a whole queue of LinkedIn questions that I wanted to answer. However the last episode I ended up only answering one of them, which I ended up titling, 'An Open Letter from a Self-Admitted Homophobe.' So if you have not listened to that podcast yet, I would totally recommend doing so. It's episode number 70 so you can go to www.JennTGrace.com/70. And if you prefer to read it rather than listen to it, the transcript for that episode is available as well, so you can certainly do that. But because that episode ended up taking me- or I should say that question ended up taking me an entire episode to respond to, today I want to cover three particular questions that I've received. One is from a gay business owner who is abroad, and there's a lesbian business owner who is in the United States, and then the third one is from a recent college grad looking for advice and tips on what she calls, 'the consulting thing.' So I do want to address all three of those questions, and hopefully I can keep it to a reasonable time frame here. Somehow under an hour, which is usually my goal, however as you all know sometimes that does not happen.

But anyway, so before I talk about those questions and provide some thorough answers, there's a couple of things that I do want to mention before diving into the meat of the episode. And the first of those things is that I wanted to give you a super quick update on my half marathon. I was just looking through old podcast episodes going back to in the mid-thirties for episodes. So going back to mid-2013, and I realized that for a really long time I was giving you regular updates on the progress, and what was going on. But then at some point along the way I have somehow stopped doing so. And it was interesting because I just ran my third half marathon over this last weekend, and I had a handful of people from my Facebook page reach out to me asking for updates because it was a whole debauchery of epic proportions, just like the last time I ran one. But when people were asking me for updates it occurred to me that, oh wow I have not actually mentioned it on the podcast in a while. And some of you who reached out are podcast listeners. So I wanted to just give a super quick update.

Direct download: episode_71_Simple-tactics-for-reaching-LGBT-consumers.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Thanks for listening to episode #70 of the podcast. Today's episode of the podcast isn't an interview, it's a response to an email I received from a reader. It's been a few months since I've spent a podcast just talking to you, my audience, so it was nice to get back to that and even share some exciting updates to come to this podcast. I receive a lot of comments and emails from my readers and listeners, but this one in particular felt like it should be shared. Because there's a lot in the question itself, and I think that it's probably a little more common of a thought process than we might want to believe. So I really wanted to take time today to dedicate answering this question in as much detail as I can. Take a listen and let me know if you can relate to the question being asked. I always love to hear your thoughts - leave them below!
Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below.

 
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AUDIO TITLE: Episode #70

 Jenn T Grace:

You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, episode 70.

 

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 an $884 billion lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share, and impact your bottom line. And now your host; she teaches straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn- with two N's, T. Grace.

 

Jenn T Grace:

Well hello and welcome to the episode number 70 of the podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and today is not going to be an interview. I know many of you listening have been enjoying interviews that from what I can tell started back at episode 61. So we are in episode number 70 today, so we have had many, many interviews that if you are listening to this live as it comes out, you have been listening to it pretty much all throughout the summer, I've had awesome guests on the show. So the last time that I just kind of riffed with you one-on-one was back in July. It seems a little bit crazy, I didn't realize it had been that long, but back in July I had done episode number 61, which was the 'Marriage Equality has Arrived, But the Work is Far from Done.' So I talked about the implications of marriage equality, and what that's going to mean for marketing going forward. So since then we've heard from Jeremy Wallace, Alice Derock, Bryce Summers, Rolla Selbak, Ann Townsend, Diane Conklin, Michele Wierzgac, and Melissa Ferrick. So we've had some pretty awesome lineup, if I do say so myself, of guests that I've had on the show. So I'm definitely planning on having more guests coming in the next few months or so to kind of wrap up the year. But today I wanted to talk with you one-on-one in response to a reader's question. So this question is really lengthy, and it's really, really astute and I think requires a podcast response versus me trying to create a blog out of it, or just email them back. Because there's a lot in the question itself, and I think that it's probably a little more common of a thought process than we might want to believe. So I really wanted to take time today to dedicate answering this question in as much detail as I can. And I'll read the entire question first, and then I'm going to break it up not necessarily line by line per say, but I'm definitely going to break it up so that way I can address very specific points that have been brought up in that question.

So before we get into answering this question, which I'm hoping is going to be very informative for you, I do want to bring up a couple of things, because we are at the end of October, and we are on episode number 70,

Direct download: Episode_70_An-open-letter-from-a-self-admitted-homophobe.mp3
Category:Allies -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Thanks for listening to episode #69 of the podcast. Today’s guest, Melissa Ferrick, is a master of many trades – an acclaimed performing artist (currently listed as #20 of the top 50 women in indie music), a record label owner as well as a professor at Berklee College of Music. She shares her take on the evolution of the music industry in the digital age, her ups and downs and the lessons she’s learned as a business owner as well as the new music venture she started. I’ve been a fan for over a decade and I know after hearing her insights, you will be too. I hope you enjoy the episode. As always, feel free to leave your feedback!
Links mentioned in today’s episode

Melissa Ferrick
Facebook: Melissa Ferrick
Twitter: Melissa Ferrick
Welcome to the rebirth of Right on Records!  

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below.

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AUDIO TITLE:  Episode #69 – Melissa Ferrick Interview
Jenn T Grace:
My first question that we just kind of briefly went over would be how did you become to the place that you are today? Like what was the path that led you to being on your twelfth album for example that you are in the process of releasing now?
Melissa Ferrick:
Sure. Really started in 1991. I had an opportunity to open for Morrissey, the former lead singer of the band called the Smiths. And I was signed to a major label deal at that time, I was signed to Atlantic Records. So my first album came out in 1993, and I had an incredible opportunity to be an artist on a major label, which not a lot of people have that. It was really the hay day of the music industry. You're talking about Nirvana, and Jewel, and Hootie and the Blowfish, and Sound Garden; it was a great time to be putting records out. And in '95 I put a second record out with them, and didn't sell enough records. I did have some success in Europe on those two albums, and some success in the states too, as far as just name recognition and having the ability to get on some pretty cool tours. Particularly Weezer I think for me was the coolest one I got to be on. And then that started my path of independent record labels, and DIY, and cell phones came out, and AOL started. So I really was one of these people- I am one of these people that had survived a lot of changes in the music industry. So I signed an Indie deal with a label in Boulder, Colorado and made three records for them. And that was a pretty standard 50/50 deal at the time. That was- from a business perspective anyway, that was the new thing. Look we're going to give the artist 50% instead of 10% which is what major labels gave them. However you were going from a budget of a major label of $150,000 to make a record to a budget of $5,000. So the numbers didn't really make a lot of sense. So that 50% back actually wasn't as great as it seemed. However I do still get royalty checks from them, so that's great because you recouped. You made the $5,000 back, and at Atlantic it was hard to make the $150,000 back. So that was really- after I finished working with Warp Records and Rob Gordon in Boulder, that was in 1999 I gave him the record 'Freedom' which the song 'Drive' is on, which is like my most popular song. And that was when I realized that I should be doing this on my own and putting out records on my own label. Certainly at that time Ani DiFranco, she was huge at that time, and she was owning her own record label and putting records out. And then this other woman named Amiee Mann that I'm a huge fan of had this record called 'Magnolia' and it won an Oscar, and the label that she had bet on didn't want to put the record out. So everything was really, really changing and I thought, 'Well I've got to just open up my own label.' So I did, and I started my record label in the year 2000 with an $8,000 credit card,

Direct download: episode_69_Melissa-Ferrick-Rock-Folk-Singer.mp3
Category:Allies -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Thanks for joining me for episode #68 of the podcast. My guest today is Michele Wierzgac, who I’m so glad shared her story with me and now you. Michele’s journey is an interesting one; from the volleyball court to the main stage there’s never been a dull moment. She offers amazing insight into how to be authentically successful, as well as some of the best advice she’s ever received. She and I also shared a laugh about how unfamiliar we are with being bored – how many of you feel the same? I would love to hear feedback and/or questions. Drop me a line or comment below! Enjoy the show!

Links mentioned in today’s episode

www.micheleandco.com

 
Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below.

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AUDIO TITLE:  Jenn T Grace – Ep 68
Jenn T. Grace:
Let’s dive right in and tell the audience a little bit about yourself, your story, and essentially what your path looked like that led you to the place that you are today.
Michele Wierzgac:
Well I was born in Chicago, one of six children. My mom had eight brothers and sisters, and my dad had eight brothers. Can you imagine just being the baby of eight older brothers?
Jenn T. Grace:
That is a lot. No thank you.
Michele Wierzgac:
So you can get a sense that I grew up on the south side of Chicago with a big family, Polish Catholic family, and tons of cousins, aunts and uncles. And as a young child I played volleyball, softball and ice hockey with my brothers and friends in the neighborhood. And during this entire time while I was playing sports, my dad always yelled at me, "A woman's place is in the home to cook and clean and raise the kids. Stop playing sports!"

So my mother always said then, "Okay you can go out and play, only after you do the dishes." So I had all these rules and regulations I had to live by these traditional 'social values.' And then my grammar school coach who was my friend's mother discovered that I had a talent for volleyball, and she talked my mother into allowing me to go to practice after dinner. And that's how everything started for me, and I had somebody believing in me- my mom and my volleyball coach.

So in high school I was involved in everything from journalism to band, I played the flute, the piano, I refereed for basketball and played for softball, teaching volleyball clinic. And again, my mom told me to focus, you can't be good at everything, you need to focus on just a few things. So I dropped off journalism and band and everything, and I made room for volleyball and I discovered I had a natural talent again, for volleyball even at the high school level. We went to state, took second in state, I was the captain in All-State, All-American, and my high school coach called me as the season was over and said, "Michelle, you need to sit down, you need to take a look at this. There are eleven scholarship offers sitting her." At that time they contacted the coaches. And I said, "Oh, college?" And she said, "Yeah, college." And she said, "You really need to think about which college you're going to," and I said, "Oh no, my father would never allow me to go to college. There's just no way." She says, "Oh well I need to talk to your mother." My mother and my high school coach conspired. My father said, "There's no way. A woman's place is cook and clean and stay at home and raising babies." And mother said, "Like hell. She's going off to college. I never had an opportunity like this, and she's going." And I think really focusing on one sport really helped me out, and her wisdom really helped me out. So anyway, I chose Illinois State University and my mom and dad asked the question, "Why did you pick that?" And I said, "It's a great teaching school, look how they're rated." I did my homework, that's another thing that I learned to do.

Direct download: episode_68_michele_wierzgac.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Links mentioned in today's episode:

LGBT Success Academy
 Implementation Coaching Event
Welcome to Complete Marketing Systems

To listen to the episode, click the play button below.

 

AUDIO TITLE: Episode #67 – Diane Conklin
Jenn T Grace:
Alright so why don't you tell the listeners just a little bit about your story, your history, some of your path that basically took you from where you were early in your career to where you are now as the owner of your business?
Diane Conklin:
That's a loaded question when you're my age, you know?
Jenn T Grace:
No one knows your age, we'll keep that a secret.
Diane Conklin:
I don't care if they do or not. So it's interesting. I think for me having grown up in rural small town Ohio on a 75 acre farm in very conservative, very prejudice kind of what I would call small-minded I guess. Or really it's not about being small-minded, it's people there knew what they knew. And to be where I am today, there was no thought certainly of that back then. But you know I think the big thing for me that really changed and sort of catapulted my career was you know I have a Master's degree in Exercise Science, and I was sort of working in health clubs and wellness facilities, and I've worked in hospitals, and done a lot of really cool things in that part of my career. Yet there was always a part of me that said- while I was fulfilled and I loved it, and was making a difference in people's lives, there was always this part of me that sort of tug that said there was something more kind of thing. And I think the real catapult for me in the marketing industry and where I am now was I actually worked for a guy in Florida for a year for no pay. And as crazy as that sounds, I was in my thirties, I took what would fit in the back of the pickup truck and drove eight hours to a little place called Merritt Island, Florida from Atlanta. Left the house- the relationship, the dogs, the- all of it, the friends, the everything to do that. And you know that really in a lot of ways was the beginning for me of a whole new view of sort of not only life, but really work, and the industry, and my business, and all of that. So I think that was sort of the catapult for me, and the great thing is after I finished my year and left and branched out on my own, I've never made less than six figures a year. So call it luck, call it hard work, call it preparation, whatever you want to call it. There was a lot of all of that I think. I think that's really for me the thing that sort of made the biggest change.
Jenn T Grace:
Interesting. So that's a good I suppose piece of advice. Work for free for a year, and then the karma will pay itself back.
Diane Conklin:
Well you know, I don't know so much about that as it's just I have that sort of- and I think this comes from growing up on a farm. You know, whatever it takes kind of attitude. And you know there are a lot of people who said, "Wow that's really cool. Wow, I wish I could do that." And then the guy who I worked for, his name was Ted, when Ted would offer people the opportunity there was always a reason, aka excuse, right? They couldn't do it. "Well I have kids," or "I have a house," or "I have a family," or "I have a this or a that." And interestingly, you know all of those things applied to me. And my partner at the time stayed in Atlanta and continued running the business, and took care of the house and the animals and all of that stuff. It was just the commitment that we made because I knew that by doing it- although it was a tough year, I mean jeez I was on dial-up for crying out loud. You know I knew that it was going to get me to a large degree where I wanted to be. And so it was about the end result, and I think that's the real lesson for people, is what's the result that you want? And then how do you get there?
Jenn T Grace:
That's a really, really,


Thanks for listening to episode #66 of the podcast. Today's episode is with Ann Townsend, author of LGBTQ: Outing My Christianity. She is also an advocate for LGBTQ youth with Hands Across the Pond. She also shares a few secret projects she is working on and how you can get involved. I hope you enjoy the episode - reach out to me with any questions or comments!
Links mentioned in today's episode:

LGBTQ: Outing My Christianity
Hands Across the Pond | LGBTQ Youth Advocacy, Authors, and Speakers

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 #66 – Interview with Ann Townsend

 
Jenn T Grace:
Essentially I would love for you to tell the listeners just a little bit about yourself. So you can talk about your personal story, your professional journey, maybe the intersection of both of those which I know is actually part of your story, and just kind of- I don't know, give a little overview to the listeners of what your path looked like that led you to the place that you are currently today.
Ann Townsend:
When I was a teenager I was far from even close to a point where I was willing to accept that I was gay. I- in fact until probably the last five or so years, I was uncomfortable saying the word 'lesbian.' It has a lot to do with my upbringing. I was raised in- even though I was born in California, I was raised in Arkansas in a town that was filled with a gazillion churches and there was only 10,000 in the population. So-
Jenn T Grace:
Lots of choices.
Ann Townsend:
Yeah. So when I went to Hawaii and I was away from all the people that could possibly judge me and affect my life in any way, I went ahead and followed some instincts. And I had already had my first physical encounter with a female, even though it was fully clothed and included combat boots; it was one of those- that was the 'ah-ha' moment. That was like, "Oh, yes. Yes, I am gay. I like girls, yes I do. And this one in particular is fine." And then in Hawaii I went ahead and didn't stay in the military- had my first girlfriend and stayed with her for six months, and learned a lot about relationships that I had no idea about because I had had boyfriends. But because I was never emotionally invested in them it was never something that really- I didn't really grow from it. It was kind of like I was going through these motions like, "This is supposed to be this way. This is the way I'm supposed to be. This is the way the world works. Get over it Ann, whatever your problem is." And I always- it was kind of hard though because I was always disconnected in one way or another from everybody, because just the way my brain works. And turns out there's a reason for that, that I only got recently diagnosed with. But there was always a piece of me that couldn't understand some of the conversations, couldn't understand some of the social norms, and so I felt that I was just having to deal with yet another one of those social things that I just didn't get, that I just was disconnected from, and I just had to deal with it because that's what people did. And- but in Hawaii having a girlfriend and experiencing an actual lesbian love affair that was hard and fantastic and amazing, and because of the two people we were, was not at all successful. But while I was there I met some really fantastic older ladies from Portland, some- my roommate was gay, and he was also my supervisor. And they came down from Portland to take a look at the shop that we were doing. It was a national corporation, and we were doing something right and doing some things wrong, and they wanted to see how they could emulate the rightness and fix the wrongness. And they spent some time with me personally, and explained a lot of things to me, and my first introduction to the concept of baby ...

Direct download: Ann-Townsend-Interview-epi-66.mp3
Category:Community -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Links mentioned in today's episode:

Rolla Selbak Pix

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 #65 – Rolla Selbak Interview
Jenn T Grace:
Alright so if you are ready, I can certainly kind of just hop into the questions and we can just kind of go from there.
Rolla Selbak:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jenn T Grace:
Alright, cool. So the first question that I want to ask you is if you could just share a little bit about your background. So if you want to talk about your personal background, your professional background, you know if it's something you want to talk about your filmmaking currently, something else you might be working on. Just really I guess give the audience and the listeners a glimpse into kind of how you ended up doing what you're doing now if you will.
Rolla Selbak:
So let's see. So I grew up in Abu Dhabi and I completely fell in love with films and filmmaking and TV, and my parents bought us this huge gargantuan like VHS like tape- camcorder type of a thing. And originally they had bought it and they were one of the first ones in the neighborhood to actually have one, and originally they bought it so that they could actually- you know for birthday parties, and for special occasions and such. But I immediately hijacked it, and I dressed up my siblings in hilarious costumes, and I made videos and commercials, and you know and short films. And they were of course horrible and nothing I would ever show any of your audience members, or else it would be highly embarrassing.
Jenn T Grace:
And entertaining.
Rolla Selbak:
But that's where I started. And then so when I came to the US after the first Gulf War, I ended up going the engineering path because you know, one has to kind of make money to support their film crack habit as I like to call it. And so I ended up doing both; both engineering and then I also was like writing scripts, and then finally I decided if no one's going to be producing my scripts I'm just going to go ahead and teach myself how to direct, and shoot, and all that type of stuff. So I was just completely self-taught. My first short film was called 'London Bridge.' It was, you know, seven minutes and it was about- something about like loneliness in America. You know like that teenage angst that you get. And I invited all my family and friends, I rented out this theatre, and it was- it was really funny because everyone came. They didn't really know what to expect, and they watched seven minutes of really depressing footage and then they left. And then they would pat me on the head and be like, "Are you okay?" I'm like, "Yes I'm just expressing myself through film." And so yeah, so that was my foray into actually directing, and filmmaking, and I just did another short film, another short film, another short film, and then went up to doing feature films, and series, and you know all that other good stuff. So yeah, so I had very, very humble beginnings, completely self-taught.
Jenn T Grace:
That's awesome.
Rolla Selbak:
But you know, that's the fun of it, right?
Jenn T Grace:
Yeah. I feel like learning is so much part of that process, that's just for me personally, I think it's the most fun part.
Rolla Selbak:
Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. For sure. And- yeah.
Jenn T Grace:
So will you tell us I guess a little bit about your films? And I know that you have a web series that's on Tello, and Christin Mell was actually one of the guests on here- actually it seems like quite a while ago at this point. But if you want to I guess just kind of give the audience a little bit of an idea. I'm sure your films kind of vary in background, but just a little bit because I do see- I'm on your website right now and it certain...

Direct download: epi-65-rolla-selbek-out-queer-filmmaker-producer.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Links mentioned in today's episode:

Sci Fi Horror Books | Gay Fiction Novels

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below.

 
A short bio about Bryce Summers:
Bryce Bentley Summers is a psychologist, fiction novelist, and founder of Queer Sense theory. Bryce has authored the young adult dark fantasy Amen to Rot series, which includes the final piece, Nyte God which pits a group of teen heroes against alien invaders. The Zombie Squad is a teen supernatural thriller where four teens find themselves in New Orleans during a zombie apocalypse. The Zombie Squad recently received RUNNER-UP in the New York Book Festival in the unpublished manuscript category.

Rotville is the newest novel, a sci-fi thriller that follows Dylan, a genetic engineered human who breaks out of prison and from the clutches of a cruel director and finds himself inside a quarantine city filled with deadly mutants.

Fresh Meat is s supernatural suspense with multicultural and gay themes. This novel received Honorable-Mention in the San Francisco and New York Book Festivals. This novel parallels the institution of American slavery with the man-versus-punk political system that defines modern day prisons.

Queer Sense examines how people form attitudes toward sexual orientation, for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, as well as those who are not. The unique aspects ofQueer Sense are the influence of three factors that all occur within the ecological model: 1) exposure to social models whether they are a person (MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow or your parent for example), or institution, like the Republican Party; 2) connections – also known as attachments – we make to these social models; and 3) the language we use with these social models.
Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the podcast? No problem! Read the transcript below.
AUDIO TITLE:  Episode #64 – Bryce Bentley Summers Interview
Jenn T Grace:
So I want to start off by asking you just a little bit more about I guess either your personal past, or your professional past, just basically what has brought you to the point where you are in your career right now as you're kind of in the throes of launching this book, and really kind of what brought you from before to the current. If you just want to kind of share anything that you feel is of interest and we'll kind of take it from there.
Bryce Summers:
Oh sure. Well I had gotten my Master's degree in Psychology around 2002, and when I had done that I had- I was in a residence studying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender kind of issues, but I had never quite pursued that. And then fast forward several years later, 2006 I started my PhD program, and I was very- I was definitely- I was wanting to pursue a research in this area. And I looked at different things to do research on, and in the end collaborating with my advisor, we decided to look at attitudes towards- heterosexual attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people. And from that I did my dissertation on that, it was a very niche kind of project that was- had done pretty simple, quick. Simple quick, I mean it was like three years. But that branched out though into me looking more about how do people- how do we all form attitudes, you know whether we're heterosexual, or whether we're gay, or transgender; how do we all just form attitudes in general? How does this come to be? And so then I started- that's when I just started doing more writing on myself to try to kind of bring out some of these answers, and that kind of really helped as flushing out the idea that there's, you know ecological- we're all in the ecological place in society. So you know, I live in Dallas, Texas, and someone might live in Boston, Massachusetts, and all these cultures shape our attitudes by the churches we see, and the people we see.

Direct download: Episode_64_with_Bryce_Summers_author_of_Queer_Sense.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Below are links mentioned in today's podcast:

Wet For Her

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 #63 – Alice Derock Interview
Jenn T Grace:
Alright so I guess what I'd love to just have you maybe walk us through a little bit about your history, maybe a little bit about what you've done in the past, and what you- you know what experiences maybe led you to the point where you are, where you founded your current company.
Alice Derock:
Okay, so I used to work in the hotels in France, like at five star hotels. And I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and see what was missing was the idea of which product I could bring to the market, something new and something, you know that will help people or it be- yeah that would help people. So one day with my girlfriend we went to a love store to buy a sex toy, and the only thing that was proposed to us was really like you know realistic and with like not good image with straight girls on the back of the packaging and we were just like, "Don't you have anything for lesbians?" And the guy said, "No we don't have." And so then we went on the Internet and we didn't find any manufacturer of sex toys for lesbians. So this from where the story starts.
Jenn T Grace:
Okay so like most entrepreneurs, you're starting from a place of you were looking for something for yourself, and ended up-
Alice Derock:
Exactly.
Jenn T Grace:
Yeah. Okay so can you I guess share with the listeners where you're located, and then additionally- I know we were just talking about the different places that you have warehouses, because you are a global company. So I'd love for them to kind of get a good sense of just the size and magnitude of your-
Alice Derock:
Sure. So we started the business in France, like we launched the business in France and then like three months after, I moved to New York and then I really started the company in New York in fact. And so today the head office is in New York, we have the company in France also for all of Europe. We have warehouses in like California, in Santa Clara, warehouse in Paris, and we have just opened a warehouse in Sydney now. So we're covering North America, Europe, and Australia.
Jenn T Grace:
So what I guess in your work experience, or your past industry knowledge, or anything like that made you feel like you had what it took to basically carve out an entire new niche within a huge industry that's very male dominated I would imagine?
Alice Derock:
What helped me with my experience?
Jenn T Grace:
Mm hmm.
Alice Derock:
I will say- I would say that today what my experience in the hotel industry helped me with customer service, and that might be the only thing because coming from the hotel industry where we are giving service in fact to customers, it's very different from being a manufacturer. So I had to learn every step from designing, manufacturing, with the mold, with how it worked, packaging, and then shipping, and then warehousing, and then setting. And then we have all the marketing and everything. So I had to learn a lot in fact.
Jenn T Grace:
That sounds kind of crazy. So how long did it take you to go from inception of 'we need to do this because we ourselves need this, so we need to create this,' to actually having a product that goes to market?
Alice Derock:
It took like- it took like a year and a half.
Jenn T Grace:
Wow, that's not bad.
Alice Derock:
But that's not too bad, but that was only for one product. So it can go fast, but the mistake that I made was to put to the market only one product. We should have done like maybe a line of products and we did like maybe launched like five or six products one at a time ...

Direct download: epi-63-gay-business-marketing-made-easy-alice-derock.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Links mentioned in today's podcast:

Jeremy L. Wallace | Transgender Keynote Speaker 
Jenn T. Grace --- LGBT Marketing and Communications Expert

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Would you prefer to read the transcription than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below.
AUDIO TITLE: Episode #62 – Jeremy Wallace Interview
Jenn T Grace:
So yeah, so let's just dive right in and let me ask you the first question which is if you could just share with the listeners of this podcast just a little bit about your story. So if you want to talk about what your path looked like that led you to the place you are today, talk a little bit about your professional past, your personal past. Really just kind of what makes you the Jeremy Wallace that we know today.
Jeremy Wallace:
Okay, wonderful. Well I am almost 44 years old, and I can say that about three years ago was the first time that I experienced what it was like to be truly happy. And that was because I had been pretty much immersed into my transition from female to male. And so growing up in the seventies I didn't know anything about transgender issues, I never had heard the word before, I just was a miserable kid all the time. There was pockets of, you know, smiles and good times, but for the most part I would say this dark cloud just followed me everywhere. I couldn't figure out why I never felt normal, I never felt like I fit in my skin, and just as I got older and more mature and a little more life under my belt, I started to realize that what was happening was the reason why I was miserable is because when I would look in the mirror, I always expected to see something different looking back at me. So I would pick myself apart, and I couldn't- and it started to unravel and realized that the stuff I was feeling- and I always felt like I was a little boy when I was growing up. That that's who I really am. And I decided then at 37 to actually really dive into this with just all faith; just basically jump into an empty pool and hope there's water kind of experience. And that's what I did. So at 37 I made the life-changing, the life-affirming decision to transition. And I would say that it was the best thing I've ever done in my entire life.
Jenn T Grace:
That's really- that's really awesome. And I know that you have written a book, and I think a lot of my listeners know that I do work with a lot of authors or people who are professional speakers, or their desire is to become a professional speaker. And you were kind enough to send me your book, and I personally was just blown away by the quality. So I do know a lot of people who have written books, and not to discount anyone's quality of anyone's book, but even your book compared to mine, like just the quality just is completely superior, it's just awesome. So can you just share I guess a little bit about that process of how you came to wanting to actually put your story in writing so others can learn from it?
Jeremy Wallace:
Sure. And first of all, thank you for that compliment, that was very, very sweet. I would say that I- when I first transitioned, in fact I remember even this almost verbatim coming out of my mouth. There's no way I'm going to be a poster child for this. And well, as all things in life, things change. So not that I consider myself a poster child but I am choosing to be highly visible. How that came about was once I settled into my own skin, I would tell people about certain things that happened while I was transitioning. Funny things that would happen. And as I told the stories people were actually real intrigued and I found that by me telling stories, that that broke through that kind of uncomfortableness between when people were like, "Ooh, I'm not really sure what- what you're going through. I don't think I've ever met somebody who's transgender. This seems a little weird.

Direct download: Episode-62-Jeremy-Wallace.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:05am EDT