Out of Queeriosity

Suzette Mullen (she/her) is a memoir and nonfiction book coach, retreat leader, and the author of the memoir The Only Way Through Is Out, forthcoming February 13, 2024, from the University of Wisconsin Press. Her publications include a tiny love story in the New York Times and The Subaru Should Have Been a Sign, an essay that went viral on today.com.  As a book coach, Suzette builds safe and supportive communities for queer writers where she helps them find their deeper stories and big ideas, choose the structures that serve those stories and ideas, sort through their publication options, find agent representation, and land book deals. “I had this experience of recognizing my sexuality later in life. And the question for me was, how did I not know this before? How did I get to this place? And then how did I get to a place where it was so difficult for me to make a decision about or take action on what I knew to be true for myself?” “I had a lovely life and I have no regrets about that lovely life I led. And I have two sons who I have a great relationship with. I have an ex-husband who I'm still friendly with. I had a whole life before. I feel very grateful that I am now stepping into Suzette 2.0, and it is a very different life. It is a life that feels more alive for me. I feel more aligned with everything.” “We talk about how visibility matters. And I'm sharing a story of somebody who came out later in life, came out in her fifties, is stepping into a vibrant professional career in, in her fifties and now into my sixties. And hopefully it's going to resonate with some people out there.” “I didn't just make a huge change in my personal life. I did that first and then the professional possibilities and really stepping into the work I was meant to do — just to write stories and to help guide other writers and in their storytelling. I mean I love, love my work.” Links Sign up to receive the Insider Companion Guide to The Only Way Through is Out Order Suzette’s book The Only Way Through is Out Learn more about book coaching with Suzette Learn more about Suzette’s Mentorship and Community of Queer writers, Write Yourself Out

 Sarah McDevitt and her wife were one of the first queer couples to get married in Ireland. In order to legalize equal marriage, LGBTQ+ Irish citizens were knocking on doors and asking their family and friends to vote for the constitutional change.   What happened next is a piece of our history that we all need to know about.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcdevittsarah/ Sarah Stone McDevitt is a Radio broadcasting graduate she spent the early part of her career in local radio before moving into agency life. She spent 16 years working across creative, media, content and web development agencies before joining Hubspot. In her personal life, Sarah is married with three kids and lives in Dublin, Ireland. She and her wife were the first couple to marry in the only county in Ireland to vote no in the marriage vote. She proudly served 13 years in the reserve army in Ireland as a corporal in a communications unit. She is the founder and chairperson of a charity called Help Us Give Smiles which has seen her travel to Kenya for almost 20 years working with vulnerable children and communities. And finally, she is an LGBTQ+ activist focused in particular on the rights of LGBTQ+ parents in 2020 post a lenghty campaign Sarah and her wife Geraldine along with countless other couples finally got on thier childrens birth certs.

Travers Johnson (he/him) is the Founder & CEO of Queerency, the leading source for LGBTQ+ business news. He is also the Creator of LGBTQ+ Business Week, an annual 7-day celebration of queer-owned small businesses. Travers is an award-winning content strategist and editor with 15 years of experience in digital media, digital marketing, and book publishing. A Forbes contributor who covers topics at the intersection of the queer economy and the creator economy, Travers has worked for and with industry leading companies including Mailchimp, Penguin Random House, Edelman, and Scholastic. He was trained at Morehouse College and Georgetown University and is a winner of the Google News Initiative Pitchfest and the Maynard Institute Media Entrepreneurship Award. https://www.instagram.com/queerency/ https://www.instagram.com/lgbtqbusinessweek/ Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius XM and United Therapeutics  KN Global Group, owned by Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, bought the Miss Universe Organization Arlan Hamilton   

Ayla and Savannah run the all-female production crew at the award-winning Borderlands Brewing Co in Tucson, AZ. They've taken those leadership skills into the community, co-founding the local Pink Boots Society chapter, and creating cross-cultural leadership opportunities that reach across our southern border for community building in unlikely places - the women-run breweries of Mexico. Join us to listen and learn from their unique and impactful journey! OutofQueeriosity.com    https://tucsonfoodie.com/2023/02/02/ayla-kapahi/ https://tucsonfoodie.com/2022/09/08/las-hermanas-2022/ https://ket.org/program/la-frontera-with-pati-jinich-14148/beer-tasting-at-borderlands-brewing/ https://www.instagram.com/aylakapahi/?hl=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayla-kapahi-337164265/ https://www.borderlandsbrewing.com/ https://www.instagram.com/openupsavy/ Savanna Saldatem she/her- Tucson native since 1991. Lead Brewer for Borderlands Brewing Company for 5 years. Dog-loving, travel-loving, experience-driven human being. LGBTQ+ community member.   Ayla Kapahi, she/her, is the Head Brewer and Director of Production for Borderlands Brewing Company. She has 8 years of professional brewing experience in Tucson. She’s part of an all-women’s beer production facility and collaborates with women brewers throughout Mexico. Ayla is passionate about empowering women and minorities in the craft beer industry. She co-founded Pink Boots of Southern Arizona, a non-profit that supports women in alcohol fermentation sciences. Ayla is currently completing a master’s degree through Eller’s Evening MBA program at the University of Arizona. She loves spending time with family and friends. If Ayla had more free time, she’d spend it taking Bachata dance lessons, going to classic car shows, and training for a weightlifting competition.

Today, we are joined by Ricky Koo (he/him), an incredible leadership and development coach who leverages his day job as a tech executive to mentor emerging LGBTQ+ leaders to increase their impact. Our conversation explores the binary experience of growing up in both American culture and Hong Kong culture. Ricky shares his experience in coming out to himself and his cherished mother and how Ricky is using his voice to build connection and community. Ricky displays one of the skills masterfully in this episode.  Ricky Koo (he/him) is a first-generation, queer immigrant originally from Hong Kong. He is a full-time Dog Dad, Finance executive in the technology industry, and a proud entrepreneur who owns a coaching business centered around empowering under-represented communities in their life and career. Ricky's vision is a future of more diverse, more empathetic, and more self-aware leaders, as he coaches individuals and teams on authentic leadership and impactful communication.  You can find Ricky on Instagram @coachingwithricky or on his website: rickykoo.com. Also, you can read his blog post, Queer Innocence and Discovery on the Pride and Joy Foundation Blog here.  _________________________________ Our podcasts are produced with the incredible help of Jessica Whipple. Are you in need of podcast assistance? Find Jess online for podcast management support: jessicawhipple.com @jessicawhipple.wav

juliany taveras (they/them/elle) is a storyteller from Ayití Bohio (Dominican Republic) by way of Lenapehoking (New York City). Their work, which centers the lives and liberation of the Afro/Indigenous and queer/trans diasporas, takes many forms, including playwriting, screenwriting, poetry, photography, graphic design, teaching artistry, and (perhaps most importantly) kinship. This fall, a new World Premiere stage adaptation of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress will debut at Children's Theatre Company (CTC), written by playwright juliany taveras and directed by Heidi Stillman, Artistic Director of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre. The production will run at CTC from Oct. 10 - Nov. 19, 2023. More information is available here: https://childrenstheatre.org/whats-on/morris-micklewhite/.   About the Play: Morris likes lots of things: doing puzzles, painting pictures, pretending to be an astronaut, and wearing a tangerine dress from his school’s dress-up box because it “reminds him of tigers, the sun, and his mother’s hair.” But some of his classmates think boys can’t wear dresses because … well, they’re boys. With his vivid imagination and space-animal friends, Morris travels the galaxy in search of an answer to the all-important question: “Do astronauts wear dresses?”   The original children's book Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress has received widespread praise, from critics, readers, families, and educators. Dame Julie Andrews featured it on her show, Julie's Library. It has received the following recognition: Stonewall Book Award-Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, 2015, Honor, Children's (Young Adult Literature).   Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature, 2017, Picture Book.  Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, 2015, Finalist, Children's Literature.  Prix TD De Litterature Canadienne Pour L'Enfance et la Jeunesse, 2015, Finalist, English Language.  TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, 2015, Finalist, Children's Literature. First video teaser: https://vimeo.com/859480374?share=copy  ______________________ Our podcasts are produced with the incredible help of Jessica Whipple. Are you in need of podcast assistance? Find Jess online for podcast management support: jessicawhipple.com @jessicawhipple.wav    

 In this episode, we chat with Meg Appelgate and Katherine McNamara of Unsilenced.  Unsilenced is a nonprofit dedicated to lifting the voices of survivors of the troubled teen industry and eradicating the industry altogether. This is incredibly important work for the LGBTQ+ community, as a disproportionate amount of LGBTQ+ youth are in these dangerous organizations. In many instances, this is where our youth experience conversion therapy and live with the consequences. From Unsilenced -  Every year, thousands of children are sent against their will – often ripped out of their beds in the middle of the night by strangers – to private facilities to be treated for various mental illnesses, addiction issues and perceived behavioral problems. Many times these programs are labeled as “boot camps,” “behavioral modification schools,” “wilderness therapy,” “secured group homes,” and “conversion therapy.” These programs market themselves to parents, therapists, state and judicial agencies, and insurance companies as providers of therapeutic treatment. Instead of delivering evidence-based treatment, many of these programs deliver a myriad of maltreatment such as physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, isolation, forced hard labor, chemical sedation, sleep and food deprivation, attack therapy, aversion therapy, etc. Tags for IG, twitter, and Tiktok:  @unsilenced_now Unsilenced Tags for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Unsilenced.now Unsilenced Website: www.unsilenced.org Meg is the co-founder and CEO of Unsilenced, a nonprofit organization aiming to stop institutional child abuse within the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI). She is a survivor of 2 TTI programs, where she spent a combined total of 3 1/2 years of her teen years feeling brainwashed and abused.  After graduating college, with a degree in psychology,  completely oblivious to the abuse she had experienced, Meg spent the next 17 years dedicating her life serving on various non-profit boards helping with Board development, recruitment, and fundraising.  It wasn’t until she was well into her non-profit career that she woke up to the abuse and brainwashing that plagued her childhood and the effect it had on her entire adulthood. It was then that she became determined to pair her love of giving back and helping those in need, with her dedication to empowering other survivors of institutional abuse.   Katherine spent over 2.5 years in Provo Canyon School and Casa By The Sea as a teenager. She has been an outspoken vocal advocate speaking out against this industry and advocating for evidence-based community treatment. In her years of advocacy, she’s conducted multiple investigations into active and closed programs, worked with law enforcement on multiple investigations, built one of the largest program maps, and created the largest archive of program data that is currently available online. In 2020, she was featured in Paris Hilton’s documentary, entitled “This Is Paris” where she and her fellow Provo Canyon School classmates discussed their experiences and brought much-needed mainstream attention to the plight of children in these programs. Outside of her advocacy work, Katherine McNamara is well-known in the cybersecurity field. She is considered a subject matter expert and has published several courses, books, articles, and blogs. She has earned a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology Security, Masters of Science in Information Security and Assurance, and holds over 30 industry certifications including two CCIEs, CISSP, etc.   _________________________________ Our podcasts are produced with the incredible help of Jessica Whipple. Are you in need of podcast assistance? Find Jess online for podcast management support: jessicawhipple.com @jessicawhipple.wav

Are you book-curious or book ready? Did you know the publishing industry is 89% hetero? We NEED LGBTQ+ writers, we need YOUR voices. If you have expertise and always wanted to write a book or you are ready to take your business to the next level, then OUTWrite Authors might be for you. This week we take a deep dive with our instructor of OUTWrite Authors, Suzette Mullen (she/her), and our very own Director of Operations, C. Rizleris (they/them), who also happens to be an OUTWrite Authors grad.  Suzette Mullen (she/her) is a memoir and nonfiction book coach, retreat leader, and the author of the memoir The Only Way Through Is Out, forthcoming February 13, 2024, from the University of Wisconsin Press. Her publications include a “tiny love story” in the New York Times and “The Subaru Should Have Been a Sign,” an essay that went viral on today.com.  As a book coach, Suzette builds safe and supportive communities for queer writers where she helps them find their deeper stories and big ideas, choose the structures that serve those stories and ideas, sort through their publication options, find agent representation, and land book deals. C. Rizleris (they/them) is a recent MFA Writing graduate from Vermont College of Fine Arts. They are a contributing writer for the Pride and Joy Foundation and have worked in higher education for over ten years. They currently volunteer with LGBTQ+ youth at the Guilford Green Foundation and serve on the Transgender Task Force Committee for the city of Greensboro, NC. You can find C. on Twitter @rizwrites or visit their website.  _________________________________ Our podcasts are produced with the incredible help of Jessica Whipple. Are you in need of podcast assistance? Find Jess online for podcast management support: jessicawhipple.com @jessicawhipple.wav

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Nicki Hangsleben (she/they) is the Executive Director and Founder of QUEERSPACE collective, an organization committed to creating space for LGBTQ+ youth to feel safe and empowered to be their true selves. They have been providing leadership in both for-profit and non-profits spaces for over 20 years and have a diverse background in strategic partnerships, business development, program oversight and financial management. Nicki grew up in South Minneapolis surrounded by a vibrant LGBTQ+ community and currently lives in North Minneapolis with her wife and two amazing kids. They are passionate about serving their community, advocating for the rights of all humans, and creating lasting impact locally and globally. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-hangsleben-539b815/  www.queerspacecollective.org  www.instagram.com/queerspacecollective/  

Kicking off Season Three of Out of Queeriosity, we are excited to speak with Nicole Gress, she/they, about her business journey with Undead Voice, an online trans/nonbinary speech platform.  Behind Undead Voice is the founder, Nicole Gress (she/they), a leading expert in demedicalizing transgender voice care. As a gender-fluid individual, they know firsthand the power of voice in affirming one's gender identity. Nicole has leveraged their eight years of experience as a speech-language pathologist in the trans voice specialty to redefine voice transition care and champion innovative, inclusive solutions for the transgender community. And now you have the opportunity to chat with Nicole live! Join us for our next Pride and Joy Parents event, an evening with Nicole Gress to learn how affirming voice impacts mental health and how quickly and thoroughly it can be accomplished in a noninvasive way. Save your seat at www.PrideandJoyParents.com.  Undead Voice: https://www.undeadvoice.com/ Trans Voice Guide: https://www.undeadvoice.com/guide  _________________________________ Our podcasts are produced with the incredible help of Jessica Whipple. Are you in need of podcast assistance? Find Jess online for podcast management support: jessicawhipple.com @jessicawhipple.wav    

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Robert Halley (he/him) was born in Toronto of Guyanese ancestry and celebrates diversity through empathetic compassion, kindness, and play. He has traveled globally with a 20+ year accomplished performing arts career highlighted in ‘The Lion King’ (London), ’Wicked’ (Osaka, Japan), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and ’Star Trek: Discovery.’ He is a certified 400hr yoga teacher, mindfulness meditation, and life & health coach actively featured on the acclaimed Insight Timer app. Robert is the CEO of Withyin, combining creativity and play with holistic habits to inspire healthy habits for mindful living. He is close to completing a five-year process of developing The Wellness Oracle, a one-of-a-kind card game combining breathtaking photography with globally renowned wellness practices. Robert is proud to bring his creative community wellness interactive performance experience to pride festivals around the world, where bite-sized wellness tips, storytelling, runway, voguing, and motivational dance come together. https://www.withyin.ca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-halley/ https://www.instagram.com/iamroberthalley/ https://www.facebook.com/rbhalley https://www.youtube.com/@withyin

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Naomi Mendes-Pouget (she/they) is raw unfiltered energy as she inspires, motivates, and coaches parents of historically marginalized communities to stop settling for scraps and to bravely activate their powerful life as a leader for their family and communities. They’ve been featured in CBC, VoyageMIA, and on several podcasts. A founder/CEO, life fulfillment and freedom coach, business coach, preschooler ‘pandemic’ parent, genderqueer woman, and public motivational speaker are only some of the ways Naomi shows up every day. During a Naomi talk, the audience will cry, laugh, feel seen, and feed their inner fire. The impact will go on to transform their lives in all facets. https://floresce.family  https://instagram.com/naomi_authentically https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomimendes-pouget 

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Kalyela “Coach K” Josephs (she/they) is an Inspirational Speaker, Life Coach, and LGBTQ+ Wellbeing Advocate and the Founder of QueeronPurpose Coaching who helps individuals UNLEASH their potential and thrive in their purpose and wellbeing. Her empowering messages come straight from the heart – she digs deep into her own authentic self to connect with others and guide them to a place of personal and professional confidence. They empower Queer leaders, LGBTQ+ Resource Groups, DEI Practitioners, and Allies to build healthier organizations by cultivating purpose, change, and inclusivity. Coach K also serves as a Queer Spirituality Coach helping Queer folks heal from Religious Trauma and experience spiritual freedom. She inspires the queer community to remain connected, resilient, and purposeful. www.kalyelaj.com https://www.instagram.com/queeronpurpose/

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Suzette Mullen (she/her) is an LGBTQ+ book coach, speaker, recovering rule-follower, and author of The Only Way Through Is Out, a memoir forthcoming January 2024 from the University of Wisconsin Press. Her coming-out story inspires audiences—straight and queer—to find the courage to take the next right step toward authenticity in their own lives, no matter their age. Suzette has been featured on Today All Day and published in the New York Times, and is a frequent guest on podcasts, including Zestful Aging, Coming Out & Beyond, the Brave Yes Business Show, and #amwriting.   https://www.instagram.com/urstoryfinder/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzette-mullen-lgbtq-book-coach/ https://www.facebook.com/yourstoryfinder  https://www.yourstoryfinder.com/

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Sebastian Dziuk (he/him) is a certified life coach, author, and speaker who coaches queer entrepreneurs in creating their own Queer and Thriving life. Sebastian’s experience as a visible queer and trans man, entrepreneur, and 10-year U.S. Army veteran gives him unique skills and perspectives to help his clients. Sebastian is a contributing author to the bestselling book Thriving in Business: Strategies for the LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur and With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in Their Own Words.   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiandziuk/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/coachbastian.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachbastian.co/ Website: https://www.coachbastian.co/  

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Charli (they/them) is a non-binary queer Clarity Coach, Meditation Teacher, Speaker and International Book Club Host. They are the CEO of Time Hackers Unite, a community of humans committed to exploring their relationships with our only nonrenewable resource: TIME, and the Founder of Sparkle Warriors Book Club which supports over 500 humans on their personal growth journeys. They have reached over 250,000 people on TikTok teaching tips to navigate humanity while healing from chronic stress and trauma. They have an intuitive gift for asking questions; value psychological safety and personal integrity; and help ambitious humans to get clear and confident in their voice & direction so they can bring their dreams to life. Charli's goal is to help to eradicate hunger & homelessness through the education and empowerment of their fellow humans and in the creation of a life skills university. https://www.tiktok.com/@charli_timehacker  https://www.instagram.com/charli_timehacker  https://www.facebook.com/timehackersunite  https://www.timehackersunite.com 

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Carla Ferrucci (she/her) has been fighting the power her whole life. From fighting neo-nazis with Anti-Racist Action, to holding batterers and sex offenders accountable as a crime victim advocate; to fighting big corporations at the legislature, Carla works to improve systems so that the voices of the voiceless are not only heard, but at the table. Carla’s skills come from her professional work in law and politics and the non-profit sector plus their passion for helping folx use their personal power to change the systems that oppress them. Carla is currently 2 + years alcohol-free and on a path of healing from long-held trauma. Carla is one of 5 founders of Sonder Recovery, the first LGBTQ+ focused online peer recovery support organization in the country. By sharing her lived experience, Carla will leave audiences inspired to positively change their lives and thereby impacting the world around them. www.sonderrecovery.org https://www.instagram.com/sugarnspikes/ https://www.instagram.com/sonderrecovery/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-ferrucci-1089b410/ www.carlaferrucci.com

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Leah Embrey (she/her) is an LGBTQ+ personal trainer, coach, and advocate who takes pride in creating confidence in the humans she meets worldwide. She empowers the queer community to find acceptance, confidence, and strength through weightlifting and transformative self-reflection. Since 2004, her weightlifting experience has helped numerous clients find self love, and encourage them to pursue more fulfilling lives—inside and outside of the safe space she has created.Leah has been featured in Canvas Rebel and has led several workshops in her hometown of Des Moines. Her talks will leave the audience feeling empowered to take positive action and inspire them to live their most authentic life. Facebook | Instagram  www.pridefitnessdsm.com

A conversation with Nicholas Prosini, one of the teachers and facilitators of our course, Leaders for Inclusive Change. Are you wondering how to increase safety for LGBTQ+ youth in your community? Leaders for Inclusive Change is a six-week class taught in community with two trans high school teachers, to support parents, teachers, and community leaders in holding safe space for LGBTQ+ youth. The live version of the class begins July 12, 2023 and continues for six weeks. There is also a DIY version that is always available. Join other educators, parents, and community leaders as you learn how to most effectively be that safe adult that all LGBTQ+ children deserve to have in their lives. This class is also an incredible way for all queer people to learn about their own history, spotting internalized homophobia and transphobia, as well as learning how to support intersectional identities. Learn more at www.LeadersforInclusiveChange.com

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate.  Today's episode of Keynote Queers graduate is Charlie Neff, she/they. Mixed media artist Charlie Neff uses the visual arts to comment on societal issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community and other underserved communities. She believes that visual storytelling can be one of the most honest and compelling ways to convey a message.She works with nonprofit organizations across the country to leverage the impact they are making in their communities by exploring their stories of progress with a larger audience. She primarily focuses on human service organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life for the people they serve. https://www.charlieeileenart.comhttps://www.instagram.com/charlieeileenart/https://www.facebook.com/charlieeileenarthttps://www.tiktok.com/@artbycharlieeileenhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-eileen/   Check out our class Leaders for Inclusive Change!  This class is for you if you're a parent, educator, or ally who wants to learn how to hold safe space for LGBTQ+ youth. 

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Thursdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate. Carling (she/her) is a Canadian, Queer Identifying 30 something year old host and producer of the "I Did Not Sign Up For This" podcast. With a passion for storytelling and a desire to explore the human experience, Carling's podcast features candid conversations with individuals about life's unexpected twists and turns.In addition to her podcast, Carling also speaks on the topic of conformity and its toll on mental health and personal fulfillment. Her presentation, "The Price of Conformity," draws from her own experience of never quite feeling like enough as she tried to live up to society's definition of success and happiness. It wasn't until she came out as gay that she realized she had been on the wrong path the whole time, and that she had been enough all along.Through her podcast and speaking engagements, Carling hopes to inspire others to embrace their true selves and live authentically, even if it means straying from the path that others have laid out for them. Instagram  https://www.ididnotsignupforthis.com Pride and Joy Foundation Leaders for Inclusive Change OUTWrite Authors - our companion course to Keynote Queers.  A 6-week online course for queer authors of nonfiction, a focused path-to-publishing. 

Our bonus episodes feature the voices of the most recent graduates of our Keynote Queers program. This is our 8-week online course just for LGBTQ+ participants, to learn public speaking skills as well as the knowledge to build public speaking into an extra form of income. Whether our participants were pitching their own small business, upleveling their skills for their corporate career, or just learning how to effectively move audiences to take action, our Keynote Queers gave a hell of a graduation presentation and we are here to share it with you! Can you imagine squishing an entire keynote into just 10 minutes? This is considered expert level skills in the public speaking world and it was our graduates' capstone project. Check back here on Tuesdays in the summer of 2023 to hear from another Keynote Queer graduate. Sharing their expertise through podcasts such as "Women Behind the Millions" and "All Things LGBTQ+", Brynna has become a thought leader and educator for marginalized communities around money and wealth.Brynna Wilson (she/they), CEO, Financial Advisor, and personal growth enthusiast, has been focused on helping her clients realize they can live the life of their dreams for the last six years. Through the lens of behavioral finance, Brynna changes perspectives on the traditional understanding of money to create innovative strategies to increase our abundance financially and move from just surviving to THRIVING.Brynna created Citrine & Gold to break down barriers, self-beliefs, and change the rules of the capitalism game to create wealth for those that have never seen it. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brynna-wilson-54a12b67/https://www.instagram.com/citrineandgold/ https://citrineandgoldllc.com/ Pride & Joy Foundation Leaders for Inclusive Change OUTWrite Authors - our companion course to Keynote Queers.  A 6-week online course for queer authors of nonfiction, a focused path-to-publishing. 

The replay of our live panel with Junior Mintt, Rae McDaniel, Kaleyla Josephs, Elena Joy, and Sara Dean. A fundraiser for the Pride & Joy Foundation, this event supported parents and loved ones of LGBTQ+ youth in learning how to increase well-being and safety in preparation for Pride 2023. Happening May 16, 2023, on Zoom, this was a collaboration with Shameless Mom Academy.  Sara Dean created this long-running podcast and large community over the past decade.  She has a curated audience of 10,000+ parents who are motivated to learn new skills including anti-racism and authentic LGBTQ+ allyship.  She is inviting her audience and will be the panel moderator.   On the panel is Junior Mintt (she/her) who is a “Black Transwoman, Drag Preacher, and Businesswoman”, as well as Kalyela Josephs (they/she), a “Queer Spiritual coach” whose work has focused on helping families of color understanding how to integrate LGBTQ+ culture into their family culture.  Also on the panel is author Rae McDaniel (they/them) who is about to launch their groundbreaking book, “Gender Magic”.  They are also a licensed therapist in Illinois, supporting individuals and families with gender transition.  Rounding out our panel of experts is Elena Joy (she/her), an ExMormon mom of four kids who spent decades as a stay-at-home suburban minivan mom and is now the loudest lesbian on the block. She is also featured in the award-winning documentary “CONVERSION”, has a viral TEDx talk, and is now the volunteer Executive Director of Pride and Joy Foundation.  Join other parents and loving adults of LGBTQ+ youth and learn how to make this Pride Month the best ever, while showing your allyship and love all year round. We create a safe space for us all to learn and ask all those awkward questions.    Here are the Pride and Joy Links Native Land: https://native-land.ca/ Leaders for Inclusive Change: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/lic-registration Pride and Joy Parents (General Interest) : https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/parent-connection Pride and Joy Heroes - https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/pride-and-joy-heros Gamma Mu Foundation (scholarships!) - https://gammamufoundation.org/   Junior Mintt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juniormintt/ Mintty Makeup: https://minttymakeup.com/ PJF Blog Post: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/minttyfresh   Rae McDaniel Website: https://rae-mcdaniel.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/theraemcdaniel/ Gender Magic (Open for Pre-Orders): https://www.gendermagic.com/ PJF Blog Post: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/gender-magic   Kalyela Josephs Website: https://kalyelaj.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/queeronpurpose/ Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalyelajosephs PJF Blog Post: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/on-purpose   Elena Joy Pride and Joy Foundation: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/ Website: https://www.elenajoyexperience.com/ Conversion Movie: https://www.conversionmovie.com/ PJF Blog Post: https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/visibility-is-life   Sara Dean Website: https://shamelessmom.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/shamelessmomacademy/

Today we sit down with the student president of BYUs RaYnbow Collective, Gracee Purcell (she/her). Gracee is 19 years old helping move some serious mountains on BYUs campus. Gracee shares some of her personal experiences as well as reflects on the struggles and challenges the LGBTQ+ community faces at BYU. The RaYnbow Collective is an LGBTQ+ nonprofit that connects BYU LGBTQ+ students to resources.  Gracee Purcell (she/her) is a psychology major with a minor in Global Women’s Studies at Brigham Young University. She plans to attend physical therapy school after graduation. Gracee loves Dr Pepper, is a sports enthusiast, and an avid reader. On the side, she raises puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind and is the President of RaYnbow Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to helping queer BYU students find resources. Gracee strongly believes in making the world a kinder place where everyone belongs.    Links Follow Graycee on Instagram RaYnbow Collective: @raynbow.collective Website: https://www.raynbowcollective.org/

Eboné Bell is the founder and editor of Tagg Magazine, an award-winning print publication and media company serving LGBTQ women across the country. Tagg just celebrated their 10 year anniversary in September, 2022! The Washington Business Journal has named Tagg Magazine one of the “Top 25 LGBTQ-Owned Companies”. Her list of impact and accolades are a mile long including starting a student group for LGBTQ people of color while attending University of Maryland College Park. Twenty years later the group is still going strong. That’s the kind of different Ebone makes for her community and the people she loves. In today’s conversation we’re going to dive deeper into what and who made Eboné into who she is today. What community members supported her rise and what barriers did she have to break through. If she could speak to her younger self, what would she say?

*Content warning: mention of child abuse, assault, abortion* In this episode we speak with Di Ciruolo. From childhood to motherhood, Di takes readers through very personal experiences creating a safe space for trauma survivors. In this episode, we chat about her book and the experiences it explores as well her journey to motherhood and parenting neurodivergent kids.  Family did you know that 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ plus, there are also so many of our youth in the foster care system, as well as many that are neurodivergent or neuro spicy, as Di says? Let's learn from Di about her experience and her book. Di is the author of Indomitable, a memoir on foster care survival. She is a mother of two neurospicy kids, a DEI educator, and a social justice activist. Her experiences growing up on the outside as a foster kid with neurodiversity have given her a unique understanding of humanness that informs her practice and her life. Di’s passion is freeing other humans from the guilt and self-harm that can come from trauma and loss. Order your copy of Indomitable here.  Di Ciruolo's website  

In February we held a Pride and Joy Parents event that centered on supporting our LGBTQ+ kids in having healthy intimate relationships. This goes beyond talking about safe sex and into consent, red and green flags for parents to look for, and conversation prompts to have some great deep dives on the topic between a straight parent and queer teen. The event was so powerful, we knew we had to make it more accessible for parents everywhere. We decided to kick off Season 2 with this amazing experience. Joined with us in this episode is Quinten Foster (he/him), Director of Transgender Whole Healthcare at East Bay Community Action Program in Rhode Island. Quinten is an autistic transgender man who combines his lived experience and Health Psychology training to support LGBTQIA2S+ patients live their most authentic lives, and to support and educate allies who aim to improve health and care for LGBTQIA2S+ people of all backgrounds. His professional background centers integrated mental healthcare and his special interests include coping skills and burnout, social justice advocacy, and expanding our society’s understanding of gender and sexuality.  You can read our pre-panel conversation with Quinten on our blog post here.  Links shared: Find an LGBTQ center near you: https://www.lgbtqcenters.org/ Right to Be: https://righttobe.org/  

Hey fam! I am so excited to introduce you to our next guest, Ursula Benward. She has been a counselor for almost 20 years now and uses her lived experience as a queer, Native woman with ADHD, OCD, trauma, and neurodivergence to inform her practice. She is originally from the Navajo Nation. Speaking with Ursula was one of those experiences that simultaneously felt new and inspiring, while also feeling at home. I grew up with the Navajo Nation in my backyard and took for granted the many friendships and memories I have from there. Chatting with Ursula felt completely new, as every conversation I have with another out lesbian, because that’s where I am in my journey still. But as she talked, vivid memories from years ago came back to me in a way I wasn’t expecting. It’s amazing how the way I didn’t understand myself colors so many memories. Ursula has had the most amazing career, in the mental health field. From being the child therapist on a remote Native reservation to teaching families resilience skills, to manning a crisis line, to present-day being in private practice. And as we love to hear, along the way to professional success and fulfillment, she found love too. Fam, we are living in intense times and we are living our one precious wild life. We at Pride and Joy Foundation want to make sure you’re able to experiences moments of peace and joy, because you, Dear One, deserve to experience peace and joy. To that end we’ve published our first meditative coloring book for our community “Color Me Queer”. Maybe you’re like me and you didn’t get to experience basic childhood memories with authenticity. Maybe you need passive physical activity with some white noise in order to shut down all the mental tabs and experience true silence. Maybe you want to show a loved one how much you care about them, without risking you’re supporting a rainbow-washing corporation, but instead supporting a Foundation working to create systemic change. One of the most unique meditative coloring books you’ll find, our hope is that you’re able to experience moments of peace and joy within it’s pages. Order your copy and gifts at www.ColorMeQueerBook.com When you purchase through our website, we receive a $6 donation, but full transparency, it’s also a few dollars cheaper on Amazon. To get a copy with a personal note from me, your host Elena Joy, head to www.ColorMeQueerBook.com Thank you family! We can’t do any of this without you and we appreciate you so much! Now get ready to laugh with the amazing Ursula Benward. http://www.hozhocounseling.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hozhocounselingllc/ Native 2SLGBTQIA+ links: https://www.wernative.org https://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com/peersupportmanual https://mmiwusa.org https://www.csvanw.org/mmiw/ https://www.navajonationpride.com https://strongheartshelpline.org https://www.iwrising.org/abortion-fund

Our podcast host. and feature in this episode. is Elena Joy Thurston.   Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational LGBTQ+ speaker, trainer, author, and founder of the nonprofit Pride and Joy Foundation, which is dedicated to reducing the rate of suicide and homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community. Elena inspires her audiences to learn how emotional intelligence can improve company morale and productivity, changing members' lives in a practical way. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, her viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed more than 45,000 times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, FOX, Penn State, University of North Texas, Michael’s, Logitech, and more. Elena Joy is also one of the subjects of the feature film documentary Conversion, premiering Fall 2022.  Learn more about Elena Joy at www.ElenaJoyExperience.com. Kristen Kile runs multiple businesses including merch screen printing and helping adults transition to their next stage in life, i.e. what do we keep, give away, and sell so that we can downsize.  Kristen taught Elena Joy how to fly fish and on the off chance they can get away from the kids and their multiple companies, you can find them fishing on one of Arizona's mountain streams. Elena Joy and Kristen are partners and co-parenting their four kids along with Elena Joy's ex-husband and his beautiful wife.  Elena Joy and Kristen navigate the pressures of parenting alongside modeling inclusive behavior, navigating the world as LGBTQ+ individuals, and raising an LGBTQ+ child.   Don't forget to check out Pride and Joy Publishing's newest publication, Color Me Queer.  Available on Amazon and all major retailers but every purchase on the Pride and Joy Foundation website allows for $6 directly to support our mission: to reduce the rate of suicide and homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community.  Get your copy today! 

Amy Porter (pronouns are she/they so you will hear us use them interchangeably in this episode and in the show notes) is an educator, achieving Bachelor's degrees in Education and Music, and is a passionate Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Advocate. Conventionally unconventional, she and her wife built their own family and are mothers to two young children.Amy is a self-proclaimed “research nerd.” Her curiosity about the world, her passion for knowledge, and the lived experience of her son’s critical heart defect diagnosis have led her to educate sonographers and parents about the importance of early detection.Amy has been educating and inspiring audiences since 2009.   Amy's nonprofit is  www.1in100.org   To learn more about CHD, please visit www.tinytickers.org Here's the video of Jimmy Kimmel telling his story about his son. They were fortunate to have had an attentive nurse and they were able to avoid a lot of permanent chaos due to someone being on top of things. They noticed something was off around 3 hours after birth, which in Amy's son's case, would have been far too late.  To learn more about vocal empowerment for LGBTQ+ leaders, head to www.KeynoteQueers.com, the class will run again in fall 2022. Follow Amy on Instagram to learn how we can all advocate for the health of the next generation of kids but putting less focus on finding out the gender and a little more focus on heart screening.  You can also connect with Amy on LinkedIn.  

    In this episode of Out of Queeriosity, we sit down with Meghan P.  Meghan has been a part of our network of parents for a while now but in this episode, we sit down to get granular on her experience raising her nonbinary child, her path to advocacy and getting comfy speaking up publicly for her child and other LGBTQ+ youth.  If you resonate with this conversation, we invite you to join us at our next Parent Advocacy group meeting on May 22nd, 2022 where we will be reviewing the graphic novel, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.  Find details about this meeting and all following meetings at  www.PrideandJoyParents.com.  Can't wait to see you there!       

   Queers in the Country was a three-day meetup for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC nomads and local Kentuckians in April 2022.  It was sponsored and hosted by The Stonehouse at Silver Creek, as well as Georgia-Pacific CoPilot Victron Harvest Hosts Aeropress MOON VanMade Gear Poppy & Rod Follow Pride & Joy Foundation, as well as Queers in the Country to learn more about our future events!       

Hey, fam. So about a year ago, Pride and Joy Foundation began a survey to find out what employee benefits could a company offer that would have the biggest impact on LGBTQ+ families. We've had almost 300 People respond. About 70% identify as LGBTQ+ themselves, and about 30% identify as family members. The number one response so far by a longshot, is extensive mental health coverage, which employers weren't surprised to hear. But often the response I hear is, well, we offer that and no one uses it. Well, as we know, as LGBTQ+ people, it's often quite challenging to find someone in mental health who is in our state, covered by our plan, and a part of our community, or even, obviously, affirming of our community. Seeking mental health support is vulnerable, and the barriers of access can feel huge. So after we figure out the logistics of how to find support, and how we're going to pay for it, finding a therapist who gets us is another monumental milestone. So how can the everyday employee access truly inclusive mental health care? Find out from today's guest, James Murray, the CEO of a Black owned company, Therify.  Therify provides personalized mental health resources to help improve employee satisfaction, well-being, and belonging. Jame's goal is to create a world where access to inclusive mental health is as easy as going on your morning walk. Listen to James share more on his mental health journey as a Black man in America and how he took things into his own hands to help other marginalized people have better access to affordable and inclusive mental health care.  If you are an employer or practitioner who would like to partner with Therify, please visit their website, https://therify.co to fill out an application and you will be contacted directly for the onboarding process or email James directly, [email protected].  Did you learn anything new? Did this episode spark a new thought? What about you, do you feel like identity is crucial when considering mental health care access? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Join us on our blog, or on our Instagram page @PrideandJoyFoundation. Thank you so much for joining us. Please consider sharing this episode with anyone in your network who needs to hear. Be good to yourself fam, I appreciate you. Bio: James previously led partnerships with digital news organizations at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, he worked on the enterprise sales team at InVision, a venture-backed product design platform. James received a BA from Howard University and MBA from Vanderbilt University. Email: [email protected]  Website: https://therify.co/ Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mytherify/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellotherify/       

Hey fam! I am so excited to introduce you to our next highlighted speaker from the Pride and Joy Summit, Kalyela Josephs, also known as "Coach K". Kalyela “Coach K” Josephs is an Inspirational Speaker and certified Life and Performance Coach who uses holistic strategies to improve the well-being of others. Her tried and true formula of human energy management, resilience, and life’s purpose has helped over a thousand professionals reach their highest performance. She empowers others to use life’s challenges as a catalyst for growth. Coach K taps into her internal strengths of inspiration, empathy, and sense of humor to relate to individuals, leaning into her own authenticity to guide them to a place of confidence within their personal and professional lives. The ambitious, purpose-driven, ball of high energy, barrels through life’s barriers alongside of her clients, sharing her personal testimony of triumphs while thriving in her individuality. On a personal note, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Kalyela in person and working with her in Pride and Joy Foundation as a co-facilitator in our suicide prevention workshops. You know how some people just have an energy that lets you breath deep, let your hair down, and enjoy being your true self around them? That’s totally Coach K. We met for what was supposed to be a quick dinner while I was in her hometown for a speaking gig. Four hours later, we were shutting the place down because we just could not stop laughing and talking. I tell you what, after being so isolated for two years, that dinner with Kalyela filled my soul! And I wanted to give you a taste of that so I give you, Kalyela Josephs in today's episode. Coach K shares her soul with us in this journey of coming out, reconciling with parents, and finding ways where queerness and God can co-exist. Kalyela taught us about how we are queer on purpose, this isn't a mistake. This isn't an anomaly. This isn't just different from mainstream society. And we need to deal with all the ramifications of that. I was made queer on purpose, I am queer on purpose. And there is power in that. Every time I access my queerness in non authentic and beautiful ways, incredible wisdom comes forth. I am so appreciative of that. And so grateful for people like Coach K, who helped me see that within me when I can't see it myself. I'd love to hear from you on how this talk affected you and what you thought of it. And what do you think? Are you queer on purpose? Are your loved ones queer on purpose? I'm so interested so get in that blog post or in that social media post tag me and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed Coach K's story about being Queer on Purpose.  If you want more from Coach K, check out her website here and make sure to follow her on Instagram!

 I’m so excited for you to hear from Dr. Lynyetta Willis. She spoke at our Pride and Joy Summit about addressing Intergenerational Trauma in our families, as well as in our individual lives. She shares an incredible framework for identifying intergenerational trauma and dealing with it. It’s also available on her website and the link is in our show notes, so don’t stress about taking notes if you’re driving or out on a walk. She begins with examples of intergenerational trauma that Black families might be experiencing and extends it out to how queer members of families might also be experiencing it. She tells story after story that is so relatable so that by the time you get to the end of the episode you know the framework and how it can be implemented.  At the end of her talk, you’ll hear that I was able to ask her a few questions and gain even more awareness about how to go from Triggered to Transformed, which also happens to be the name of the incredibly impactful program that Dr. Willis leads for families, another link down below. This episode is sponsored by Queers in the Country, a 3 day LGBTQ+ meetup in April 2022 hosted by a lesbian-owned venue in rural Kentucky. This amazing festival is raising funds for Pride and Joy Foundation. Overnight and day passes are now available, visit www.QueersintheCountry.com to learn more.   I give you, Dr. Lynyetta Willis. https://drlwillis.com/ https://drlwillis.com/quiz/   Dr. Lynyetta Willis, psychologist, family empowerment coach, speaker, and award-winning author - helps frustrated families break free from Stable Misery™ and unhelpful parenting and partnership patterns, so they can create more harmony at home.    Over 20 years of journeying with countless clients led her to design the research-supported Elemental Living® Model and P.A.T.H.S. Relationship Framework. These powerful tools help parents and partners improve communication, minimize overreactions, and transform intergenerational trauma.    Dr. Willis’ Harmony in the Home Couples Program and Triggered to Transformed™ Group Parenting Program have received rave reviews from couples and parents across the globe in South Africa, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia.    A sought after speaker, media contributor, and author, Dr. Willis’s multi-award winning book, My Forgotten Self: A Story about a Girl, a Powerful Encounter, and a Universal Message, received high acclaim from individuals such as Dr. Shefali Tsabary, author of The Conscious Parent and “Oprah’s Parenting Expert”; Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, author and spiritual leader of Agape International Truth Center; and Michal Berg, President and CEO of Spirituality for Kids International, Inc.    Dr. Willis lives in Georgia with her husband and their two children. Stable Misery Free Roadmap - www.healingstablemisery.com Quiz! What’s Your Parenting Trigger Score - https://drlwillis.link/trigger-score Email: [email protected] https://www.drlwillis.com (website) https://www.instagram.com/drlwillis/ https://www.facebook.com/DrLWillis https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlwillis/    

  Arielle and our founder, Elena Joy, discuss aspects of self-love that are unique to the LGBTQ+ community. Hey fam!  I hope you’re enjoying our season of showcasing the incredible speakers at the Pride and Joy Summit from May 2021.  This episode is sponsored by Queers in the Country, a 3 day meetup in April for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC nomads, hosted by a queer-owned venue in rural Kentucky.  This amazing vanlife festival is raising funds for Pride and Joy Foundation.  Overnight and day passes are now available, visit www.QueersintheCountry.com to learn more. Today, we have Arielle D’Angelo is an incredible coach and leader in our community with her company We the Rainbow.   Self-love is an integral topic in the LGBTQ+ community, one that words can’t fully encapsulate. Sometimes I feel like straight people don’t understand the amount of self-love that it takes to live a truly authentic life.  Recently, Pride and Joy Parents hosted a workshop focused on self-harm in our youth.  Our facilitator taught a concept about the “layers of protection” that we all need.  It starts with self, and expands in concentric circles to family, school and/or work, and then society at large.   I love that it starts with self.  We have to feel safe enough with our own selves to be authentic inside, as we build the safety to be authentic on the outside.  And self-love is critical to that safety.  This is also an important concept for parents of LGBTQ+ youth to understand.  We, as parents, can shower our child with love.  But if they don’t feel the love and safety within themselves first, it’s almost impossible for that love to penetrate them.  So one of our most important jobs as parents is to foster deep self-love, both modeling our own and helping our children to identify it in their own lives. One of my favorite parts of Arielle is how she shows a different side of what it means to be queer.  There is such a lesbian stereotype of flannel-wearing, home depot going, Subaru driving lesbians, (and while it’s a personal favorite) it’s just one aspect of our community at large.  Arielle and her visibility drive home the point that queerness exists in nuance, not in singular stereotype.  I hope you enjoyed this discussion on self-love and I invite you to contribute your thoughts on our blog post for this episode.    If you want more from Arielle, she'll soon be enrolling for Unleashed, her signature group coaching program for LGBTQ+ humans who are ready to release patterns and internalized shame around their identity and create new empowering narratives so they can confidently live the authentic life that they so deeply desire and deserve! If interested, visit arielledangelo.com/unleashed to apply or send Arielle a message on instagram!  Again, thank you to our sponsor of this episode, Queers in the Country.com.  Be sure to visit to learn about the game changing experience of this weekend in the country, sitting in community with our rural queer family.          

The next speaker from our Pride and Joy Summit from May 2021, is Dean Rasmussen.  Dean is a transman, hailing from Canada, and was on our planning committee for the Summit.  Dean was in charge of our Gender Identity track, which was a powerful experience for everyone involved.  When Dean agreed to also speak for his track, I was overjoyed.  Because in the months we had been working together to create this Summit, I had learned what an incredible human he is. Dean is a fellow conversion therapy survivor.  He is a parent and a husband, as well as a trans life coach.  In our planning meetings, Dean was never the loudest or the most boisterous.  Dean never shoved his way into the spotlight, and even giving this talk was one of the more challenging things he’s done.  Visibility is not easy for every queer person.   Yet, Dean had this calm, quiet authority.  Dean has LIVED a lot of life.  His wisdom, his clarity on sticky situations, was a guiding force as we planned this huge international event for the first time.  As you’ll hear in his talk, Dean has done the WORK, within himself and within his family to create the life he’s always deserved.   Now, Dean’s talk ends in a beautiful way and here in this podcast, we aren’t typically including the Q&A with the audience, that happened after the talks.  However, someone asked a question about being authentic as a trans person with your children.  And I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share his earned wisdom with you our listener.  So you’ll notice that at the end.   Huge thanks to Dean, not only for sharing his story but also for being an integral part of the success of our Summit.  Dean’s story is so unique and yet universal.  So many of us made commitments and decisions in our early 20s before we even really knew who we were.  So many of us have had multiple coming-outs, between sexual orientation, gender identity, and for some like our previous episode, neurodiversity.  I consider Dean like a guiding light.  Someone who forged their own path through the darkness of internalized homophobia and transphobia and is now waiting on the other side, light held high and bright for us to see, and waiting to welcome us home.    Thank you dear listener for joining us on this journey.  This episode is brought to you by Outwrite Authors, the six-week intensive “how to publish your nonfiction book” class, offered by Pride and Joy Foundation.  Registration is open till the end of February 2022.  Visit www.OutWriteAuthors.com.  If someone came to mind as you were listening, that would also enjoy hearing from Dean, will you share this episode with them?   I appreciate you, fam.  Be good to yourselves.   Dean's website: https://everydayanomalycoaching.ca/ and on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/everydayanomalycoaching/

One of my favorite quotes is that “If you’re going to be in a long-term relationship with someone, you’re going to attend thousands of mini-funerals.” This speaks to the idea that over time, people change. Their old self dies and we get to fall in love with the newest version of them. I love to turn this around and apply it to ourselves. If we’re going to be in an authentic relationship with ourselves, we need to attend a thousand mini-funerals. We need to be willing to examine ourselves: our thoughts, actions, emotions without judgment so that we can truly get to know ourselves and live healthier more fulfilled lives. No one illustrates this idea better than today’s speaker, Joris Lechene. Joris lives at the intersection of being Black, Gay, and Neurodivergent. Not only do we get an inside look into his journey of self-acceptance and celebration, but we get to peek at the blueprint so that we can do the same introspection. We get to see how our own lives could improve if we’re willing to drop the stereotypes, drop the judgment, and truly SEE ourselves.  *** The most sincere thanks to Joris for sharing his story so deeply with us.  If you haven’t followed Joris already on social media we have all his links in the show notes.  Another valuable link in there is the article we wrote regarding the massive overlap of neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ people.  Some studies are suggesting it’s as high as 40% of LGBTQ+ people are also neurodivergent.  Parents and organizational leaders especially should check out that article so that the information can be used to increase inclusion, safety, and inclusion within the most important areas of our lives.  From everyone at the Pride and Joy Foundation, thank you for joining us today.  We appreciate you, fam.  Be good to yourself!  https://www.instagram.com/joris.lechene/ https://www.tiktok.com/@joris_explains https://www.prideandjoyfoundation.com/blog/raisingLGBTQneurodiversekids

Hey fam!   The next speaker we are showcasing is Bree Pear, CEO of the clothing and social impact company Only Human. Often touted as a queer influencer that creates real impact, Bree is well-known for curating events, social content, and even clothing that drives the needle for social change. She's also an author in our book, Thriving in Business: Strategies for the LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur. Available at www.QueerBusinessBook.com and everywhere books are sold.     So let's Meet Bree, she’s a tech-nerd entrepreneur with a passion for humans and a drive to make waves in this world. In 2016 Bree founded Only Human—a platform for good that brings humans together for a deeper purpose. After hitting rock bottom in her own life she recognized that she had the power to change her narrative and use her skills to help bring others together. Bree truly believes that by building a community of like-minded humans willing to make changes in this world, we can create a ripple effect that's felt on a global scale.   This talk is Bree sharing how she turned rock bottom into the best thing that ever happened to her and how she used that growth to create an inclusive give-back community for millions of LGBTQ+ humans worldwide.     I truly love how REAL each of our speakers got with our audience at the Pride and Joy Summit. Each of us has been through times when we had to deconstruct who we WERE to get to where we ARE. It's not an easy journey but I really feel like it's one of our queer superpowers. Straight people are rarely forced to take hard, honest looks at themselves and deconstruct what pieces of them came from external forces and what is true and authentic to them internally. Because we've done that work, we're able to show up as our full selves: at work, in relationships, as community members, etc.   We'd love to hear from you about how you've taken your queer superpower and used it to impact the world. Maybe just your neighbor, or just your family, or maybe on a larger scale. Email us at info@prideandjoyfoundation, I'm excited to hear from you!   Huge thanks to Bree and her team at Only Human. We hope you loved this episode of Out of Queeriosity.   I appreciate you, fam.  Be good to yourselves.       All the good links: www.QueerBusinessBook.com http://onlyhumanco.com/ www.breepear.com http://instagram.com/breepear http://facebook.com/breepear http://twitter.com/breepear https://www.linkedin.com/in/breepear/ http://youtube.com/onlyhumanco  

This episode features Rocio Sanchez, pronouns she/they. I’m literally not even sure how we met, my earliest memory of Rocio is from my first few days on TikTok in the height of the pandemic and watching them do the simplest TikTok to crazy ridiculous results. Then I noticed that Rocio took those results to LinkedIn, and broke them down so we could all see how they achieved that success. With their social media savvy, nonbinary fashion education in Paris, and their ability to speak three languages fluently, I instantly recognized queer talent to the nth degree. Rocio specializes in business development, social media automation and optimization, and growth hacking. They help start-ups, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and agencies worldwide build brands and create marketing plans and strategies to grow their businesses. Their clients are USA-, Spain-, and Latin American-based, and speak languages spanning English, French, and Spanish. Their talk today, FOR YOU, is all about hacking LinkedIn, but in a gay way. I give you, Rocio Sanchez. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocio-d-sanchez/  https://www.instagram.com/marketingbyrocio  marketingbyrocio.com Definitely check out Rocio's fashion industry collaboration with the awesome queer hub, Queerency.  http://queerency.com/fashion    

We kick off this season with the opening keynote from our Pride and Joy Summit, a queer conference we sponsored in May 2021. The keynote was given by Barry Brandon (pronouns he/her/they), more popularly known as The Queer Indigo. If you’re on Instagram or TikTok, chances are you’ve seen their trademark, super-human and badass videos They've been inspiring people from all over the globe to see themselves walking in beautiful international cities with all the confidence of Queer Indigo. The freedom of expression, the joy in authenticity, the raw power of knowing who you are and your inherent value, you can find it all in these 30-second slo-mo videos and it’s brilliant. In his professional life, Brandon runs a creative and experiential agency called For All Humans, focusing on the growth and expansion of emerging and well-established brands through immersive events, engaging activations, and comprehensive marketing campaigns that capture your spirit and convey your messaging while promoting community building and inclusivity. But personally, Barry has had a tumultuous life, like so many of us. It’s that story that Barry shares with us today and we are so honored. I give you, The Queer Indigo, Barry Brandon.