When Jenn T Grace was giving keynotes or providing consulting work, she always led with her queer identity. She had even branded herself as The Professional Lesbian and wrote four books around LGBTQ+ specific topics. But one day she felt like it was an albatross around her neck, and she was so much more than what she was known for. So she took a step back and realized that she didn’t have to be the one leading the charge all the time – she could have a much greater impact by helping others share their stories.
Transcript
Jackie Ferguson: You’re listening to the Diversity Beyond the Checkbox podcast. I’m your host Jackie Ferguson, certified diversity executive, writer, human rights advocate, and co-founder of the diversity movement. On this podcast, I’m talking to trailblazers, game changers and glass ceiling breakers who share their inspiring stories, lessons learned and insights on business, inclusion, and personal development. Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us. My guest today is Jenn T. Grace. Jenn is an award winning author, nationally recognized speaker and savvy publishing strategist. She’s the founder of publish your purpose, a hybrid publishing company that gives first time authors the secrets to getting their books written, finding their audience and marking their place in the publishing world. Jenn has published the books of nearly 100 business owners, entrepreneurs, speakers and memoirs. So more diverse stories can exist in the world and her authors can make a positive impact and achieve the recognition and success they deserve. She’s the author of six books, including “Her Memoir”, “House on Fire”. Jenn has been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. Jenn, thank you so much for being here today.
Jenn T Grace: Thank you for having me. I’m excited for where this conversation may take us today.
Jackie Ferguson: Me too. Me too. Well, Jenn, I always like to start by asking our guests to share a little about themselves, whatever you’d like your background, your family, your childhood, your identity, wherever you’d like to start?
Jenn T Grace: That’s such a, it’s a good question. Because I feel like you know, our identity can mean so many different things.
And I’m in a sentimental mood this week, because it’s the four year anniversary of my mom’s passing and so just a little very random fun fact about me that I’ve not actually shared on any podcast before is that, I am obsessed with Halloween and obsessed with skeletons for Halloween, not scary skeletons. I don’t like in theory, I’m a complete wimp. But I just I am completely obsessed with like the spoofy as they call it skeleton. So I have a whole, I got a wide collection of them that I dress up for holidays, and I have an Instagram for them and it’s a whole thing. I should just say that my mom was obsessed with Halloween and skeletons not because of her death, it just happens to be because like, why is it that might have come across very strange? No, she was also obsessed with skeletons and Halloween. So it’s my, my way to keep her memory alive. Jackie Ferguson: Oh, that’s so wonderful. Well, Jenn, do you want to talk a little bit about your mom and her influence in your life? Jenn T Grace: Oh, Jesus. I tried like the skeletons in Halloween or like the, the happy times. Right? So I published my memoir in the fall of 2020. And it’s called “House on Fire Finding Hope”, resilience and purpose in the ashes. And I’ve had a lot happen. And so, you know, my queer identity, in particular has been like a blip on the radar in terms of like adversities or challenges kind of in my life. And much of that is due to my upbringing, that wasn’t the best, wasn’t an ideal scenario, which I write about, you know, completely in my book. So, you know, I think it’s in my mom’s passing, that I now have more of an appreciation for the fact that she was just doing the best that she could with the resources and the circumstances that she had. But you know, as a young person, you don’t really know that at the time you just feel like you’re neglected or you don’t have a voice or any number of things. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. Well, Jenn, thanks for sharing that. What inspired you to write your first book, and then I want to talk about your latest book. Jenn T Grace: So I always wanted to be a writer. So if I go back to when I was really little, I was obsessed with Dear Abby, and you know, giving advice and being like the advice columnist. And so I always had like an aspiring Dear Abby in me. And so when I started my consulting company, like 15, 16 years ago at this point, which I no longer have, but when I started that consulting company, it was very much around LGBTQ inclusion, specifically around communications and marketing in workplace settings in financial service, and insurance. So really, really narrow, like really, really narrow. And I started a blog in 2012. And I just was writing in a very Dear Abby style, I had friends, and people around me were like, Hey, how do I insert any number of questions sometimes, you know, most of the time well intended but oftentimes phrased very, very poorly and very offensively. And it was people that I knew and I would say, you know, it takes a lot to offend me. So ask me the time Have questions like hit me with whatever you have, I’ll give you the information that you need. And we’ll kind of go from there. And so I have a friend of mine who’s a nurse practitioner, and she kept getting a lot of LGBTQ patients, but she didn’t know how to communicate with them effectively. So the blog kind of actually started off as that where I would be like, alright, she asked me this crazy question this week, let me just write about it. Because if she has it, that question, other people are going to have it too. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. Jenn T Grace: So it kind of unraveled from there. And so the blog is still up. It’s got over 500 posts on it that I wrote over almost a decade. And that is what the basis of the book was, because I had a lot of clients who were like, How come you don’t have a book yet, or where’s your book, and I’d be like, I didn’t even think about. So even though I was obsessed with writing, and loved writing and love my blog, I didn’t really have that tunnel vision of like a have to be an author was more of a demand that was coming from client interactions. Jackie Ferguson: Got it. And sometimes those make the best books, the understanding and finding those lanes that’s amazing. And Jenn, tell us a little bit about your latest book? Jenn T Grace: So the latest is my memoir, “House on Fire”, as I mentioned already. And what’s interesting is that I wrote four books that were around LGBTQ specific topics. And so those were nonfiction, very much marketing the communication space, like how to do business with the community, how to have, you know, an equitable environment things like that. And then I did a fifth book that was a Mental Health Journal. And so that was specifically for parents who are struggling with children with significant mental health needs. So I did that one as well. Then I did my sixth book, which is a memoir. And I did it for two reasons, I did it one because I had to free myself from my own story, I felt like my story was kind of like an albatross around my neck. Because I feel like especially in my previous consulting work, I always lead with my queer identity. So it was like that, again, that was you know, and we all have struggles coming out. But in the grand scheme of things, it was really minimal compared to the rest of the things that have happened to me. And so it was more of sharing light and outing myself of other aspects of my identity, not so much my queer identity. So it’s interesting, because people, you know, people who don’t know, my previous consulting work, you know, they’ll read the memoir and think that like, there’s a piece of it that’s like a coming out story around my LGBTQ identity, like, oh, no, no, that is just a that is a minor blip in this, this overall theme of this book, it’s obviously who I am, and a huge part of me, but it’s not kind of like the tragedy and the trauma of coming out. It’s so much more than that. So it was much about that to like, just really kind of release myself from my own story. So that way, if anyone had questions about it, but like, you can go read the book, like if you want all the details of the book is available, go have fun. So there’s that side of it. And then the other side of it was that I work with authors, I have a publishing company. And so it kind of felt like the missing piece, because I’ve coached so many people through writing their memoirs, but I myself hadn’t experienced what writing a memoir felt like so I wanted to put myself in the shoes of the people that I work with, and do it and now I have an even more profound appreciation for what it takes to actually tell your story in the full kind of rawness of a story. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. And you know Jenn, I think it’s so great that you were able to share that. And I like that you phrase it to free yourself from your story. Because, you know, so often we make assumptions about people’s story, their journey, right, based on what their role is, and what they’ve been able to achieve. And so often, we have no idea of the struggles and the journeys that people have to go through to get to where they are. And it’s so important to remember that you just never know what a person may have gone through, or is currently going through and just to be kind and be open and really listen. So I think that’s great. Jenn, tell us about publish your purpose, what types of books you publish, you talked about memoirs, and then how did you go about deciding to start this company? Jenn T Grace: What a fun question. So as I mentioned, I’ve done six books. And so when I was on, I want to say it was probably my second book. So sometime in like 2013, 2014. I had a lot of people, even when the first one came out, I had a lot of people who were asking me how I did it? And I was like, I don’t know, I just cobbled it together and figured it out. And my first book was awful. I did everything wrong in the first book, like truly everything wrong in the first book. And so when I did the second book, it was significantly better because I learned from all the times I screwed up in the first one. And when I did the third one, the third one was like, Okay, now we actually know what we’re doing, because we’ve already screwed up all the ways that we can screw up and I went back and fix the other so that way that I didn’t let that tragedy kind of just exist in the world. And it was a lot of work like self-publishing a book is a lot of work and I have no idea what I was doing. I knew the content what I wanted to write, but I had no idea how to hire an editor, or how to design a cover I had, I was just lost. So, you know, my background is marketing and communications, you know, I feel like I had a leg up because I understood messaging and positioning and things like that. But in terms of the mechanics of it, I had no idea what I was doing. So by the time I was somewhere between the second and the third book, a lot of people that I knew and just my local network, were asking me, like, how did you know how to do it? How did you know how to hire this person? How did you come up with your title? And I would just get this bombardment of questions. And it was that that I was like, Alright, I’m feeling a little bit burned out from my consulting work, because I think anybody that works in like an advocacy type of space, because I still would put it in that kind of advocacy type of bucket because I was doing a lot of volunteer work I was lobbying in DC for ENDA. So there’s like a lot of stuff that I was doing, I was just getting tired of it. And so there was kind of like that happening. And then like all these people asking me about my book, and so I was like, you know what, on a whim, let me just grab a handful of people that I know. And there were seven people who said, ‘Yes’. And I was like, just trust me, I will show you how to do this. Just I just need your trust. If you don’t get what you want, we’ll give you your money back. It’s fine. And I had seven guinea pigs who were wonderful, who were like, yeah, let’s do this. And that was in 2015, that was in 2015 and I did it once. And I did it again, and I did it again. And then I had a number of people being like, listen, I know that you’re spending time to teach me how to do this. But what if I just paid you and you just did it for me instead. And so it was just kind of like that, oh, shit, like that aha moment of like, I didn’t even think of this. Because I was thinking like, scalability, I was thinking, oh, this is perfect. I’ll have a group program. It’s something that I’m passionate about, I can get people’s stories out, I can scale it, I can still do my consulting work. And then like, overnight, like I took me like three days to think about it was like, over a weekend, I was like, I’m gonna start a publishing company. And I literally just started it with zero clue what I was doing, like none whatsoever. I knew how to do my own book, publishing company was written none, none whatsoever. And then I was like, I’m just going to do it. And so I stopped my consulting work and I switched to publishing in 2016. Jackie Ferguson: Wow. Now, Jenn, let me ask this. You know, so many of us have ideas of businesses, we’d like to start or careers that we want to change into. What gave you the courage to one, you know, when you wrote your first book, without any direction, really just say, I’m going to write this book. And then moving from your consulting to I’m going to start a publishing company over a weekend, what gave you that courage to do those things? Jenn T Grace: I think I’m just a natural born risk taker. Like, I think I’m just I’m okay with taking risks but they’re calculated risks. They’re not, you know, just on a whim and just kind of arbitrary and diving into something without like thinking about it. But with this, in particular, the other thing that was kind of happening is that I was doing a lot of keynotes. And I was able to increase my fees, because I was, you know, I was a published author, and I have these books now. And so I was doing a keynote. And I remember standing on the stage, and again, I was in like, I was really in a place of fatigue and burnout. And I remember standing there and thinking, how great would it be, if I were actually the one behind the scenes, helping someone like myself get on a stage and not actually have to be on the stage. So when I thought about it from just like an energy level, I was like, oh my God that sounds amazing. But then when I thought about it from an impact level, it was like, Okay, I could be standing in front of these 5000 people, and, you know, inspiring them in some great way, sure, and get paid and be done with it, or I could be behind 50 people, or 100 people or 500 people who are standing in front of 5000 people, and my impact in the world can be exponentially larger. So it was kind of like that was happening in in kind of alignment with this kind of idea. And so the one thing that I wish I had paid a little attention to was how different business models are from a consulting business model versus a publishing model. Jackie Ferguson: Sure. Jenn T Grace: They’re not even remotely in the same. They’re so different. And so like, that was like a big shock, because I’m like, like, I have a team. I have a lot of contractors and so our costs are significantly higher, our profit margins are lower. I had no clue because the like my naiveté was just like, I’m gonna do this and not really care about how, and so obviously, that was in 2015. So things are things are great now, but like, at first, I was like, wow, what, what have I done, but you know, when you have the purpose that’s leading, all of the other things can kind of just get pushed out of the way because when you have that laser purpose and focus, all the other things are just kind of like little obstacles along the way. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. And you know, I love that you said ‘calculated risks’, because it’s one thing to have an idea but who are you talking to? What are you researching, before you start making those steps, so that’s very important. And then Jenn talked to us about the kinds of things authors that you work with that publish your purpose? Jenn T Grace: I really love what I do, I like, truly, in every sense of that word, love what I do, because I am so interested in so many different topics. And just generally speaking, like I’m a consumer of information, I just love learning new things. And so to be someone who is the engine behind someone’s book, where I get to absorb and learn things from them, just through the process organically, you know, it’s like the perfect combination, where most of the time I genuinely don’t feel like I’m working. Like occasionally I do when I’m, like, you know, fighting with numbers and QuickBooks or something like that. But general most of the time, I just feel like in such a flow, because I work with such incredible people. So our authors, they’re, they’re really diverse in terms of their life experiences, their backgrounds, what they’re writing about what they’re doing with their books. But the commonality is that for the most part, our authors are also business owners, or they’re professionals in some setting or position where they have some type of authority over others. And I don’t say authority in like a patriarchal way, but just influence will say influence, it’s a better word. And so we have a lot of books that are diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging focus, a lot of books. And so it could be that is a, you know, a book about racism, which of which we have a number of them, it could be LGBTQ specific, which we also have a number of, we also have a number of books that have mental health themes to them, we have like just health and wellness. So we do mostly, you know, business leadership, self-help is kind of the, I would say about 80% of our work and then the memoirs are the other 20%. But the memoirs were also written by people with diverse backgrounds and diverse experiences and talking about all of the same type of topics. So the best and ideal author that we work with is someone who’s going to use their book as part of their platform, obviously, we could, we could, in theory work with anyone, we can publish any kind of book, but I want to work with people who are motivated, and they want to get their message out there. Because that’s where our superpowers lies in that strategy of helping people like really get their message out there. And books are such a wonderful way to do that. And so, you know, as long as someone’s just kind of, like, motivated, it’s like, alright, you are people. And of course, they have to be an inclusive mindset, they have to be, you know, operating with integrity, and we have a lot of metrics that we want to make sure that we’re only, you know, we want to be propping up voices that are helping, not hurting, you know, because certainly there’s plenty of those out there, too. I just don’t want to be near them. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. And Jenn, you know, someone once said, everyone has a story inside them that needs to be told. Can you tell us how you get started with those conversations with authors? What are some of the initial questions that you might ask them? Jenn T Grace: It’s a great question. I actually have a workshop, that’s a free workshop that literally covers like, kind of like how to get started. Because I get this question often. But the way you framed it was a little bit different. You know, I think it’s, we all have a story, we all have a story. Truly, literally everyone on this earth has a story that is worthy of being told, I think where a lot of people get stuck is that they feel like their story doesn’t matter. Or someone else has already told their story, or someone has told a story that is more intense or more, you know, more traumatic, or like there’s all these things that we’re like comparing ourselves to, when the reality is just by being who we are just those inherent differences between us is enough to be able to tell a story that maybe has been told dozens upon that, okay, it doesn’t matter, like you’re still a different person, you’re unique. So, you know, kind of go for it. But I think for me, one of the first questions I ask is always around purpose, you know, my company is called publisher purpose. Purpose is the thing that leads so like, what is the purpose of this book? And what is the impact that you want on your reader or community as a result of putting this book out? Because it’s kind of two, it’s two sides of the same coin. It’s what are you going to get from doing this? But what is the reader going to get from you doing this? And having that really, really clear, can be a difference between finishing it and not finishing it? Because I think when the times get tough, which they do, there’s no one comes out of the book publishing process unscathed. Like ask anybody who’s an author, like there’s, everyone has like some horror story of like, hitting like that low point. And one of the things that we do a lot of is just kind of help people through those highs and lows, because there’s a lot of lows. And we know how to kind of get people back up, get them, you know, take them off the ledge, get them back pointed in the right direction. And so you know, I think the more clear you are and why you’re doing it, the easier it is to kind of move through those natural hurdles and obstacles that kind of come across the path because they will, like if you think that they won’t like you’re kind of in your own little world, because they’re gonna hit you and you just want to be prepared for it. So you’re if you’re like, okay, my purpose for my memoir, for example, you know, I wanted to reach families. My goal was I just need to reach one family, one person that is struggling with what we are struggling with to make to allow them to feel less alone for just a minute of their day, to be able to read my story and say, shit, someone else has the story, and someone else has been able to get on the other side of this. And that’s all that was my goal. It was literally just to reach one, one person, one family. And I published it in September. And in November, I got a phone call from someone, and ended up being an hour and a half on a weekend and she cried for the first 45 minutes, because she was so upset because she had never seen her story told before. And my room was the first time she saw it. So at that point, I was like, I’m done. Like, I just like, the book is out, it did exactly what I wanted to do. If it does anything more great. If no one ever bought it again, I’m fine with that. You know, like, that’s not necessarily a great business approach, if we’re talking about a nonfiction book, but for my memoir, in particular, that was literally my whole goal. And then I made the conscious decision to say, I’m going to let the book tell me what it wants me to do, I’m not going to tell it what I wanted to do. Because in a nonfiction book, you have to tell the book what you want, like, you have to be clear on what you want with the book. But in this case, the memoir very against my own guidance, where I’m like, I’m just gonna let the book tell me where it wants me to go. And because of that, I’ve done a bunch of book clubs, because it’s a really good kind of like book club read. And like, that wouldn’t have happened that I would have thought about. I was just like, let me see what happens and it’s just kind of doing its own thing now. Jackie Ferguson: I love it, thanks for sharing that. Now you have a background Jenn, in DEI consulting, can you talk to us a little about that experience and share a few important tips for creating cultures of inclusion from your work there? Jenn T Grace: Oh, fun. It’s such a fun question. One of the reasons I started my consulting company, was because I had a really horrible workplace experience. And that was the foundation of all four of my LGBTQ books was this is how not to treat an LGBTQ worker, basically, or an employee. And it was in this was back in like, oh, four. So this was like, almost 20 years ago at this point. And it was just a really toxic work environment broadly, it wasn’t really like now again, like with the beauty of hindsight and be able to kind of like, reflect back, it was just a toxic work environment all around. I just happened to be on the receiving end of all the homophobic remarks. And they weren’t even like shy about it. Like my boss, who was a director said behind my back, but within earshot, unlike my second day working there, that I had the captain of the softball team lesbian look about me, like that was literally word for word, what came out of her mouth, and I’m like, Oh, this is gonna be a fun environment. And so I tried for five and a half years, I managed to stay in that company. Literally, it was from day one, I had this issue. And I tried for five and a half years to figure out how I could create, like, change the culture from the inside. And it was just a completely futile effort. So I went to quit and the CEO was like, we can’t lose you because I was running the marketing department. And he was like, we can’t lose you what can I do to keep you like, what’s gonna, what’s gonna, you know, make you happy, basically. And I was like, I want to market to the LGBTQ community. And at first, it was like, he’s like, alright, create a presentation, come back to me. And so I, you know, took a week came back to him, and I had a very clear plan for how exactly we would reach the community. And he gave me essentially carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. Like he gave me free rein, I went to tons of conferences. That’s when I got involved with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce with IGLTA, like, all kinds of different organizations. And what would happen is that I’m out at like, some awesome conference. I remember one, specifically with the IGLTA. It was in Vegas that year. And I remember being at like, the Ritz Carlton at like, some bougie event that they were hosting, being like, this is so good to be around people like me. And I was like, in my late, mid to late 20s. And I was like, oh great to just be around people like me. And then I came back to the office. And the second I stepped in the office, everybody was like whispering and talking behind my back, because I was just out at the gay conference. And so that was what made me realize, like, I am doing a disservice to my own community by going out and saying to people, like, Hey, you should do business with us, when I’m getting treated as poorly as I was being treated. So it was that lack of being able to reconcile what I was saying outwardly, and what was happening inwardly that I was like, I can’t do this anymore. Jackie Ferguson: Yeah, wow. So Jenn, you describe yourself as an out queer person your entire career. And that’s certainly not the experience of many LGBTQ plus professionals. So, you know, I’m talking again about your confidence because you’ve gotten a lot of it. And I think that’s amazing. How did you do that from the start? What gave you the confidence to be out from the start and in your professional career? Jenn T Grace: It’s such a great question. You know, before I took that job, and I took that job when I was 23, I was working in retail, and I was doing I was like, retail manager and I had three jobs was all through college. So I was like that that crazy person that people know, they’re like, when do you sleep? Because I like I had to pay my rent. And so I had three jobs at all times, they were all retail related. And in retail, everyone’s just out like, there’s no, like, at least in Massachusetts, where I was at the time. It was just like a non-issue, like I had, like, I just remember. And it was like the first time like moving to the Boston area where it was like, wow, there’s like a lot of gay people in the world. Like, it was just like this. Like, it kind of smacked me because I grew up in Rhode Island, which is very small state, not like it’s still technically liberal, but not really like if you really know the culture of the state, it’s not really. And so I grew up very kind of like in that very sheltered type of like, lack of exposure, basically. And so I go to Boston, I’m like, Oh my God, everybody’s gay. This is amazing. And so I was like, Well, I can just be out and be me. And the reason I was in Boston begin with because of my girlfriend, at the time, and so I was like, all right, so I’m just like, this is what this is what working is like, this is what adults working looks like, you are just who you are, you just are out and swipe. I falsely took that mindset with me to that next job of the work and like the corporate environment, because I’m like, Oh my God, I can actually sit, I can sit at a desk, I don’t have to be standing up all day and talking to dribble customers, it was like this shocking moment. And so it and then I like immediately went into the closet in that work environment, because it was so hostile and it wasn’t safe. So when I left that and started consulting, it was more so like, I just have to be out in every aspect of who I am. So I had branded myself as the professional lesbian. So if you go if you search the professional lesbian, I’m everywhere, like I can’t get rid of it, even if I wanted to like it is that I was just in the internet for the for the for the rest of time. And I went by and I had stickers that said like, Hello, my name is and it had professional lesbian under it, where you could write your name in, or it’s honorary. So I had to make sure my allies were included. So I had honorary professional lesbian, like I went all in on this. So what was great like, I can remember going to networking events where people would be like, oh, we forgot name tags, or whatever. I’m like, Oh, I got a whole bag full. And there’d be like, random people have no idea what they’re wearing, saying honorary professional lesbian on there, I had no clue and I’m like, this is gold. And it happened all the time. And they weren’t in like inclusive environments. Like these were just very, like, random hyper local networking type of events, where it’s like a mixed bag of people, you have no idea, like what their views or beliefs are. So that was kind of like where all of that kind of stemmed from. And now, like even in our website on publisher purpose, we are a certified B Corp. We are an LGBTQ owned business, and we’re a woman owned business. And that is broadcast literally everywhere. Because if you don’t like me for one aspect of my identity, the last thing I want to do is be working with you. And so it’s kind of great to just lead with it, because then I don’t have to worry about having like some contentious or hostile type of thing come up because like you’re either gonna like me or you’re not and that I think that’s like a marketing tip for people. Is it so often from a marketing standpoint, we think about how do we attract the right people? We’re like, Oh my God, I gotta attract the right buyer and attract the right client. But you also need to repel the wrong people. And so when you lead with your identity, and at least in this case, my recent not recently, it’s been like five years, moved past lesbian, I feel like queer is far more encompassing of who I am. And so I’m like, I just lead with it, because it’s the easiest way to repel the wrong people because that just saves so much time if you really think about it. Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. Now, Jenn, as we start to wrap up and this conversation has been so great. You talked about Dear Abby, and in the beginning, so one of the questions that I love to ask our guests is, what’s the best advice someone has ever given you? Jenn T Grace: I love that question. And it’s such a basic one. And I have followed this now, I’m the boss and have been for a while. So it’s less impactful. But I would even say this to someone who works for me. Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. I have operated under that my entire professional life. Because I had, I was on a board when I was 25. And I remember talking to the, I think she was the secretary of the board. And I was saying like, Hey, I have this really awesome idea. I want to do this, this and this. And she’s like, just go do it. Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness if somebody doesn’t like what you did. And I swear it was the single best piece of advice because it gives you that carte blanche to just go do it. Like there’s no restrictions. It’s not holding you back, like just move it out of the way and, yes, in obviously you want to be doing operating in tech with integrity. You don’t want to be doing something that’s with malice. But if you’re trying to be helpful and do something, don’t ask because it’s just gonna get bogged down in bureaucracy, like just go do it. And if someone’s upset about it, just apologize and be sincere about it and move on. So that was truly like the best thing I was ever told. Jackie Ferguson: I love it. I love it. And then Jenn, what is the message that you’d like to leave our listeners with today? Jenn T Grace: Oh, I would say I think maybe twofold. One on the ally ship side. So like, if you are, you know, you’re an ally to whatever community you’re an ally to, and you are have some kind of resistance or something’s holding you back from going to that networking event or showing up for whether it’s a recreational event or professional, whatever it is, just do it, just show up and do it, like get out of your own comfort zone, get out of your own way. The people that are in that community want to see you there as an ally just go in with good intention. So I would say that because I think it is uncomfortable sometimes to kind of show up to an environment where you’re like, I kind of feel like the outsider, which is happening to me in a lot of times these days with everything with Ukraine, like I go to events, no one speaks English, I have no idea what’s going on half the time, I’m just paying attention to body language, and like tone of voice. And it was uncomfortable at first, but now I’m like, they like they look at me as an ally. They’re fine with me here. So if everyone’s fine with it, why not just show up and continue to bring back that message to the larger what larger group that I can. So I feel like from that side, I would definitely say that. And then if you’re thinking about writing your story, or telling your story, whether it’s in written word or spoken word, just start doing it. You know, like just you know, even if it’s on a post it note, just start writing it down. Don’t overcomplicate it, don’t make it super scary, like just physically just sit and start writing your story. And don’t let anybody tell you that your story is not worth being told. Jackie Ferguson: That’s fantastic. Jenn, thank you so much for taking time today to be on our show. I’ve learned so much. Thank you for sharing that great advice. Let our listeners know how to get in touch with you at publish your purpose. Jenn T Grace: Oh, yes. So it the easiest is go to publishyourpurpose.com that is the fastest easiest way, all of our, the ways that we work with people, all of our authors are featured there. And I have a free workshop called “The Publisher Purpose Author Lab”. I run it a bunch of times a year. It’s an eight day workshop 100% free, that just helps get to the meat of why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for and how to create a plan to actually get it done. So that’s the information is available on our websites on our YouTube channel, social media, all the places. Jackie Ferguson: Jenn, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. Jenn T Grace: Me too. You ask great questions. I appreciate it. Jackie Ferguson [OUTRO]: Thanks for joining me for this episode. Please take a moment to subscribe and review this podcast and share this episode with a friend. Become a part of our community on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. This show was edited and produced by Earfluence. I’m Jackie Ferguson. Join us for our next episode of Diversity Beyond the Checkbox. Take care of yourself and each other.
Jenn T Grace is the founder and CEO of Publish Your Purpose, and the author of six books including her recent memoir, House on Fire: Finding Resilience, Hope, and Purpose in the Ashes.
The Inclusive Language Handbook: A Guide to Better Communication and Transformational Leadership, by Jackie Ferguson and Roxanne Bellamy
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