Want to help Good Queer News?
(I'm not asking for money I promise)
TLDR: I need help getting into the room to talk about pride month speaking events so that I can keep doing all kinds of free stuff here! Do you know any workplaces, ERGs, or other spaces that might be interested in an event (at any price)? Respond to this email (the fastest way to get a hold of me as I don’t have the substack app) or send me a message!
As many of you may know, I have spent the last seven years working as a public speaker on any topic I can think of surrounding trans rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and building a better world. I’ve identified that cultural change work through storytelling and judgment-free spaces for questions is my best way of contributing to the world I want to be living in. Pride month, which will be upon us in short order, is basically my Super Bowl.
There are a lot of things I’m good at. Marketing is not one of them, which is why I’ve hired my chief barketing officer, Oliver.
On our walk this morning, he helpfully (probably) pointed out to me that I have a platform of over 20,000 people that would probably love to support me if I told them how to do so. Either that, or he was barking at a squirrel. It was probably both—he’s a multitasker.
Last year, almost 50% of my presentations were either free or paid less than $100. That on top of all my political advocacy, writing, parent support, and work here on Good Queer News. This isn’t a complaint, this is a good thing! This is what I want! I am absolutely over the moon that I do enough paid speaking and have enough paid subscribers on here to have the bandwidth and the stability to do so much free work (and to help my wife and I afford the IVF process we’re undergoing!!!!!!!). Many of you are already contributing to making this happen. Thank you!!
One of the things that I find the most challenging about marketing is that once I can actually get into the room with somebody on a call or in their email inbox, they’re so excited that we’ve met. I know that the presentations that I do are joyful, are well researched, are meaningful. I’m good at my job once I have the chance to prove it, but it is really hard to get into that room.
What does help look like?
No matter how hard I try to make it clear that the marketing emails I’m sending are human generated and that I am genuinely reaching out because I love my job and want to bring more joy to a workplace, they are still marketing emails, and the people I’m emailing don’t know me. There will never be marketing that is more effective than personal referrals and introductions—on cold outreach my success rate is about 3%. For referrals, it’s about 60%.
I would love it if you would help connect me to people in your personal network that might be interested in hosting an event together. Here are the kind of people I’m looking for:
Leader or member of an employee resource group, business resource group, or affinity group
Job titles that include things like Diversity, People, HR, Culture, Belonging, Learning & Development, and Inclusion
Anyone at a cool nonprofit
A friend who is really passionate about supporting their trans kid and works a corporate job
Maybe you don’t have the names, but we’re one degree of separation away, who do you know that might know some of these people?
There are so many things that I speak about from foundational trans 101 trainings, to storytelling panels, to queer history, to misinformation, to trans youth, to getting more involved in allyship and advocacy. All of these events, and my others, have the through line that makes good queer news so lovable: joy and hope and humor and storytelling.
Also please note: my priority is not finding companies with the hugest budgets possible or that have gigantic rooms full of people. In this moment in time budgets are tight, and my top priority is just to be having as many conversations as possible. I celebrate just as hard booking an event for a few hundred dollars as I do for a full priced event. I speak for companies, hospitals, schools, nonprofits, parent support group, religious congregations, book clubs, you name it and I want to be there.
I’ll make it even easier with some language that you might use:
Good morning! I was wondering if we/you were planning on doing any programming to celebrate pride month in June. It has been a difficult few years for LGBTQ+ people, and any show of support or efforts for education really mean a lot right now. If you’re still looking for a speaker, I know somebody who could be perfect. He focuses on joy and hope and storytelling. You can also look at his website here at www.bgtranstalks.com. I subscribe to his substack, good queer news. [If you’d like to include something here about what this newsletter means to you or the impact it’s had on your life, that personal addition can sometimes be very special and very helpful.]
Would you like me to make an introduction?
I’m so appreciative to you for reading this article. I know the reality is that some people will see that the headline of this article is me asking for something instead of providing something and just scroll by, so just the fact that you were willing to open this email and spend some time thinking about how to help me genuinely means a lot to me.
As a thank you, here is an additional photo of the chief Barketing officer being perfect:
There’s plenty more good queer news to come. If you have thoughts, ideas, questions, you’re welcome to respond to this email, leave a comment, or send me a message. If you want to learn more about the story of how I got into public speaking or some of the other topics I speak about, you can check out the longer form article I wrote about it a few months ago.
I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print. So for today, I’ll bid you adieu.
All my love,
Ben
Hey Ben! My spouse runs the LGBTQ+ ERG at Xbox, and I’d love to pass your info along to them. What’s the best way for me to do that?
I mean, I don’t know where you’re are in the world or if this would be feasible, but I work for the Dallas Public Library and we’re currently working on our annual Pride event. We (I) would absolutely love to have you come do a talk (even if it were apart from Pride Month stuff). We very likely cannot pay much, but you’re the kind of speaker I would dream of having at our event.