FEBRUARY 2022 I've been interviewed by some podcasts recently "Empowering Appalachia" Beau Knowles and very soon I will be featured in a national magazine as a "Inspirational Community Leader'. Well, this will happen when I get some new candid photos for the magazine spread. Would you believe I'm camera shy? Seriously. lol
THE BLOG: I haven't been here that much lately; I've been on my social media and group pages interacting with my businesses and followers. It's really not easy to be a communitive business owner. No wonder so many businesses hire social media managers. I have a business facebook, instagram, twitter and a tiktok for each of my endeavors. There are 4 endeavors. I plan to be a little more present here as I am continuing to write to empower people.
WHAT'S A HOTMESS-BIAN: I identify as a Hotmess-bian. That pretty much insures I'm not dull. Southern Hotmesses rarely are. :) I like this orientation because it lets me travel in many different community circles. If we get down to definitions. I feel this means I'm a woman loving woman, but I'm "woke". Believe me I'm explaining this orientation but only to people that want to argue about what woke means. Oxford Language defines "woke" as "alert to injustice in society, especially racism." I say I'm conscious of what is happening around my area and in my community. People will use woke to mean all kinds of things but to me it means I wasn't aware of the injustices happening around me until I "woke" up to realize they were happening. Now, I'm a member of a group sponsored by our city, they discuss civil rights issues and how to avoid hate crimes. It's still weird for me to get emails from the local FBI branch but if I'm going to be someone looking to make change in my community, I have to be ok with getting emails huh?
THE BUSINESSES: I can't believe it's been a year in March since I graduated from a Feminine Empowerment Business course. That means it's been 2 yrs since I was released/furloughed from the company I had worked for almost 8 years. I've built a business on my sells ability. I created a directory of over 500 entries of lgbtq businesses and those friendly to our community. I included local and national support group and resources. My goal here was to make this information searchable and sharable. No one should have trouble finding the help that they need. In my area you can "google" "lgbt near me" and my pages will come up. That is huge.
BUSINESS SUPPORT: I still help small businesses grow their business by including them in my directory but make no mistake this does not pay enough to be for profit. Many of my listings are free, I only ask for a donation for the upkeep of the website and the electric bill. (Goodness I almost fainted when I saw my February bill, can we say double? Whew). Anyhoo, I feel knowledge should be free. If I see a weblink doesn't work on someone's webpage I will tell them. I don't charge for helping someone. Can you imagine how sad the world would be if before you could receive help someone asked you to pay them? Me either. We should all lift each other up.