In September, Adventure Out Women launched its online presence aimed at providing a networking portal for the professional woman who surrounds herself with pride 365 days a year. Behind the scenes of this new portal are two women, Dawn Dudgeon and Belinda Ramirez who saw a need for a space where likeminded professional women can connect.

I have the distinct honor of being a contributor to their portal and I recently asked Belinda and Dawn to share a bit about the site and themselves.

What has been your biggest challenge being out in your business
life/career?

I can honestly say that looking back; I believe there were times when my patience was challenged. I have never been the kind of person to hide things or lie about who I am. What you see is what you get, the good, bad and the ugly. I have been out since I was very young. I never made excuses about who I am or tried to justify my actions. You are who you are, period. Life is not that complicated, people sometimes can make things much more difficult than they have to be. Not intentionally but we are all human and have good and bad days.

What is your long-term vision for Adventureoutwomen - what do you
most want to have happen as the impact of your work?

I believe that we have developed a very unique vehicle of communication for women to share information and provide professional services, but that is just a very small part of what AOW is. Anyone who knows Dawn and I would agree that being healthy inside and out is very important to us. We believe that your mind and body are a big part of who you are. Taking care of it and carefully feeding it can change how you are and what you feel.

To us learning is very important, we are always in some sort of class or seminar and thrive on learning new things and meeting new people. In developing this portal, Dawn and I brainstormed and wrote down all things we wanted AOW to stand for. We took a pad and pen and wrote down all the good things we liked about portals we used frequently. We were able to develop a business model that adopted some of Craig’s list and put a spin on it by writing about the things that interest us and our community and by offering other activities and events that would allow women to exercise their minds as well as their bodies.

Our dream and hope is to have Adventure out Women be the Craig’s list for the lesbian community. Craig’s list is a no frills, very functional web site. One can get information without all the banner ads, and annoying marketing ads to distract you.

With AOW you can network by marketing professional services, posting events and joining us on our outdoor group workout activities.

What is the #1 piece of advice you would give any woman wanting to
be successful in business?

Number 1 is being honest, bottom line. Do what you say, and say what you mean. Understand that success is the intersection of hard work and opportunity. Opportunities sometimes present themselves, be sure to be ready to take them and understand that it is up to you to find new avenues for opportunities. Never give up on your dream and when people give you constructive criticism, take it for what it is worth and use it to your benefit. Also understand that in our small and growing community there are many wonderful people out there who will help you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and make sure you return the favor. In the end it is all about networking and making mutually beneficial relationships.

Networking and learning the ins and outs of being a professional
woman can be overwhelming. What’s a simple way for a woman to get
started connecting with other successful women?

This is right up our alley! Well first of all surround yourself with others who you aspire to be like. Dawn and I have some friends we admire who are respected in our community. They started a gay yellow pages in Sacramento called Valley Rainbow Page 9 years ago and are very successful, honest and hard working men. For us we do not limit our circle to professional lesbian women.

AOW is all about networking and sharing information of interest with the lesbian community. But we do work with some professional men who target our audience and have some very good advice and services to offer. We often ask them for their opinion.

What brings you the most joy personally or professionally?

I can honestly say that success brings me the most joy both personally and professionally. For me the meaning of success is not being famous or having a lot of money, neither of those applies to me. Success to me is being content with your life. I can say that I am very satisfied with who I am today. With the circle of friends I surround myself with, with the things I have and most importantly with my relationship with Dawn.

Be sure to check out Adventure Out Women as it grows as new content is added regularly. If you want to reach Dawn or Belinda you can email them at dawn@adventureoutwomen.com and belinda@adventureoutwomen.com respectively.

Maria Angeline over at Daily Dose of Queer has some exciting news that I wanted to pass along to you. Her long awaited book project called Queer Shorts is now available!

Here’s a little blurb about the book description from MergePress.com:

Love. Loss. Memory. Choice. Friendship. Identity. Gender. Sexuality.

In a new collection of literary shorts, eleven new and experienced writers serve up queer in eleven different ways. Their accounts explore the queer world nearly four decades after Stonewall through unique, deeply personal perspectives.

The writers’ diverse viewpoints take readers on a journey that spans four generations. Their stories explore, among other themes, the way that attraction can change identity and that new love can uncover the memory of a love lost. The pieces cover moments in time across the range of human experience, including the need to separate, wanderlust, and an extramarital affair.

Intense, often meditative, and embroiled in the power of recollection, this anthology explores many slices of queer culture through themes that will universally resonate with readers.

Queer Shorts features work from: Gayle Lloyd, Jeff Mann, William Reichard, Nairne Holtz, Ethereal, Alan Witchey, S.G. Reichen, Monica Dulberg, F.I. Goldhaber, Jen Burke and Sally Bellerose.

You can get 35% off the cover price of Queer Shorts throughout September when you enter the voucher code HUSH before checkout when placing an order at MergePress.com.

I am always excited to see women coming up with ideas, taking full hold of the reigns, and birthing something new. That’s what the creative process and really living your desires is all about. If you’re looking for a good read, head on over to MergePress and pick up a copy…

Hats off to Maria and the contributors!

That is the question a dear colleague of mine, Souldancer, asks in his just release book Pay Me What I’m Worth.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Souldancer late in 2005 and working with him one on one earlier this year. If you want someone who thinks outside the box, that’s not Souldancer; just thinking outside the box is too small for this man, he gets rid of the box entirely to open you up to new possibilities in a practical, yet spiritually bent way.

I believe there isn’t a soul alive who doesn’t want to be paid what they are worth and then some. We are all intrinsically worth more than you can fathom. Even from a real world sense of money, we all have unique talents that are worth a lot. And, it is up to you to do the work to get paid what you’re worth. No one is going to show up like a knight in shining armour and hand you money (unless you win the publisher’s clearinghouse and Ed McMahon shows up but even then your core problems aren’t the least bit solved). It takes more than just earning degrees, accolades, and letters after your name. We all know numerous well-decorated and supposedly well educated folks that can’t find their way out of a paper bag and don’t deserve some big salary they somehow commanded. It takes the inner work of learning about yourself, what you’ve already earned, how to truly give with ease, how to ask for what you want, and the all important learning to open yourself so you can receive what is offered to you.

Wondering how I know so much about the book when it was released just days ago? Well, my name is actually IN the book. Why? Because I had the pleasure of putting my editing skills to work in the early draft stages. I can vouch that the material is sound, the exercises are robust, and the chance to finally learn the secrets of getting paid what you’re worth are waiting for you.

(I also must throw in my $.02 that I just love the snappy cover design.)

To buy the book, click on the image above or visit http://lulu.com/payme

If you’re dying for an autographed copy, you can purchase one directly from Souldancer at http://souldancer.org/pages/pmauto.html

Do you feel you are already paid what you’re worth? What do you think about getting paid what you’re worth? Post your thoughts in the comments… AND, if you’re interested in not only reading the book but working with a supportive study group, let me know in the comments below or via e-mail. Souldancer is starting up study groups and I may choose to lead one in the future.

Last night I had the huge pleasure of attending a book signing and reading for Alison Bechdel’s book Fun Home. For those of you unfamiliar with her work, Alison is the author of the superb comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For . The comic strip has been a favorite of mine for years and it beautifully chronicles the personal and political trials and tribulations of a core group of lesbians. It is funny; it is poignant, and frighteningly true to life (especially the political details). Fun Home is her first venture into the autobiographical graphic novel genre and it has been getting rave reviews from not only the gay press but also the big league of reviewers (New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine to name a few).

The event was held at the Free Library of Philadelphia as part of their author series. I’d never been to the library and it is an old, beautiful, and cavernous building near the art museum. What I liked most about the crowd that attended was the wide diversity of people which just proves that quality writing and art can be equally compelling to women and men across a wide demographic spectrum. (I just looked at that last phrase “wide demographic spectrum” and realized that an evening of listening to Alison’s well crafted story with impressive vocabulary has just trickled into my stream of consciousness.)

The jam packed hour was filled with Alison reading from her book while displaying a slide show of the corresponding graphic frames. In between the two chapters she read, she took time to give us a peek behind the scenes and into her creative process for drawing. It is more than clear that she is a serious artist who works her ass off conceptualizing, researching, designing, and actually drawing the frames. I couldn’t recount all the steps if you put a gun to my head. As a writer, I certainly understand my creative process and the sometimes painstaking process of editing and getting the message “just so”. However, since my drawing abilities are limited to stick people (and pretty ugly stick people at that) and tracing Garfield and Ziggy cartoons as a kid, it always blows me away to learn about the different methods artists adopt to create their signature work. Alison commented last night that she doesn’t consider herself a natural artist. She just works very hard at drawing. Well, I don’t know what you’d define “natural” as, but she most certainly is authentic, original, and produces top notch drawings that convey many layers of a message simultaneously. After listening and watching Alison last night describe just one frame from her new novel, I had the same reaction as when I first watched a fine winemaker walk me through the process of his hand crafted wines and champagnes — “my god this stuff should sell for $100 each at a minimum for all that talent and effort!”.

(You can catch a snippet of one stage of the creative process via video on her blog here ) .

The evening wrapped up with a nice stretch of Q&A from the audience. I just love when intelligent women fill a room and get free reign with a Q&A. The questions were thought-provoking and compelling. As a whole the audience expressed a lot of gratitude and reverence while cheering on the success of one of our own. What I love most about the recent mainstream media attention to Fun Home is that it is not a prefabricated “gay news event” but a literary story about a substantive graphic novel by an author who happens to be a lesbian and whose autobiography explores the gay themes inherent in her family (her father was also gay).

To me the lessons I took away from getting to see Alison in person as well as my years of reading her work are:

• Be authentic
• Follow your creative muse because you must
• Speak your truth because silence really does equal death
• Trust in the process, methods, and mediums that work for you

I haven’t gotten to read the book yet (after all I just bought it last night so she could sign it), but intend to sink my teeth into it starting this weekend. I’ll share what pops up for me after I finish it. I also hope to publish a photo from last night here, but first want to get permission from her…so stay tuned.

You can check out her upcoming tour dates here. If you can’t make it to a signing, or you missed her visit to a city near you, she has chronicled her tour thus far on her blog in a down to earth, authentic, behind-the-scenes way.

And, by all means…buy the book and experience it for yourself!

While I rarely wax political in this space, I want to draw your attention to a series of radio interviews called “Same-Sex Marriage: Who Cares!?” The reason this is relevant to the personal and business topics I write about is because without equal rights under the law lesbians are at a disadvantage and have to overcome additional hurdles to success. (Of course, we don’t let any of these obstacles deter us because we’re powerful and persevering women!)

You can check out the PR about the series here.

This series is spearheaded by one of my colleagues Souldancer who is just a fabulous guy doing great work in the world. A great lineup is planned featuring impressive women like Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon, M.V. Lee Badgett, and Colonel Cammermeyer to name a few. The complete lineup can be perused at the program guide. He is still looking for some guests to fill in a few of these blanks in the schedule:

• A constitutional scholar to speak to historical efforts regarding amendments driven by a particular interest group
• A state level expert to speak to what they believe states in general have to LOSE by a federal law that permits same-sex marriage.
• A national organizational level expert of a religious denominations to speak to what they believe their denomination (or similar groups) have to LOSE by a federal law that permits same-sex marriage.
• A nationally visible lesbian family to share their thoughts on how a law that permits or denies same-sex marriage impacts their family.
• A nationally visible our person to share their thoughts on how a law that permits or denies same-sex marriage impacts their workplace.
• A nationally visible South African or Australian gay or lesbian to share their thoughts on what they’ve experienced as their country struggles with this issue.
• Nationally visible gay and lesbian nonprofit executives to share their thoughts on how large non-profits shape US society in general and the impact they may the proposed constitutional amendment to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

If you or someone you know is interested, you can contact Souldancer directly at info@souldancer.org or drop me an email and I’ll put you in touch.

Please visit “New Voices” which is hosting this series and tune in for Same-Sex Marriage: Who Cares!?.