Storytelling with Valerie Clark for "30 Days – 30 Voices – Stories from America’s LGBT Business Leaders" [Podcast]

Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional

Storytelling with Valerie Clark of the Greater Boston Business Council and Tsipora Consulting Plymouth, MA Links mentioned in the show:

Sadler Financial Greater Boston Business Council 3 Reasons you should never say Homosexual blog post

Books Mentioned:

Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below. AUDIO TITLE: 30 Days, 30 Voices – Valerie Clark Jenn T Grace: Welcome to 30 Days, 30 Voices: Stories from America's LGBT business leaders. Intro: You are listening to a special edition of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Tune in for the next thirty days as we interview one business leader per day, each day in June to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. That's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month. You'll learn insights around business and marketing from those who know it best. And now your host. She's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven and an advocate for the LGBT business community. Jenn, with two N's, T Grace. Jenn T Grace: Hello and welcome. Thank you for tuning into this special Pride Month episode of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Information about today's guest and links mentioned in the show will be available on the website at www.JennTGrace.com/30days30voices. If you like what you hear in this interview, please be sure to tell a friend. And now, without further ado, let's dive into the interview.

I am excited to be talking to Valerie Clark today, she has a long history of working in the financial field as the owner of several start-ups. Most recently she is an investment professional with Sadler Financial Group based in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In addition to this, she is the President of the Greater Boston Business Council, which is Boston's LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Val, I have given the listeners a brief overview of who you are, but why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your business, and what your path looked like that led you to where you are today. Valerie Clark: Sure. You know I think like a lot of people, my path was not- definitely not one that was straight or well-defined. I kind of stumbled into my profession. I'd thought that I would be a teacher when I was in college, and I have a degree in history and modern languages. Then I found out how much teachers actually make, versus how much money I owed the government for my degree. And I decided that you know, I simply- I couldn't, as passionate as I was about the opportunity, I just couldn't live on $25,000 a year. So I had been in the restaurant business probably since I was about fourteen, and one day was actually in a restaurant waiting on tables when I was recruited right off the floor. Jenn T Grace: Wow. Valerie Clark: Yeah. So it was- totally took me by surprise but literally inside of a month, you know I had my securities licenses and I was sitting behind the desk ready to do all sorts of damage. And you know, it's sort of the cliché within the financial services profession is that these kids when they recruit them, they're just so full of energy and ready to go, but the truth of the matter is they just don't even know what they don't know. Jenn T Grace: Yeah, absolutely. Valerie Clark: So I, you know I was with a major bank at the time and had a successful career from let's say- I want to say early 2000 on until 2006 when I left sort of pre-crazy housing market bubbl...