Good afternoon, this is Dan. Dan, your payroll man with Landmark Payroll. And this is my second second podcast in a series of 12 and my guest today.

I’m so honored to have Noel Sankrant with me today, and I would love when Noelle introduces herself, that she say it the French way, which I did not do justice to. So, yeah, my last name in originally French, and as I. I’m not real great at rolling the R’s, but I’ll do my best. So it’s pronounced cinque originally, and then had an E on the end of it and then it got Americanized and we dropped the e and now it’s sancrete.

Well, I love it and I’m going to try to stay sancret as much as I possibly can because I cannot twirl my Rs either. It looks pretty good. Much better than mine.

Thank you. So, Noel, the series that I’m hosting is Diversity Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in the Workplace. And do you feel that it exists today? And has it gotten better, perhaps in the last 20 or maybe even 30 years? And what is your opinion on that? So think about that for just a moment.

But I do have some questions, and I want this to be, you know, very conversational. So please fire back with questions as well, but I am going to go right into it. What does diversity mean to you in the workplace? For me, diversity means that you have a group of people with eclectic backgrounds that have an equal and equally influential say in how the company is growing, depending on what their area is, but also that it’s a comfortable place for people.

It’s a safe place for people. And I don’t always like to use the word safe because I think that sometimes gets bad connotation because there are expectations. You have a job, you have a job to do, no matter who you are and what your background is.

And you have to perform at that level. But statistics have shown the more comfortable and safe we feel in our work environment, the more productive and more successful we’re going to be and the more willing we’re going to be to take those steps, to work our hardest, and to kind of push the envelope to see if we can do things better. So, yeah, I think that’s just kind of how I feel about it right now.

All of it. I agree. And I also feel I use the safe word all the time.

You know, is my environment safe? Are we in a safe zone at our place of employment? Are we in a safe zone and. And the city that we live in, et cetera? Et cetera. So thank you.

Thank you for sharing that. Let’s just twist it just a tiny bit. How do you think the LGBTQ community is represented in our workplace today? I mean, that’s really going to vary from company to company.

And I think there are, there are some companies that do a much better job of embracing that diversity and making sure that they have representation from the LGBTQ community, but that’s not always the case. For instance, my company, of over 200 employees right now, I’m the only visibly LGBTQ person we have. And there isn’t necessarily a huge effort to recruit from that.

And so it can be challenging. And I think every company has to look at what’s best for them. I mean, businesses are about making money.

I get that. But depending on what your company does, there’s a huge value in having LGBTQ people. I think we tend to be some of the most loyal and hard working people in a company because we appreciate the opportunity, especially if it is a welcoming environment for us.

So I think companies need to do a little bit more to focus on providing opportunities for the LGBTQ community and recruiting from that. Certainly we need to be qualified for whatever positions we’re applying for, being considered for as well. But I think it is important to have representation from whether it’s LBDQ or the black community, Hispanic community.

The more diverse your company is, the more wealth of ideas you’re going to have from different backgrounds and different philosophies and different histories, and it’s just going to make your organization hopefully more productive, more efficient, and more profitable. Mm. I’m curious.

You mentioned you’re one of 200 employees in your company. Roughly. Roughly.

Okay. But I know the exact number, but I can’t say you’re the only one. Yeah.

How do you feel about that? And the reason that I’m asking is do you think your company even promotes or. You mentioned that they don’t appear to be seeking anyone from the LGBT community community. But how do you feel about that overall? I mean, is your company supportive? So that’s a multifaceted answer.

There are, there are sections of my company locally, and I’m unique in that I work for a national company. And it’s a different model where we have our home office, which is based in Milwaukee, and then it’s not a franchise model, but then each kind of territory has its own managing partner, and then within that there’s offices and there’s managing directors for there. So there’s not necessarily a lot of consistency from region to region.

Office to office, network to network. Yeah, I don’t. There isn’t a concerted effort to recruit LGBTQ other than me, and my managing director, to some extent, is supportive of recruiting LGBTQ people, but it’s not a focus.

It’s not. There’s no resources to recruit from our community, which is a shame, because we have one of the largest LGBTQ communities in the country. We have the fifth largest pride here in St. Pete in the country.

And, you know, our community has a. An inner fear of the larger institutions of America because we have been discriminated against for, you know, decades and excluded for decades, and so we tend to lack trust in that. And so I think visibly having members of our community is a huge opportunity to, from a revenue standpoint, to capitalize on that market.

But from my standpoint, it’s a huge opportunity to help people that need that. That need that guidance and for them to feel. Have a safe place where they can go and talk about these things.

So I’m a financial advisor. I’m one. I’m the.

The first visibly transgender financial advisor in my company’s history. There’s now two of us in the country, the other one in San Francisco, of course. San Francisco.

Where else? And, you know, there’s a huge. I feel a huge responsibility for that to be successful and to represent our community, which is why I do things like this for visibility and to hopefully reach others that are maybe questioning whether or not they can have a professional career because they’re trans. Really focused on the trans community.

For me, 80% of my clients are the LGBTQ community. The other 20% are allies. If you’re not part of the community or an ally, I don’t want to work with you.

Quite honestly, you’re probably not going to work with me. So it’s a mutual decision there. But we need to have this visibility so that our community has a safe place to go and get the resources that they need to grow their wealth, to make sure that they’re accomplishing their financial goals.

Just to say the LGBT community statistically takes. Makes less money. Our community statistically has more debt.

And so we need to work with that community, educate them on how it’s why it’s important to work with somebody you trust that understands your situation. I worked with a client yesterday. I have a tendency for others to reach out to me when they’re working with a transgender client.

And so somebody brought me in to have this conversation. The person said, I’m glad you are here because you understand what it means and how important certain things are. It is a different mindset when you’re working with a transgender client.

It isn’t necessarily about retirement. It’s about being able to budget and afford for the gender affirming care that we need so that we feel comfortable with ourselves. And a lot of advisors aren’t going to understand that.

And it’s. So it’s important for our clientele. We have unique planning needs throughout our entire community.

And so we need that visibility from people in these positions, one, so that clients feel safe and coming to us. I mean, nobody likes to talk about money anyways, so it’s stressful from that standpoint. But being part of that community then doubles that stress.

So they. They need those safe faces that they can go and talk to and deal with these different things, but also so that the younger generation coming up sees that, well, this is a career I can do. Whether it’s financial advising or legal or payroll or benefits or medical, whatever it is, we need visibility from all these different careers to.

So that these youth know that it doesn’t matter if they’re part of the LGBTQ community, they can still accomplish their goals and be whatever they want to be. Right. I think so many, so many people, so many kids these days just feel like, oh, I. All I’m going to be able to do is work at Starbucks.

That thought crossed my mind when I came out. You know, I came out after I started being a financial advisor, started living authentically. And as I approached that date, I was like, am I going to be able to do this career? Is anybody going to want me as my client, want to be my client? And thankfully, all my fears were put.

Were put to rest. And here I am a couple years later, thriving and having a great, great time helping our community. I love it and audience out there.

I wish that this was live, even on tv, because the passion that I. I hear in Noelle’s voice and see on her face is amazing. And it’s. It’s such an honor to have you today.

It really is. And the courage to work in a very large company. Okay.

A very conservative industry. In a very conservative industry, yes. But being one of two really says a lot, and it says a lot to your character that you just keep on pushing and you keep on moving, you keep on going.

And you did mention something to me earlier, which was enlightening, that you are now in charge of something very important within your company. Would you like to share that or. Well, I’m not in charge of it, but I have recently been appointed to our diversity inclusion Field Advisory Council.

So it’s a group of people that are part of different communities that come together and really help guide our company in developing diversity inclusion policies and efforts. And so I will be, you know, being the first transgender financial advisor, it opens up a lot of opportunities for me to be a part of these different things. And so I’m really looking forward to that and making sure that we have a say in what’s happening with our organization and how to better serve the trans community and
recruit the trans community, because we do have.

We go through a lot. Or fighters. Yes, we are.

And we are. So, you know, we. You know, we can be successful at this, and we can do a lot of good things and help a lot of people.

I love it. And. And I can’t wait for maybe a year to go by and we sit down here again in perhaps February of 2025 to discuss the accomplishments that you’ve done or made with this two council.

So kudos to you, and congratulations. Thank you. And I hope I’m along for the ride so I get to hear all about the good that you bring to this new organization or this new opportunity.

Opportunity. Thank you. I was looking for the correct word, but I’m so tickled that you’re doing that.

Let’s talk a little bit about maybe an experience that you may have had, whether it is current or past, but have you ever witnessed or experienced any microaggressions directed at our community, the LGBT community, either with individuals or groups in a workplace? Daily? Daily. I mean, maybe not daily, but, yeah, I think we all do. And, you know, I guess it depends on what your definition of a microaggression is, but, yeah, there’s instances of that, you know, depending on where I. What office I’m
working at.

Like I said, we have six different offices. You know, there are. And again, in a very conservative industry, so there are people that.

There are people that don’t agree with me, with what I’ve done with my life and who I am. I, um, and feel I shouldn’t be able to live my life authentically. And so there are people who maybe I had relationships with prior to.

Cause I started with Northwestern Mutual before I. I started my transition. And then as I started my transition and started living authentically, yeah, there’s people who give me that kind of look, and I. You know, I get this whether it’s in work or I get it at the grocery store, at restaurants, and my colleagues and my clients notice this too. And for the most part, I’M able to ignore them to a certain extent because I’m used to it at this point in time.

It doesn’t make it right or easier. Correct. Sometimes it does affect me.

I call it kind of like death by a million. Paper cuts, like the first 999,999 don’t hurt, but that last one really does. But, yeah, that happens, I think, for Most, unless you’re 100% passing.

And as happy as I am with my progression, um, there are still times where I think most people can tell that I am transgender. Hopefully that changes in the future. So I don’t have as much of it.

But, yeah, anywhere I go, whether it’s in the workforce or in a networking situation that’s not necessarily specifically LGBTQ or at a restaurant, wherever, that I get those looks and I get those scowls, and I have had instances with. With having dinner at clients who happen to also be trans and having the server misgender us consistently. And that can be upsetting for.

For us and really kind of, you know, affect us in a way that isn’t good, especially in this day and age, because there’s so much. I mean, we wake up every day, let’s face it, we wake up every day and go, oh, what law we got? What law is being talked about today that’s taking away one of our rights or limiting us? Or what politician or religious person went out and said that we should be eradicated from our planet? And that adds a lot of stress. So, yeah, we probably tend to be a little more
sensitive towards things about that because it’s a daily occurrence as well.

But on the same side, you know, I don’t want to always talk about the negative. I have people that are huge supporters and backing me and helping me to be successful and are there when they see other things. It isn’t, you know, it isn’t always.

It isn’t all bad. It tends to be a minority of people. But those minority of people, the minority of people can.

Can really make a. A big impact on how we’re. How we’re seen and how we’re accepted within an organization.

So depending on what their role is, the higher up they are, the more successful they are, the more influenced they are. We had an incident last year, so our. Our company, on an annual basis, has an annual meeting, and as part of that, they do what’s called the FA Lunch, which all the financial advisors that are, do a luncheon, and then we have a kind of a financial advisor advisory group, and they answer questions and the first question was from a.

Yes, older white man that’s been in the business for every years. And we happened to do these in June, July. And he was like, you know, it’s like the first week in June, he’s like, why am I already getting this pride crap emails? And they literally do one, basically one email in the month of June saying, hey, it is Pride month.

He’s sad if he thinks it’s over exposure. Yeah. And there’s a bunch of LGBTQ advisors in there.

I happened to not be there, otherwise I probably would have not handled it as well as others did. But yeah, we face that on a daily basis and I think most people do. I think as much effort as most companies put into diversity inclusion, it’s never going to be 100% safe.

There’s always going to be people who scowl or talk bad about our community or make it more difficult for our community. Something that you said resonates with me regarding waking up every morning and what is going to be taken away from us today? What is going to change? What’s going to make life easier or more uncomfortable for us? I, I feel that I experience it as a gay male. I came out at the age of 19, although I knew it when I was 12, but I still look back at even those years or, you know,
those, those days years ago, and I still wake up with that same question.

And it’s been a very long time since I’ve been out and there’s still days where I’m not comfortable and I’m much past that 12 year old kid that I was or that 19 year old kid that, you know, came out and said, hey, I am who I am and I’m proud of it. But there’s days that I feel that way as well. So thank you.

Very personal. Yeah. And I think, you know, living in the state of Florida doesn’t help right now.

You know, we’re one of maybe 10 to 12 states that are seem to really be attacking our community. But it is a national thing too. I mean, there’s always somebody on the news or on social media.

You know, even I posted something on LinkedIn about another engagement that I’m talking, that I’m a part of and talking about. And you know, there’s this is on LinkedIn, a professional network, and there’s derogatory comments being made on that. And so it doesn’t matter where you are, what you know, where you are, what company you’re a part of, what you do.

There’s going to be people out there who are just always going to attack you. And I guess we just have to look at it as, you know, that’s their insecurities, their inability to accept people and, you know, understand that kindness and love are going to win out. And I think our community probably has more kindness and more love to give than any other community.

I agree a thousand percent with that statement. Hey there.

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Please join us soon. I’m curious. You mentioned something, you know, an incident happened in the past.

How do you feel your company handled it? You said you had sports or you had someone that you could speak with. Was there a resolution? Do you feel that maybe people listened to you but didn’t hear you? So I wasn’t. I wasn’t there for that one, so.

But there was definitely an uproar within our community. And we have an amazing DEI group in our. In our company and the person that leads that is just an incredible human being.

I always kind of, kind of laugh, you know, being the first transgender financial advisor, I kind of have like the bat phone to the DEI council. Like, I can pick up the phone and boom, you know, they’re there and what’s going on. And so there’s been a.

Yeah, there has been a few, few things where I have called them. And generally, I mean, they’re going to handle it very professionally. And they had conversations with.

When those incidents happen, depending on the severity of it, people have been let go from their positions. Not necessarily in this case, because it wasn’t anything attacking any individual. It was just more of questioning why they’re receiving this email.

So I feel like we get a ton of support, and I know I get a ton of support directly from my managing director. I get a ton of support from other advisors and other leaders that are part of the RLGBQ community. And I get a ton of support from our DEI staff and department.

And so I feel good about the efforts we’re trying to make. But as I said, we’re a huge company. It takes time.

It takes a lot of time to keep chipping away at that. And you have to be resolute in what we’re doing, determined to make sure we make those changes. And, yeah, we have to do it in the right way, because it needs to be more about having the right conversations and not.

Not attacking. I think kind of, you know, a negative of our community. So we tend to, a lot.

A lot of times take offense and then attack. And maybe instead of doing that, perhaps we need to sit down and try to sit down and have a more conversation, have a different type of conversation with these people. Right.

I always, you know, I talk about how important it is for me to be in spaces that aren’t exclusively lgbtq, because I feel like I have a tremendous opportunity to break down a stereotype, the stereotype of what a certain group of people may feel a transgender person is. Because I am professional. I am trying to do the same things they are, have a successful career, provide for my family, build my business, help people in the community, whether they’re LGBTQ or not, just helping different types of
communities that need those help, need that help.

And so we have a huge opportunity to do that, especially if we’re willing to have. If they’re willing to have that conversation, a civil conversation, which we used to be able to have with people. And now I don’t see that as often, like, people are more willing, more interested in attacking and telling you you’re wrong, as opposed to sitting down and trying to understand we need to kind of get back to that.

Let me ask you this. So you did mention that, you know, it was handled or somebody addressed it. What resources or support systems do you think your company should provide specifically to the LGBT community? Q Community.

Funny you asked that, because I was actually working on a few things right now, especially for us locally, because there are offices that, when I go to, I’m not as comfortable. Like, it does create anxiety. And so we have a Pride and M group.

So I work for Northwestern Mutual, and we have a Pride of NM Group, and then we have Pride Ambassadors. And so these are people that are visible in each office. So that if we do have a health staff or clients in our case that are there, they visibly see this.

And some of our offices do a much better job of that than others. Our new Tampa office is fabulous. Our Clearwater office is fabulous.

St. Pete is fabulous. I always feel comfortable going to those places, so I think it’s important to have those little. So I’m going to meet with each of these different offices to talk about these programs and recruit more people and talk about the importance of having that visibility and having those points of contact, not just for staff or not just so I feel more comfortable.

But if you work with LGBTQ clients, and I think I’m not the only one that works with LGBT clients. But if they come into the office, they know it’s a safe. A safe place, and they know they’re in a welcoming environment as well, and that it’s people that understand or care about who they are as people.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you know, I’m agreeing with you on everything, because I’m in our world. I’m in our world.

Okay. And even if I were, you know, a straight individual, I just feel that equality is so important everywhere, all the time, not just segmented, et cetera. Let’s spin it around just a tiny bit.

Tiny bit. Have you seen any positive examples of LGBTQ inclusion initiatives or actions in your workplace or others? Absolutely. We have an amazing group based out of Denver, Colorado, actually, who, being led by a gay individual by the name of Sarah Tinkler.

She’s an advisor out of there, and she’s now a managing director, actually. And she has almost. Her entire team, is probably the most diverse team in the country.

And there’s representation other than they don’t have a transgender person, but they do have a wide variety. They have gay, lesbian, polyamory, people who are in this thing. They have minorities.

So, yeah, there is pockets within the company. And again, because just the way our company is set up is that each office is pretty independent of how they want to structure things. As much as the recommendations trickle down from our home office, it’s still up to the managing partners and managing directors to take those and embrace those.

And so I think that’s a great example of. And they’re showing that the company can be profitable from having that type of diversity and having that inclusion amongst our advising staff and support staff. And, I mean, let’s face it, that’s what companies want to see is profitability.

Of course. Of course. And if they start seeing profitability, they’re going to put more resources into it.

And so there is some responsibility on our part to prove that, prove that we can be successful, prove that reaching out to our community and helping our community is going to help the company overall. And I think we’re starting to do that. And there’s more pockets.

We actually, last year, our diversity inclusion staff on our first. Well, actually, two things. For the first time ever, our LGBTQ advisors and staff were included in our Multicultural Affinity Summit.

So each year, our company does summits for the dual Women’s Summit, and they do a Multicultural Affinity Summit. And for the first time last year, the LGBTQ Community was invited to attend the Multicultural affinity. I love it.

I love it. Additionally, later on in the year, they put on their first together with Pride. So this was exclusively for LGBTQ advisors and staff and.

But they flew us up to Milwaukee, which is where our home office is, and it was two days of community and learning and understanding each other and really, really energized us and felt like they were listening and they want us to grow and they want to recruit more people. So, yeah, there’s. Again, it’s so easy to focus on all the negative things that happen, which are typically individuals and not the company as a whole.

Right. And we need to be able to separate that and see all the positive things that people behind the scenes are working for. I love hearing that.

I also love the fact that I think you truly are the right person to. To lead this initiative. Not leading it.

I’m just part of it. I say that you’re leading it because I’m impartial and I. And I, or I should say partial to you. And I think that your strength is going to bring this, this council together and it is going to open up the doors to so many more opportunities within your company.

And, you know, again, I know I’ve said it before, but kudos to you because we need more. We need more in our. In our.

We need more of our community to. To feel comfortable wherever they work. I don’t care whether it’s Burger King, whether it’s a gas station, whether it’s, you know, a huge corporate business such as Amazon or, you know, Tesla, whatever.

I think that there has to be a comfort level to be said or, you know, to be had when working into walking into a workplace. You know, I, I agree because. And I think there’s camaraderie among that.

I think we recognize that each other when we go to other businesses and, and kind of just kind of a stupid example of that is I went to a fire firehouse subs for to pick up subs one day and one of the people making the sandwiches was trans and we made eye contact and we just smiled at each other and talked. She, like, she made sure that she’s like, what’s your name, hon? And told her my name. She, like, made sure my order got through quick, ready really quick, and got done right and just showed
appreciation for each other and being able to see each other in of all places, the firehouse subs.

And it brought a smile, I think, to both of our faces and made us both feel more comfortable in that setting because you don’t know. When you walk into a business, you know, are they going to kick you out or are they going to serve you? And that’s becoming more prominent and a bigger discussion of whether, I think. What was it? Tennessee just created a law that now you don’t have to marry same sex couples if you’re an officiate, you can still, you know, they’re not prohibiting you from getting a
marriage license, but if you’re somebody that performs ceremonies, you can say no to people that are of the same sex.

Well, that is indeed sad. And of course, I will never go down the political road, but, you know, that is all politics, and hopefully we’ll be able to make changes. Yes.

Someday through our actions and contributions and, you know, in our. In our unity. So to that point, I don’t think it should be a political conversation.

Yeah, I know, unfortunately, it starts, you know, it starts that way, but we can. We can extinguish it. Right? We can, you know, hopefully break down the walls, break down the barriers.

Let’s hope so. I hope so, too. Let me ask you this.

I know that we’re getting close to. To wrapping up, but what can. What can individual employees do to contribute to a more inclusive environment for the community, for the LGBTQ community? Well, I think the hardest thing for a lot of folks is being visible and not being ashamed of who they are, because if they’re in a company or organization that isn’t inclusive, it makes it that much more difficult to be visible.

But we have to be strong. We have to. To.

We have to be willing to just make people accept us for who they are. And yes, there’s going to people. There are going to be people who don’t.

And obviously, we do have some protections, theoretically, in that we can’t be fired just simply for who we are. Very difficult to prove in a court of law, but we do technically have those protections. And so I just want to encourage people, if you’re.

When you’re in, don’t be ashamed of who you are in. In the work environment, we don’t necessarily need to be, you know, walking around waving the flag every day, but you don’t have to be ashamed of who you are. You don’t have to be ashamed that you’re married to somebody of the same sex.

You don’t have to be ashamed that you’re transgender. That isn’t anything to be ashamed about. Love who you.

You love who you love. And just like somebody else might be talking about their spouse and kids, you have that right. And that opportunity to do it as well.

And if that makes somebody else feel uncomfortable, that’s on them and not on you. So I think number one is being, being visible. Number two is if you don’t have a resource group, an employee resource group for lgbt, LGBTQ people, work with your human resources department to start one.

And obviously that’s big, that’s easier to do in bigger companies. If you work for a small business, obviously that’s the, you know, there’s only five employees that you’re not going to have employee resource groups, but have open conversations with how important it is not only for you, but for clients that come in or customers that come in to feel that, that welcomeness, just like I did at a firehouse sub, simply because there was another transgender person there working behind the counter. So,
you know, you have a right to share that and be a part of that.

And hopefully it’s a great, also a great way to find out whether you’re working in it for an inclusive employer. And if they’re like, no, we’re not going to do any of that, maybe start looking for another job. I wouldn’t say quit that one automatically until you have something else lined up, but maybe that’s not going to be, it’s a great way to find out whether that’s going to be the right place for you or not.

Agreed. And that, and that brings back again, you’re actually bringing back memories, you know, helping memories resurface. The in, in my own world.

And I’ve been asked so many times, you know, why didn’t you tell me that you were gay? Why didn’t you, you know, why didn’t you feel comfortable sharing that you were gay? And I would say, well, did you ever tell me that you were straight? Or do you parade around the streets saying, I’m straight and we have straight parades? No, I, I, I, I just live my life the way I live it. And if you have a question, ask it. I always say, I’m an open book.

If you have a question, just ask it. Turn to the. And I’m sure that you’re familiar with the HRC Equality Index.

Yep. Does your company currently, do they have a ranking? I know that I’ve followed it for so many years and I’ve since being with my new company of only 100 employees. And we don’t even, you know, rank because we’re not large enough.

But yours is. What, what is your. We have a perfect score.

That is phenomenal. A perfect score audience is 100. That means they are an all inclusive HRC human rights campaign.

All inclusive company. I love it. Yeah, it’s a good thing.

It’s a very good thing. It is a good thing. It doesn’t mean, and I say we have a perfect score, but it doesn’t mean we’re perfect and it doesn’t mean we still have improvements.

And certainly that the HRC index is ranking you based on numbers and it’s very easy to make sure you have those numbers. And so, you know, I think, I think even if you have a perfect score, there’s a ton of room for improvement within the organization. Always.

Always. It shouldn’t be a. Before you have a perfect score, we’re done.

Yeah, well, I know there’s again, you know, you keep moving forward. You keep moving forward. So we’re very close to the end, and I wish we weren’t because I could speak to you for hours and hours and we can do that at happy hour.

Fantastic. I love it. I know.

And it’s so nice to be able to get to know you on the outside as well from this podcast room. But anything that you want to ask me, are there any questions? I don’t usually end before the time is up. I could keep on talking and talking and talking.

So, yeah, I mean, you mentioned you’re with a smaller company and so you have a completely different perspective probably on some of these things because you, I’m guessing you don’t have a dei, a diversity inclusion staff that are putting programs and thinking about ways to make people more inclusive. So how does your company, if we have, you know, this is sunleader, so there’s small business owners and small business leaders that are listening to this. And my perspective is coming from a company
of several thousand, tens of thousands of employees.

So from a smaller company perspective and in your experience, what can these smaller businesses do to create a more inclusive environment? Especially if, you know, they only maybe have one or two employees that are like that. Right. Well, again, my company, 100 employees.

I’m the only out gay individual. I haven’t sought out other individuals from the company to even ask. But it’s unique in our company because we, we are incredibly diverse with our staff.

Again, I can’t speak of if there are other, you know, people in the LGBTQ community. I’m respected and I love it. It’s a small company and I am treated just like everyone else.

And I’ve never felt more comfortable in my own skin working for a smaller company that is, you know, accepting. I mean, no questions, no questions asked at all. There, you know, there’s no limitations within our company.

I don’t know if maybe it’s because I’m one of the highest performers. I’m not gonna. I’m not gonna say it is because of that, but I walk this earth saying that I am me, and if you don’t like that, then you don’t have to like me.

Yeah. I always think a good measurement of how inclusive a company is is if there are individuals that are lgbtq. And it’s unique because when you look at diverse communities, you know, you don’t.

If you’re black, you’re black, people know you’re black. If you’re Hispanic, people can typically tell you’re Hispanic. If you’re female, typically, people are typically going to tell you’re female.

We seem to be the only diverse group where we have to out ourselves for being who we are. And if you have. If we have members of our community who are afraid to come out at work because of fear of retribution or lack of promotion or things like that, then I think it’s up to the company to understand that they still have work to do.

And they may not know that, but. And that’s where that. That courage to, yes, I am who I am.

This is who I am. Accept me or I’ll go elsewhere. Right, right.

In building off that, being a top performer, that does give you some power to say that, to be that example and to perhaps make it easier for others to go, yes, I’m part of this community, too. I’m tired of hiding who I am. This is my spouse, same sex.

Or this is my spouse who’s transgender, or I have a transgender child or have a gay child, and I’m not ashamed of this. But anymore. Now, you know, I said that because that was a lead in.

And the reason that I said what I said is because you are also a top performer within the entire company. Do you think that. Do you.

Let me ask you this, and this is completely off the cuff. Do you think that you purposely work harder to prove something? Absolutely. I think when you’re the first of something or if you’re one of the first couple of something, there’s additional pressure and responsibility to ensure you’re successful.

So to pave the way for that, the next people that come through, to make it easier for the next people that come through. Now, I’ll also say, though, that as a transgender financial advisor, I have privilege. I can get into places that other people can’t, because I can refer to as the unicorn status.

Right, Right. I’m unique, I’m different. And in our community, that does provide me opportunities to come in and talk about.

About what we do and how we help our community. And so. So it works both ways.

As hard as it can be, sometimes there are opportunities that come up simply because of who I am and what I represent. Yeah, I. And, and I’ll never disagree with you on that. Never disagree.

I feel that wherever I’ve been and, and again, I am certain that this is the. The last company, since I am part owner of it, that I don’t think I have to prove anything anymore. And I’m just going to keep on working my tail off because now I know that I can.

Yep. So. Well, I think this was absolutely fantastic.

I. I cannot thank you enough, Noel Song Crai. I’m actually getting my R’s twirling now. Much better than me to you.

And again, audience, this was my second episode of a series sponsored by SunLeaders, and I want to thank you all again, and I look forward to podcast number three. And again, thank you, Noel, for being here today. Thank you.

You’re amazing, Dan. Appreciate you having me and talking about these topics that are so important for us. Excellent.

Thank you, Sam.