LGBTQ Business Ownership, Advocacy, and Overcoming Cultural Barriers

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios. It’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women in Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. The topic for this show is supporting LGBTQ women, business owners and advocacy. We have two folks here on the show. We have Lance Dorsey from Sony and Dana Arnett from Wicked Bionic. Welcome.

Dana Arnett: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: So let’s start with Lance. Lance, tell us about your work at Sony.

Lance Dorsey: Thank you. Lee. Hello, everyone. My name is Lance Dorsey. I’m the director of global responsible sourcing at Sony Pictures. For those not familiar with responsible sourcing, essentially what it does is it has a dual lens of sourcing, looking at the diversity of the supply chain, but also looking at the sustainability of the supply chain. I’ve been with Sony. It’ll be three years in September, but no stranger to the work of procurement or supplier diversity. I’ve been in procurement, I think, about 21 years now and supplier diversity for 13. So it is definitely a passion of mine and something that I enjoy doing. Uh, and you mentioned the sponsor for today’s episode. I’m also proud to be the vice chair of the corporate advisory board for Weatherquest.

Lee Kantor: And Dana, can you tell us a little bit about your work at Wicked Bionic?

Dana Arnett: Absolutely, Lee. It’s an honor to be with you. Lance. My name is Dana Arnett, and I’m co-owner and co-founder of Wicked Bionic. And we are a multicultural marketing and advertising agency, and we are the diverse suppliers that Lance supports in his work all these years. We are a woman owned, um, LGBT owned small business in California, and we really primarily focus on helping businesses that are struggling with getting visibility and and activity with a target audience. So we develop that audience and we bring do paid media campaigns to help them succeed. And I too, have been serving for, I think it was three years as the chair of the Los Angeles Forum for Wiebach West. So big supporter and lover of Wiebach West.

Lee Kantor: So as we get into this, why don’t we kick it off with maybe a macro question why is LGBTQ representation advocacy important in the business world? Why is that something that we should be spending time even talking about today? So one of you want to jump in there.

Lance Dorsey: And start our please? Thank you. I think and speaking of someone who’s part of the LGBTQ community beyond sort of the political unrest that we see in the very targeted policies that are seeking to strip away the rights of this community. From a business perspective, it’s so important to support the LGBTQ community because of the inherent diversity within the community. People within the LGBT community are not linear. They’re not one thing, you know. So in addition to being someone who identifies as a gay man, you might have someone who also identifies as a Latin American or someone who identifies as Asian American. I might have people that identify as someone with a disability, or identify as someone who served the country and is now a veteran. I think that inherent diversity within the community and of itself makes businesses better. And why does it make businesses better? It brings fresh perspectives to the table. It helps keep companies out of trouble. I’m sure Dana can speak to some of her clients from a marketing perspective, who may have had campaigns that they wanted to send out, and she was able to put the lens of diversity onto the campaign and say, this is the direction that we need to go to make sure that your message is clear and understood and is authentic and not offensive to any particular community. And, Dana, I saw you shaking your head. Yes. So I was.

Dana Arnett: Going to say, you know, the heart of what we do is culturally relevant marketing. We say, right. And and I don’t think it is that we’ve come across as spending dollars on let’s just go to people out there because we call that fishing in the ocean. When our job is to fish in the lake where the fish are. And by by that, I mean, you know, within the LGBTQ community, which I wanted to give our listeners a great stat that I just looked up to make sure it was current. But the 2024 buying power of the LGBTQ community in the United States alone is nearly 1.4 trillion. So marketing, product services and having businesses, um, you know, and us being able to recommend this is a viable, important, necessary offense, uh, um, opportunity to reach people that that matter not just by me, but also, you know, to your point, Lance, you know, we develop messaging that resonates within the community. We don’t want our our clients to feel like they’re they’re outside talking to. And because, hey, we all know everybody can can smell somebody that’s not being authentic, right. That’s just marketing to for a dollar. So we want to make sure we’re coming from inside the community and talking that way.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re talking authentically a representing and advocating for this community, what are some of the marketing techniques you use to do that?

Dana Arnett: Well, I think the thing that is the most, um, necessary for us and why our campaigns are, are successful is because we spend a lot of time and energy on, on research data, finding out we don’t just guess just because I’m in the community and my business partner is in the community, we don’t just guess, right, we need to find out where who we’re trying to reach, what, um, what their involvement is. Because every city, county, state, everybody is different. We’re all people. So they’re different, right? And their needs and wants and and uh, and influence is different. So for us finding um, and understanding the, the particular community that we’re targeting and what they need and how they receive messaging. Well, right. Um, sometimes we’ll use influencers within the community that are already speaking the language of the community and that are respected or interesting. Um, and then and then finding we also, you know, I get very technical here, Lance, but getting, uh, into the subsets of what, um, what age and the demographic and exactly who who they are. And are we speaking to aging communities? Are we speaking to younger? You know, every message is different. So it’s really us understanding that. That’s right. It works for us. Because then when we launch the campaign, we’re not worried at all, right? We’re comfortable that we’re reaching the right audience.

Lee Kantor: And then when you’re working, I mean.

Lance Dorsey: Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I just wanted to say, Danny, you touched on something very interesting. So you talk about the subcultures within the LGBT community or the Intersectionalities. Had you heard of Silver Pride before?

Dana Arnett: I have not.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. So this is something that I just learned about this. This, uh, weekend. I was talking to someone else in the industry, um, who, uh, puts on events, and he was talking about doing an event for Silver Pride. And silver pride is the aging community within the LGBT community that their idea of going to a pride festival, their idea of fun is very different from, you know, no doubt.

Speaker5: No doubt. Yeah.

Lance Dorsey: So so, you know, they’re putting on this event that is very targeted and it’s called Silver Pride and apparently it’s catching on. Um, you know, uh, and I think it’s something that by the grace of God, if we continue to age well, we they’re listen, we might be like, hey, you know, Dane, are you going to Silver Pride this year? We’ll be going together.

Speaker5: And our our hair.

Dana Arnett: Will be silver.

Lance Dorsey: Yes, absolutely.

Speaker5: I love it. I’ll look that up.

Dana Arnett: But oh, I love it because we do a lot of advertising for local clients in the LA pride. And you know, and we hope pride and all that stuff. So that’s great I will look that up. Thank you for that.

Lance Dorsey: It’s amazing.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you work with your clients. Because are they coming to you with a certain outcome they desire, or are they just asking for general advice because they want to serve that community? Like, can you talk maybe, uh, Lance, from an enterprise level and then Dana, from the marketing kind of lens, how you all would work together, because it seems like sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. So. How does that work?

Lance Dorsey: Yeah, and that’s a big thing, right? Uh, people made, uh, what? Coffee for years before the paper filter was invented by a German woman. Housewife. Look it up. True. True story. Um, that made the process easier. And so for us, um, it’s, um, about partnering with, you know, uh, companies like Dana, you say, you know, we’re going to release a film, um, that tells the authentic story of, you know, uh, LGBT, uh, people within the community. We want to make sure that we partner with the marketing firm that can help us reach the target audience. And because we put so much time and attention to telling the story authentically, we want to make sure that it’s marketed authentically as well. And as Dana mentioned, um, you know, if this is, um, a story, uh, centered around women of color, you know, do we look at, uh, black beauty brands? Do we look at, um, different television shows or radio that market specifically to that community? But but doing so, again, in an authentic way. Um, and I, you know, Dana can speak to, I’m sure some of the, the work that corporates have brought her to reach targeted audiences.

Dana Arnett: Yeah. I think more than, uh, more than anything people will say, you know, sometimes brands are aware that who they need to reach where their gap is. Right. And so they’ll say, we really need to reach Hispanics. And, you know, they have a you know, I think it’s a nearly $2 trillion buying power as well. Right. So really understanding that, um, general marketing, as I said, does it doesn’t necessarily, uh, isn’t the best use of your dollars, but they come to us and they’ll say we get a lot of wanting to reach communities. Right. So and communities more on the, the local level or maybe the state of California. And they want to reach different, but they know, as is most of the United States, that there’s certainly in California incredible diversity in markets and who the people are and who we want to reach. So we would never just do one campaign. So the same with, um, an LGBTQ is included in that. So taking taking a look at each of the um, sometimes they ask for a recommendation or they have an idea of who they want to reach. And when we do the research for what they’re selling or what initiative they might have out there, it’s not the market that is the best suited to receive the information. Again, getting back to research, you know, really understanding who we want to reach. And then what we do is we we break down our segments and we break down our budgets and we, um, dive into the community and we start, um, appealing at the from the inside out. And like Lance said, you know, working with the company like Sony, you know, you’d be carrying, uh, carrying whatever, um, initiative that they have out to the public really targeting exactly who they want to reach with exactly the message they want to reach.

Lee Kantor: But like you just mentioned, um. With the the group of older. Um, what was it? What were they called? Silver.

Speaker5: Silver pride.

Lee Kantor: Silver pride, silver pride. So that was something that was happening, but it wasn’t really on either of your radars until recently. How do some of those communities kind of bubble up? Is it just kind of organic, just kind of living out there? And then you see, oh, there’s this thing here. We should start paying attention to it. Like it seems like, you know, from the grassroots, a lot of things happen first and then, you know, eventually the corporates see it.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah, I think it’s, it’s, it’s indicative of, uh, so I can say for me it was very organic. I mean, happened in a telephone con or. Excuse me, in a conversation with a colleague at another company. Um, but it’s it’s sort of indicative of the the business. Um. Enterprise of itself. It’s recognizing a need and then solutioning that need, right. Dana. Recognizing the need for authentic marketing, uh, and diversity. And, you know, again, instead of, uh, I love that analogy, Dana, of instead of fishing in the ocean, fishing in the lake, because it is very targeted. And that’s where you have that concentration. And so, I mean, I don’t know the history of, of, uh, Silver Pride is definitely something I’m going to look up, but I can, you know, assume from this that there was, uh, a contingent of individuals that attended an event and felt that, you know, their particular needs or specific needs weren’t being met and decided to conduct an offshoot of of that event that was more, um, welcoming or felt more authentic to their experience. Um, I think that’s also why, you see, um, there’s black pride.

Lance Dorsey: You know, I grew up in the, uh, DC, Maryland, Virginia area DMV, uh, and there was always, uh, you know, the, uh, pride, the big. The separate black pride. And it was because, um, there were certain venues that would not make themselves available, uh, to, uh, black members of the LGBT community to, uh, have pride events. And so it was a need to a keto solution. This let me find a business that is more open, accepting, um, that’s more inclusive and then host events there. And so, um, again, I don’t think it’s and the one thing I do want to underscore is I think these specific like silver pride and black pride and the various different prides that happen, I don’t think the intent is to be exclusionary. I think it’s recognizing that there’s a subset of that culture that doesn’t feel seen, or that their needs are being met, and then finding something specifically for them, a safe space. Um, I don’t think if if Dana and I went to Silver Pride that we would be turned away is what I’m saying.

Speaker5: Because it’s a welcoming.

Dana Arnett: Community. Yes, yes, but.

Lance Dorsey: Very welcoming community. But recognizing that that event is a silver pride event. And the biggest thing is making sure it’s a safe space for those individuals within our community to make sure that their needs are met.

Dana Arnett: And you said it too, you know. You know, it sounds horrible to say this is a business that we don’t know everything, but, you know, here is identically. Right? I mean, hearing it organically because we could search all the type of types of pride events or events out there for the LGBTQ community. And we can go through Google and we can go through all of our research channels. But the fact of the matter is, is, you know, then we’d have to vet are they real? Are they, are they are they positive? Right. Are they conscious? Is it something we would replace. We would want to put our clients right. So everything has that. And I think when you hear at that beautiful organic level that you did and then you shared it with me, that’s the way the magic happens, because then we can see. And I think to your point, it’s not, um, it’s that, you know, we all want to feel welcomed and connected, and I don’t have, um, there’s certain, you know, people that are not in my circle. Nothing wrong with them, but they have their own circle. So I think that that piece of I love that they, um, that they broke off the older, um, generations broke off in some way because that, again, feels inclusive. And you said it perfectly in the beginning, Lance. The older generation is not sitting on the floats. They’re not sitting on the floor. I don’t know, but really, maybe. But you know, they’re not sitting on the floats, right?

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. I can tell you, someone who has sat in a flow or sat on the floor or stood on a float in a doll stand sucking exhaust for two hours, um, it was a true test of my pride. I was happy to be there. It was. It was great energy. But I was like, oh my goodness. Like no one prepared me for this. I need a.

Speaker5: Gas. Oh, it must have.

Dana Arnett: Oh, well, I would love to see that photo. That’s all I’ll say. You have some. Great. You have some great outfits there, Lance.

Lee Kantor: Um, I what I was trying to get at bringing up the silver pride is the fact that if you’re an enterprise corporation that isn’t kind of leaning into this level of diversity and helping, um, you know, helping people be seen and helping their voices be heard. How do you do that without hiring a firm like like yours, Dana? Like like you have to have somebody that’s in there in order to help identify this stuff because like you mentioned, it’s probably not going to bubble up in there, just normal day to day life, because that’s not where they are.

Dana Arnett: Right. And Lance, I think in your in your organization I’m understanding you correctly. I mean that is your like you’re Sony you know and you’re you you know who’s important out there right. You know who’s important out there. And like you said an LGBTQ documentary would be important to you know, we wouldn’t have to make that up.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. I think the other thing is, you know, Dana, I know that you’re well connected. Uh, you’re part of a lot of organizations well known and respected within the Southern California business community and elsewhere. Um, I think it’s just that. Right? Having these conversations, um, sharing knowledge, sharing best practices. Um, I don’t know that it would, uh, for me, I mean, my learning about silver pride wasn’t facilitated by my needing to market, uh, to elder generations, you know, some some sort of content or film. Uh, it was just having an authentic conversation about pride, you know, that that’s coming up, um, how we authentically engage, uh, not only, um, our, our individuals within our company, our colleagues and peers, but how do we also interact with the community and let them know that this is is not just a June thing for Sony Pictures? Um, and so, uh, you know, just just those types of conversations outside of there being a specific business need. Um, now, with this knowledge, I think there is an opportunity to apply a business lens to this. But again, how do you do that in an authentic way that shows that you care and support, um, this, this company and that you’re not or excuse me, uh, this, this group and that you’re not attempting to exploit them? I think that’s where you would definitely need someone like Dana to come in, um, and sort of have an ideation session about what that would look like, um, and then make sure that it’s also sustainable. Um, because that’s the other challenge, right? That if you do something really big in June and then, you know, in August, people are like, where did they go? Uh.

Speaker5: That that is not good.

Dana Arnett: Yes. Agreed. Agreed.

Speaker5: Lance, you know, the.

Dana Arnett: Thing about Sony, and if our listeners don’t know this thing about Sony’s, you have so many community initiatives that are just initiatives to help and integrate and support and get involved there. So there outside of marketing and, you know, and, you know, marketing a product. And it’s when I remember reading it a few years ago, what Sony was like, ah, that voice in the community. I mean, that’s powerful because as a recipient of that, that this incredible organization is, is, is cares about me. I mean that that in and of itself, I mean, you know, not from a marketing perspective, but that’s what what you and Sony do. It’s incredible.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. And it’s it’s amazing. Um, there are so many wonderful organizations that the company supports. I’m frequently surprised and empowered and amazed by their engagement with the community. Uh, two weeks ago on the lot, they hosted the Easterseals Film Challenge. And this is an organization that advocates for disabled writers, actors and directors. Um, and just sitting in the auditorium on the Sony lot while they played their short films, just how inspirational it was. I mean, it was just. Amazing. I don’t know that anyone could sit in that room and then in the auditorium and then walk out and not feel great. Uh, about, um, life, community, um, seeing people with challenges and with, you know, grit, battle those adversities and follow their dreams to produce amazing content. I mean, it’s just I could speak forever about it, but I appreciate you saying that, Dana, because it is something that I think, um, not only Sony Pictures, but, uh, we employees take a lot of pride in.

Dana Arnett: Yes, I will say that. I was, uh, I just will tell you that I was at a, um, uh, I was invited to a supplier. Diversity. Was it a fair? Was it considered an affair?

Lance Dorsey: An expo?

Speaker5: Yeah. Yes, on.

Dana Arnett: The Sony lot. Um, on the grass. And, uh, I think there were maybe 30 of us, diverse suppliers and wicked Bionic set up their booth. And the joy of not even the other wonderful corporates that you brought in, but the joy of the employees coming up to the booth and talking and the pride of like, you could just feel it missed me. I worked on a lot for a little bit and it missed. I missed that feeling of community, that like a studio lot. But you also, you and your team brought together, brought us all together and elevated us. All right. Elevated us. Yeah. So many.

Lance Dorsey: I think what makes it special is the ability to be your authentic self. And that’s something that Sony, in my estimation, does a wonderful job of. I don’t have to compartmentalize. I don’t need to go too far into my history. But I’m a 13 year Air Force veteran. I served during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I know all about having to compartmentalize the time that I wasted, having to think about how to communicate something and not give myself away, um, was just exhausting. And I think part of my joy of going to work now is not having to expend that energy and compartmentalize it and hiding. I can just be myself, and it makes me a better employee and a better person. Um, and I think that’s the joy that I see emulated in other people who also get to be their authentic selves when they come into the Sony lot.

Dana Arnett: You said, you know, I have said this many times, and I say it again because we’re working with the Oregon Department of Veterans on Veterans suicide there. And I also hear your service, Lance, really, it’s I’ve learned so much and chokes me up. Thank you for that. And I.

Speaker5: Appreciate that.

Dana Arnett: In your story. You know, that being your authentic self. I worked in television. I was a VP for the last ten years before I left this business, left to open my own business, and I couldn’t be right. I was married to a man and found somebody. And then it became this. And, you know, she’d send me flowers and I’d freak out because, like, oh, my God, they’re going to know because God knows they couldn’t be from my mother. But I was so, so protective.

Speaker5: Of.

Dana Arnett: Myself because these men in charge were that they were family men and they were not. This was the this was the it was the kind of person they made fun of behind the closed doors about, you.

Speaker5: Know, absolutely.

Dana Arnett: Not willing to be that. And, and when uh, when I left and, uh, quit that career, I said, I want to be in a place where I can be myself, all of myself, not just get all of myself. And opening my own business. Boy, in last ten years it has been I don’t even have to think about that stuff anymore. And in the people that I out in the world and partners and people like you, I don’t have to think about it. Isn’t that a freedom? Isn’t that a freedom?

Lance Dorsey: What’s interesting to me, especially in the business community, is how much. Pressure and weight was put on that. Aspect of my life. And then how freeing it is to realize that it doesn’t matter. Like it doesn’t matter. I’m still able to do my job, even do it better than I did before. Um, my engagements haven’t waned. I mean, it just didn’t matter. And it’s just a huge weight that’s lifted off. And I guess for anyone that’s listening, if you’re going through this, Dana and I can definitely relate to that. But to tell you that within the business community, once you find the right spot, the right job for yourself, it really doesn’t matter. Um, I think this is the first time that I’ve ever had a photo, uh, on my desk at work, uh, of someone that I was seeing and just just things like that that I guess other people don’t think about. That was a huge deal for me. I’m like, okay, well, what picture do I choose? What frame should I make it? Like a small right? Should I make it a small one that way? Like it’s just over here on the side or.

Speaker5: Um.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah, but then it didn’t matter.

Speaker5: It didn’t matter.

Dana Arnett: And I think to your point, and I think with diversity, you know, eventually. Right. Because I say, you know, it’s it’s a good thing and a bad thing that we have to segment people in order to market to them. Right. But it’s necessary now. But maybe if it’s a good thing, one day we won’t be segmenting people and we can just market to them, right?

Lance Dorsey: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now can we talk a little bit about, um, maybe start with you, Lance, from your lens, what could diverse firms do better to help you help them?

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. The the first one is definitely the self-identification. Um, we need to know that you’re out there. Uh, if you are certified through, you know, one of these affinity organizations like WebRTC or the Nglcc. Um, to, to either put that on your website or put that on your marketing materials just to let us know that that it’s that you’re out there. I know there’s a lot of apprehension for that because not all companies are as accepting. Uh, and there are some that might view that negatively. So it is a personal choice that you have to make. But the the biggest thing for us is to be able to identify that you are a diverse business, because that’s something that we’re looking for. I’ve shared this story before. Uh, and I’ll try to do the Cliff notes version, but, um, there was an company that I. Was employed by. Previously, we were part of an organization that advocated for diversity. We were asked to put together a video to talk about the great work we’re doing with Self-id and how we’re helping, you know, expand diversity. Um, we use our in-house comms, put the video together. The night of the event, the group that went before us, theirs was captioned, and they use large font for the people who were visually impaired and had captions for people that were hearing impaired.

Lance Dorsey: We had neither of those things. And so we were backstage scrambling to find someone to come out and sign during our video. Um, had we partnered with someone like Wicked Bionic or had we partnered with someone, um, who belonged to the disability community or was knowledgeable about that? They would have pointed that out to us. And I think it goes back to that not knowing what you don’t know. Right? Um. I know that kind of is a little off topic from your question about how can those businesses help us, but I guess that’s another way, right? Is is coming to us and saying, hey, listen, I saw this great thing that you did. There’s a way that you could make it better and make it more inclusive by doing this or including this, or have you considered this? I think all businesses or corporations are looking at ways that they can improve or make things better, uh, more accessible, uh, more engaging and inclusive, and having businesses come to us and help us solve those issues, I think is a huge way, um, that they can make themselves known and help us help them by helping us.

Dana Arnett: You said something funny because, um, you told me this story a long time ago. I think we were at one of the webcast events, Lance. And you said, uh, that a diverse supplier. So I think it was a woman owned business. And you said she she emailed us or called us and she saw a gap, maybe on your website or some saw a problem. And, you know, it sounded like it was something minor, but but she you’re like, oh, geez. You know, because I think that’s the open mind and it’s help us be better, all of us. Right? Help us be better at what we do. And you didn’t make that mistake on purpose. On purpose. But that accessibility, right. It is now a fumble. If you don’t, if you don’t do it right because it’s now known out there. So making everything ads and you know, and websites and everything else accessible. But I remember what you said about that woman and how you’ve continued right to give her business.

Lance Dorsey: We have. Yeah. She was amazing. Uh, what she called us out for was the font size on one of our websites. And, I mean, we looked at it and I was like, she’s right. This is an eye chart. This is all, um. And she helped us make that site more accessible. And then she looked at some of our other things that pointed, you know, out, uh, links that weren’t, you know, clicking into sites that were accessible and how we could make those things better. And it’s it’s amazing. I mean, it was again, uh, engagement that we didn’t think was necessary until someone pointed out to us and said, hey, you know what, you do need to fix this. And then we were like, fabulous, help us. Uh, and we were able to do that.

Dana Arnett: And the organic experience for a supplier. How wonderful is that?

Lance Dorsey: I love it, I love it again. Oh go ahead.

Lee Kantor: Sorry. I would like to get Dana’s perspective. Like what would you like to see from your lens on how enterprise, uh, can help you, you know, be found.

Dana Arnett: Um, well, I want to. I’d like to do it as a recommendation to any of our listeners. And I think what that’s about is, you know what Lance said? Visibility, right. And visibility in your certifications. I will say that as with all the certifications we have, that does not mean we are good at what we do. We have to be good at what we do. We have to bring high value first and then then companies like Lance’s looking for diverse suppliers. We’re still not going to get the job just because we’re a woman owned, LGBT owned business. We’re going to get access to more opportunities, is the way that I look at it. But we will not win because ultimately they need the best supplier for the job that they have. And, uh. For us. What I have seen is when I go to, um, organizations like we back West, like we bank the National Conference, like NLTK. And if you don’t know what any of these are, I’m sure that there will be resources on the web WBEC West website to learn more. But going to those conferences and meeting and my job here, I do business development is to be visible, to develop relationships with people. Lance and I have become good friends at these events. We share cards together and stuff. You know, it’s just become visible, become known because when your proposal crosses the desk or, you know, an email comes in, somebody’s going to look twice if they have a relationship with you. So I think there’s just a there’s just an organic way to develop relationships. And then, you know, there is the the simple, simple yet hard task of seeing what, what’s available going on individual websites, I mean, city, county, state. We’re doing that. You know, every other day the team’s looking for other opportunities in government, but with the private organizations as well, those relationships allow you the possibility to get invited to propose. So would you agree, Lance? It really is developing the relationships.

Lance Dorsey: Absolutely. I’m like, I’m over here shaking my head. Yes. Uh, to two things that you said. One in the in the 13 years that I’ve been in supplier diversity, no one has ever made a decision to award a contract to a diverse business solely because they are diverse. They had to have a quality product or service that meets the need or solution first, and then the fact that they’re diverse. Um, was again, an additional selling point to, uh, fresh perspective or unique perspective that could be a value add to the great service or product that we were already buying. Um, and then the second thing that you mentioned, I mean, Dana and I do share cars. We go to these events. We have shown up on the same plane before, and it’s like a mini reunion. I’m sure people are like, what’s going on with these two? Um, but it’s because Dana and I just to give you props for a moment. Um, Dana, you have this innate ability to just engage with people in a very genuine and authentic way. You’re just so real. And I love that about you. Um, our initial conversation, I was like, this is someone that I really like.

Lance Dorsey: I want to learn more about her and her business because you didn’t sell to me. You engage me as an individual. I can’t tell you the number of times I meet people. And they see my name, and they see, you know, who I work for, and they just go into their sales pitch. But at the end of the day, like, I’m still a person. Um, and so you make that human connection. We establish that friendship. You know, if I’m at the airport and I see you coming, I’m like, listen, you want to split a car with me? We’ll head out, but I will not. I will say there are other suppliers that I’d be like, well, I’ll see you there. And so I’m getting into my car because I don’t know them the way that I know you. And so I think that’s that’s so important. Um, what you just underscored there is again, that making that connection, um, with corporates, um, and now you’ve become someone that I know and I’m invested in you personally. And so I want to see you succeed. And so when those opportunities arise, I’m like, okay, would this be something that Dana would be a fit for?

Dana Arnett: You said such a good thing. And I’ll tell you, I’ve always been so compassionate. Um, that’s why I love, love you all that are fighting the good fight for us diverse businesses. But I’ve asked many of our mutual friends that are on the corporate side. You know what? What does it what does it? Because I see what happens. You go to a conference and especially for you, like you said, Lance, you’re Sony, you didn’t have to have a booth. You got 40 people thick and everybody pinches you and they.

Speaker5: They don’t think.

Dana Arnett: About the person behind them. And how are you to distinguish one of us from the other? How are you to go home and take, you know, and you’re not just going to one conference, you’re doing multiple days and then others. So it really is, you know, people come to conferences and expect engagement. Then, hey, Lance is going to actually give me a contract. That’s all I’m going to be working with. So I don’t understand that, because it’s so odd to me to think make that leap. But people are just want business, right? They just want they just want business. And so I did learn, um, like the journey. I think we did this at WebEx West last year. I did learn the journey that you and your counterparts at other companies have to go through to even stand up for me, if I am a viable person in your in your supply chain, it’s a lot. It’s a long, long journey. And that’s why I always, um, respect, um, first priority for me is just to, just to be friends. And, you know, not everybody clicks with everybody. But it’s fun and I bring joy. I get joy when I see you. So, you know, it’s just there’s a little tribe of us that it’s. It’s just a blast. So that’s what I look forward to.

Lance Dorsey: Likewise. And again, it’s yeah, I love that. It’s not about establishing these friendships where you have to be friends with everyone, but it’s establishing a connection. Um, on a human level, we’re all connected in some way, and it’s establishing what is that connection? Um, and I meet lots of marketing firms when I go to these events, but I’ve only met one Dana Arnett. Um, and so that that connection is there.

Speaker5: Thank you. Lance.

Lee Kantor: Now, how can allies or people that aren’t part of the community be better advocates and partners? Mm.

Lance Dorsey: That is the question. Did you or isn’t it? Go ahead Dana.

Dana Arnett: Oh thank you Lance. Oh, boy. The allies of partners. You know, I will say something that may or may not be the bigger picture that Lance might bring, but, uh, one of our goals as as a small business, uh, diverse business is to partner on projects, bring in other suppliers for us, right? Other diverse suppliers, LGBTQ suppliers, minority suppliers that can support our business. Right. That can ultimately bring more value to the client. So for us, we have an 8% goal that we will spend, you know, 8% of our revenue with other diverse businesses. So we team up to be, um, more equipped to serve as of at an even higher level. Um, and I think that’s for us when I say diverse allies or partners for us. That’s really the crux of our business, right? How we grow.

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. From a broader lens, um, allyship in and of itself is care concern, uh, about issues affecting marginalized groups that you’re not a part of. Um. And so I think that in and of itself is kind of looking at it from the lens of, okay, this doesn’t impact me, but why should I care? Um, and I think that speaks to if you are someone who doesn’t identify as someone within the LGBT community, why should I be advocating for these LGBT business owners? Well, that’s allyship, right? It’s it’s looking around. I mean, and it doesn’t take much. You can, you know, just go out to the internet or pick up a newspaper or turn on the news and you’ll see the impacts that are having, uh, that the LGBT community is experiencing right now. And it’s okay. How can I, through my place of allyship or privilege of not being impacted by these things, help support and uplift this group? Um, and that’s either personally or from a business perspective. Um, and from a business perspective, I mean, we see what the rewards are of that. You know, Dana mentioned the buying power of the LGBT community. Um, the fresh perspectives, um, that are brought to the table, the intersectionality that’s inherent within the diversity of the LGBT community that can make your business your product better by identifying things that might not be encompassing or inclusive enough to that community. Um, that can help you tap into those resources.

Dana Arnett: You said the beautiful heart of it all, which I think is at the long beyond our businesses or what we do. And I know that when I see allies in, um, a protest or in, you know, writing letters and support or speaking on our behalf and support that it almost it chokes me up. It’s like having something. Right. And I will say, you know, um, uh, you know, I was a straight person, I guess we could say, but, you know, married and all that stuff for, for most of my life. So when I was 45, I met my partner, um, I joined a minority. I had no idea what was like. I was white, privileged in a nice neighborhood in Los Angeles, like private schools. And I never even considered anything other than that. And I did not know that this would be different. And so had I known and been exposed to other groups, I, I would think I would have done I would have advocated. Right? I would have been like, oh, that’s not right, you know? So I think that that’s what chokes me up. Thank you for doing that on our behalf, you know.

Lance Dorsey: Absolutely. Yeah. And those experiences that. Give them insight, right? Uh, into something or an experience that they didn’t know that turns them into allies and advocates. Um, yeah. Uh, even as ugly and detrimental, some of those experiences are, um, like the murder of George Floyd. Um, like, uh. Oh, gosh, his name just went right out of my head. But the young man that was killed in Texas, um, and his parents started the foundation. It’ll come to me later. And I do apologize because they’re beautiful people. They were at Engelke a few years ago. Uh, his father spoke. Yeah. Um, is it Shepard? Last name? Shepard.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think so. Matthew Shepard.

Lance Dorsey: Matthew shepard, thank you so much. Yeah. Uh, his father spoke, and, I mean, just you talk about someone who’s forced into allyship, uh, under the most awful circumstances of losing a child. Um, but his words, I mean, he was so encouraging and uplifting and, um, he just in that moment in that auditorium became the father in the room saying the thing that maybe some of those individuals within the room never heard from their own father. Um, and to your point, Dana, it chokes you up because it it it. Changes your. Oh, gosh. Uh, the way you see yourself, your self-esteem, your your ability, it’s it’s.

Speaker5: It’s hard to describe. I’m not alone.

Lance Dorsey: I’m not alone. Yeah, yeah, it was it was just amazing. Um, and shout out to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Absolutely.

Speaker5: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there any specific resources, networks or mentorship programs that have impacted you in your career that you could share?

Speaker5: I can see.

Dana Arnett: Oh, boy. How a lot. Um, I’m in a business development group for the last six years. Pinnacle Global Network and the, uh, the, uh, the woman that’s in charge of the whole organization is Alison Maslin. She’s very, very much involved with women owned businesses as one. And, um, gosh. And then, like we were talking about before the national, uh, National Association for Women Businesses, and I can’t give the whole WB and C, I don’t think anybody really cares about that. But WB, E and C, it’s a certifying organization along with Quebec West. So and then uh nglcc. There’s been so many um that like Lance of the beautiful thing that that can give you an opportunity to feel part of a tribe in support of your business. Right. Because we’re all looking for business opportunities and develop these great relationships and, and move and grow together. And that’s what I found in organizations is how am I best? Uh, I, you know, the Maya Angelou said something that I just was so moved. Um, I come in as one, but I stand as 10,000. And that’s how I feel about all these organizations of being a part of. It’s not, you know, you’re not by yourself.

Lance Dorsey: I think this is perfect because all I have to do is say ditto. Uh, and you have wonderful organizations like WebEx West. Jamie Lomax does an amazing job of emailing me and my direct supervisor, thanking me for the support whenever I go to an event, speak on their behalf or, uh, whenever, uh, you know, we’re engaged in the, uh, the conference. Um, she does that great job of follow up, but she’s also someone that I can rely on to, uh, if I need a referral. Um, if I need statistics, numbers, something, I can go and make a business case for. Why? We need to take a particular course of action. She’s someone that I can rely on to provide me that data. So from a business perspective, absolutely. The affinity groups, uh, are amazing.

Dana Arnett: And as the other side, this is a player side of what you said about Jamie Lomax, one of my favorite people. And she’s been so supportive of me in my business a couple of years ago, she said. Doo doo doo doo doo doo Go-Go’s. Like, yeah, we do. We do a lot more, but we do logos. And she connected me with Onchit at Disney and we won a yeah, the Dei team at Disney. So that was Jamie asking the right questions. And again, knowing somebody and developing a relationship. And Jamie is, uh, one and Doctor Pamela, one of the biggest promoters, you know, to help us all succeed.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap, Dana, can you share maybe your ideal client and what they look like and who they are, and then the website, the best way to get Ahold of you?

Dana Arnett: I can. So my company is wicked bionic and we are wicked bionic.com. That’s bionic singular. And we our ideal client that I think is really basically the majority of the work that we do are businesses that struggle with visibility and engaging their target audiences, effectively finding and engaging them. And we help them create targeted marketing strategies that, um, that will, uh, connect, like we were saying, all saying earlier, connect with messaging that will will drive awareness or drive, uh, purchasing or drive, um, uh, engagement in some way. That’s what we’re that’s the kind of business that we work on where we really excel is, uh, marketing campaigns.

Lee Kantor: And, Lance, what’s the best way to connect with you or somebody on your team?

Lance Dorsey: Yeah. Uh, if you’re interested in partnering with Sony Pictures and your diverse owned business, and I think this is specifically targeted to the LGBTQ business community, but any diverse business, um, you can go to our website. It’s, uh, supplier dot Sony Pictures. Com is a great landing page. Uh, it has information about our responsible sourcing program, the types of things that we buy. There’s a link where you can, um, register in our repository, which I will tell you is decentralized. So it’s not just myself or my teammates log logging into that, uh, repository of suppliers. We make it accessible to our sourcing team, to our stakeholders, so that it’s a self-serve portal for them to go in and find and engage with those diverse suppliers. Um, you can also email myself or the team at responsible uh, underscore sourcing at spot Sony.com, which is also on the website.

Speaker5: Well, thank you. And I was going to.

Dana Arnett: Say I’m sorry is to contact us. We have a contact page at the end. We’ll fill out anything that gets to our team and we can respond.

Speaker5: Well thank you.

Lance Dorsey: Love your website, by the way.

Speaker5: Dana Lance.

Lee Kantor: Thank you both for sharing your story today. You’re both doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lance Dorsey: Our pleasure or my pleasure? I don’t want to speak for you.

Dana Arnett: Speak for me, my friend. My pleasure. Well, nice to meet with you, Lance. And thank you, Lee, for hosting us.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Women in Motion. We’ll see you all next time.