Emerging Entrepreneur? The TGX Advantage Can Be The Secret To Your Success

The TGX Advantage flips the script on transphobia by reframing the common challenges endured by TGX people into a valuable framework supporting emerging entrepreneurs and others in career transition.

Are you an emerging entrepreneur just about to leap into launching a new business idea? Struggling with how to reintroduce yourself to your network, finding the courage to follow your heart, or building up your resiliency for the journey ahead?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then consider joining fellow entrepreneurs and other members of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce as we celebrate Transgender Visibility Week kicking off on Monday, March 25. There, I’ll facilitate a webinar called The TGX Advantage: An Untapped Resource for Your Entrepreneurial Success.

The TGX Advantage reframes the common challenges endured by transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive (TGX) people into a valuable framework designed to support emerging entrepreneurs, and other professionals navigating career transitions. This framework offers a pathway to achieving business transformation.

About the Framework

The TGX Advantage is a framework that flips the script on transphobia. Instead of solely focusing on the negative barriers TGX people encounter when socially transitioning, it recognizes the transferrable skills developed by overcoming these challenges commonly encountered during a social transition.

A social transition describes the experiences TGX people have when first navigating a gender transition. This process may include using a new name and/or pronouns. It may also include changing the way one expresses their gender through new clothing, hairstyles, and mannerisms.

The framework features five common experiences described below, the transferrable skills available to make a successful career transition, and reflection questions designed to support emerging entrepreneurs and other professionals. When entrepreneurs apply this framework, they can seamlessly navigate their career transition and activate the professional transformation they desire.

The Five Common Experiences

My social transition occurred over two decades ago, and despite all of the incredible experiences I’ve encountered since that time, I can clearly remember the very common and challenging experiences I encountered when socially transitioning. While this time encapsulates one of my most difficult life experiences, I remain grateful for the lessons and transferrable skills I gained.

When I leaped into entrepreneurship a decade ago, I had the opportunity to apply these transferrable skills as I was transitioning from employee to entrepreneur. These skills helped me grow the successful business I lead today; a business designed to support leaders as they transform themselves and the organizations they lead.

My intention for sharing these common experiences and transferrable skills is twofold: 1) to cultivate more TGX allies who are emerging entrepreneurs, and 2) to inspire more TGX people to apply the hard-won skills they have gained to consider taking the entrepreneurial leap. These five common experiences include:

1. Follow Your Heart. I knew at an early age my assigned sex at birth did not align with my true gender. Deep in my heart, I knew who I was and I had a clear vision for my future. To activate my life vision, I had to use strong self-advocacy skills to assert who I was, as I constantly found myself communicating my internal vision to others who questioned, challenged, or denied the truth of who I am.
   
   Similarly, emerging entrepreneurs realize at some point in their careers that they have a calling to activate their business vision - to build something BIG in the world that has never existed before. To make that vision a reality, they must also use strong self-advocacy skills to assert what their business vision is and why they feel called to activate it, particularly when others fail to understand.
   
   Consider the TGX Advantage lesson of following your heart, and reflect on this question: What is your business vision and why do you now feel called to activate it?
   

2. Doing What It Takes. Early in my transition, there were many obstacles littering my path to activating my life vision, so I got resourceful and did what it took to move through these barriers. By building an indestructible community of like-minded TGX people and allies, I received invaluable support when I encountered inevitable setbacks. My community helped reorient me toward my life vision.
   
   Similarly, when transitioning from employee to entrepreneur, obstacles are a natural part of the journey. Embracing fast failures will help you make necessary course corrections. One of the best resources to help you do what it takes to activate your business vision is finding or building an indestructible business community. This is a community that will help you make meaning and recover from the unexpected challenges that will at times obscure your business vision.
   
   Consider the TGX Advantage of doing what it takes, and reflect on this question: Describe what a supportive business community means to you. How could this community help you do what it takes to activate your business vision?
   

3. Be the Artist. When I first asked people to use my chosen name and pronouns, I felt like the artist of my own life. It felt affirming to introduce myself to new people I was meeting at the time. Reintroducing myself to family, close friends, and old colleagues was a much more difficult process as these folks had long known me by my birth name. Making this shift felt like a lot to ask of others, and when it confused those closest to me, it often made me feel misunderstood.
   
   Emerging entrepreneurs can also feel misunderstood too as they begin reintroducing themselves to their professional networks. Some people will question your career transition, others will simply forget that you are in the process of launching a new business, and reference you by sharing your previous title. You can be the artist of your business by gently redirecting, by sharing a new narrative of who you are and what your business does.
   
   Consider the TGX Advantage of being the artist, and reflect on this question: What is the entrepreneurial narrative you share with your professional networks? Is that narrative the same or different when meeting with established versus new colleagues
   

4. Face Your Fears. Despite my relative privilege of being a white, middle-class, able-bodied trans man, socially transitioning exposed me to a tremendous amount of financial risk and systemic violence. These realities generated a healthy dose of fear. Being raised Catholic, I anticipated the worst, which included being rejected by my community, getting kicked out of school, experiencing un/underemployment, and lacking money to survive capitalism. I questioned if I could live an authentic life where I could be accepted and loved. These fears were rooted in the stories I continued to tell myself. My support network encouraged me to “change the channel” by telling myself a different story, the story of my life vision, even if I was telling it scared.
   
   Emerging entrepreneurs can also benefit from sharing the story of their business vision to quiet the “fear story” rooted in the imposter complex, which is the feeling of persistent self-doubt despite evident successes. Your business vision reminds you of why you are called to transition from employee to entrepreneur. To quiet the inevitable fear story that may arise in times of uncertainty or transition, silently recite your business vision to yourself. If helpful, write it down and post it in your workspace, and know that you may be telling that story to yourself, even when you’re scared.  
   
   Consider the TGX Advantage of being the artist, and reflect on this question: What kind of mindset will you need to cultivate to face your fears, and what blocks will you need to liberate yourself so that you can activate your business vision?
   

5. Embrace Your Resilience. Trusting my life vision gave me the inner strength to overcome the health, family, and workplace stressors that arose during my social transition. I was able to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, and threats that unfortunately were a part of my gender transition. This is what resilience looks like in action. It is the ability to “bounce back” from challenging life experiences and it often leads to enormous personal growth. Fortunately, these challenging experiences didn’t pull me away from my life vision.
   
   As you move in the direction of your business vision, you will be tested time and again in the fires of adversity. From trying to develop a business plan to generating revenue, or from launching a new business offering to finding the ideal clients, there will be many tests along the way. With each business challenge you overcome, you’ll gain a new level of experience that no entrepreneurship course or program can ever teach you – this hard-won experience builds the stamina and resiliency necessary to continue moving in the direction of your vision.
   
   Consider the TGX Advantage of embracing your resilience, and reflect on this question: What recent stressors or setbacks have contributed to building your resilience, and what role did your business vision play in helping you bounce back?

Join the Conversation

I hope you’ll have the opportunity to join Monday’s TGX Advantage workshop. For folks looking for additional support on how to transition from employee to entrepreneur, please give my podcast, The Out Entrepreneur, a close listen. It featured over 200 LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and the lessons they have learned along the way to building successful businesses.

Thanks for your support, and for your contributions to growing our #BelongingMovement!