Behind The Scenes: Running An LGBTQ+ Business and Tips for Pride 2024 - Episode 41

In this episode of Transcending Humanity, Jess takes the lead, joined by Vanessa and our guest to Misty discuss supporting queer businesses, the definition of a taco, the background story of Euphoria Threads, marketing strategies, and the Pride collection.

They also explore the challenges of holding inventory, the importance of representation in merchandise, and the impact of stickers in spreading awareness. The conversation highlights the need for authentic representation and the significance of small businesses in the queer community. The conversation covers a range of topics, including representation, giving back to the queer community, business expansion, and podcast advertising. 

The hosts and guest discuss the importance of inclusivity, supporting regional organizations, and the challenges of growing a business. They also touch on the difficulties of podcast growth and the broader focus of the show. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including queer businesses, queer family building, polyamory, and the trans experience. It delves into the challenges and experiences of individuals in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the impact of hormone therapy and the importance of support and education.

Check out Euphoria Threads on the Socials @euphoriathreadsco and their website, https://euphoriathreads.store/ - Use discount code TRANSCENDINGHUMANITY to save 20% on your order!

Jess's company, Making Gayby, can be seen on the web at https://makinggayby.com/ and Instagram @makinggayby


Chapters

00:00 Supporting Queer Businesses: A Conversation with Euphoria Threads
01:35 The Definition of a Taco: A Lighthearted Discussion
24:31 Inclusivity and Representation in Business and Community Support
37:37 Expanding Business and Supporting Regional Organizations
47:37 Challenges of Podcast Growth and Broader Show Focus
49:48 Navigating Queer Businesses and Family Building
58:36 Understanding the Trans Experience and Hormone Therapy
01:06:16 Embracing Polyamory and LGBTQ+ Support
01:12:14 The Journey of Self-Discovery and Education in the LGBTQ+ Community

Transcript

Vanessa: 0:00

Welcome back to transcending humanity. Just wanted to remind everybody that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests on the show are their own and not those of their respective employers or organizations are, what have you. I also want to remind everybody to check out our Patreon patreon.com/transcending. Humanity send us money, please. We really like money, especially me because the show gets expensive, especially because of my initial promo rates. When I started, the show went away. This week, I'm handing control of the mic over to chess. So just take it away. Take

Jess: 0:40

your mic. There we go. All right. Thank you, everyone for joining us today. We are so grateful to have all of you watching and listening. This is episode 41 of transcending humanity podcast, and it's about supporting queer businesses. And we want to support career businesses all the time, but especially with pride month, starting in just a few days. I'm taking the reins of this episode as the main host. This is just my pronouns are they them? I'm joined by Vanessa and misty who is our special guest from euphoria threads. Before we jump into the main dish of the episode, I'm gonna let Vanessa and misty well Vanessa, kind of introduce yourself already, but we always want to hear from Misty, feel free to actually you've got to do the icebreaker to Vanessa. So please chime in in just a minute. So the icebreaker question for today is do you agree with the recent court ruling that a taco is a sandwich?

Vanessa: 1:48

There was a court ruling there was seriously your

Misty: 1:52

weight? Which court?

Vanessa: 1:54

Yeah. Indiana in Oh, fucking Indiana.

Unknown: 1:59

Indiana.

Vanessa: 2:01

I mean, only time we really care about tacos is when somebody's face is very between my legs. So you knew that was coming? Just ask a question about tacos. To your favorite lesbian without? I think a taco was a taco honestly. It is its own thing. That's why there's like chocolate tacos and other kinds of tacos so a taco was a taco Be it a meet taco or a fish taco

Jess: 2:34

just had to go there didn't you?

Vanessa: 2:36

I did

Misty: 2:41

I also agree attack that was a taco. I'm gonna put a little spin out here. I think a hot dog is a bread taco. Not a sandwich.

Vanessa: 2:56

You just you when the internet you have one the internet here. Price you get a you get a unicorn. So that's a very good point.

Jess: 3:14

Well, I kind of agree. I pretty much I also think a taco is a taco. I haven't really read too much into the backstory of this. I do think this brings up the question. Kind of existentially of like, what is a taco? You know, what is a sandwich? How do you define those things? And it turns out it's a little hard to find good to define but I still think there's there's a difference between the two personally Okay, well, without further ado.

Vanessa: 3:46

Let's stop talking about well I mean a taco is also it's it's like a joint thing unless you have a hard shell and then it's gonna break but in the sandwiches to pieces like this. But what about like a hokey? Well, boy or something. Right?

Jess: 4:05

I do think that this Court also considered a Euro sandwich. Oh, yeah.

Vanessa: 4:14

I mean, the heroes a taco

Jess: 4:15

honestly, I need to do a little more research on why they're meddling in in lunch. You know, like, I'm not sure but yeah, there were a lot of talk opinions. I don't know. Tuck it's just anyway All right, well, Enough Enough about tacos See now I'm starting to get hungry there's that says like never fails. I just had dinner but it doesn't matter. Thank you testosterone. Okay, so we have some questions for Misty I wanted to I really wanted to invite her on and and I'm hear a little bit about euphoria threads. So, I yeah, let's see. Around this time last year, we started talking about rainbow washing. And this kind of comes up every pride. And I feel like especially this pride, that conversation is so much stronger because of what happened last year with Bud Light and target just completely dropping the queer community and squashing all of us with their boots. I feel like there's an even stronger push to spending, spending your merch dollars or your pride gear budget with actual queer own businesses instead of greedy corporations. The trick about this is, you know, the greedy corporations have the money for advertising dollars, and they're just a lot more in your face, even with their really crappy little pride collections that they're going to only sell online or have at the back of the store. So they end up being more effective in garnering people's attention. But I noticed you four threads co actually on the threads app, not related, the threads have been an app, as the queer algorithm runs pretty strong there. And I've been hanging on there a bit. And, um, and I reached out to Missy, and just offered a chance to come on the show. And like I said, just hear a little bit more about euphoria threads. I really liked the site. It's very cool. I have some I have some other opinions about gear specifically. But I don't want to jump into all that. Let's just let me get some questions to you first. So can you tell us a little bit of the background story behind euphoria threads? Like what how'd you get started, you know, what led you to create the company and decide to go on this venture? Yeah,

Misty: 6:40

for sure. So we founded euphoria threads, my spouse, S, G, and I, last year, we have a lot of experience, we both work in the custom apparel industry. And so making apparel is in our wheelhouse already and natural. And we have some understanding of production. So it felt like a nicer illusion. And you know, how only 14 years ago, we actually started a different primary company called proud threads, which was a lot of fun, and we loved it. But it was always a side gig in our careers, like our day jobs started taking more energy. So we ended up shutting that down, because we just couldn't keep both things up. Since then, SGA has come to understand their identity as non binary trans mask. They don't like say they came out, they let people in on that. And in the past couple of years. So that's been your you've experienced euphoria, I hope and that feeling of wanting to be able to bottle that and share it with everyone is a strong and with that timing also came the increase of rhetoric and legislation against the trans community. Witch Hunt prompted us to start euphoria threads, we wanted to put a different message out there that showed people you know, if you're wearing our designs, or you're putting our stickers out there, you're telling people in your everyday life. You belong your balance. You're welcome here, and you're just countering that hatred. So that's what led us to creating euphoria threads. And then, you know, last year, as she was mostly launching everything, every design you see the website, that's all SGA doing all of that, and I'm just in the background saying what have you change this and let's try that. But that's that's how euphoria threads came to be. As we wanted to counter the messages we were seeing and put, create a space for transcend fear, joy, and uplift us.

Jess: 9:17

That's so awesome. I love I love you know, it's so hard to it's so tough right now in this culture of, you know, anti queer and especially anti trans sentiment and, you know, being able to take that energy that happens as, as we're kind of going through facing all of this in our culture and being able to, you know, spin that into a positive thing or, you know, harness that joy and try to find a way to spread it is really awesome. We're definitely major fans of trans joy on this podcast, right Vanessa?

Vanessa: 9:57

We've done a few episodes on it.

Jess: 10:00

Yes, it's really vital. I mean, in whatever way works for, you know, the individual. I just think it's like, it's like how we're going to make it through these tough times right now. And, I mean, this podcast is like one of my spots of trans joy, for sure. It's just really awesome. The community that we've created around that, so I definitely, definitely get the the idea of just sharing, sharing that finding a way to share it. Have you all experienced any backlash against you know, have you had any of that anti queer anti trans culture come in your business specifically?

Misty: 10:41

You know, outside of some thing, random hateful comments on social media that, like, as soon as we see it, we delete it and get it out of there. We haven't. So I almost said yet, to you that we just haven't. Great. That's great. Yeah.

Jess: 11:06

So I noticed you on social media, and I was a little curious about your marketing, you know, just specifically because, you know, you're a new business and assuming a small business as well. And like, what I'm just kind of curious, in, in addition to is social media, kind of your, your main channel? Or how are you approaching getting, you know, getting the word out there about you for the threads and getting the designs out there, knowing that the corporations are kind of coming in all the places they can with the ads that will take up the space and, you know, have the dollars, that unfortunately, small businesses just don't?

Misty: 11:42

Yeah, it's fully organic growth through social media right now. Like you said, you found us through threads. And that is the most successful platform for us right now, because of the queer threads out there for them. And it's, it's really exciting. And, you know, we, mostly SGA will come up with the posts for that. And they pretty much treat it like a personal account. So I feel like there's an authentic voice that comes out, it's pretty genuine and smart. We're focused on building community and supporting other small businesses. We just did a sticker exchange with the rich boudoir project, which is exciting. So we are also going to get started going to some events. So we're near DC, so we're not going to ven net capital pride this year. But WorldPride is here next year. And so we're planning to try to get a booth in DC next year, which will have huge crowds, and that'll definitely get us in front of a lot of the community. Yeah, that's

Jess: 12:56

cool. I honestly never heard of WorldPride. That sounds good. What can you tell us a little bit about it? I can tell you a little of what I Yeah. I mean, I'm curious. Yeah, whatever, you know.

Misty: 13:07

So we we heard of WorldPride. I guess in 2014. It was in Toronto. And we thought, oh, let's go and see it. We didn't make that trip. But this year, or the last one that was in Sydney. And I think it's just like, there's a city. Yep. That changes every year

Jess: 13:28

like the Olympics. Yeah.

Misty: 13:30

Yeah. And okay, so there's, I'm seeing ads on Instagram now for like the World Pride music festival that's going to be here next year. And for a second, I thought, is this real? Or is someone jumping on this, but I checked the Capitol pride website, and it looks legit. Oh, so Cloud, it'll, it'll be a fun pride if you want to. I don't know where you're located. But you have a year to plan to come to WorldPride in DC.

Jess: 14:01

I could I could road trip there and like a day or so. But that is good to know about possibilities. And that's I don't know how far you are. I mean, I know you're aways but it would be a day or two. It's far. Yeah,

Vanessa: 14:16

I think it's honestly, DC is. I think it's like seven hour drive. It's not too bad.

Jess: 14:24

Yeah, I think it's about the same for me. But that's really cool to know. And it's really cool to know. Have you ever thought about like, are you planning to bid mostly do direct to consumer? Are you considering any? Like other collaborations or forums, or are you just thinking because it's mostly like, I mean, I hear you saying you're looking at going to some events to obviously be able to sell things in person at a booth, right and a big event, but other than that, it's mostly like direct to consumer through the site.

Misty: 14:56

Yes, yes. So we have never are explored a business to business relationship or a partnership like that. But right now we're fully ecommerce. On the website. We're on tic tac shop, things like that.

Jess: 15:12

So, got it. Got it, if that's

Vanessa: 15:15

working for you just be if you do start thinking about b2b, just be exceedingly careful, exceedingly careful. This is from experience. Yeah, I used to run a manufacturing company, and depending on who, what company, you're working with the, they will call all the shots, and they will tell you what they're gonna pay for things. So if you ever get into that kind of interest in doing that reach out to me, and I can try to give you some advice, because it can get scary really quickly. It can also be very lucrative, but you have to balance it. So

Misty: 15:52

thank you. Yeah, and it hasn't, we haven't had a an opportunity come up. And we're not actively going after anything like that right now. But as we grow old, we might consider it. So I'll definitely reach out if, if that comes along.

Jess: 16:12

Um, so I know, you're not going to be in a pride event this year. But have you I noticed that you have a pride collection on your site. So what what, you know, obviously, that collection is Have you done anything else to kind of prep for the pride rush? Have you noticed a pride rush happening?

Misty: 16:29

We've noticed an increase in sales, but I'm not sure if that's connected to a pride rush, or because we're building more engaged shows. Right? So. But yeah, when we dropped our collection, which it's more, it's kind of our spring collection, it's not so like, heavy on Pride. Messaging, it's still pretty much everyday pride where we snuck in a rebrand. So we updated our logo, made a few updates to the website, which, you know, that was really to reflect more of our brand, our original logo was quickly put something that we like, out there. So like

Vanessa: 17:17

our logo here at THP.

Misty: 17:21

It's, it's always a good time, once you kind of get your identity more like fleshed out and everything to then think about, if your logo reflects what you're what you're working towards, and what you what you want people to think when they see. So in our pride collection, there are a lot of new designs that I'm excited to wear, SJ has not made those shirts for me yet. It's okay.

Jess: 17:55

Not to submit an order slip or

Misty: 17:59

new. I I just have to be patient, Expo. But something else we're doing a prep for pride is you know, we don't keep a lot of inventory on hand, we want to make sure we're not creating a lot of waste from having things that are going to sell. And so to be prepared to get our turn times down, we've built up some inventory, so we can ship orders out faster. And we also just finished updating our process. So that, you know we for our apparel we were taking about a week, after in order to be able to ship it. And now we're cutting that down to depending on what's ordered. And if we have it it can be as little as a day but at most we can get things out in four days now, which I'm very excited for the week turn time felt that's way too long.

Vanessa: 19:00

Yeah, in a week, though, for a drop shipper that that you're you know, you're independent, and is holding inventory. I don't think people realize how expensive it is to hold inventory. Yeah. And as you said wasteful, and you can you can come out with something that you think is an amazing design, but then just nobody buys it. And then what do you do with it? So if I'm buying from a smaller store, I I generally give more leeway for lead times because of that. So one thing for listeners if you're, if you're buying from a smaller shop, if they seem to be running a little slow, it's not that they're not interested in getting your order out. They just want to make sure you get everything right. And yeah

Jess: 19:46

yeah, absolutely. And that's, I mean, that's just understandable challenge for for your business but so awesome that you were able to, you know, make some changes to that already and get it done. down, at least at this time of year, you know, when I'm sure that people will, people will want their gear, you know, before June or at least before they go to whatever Pride event they're going to coming up.

Misty: 20:11

Yeah, that's what I was worried as like, okay, we're getting very close to June and I don't know when in the month people have their events, but we want to be able to get these out to them as fast as we can. So it's, um, you know, our process for creating the shirts like we've limited which styles of academic t shirt we offer so that it's easier to have that blank product on hand. And then just which design people choose, and getting that put on the shirt is a lot easier than having all different colors.

Jess: 20:47

That makes sense. Yeah.

Vanessa: 20:50

Yeah, a lot of people do last minute for actually just did a, like, five hour round trip to Columbus and back to pick up shirts for the organization that I'm a part of now for pride this week. So

Jess: 21:08

yeah, sometimes you've got to do it. It's that's, that's, that's part of it. Especially if you're not in a if you're trying to place an order. And you're not from a big you're not in a big city. You know, you got to go to the city to to get the thing. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was looking so I was looking at your website, I was looking at your designs, you really cool. I have some things that I personally want. I love the on the trans Joy collection, there is the there's the dare shirt, I think that is really awesome. Definitely need that it's dare to protect trans kids. But on that on that program, and I know we're Vanessa and I are both actually elder millennials. It's really hard for me to Yeah, so so that that is just so fitting, because that was 100% what I grew up with. But I love you know, I love these designs and roping in the or, you know, incorporating the trans colors for a lot of I also love this transcend shirt. I really love that line design on that one that is really, really cool. But one of my favorite things on your site is the rainbow stickers that you all have that has. So euphoria threads has this whole collection of rainbow stickers, that is all the different flags colored in the rainbow. And that's just like so clever. I've never seen that before. And I love that. And especially I think that a lot of people who you know, have part of their identity be some of those things that are a little less known, you know, not just the standard queer flag or even the pride progress flag or even the trans flag. You know, I think beyond that, it's probably like the lesbian flag is probably like, a little bit more recognizable about the non binary flag behind me. But you know, even having the the polysexual flag of pansexual colors, the asexual colors, the gender queer gender fluid, I mean, it's so cool to have all of those options, because I hear from, you know, a lot of folks who identify with those, you know, terms or whatever we're, you know, kind of words we're using for those semantics, but that it's hard to find that representation. You know, it's hard to find the flags, but it's definitely hard to find any merch that's not a flag. So I think that's a really cool because, and stickers are fun, too. Because it's like, it can be that subtle. You know, like, if somebody's really conservative, they're just gonna be like, what's kind of the strangely colored rainbow? You know, it's just not get it? You know, which is like, kind of like, and somebody else is like, wow, that's the gender queer. Yeah, that's the does the gender FLIR queer colors. Yeah. So anyway, I just wanted to call that out. Because I think that's really cool. So I'll definitely look at, look at getting some shirts, but also adding in some of those fun stickers to personally hear, yeah,

Misty: 24:14

we, for the stickers, they're so easy to add. So I think for your listeners, if you're looking for us, like a specific sticker, and we don't have it, all you have to do is message us and we can make it very quickly and post it and make it available. So we're trying to be as inclusive as we can, knowing there are only two of us and between us we don't encompass every identity. So that's really want to be open to hearing from anyone that like hey, I don't feel represented. Here's what would make me feel represented on your site. And then I can have that in my life.

Vanessa: 24:59

That's awesome. That's cool.

Jess: 25:02

Very, very cool. So, another thing that I wanted to ask you about was your giving back program. So I noticed on your site, it looks like 20% of the profits go to, which is that's a really high percentage of the profits that undergo, you know, towards a, towards a good cause in the queer community. And I know that you, there are some specific organizations that you support. So I just want to give you a chance to talk to tell our listeners a little bit about that.

Misty: 25:34

Yeah, thank you, um, to be clear, just 20% of profits, not sales. Yes.

Vanessa: 25:41

Still, it's considerable.

Jess: 25:43

It's still you can't do 20% of sales that would put you under? That's not, that's just not possible. Yeah.

Misty: 25:49

Yeah, we have right now we're supporting three organizations. And we're tying, like each specific product relates to one of those three organizations. Two of them are big national organizations, and one's a regional. So I'll talk about the regional one first, which is side by side. So that's based in central Virginia, in the Richmond area. And they're specifically focused on supporting the legitimate ACWA youth of Virginia. So that they can define who they are, they can flourish, they can grow and supporting the families and guardians and communities for those youth. So every item on our website that has a design that's related to the youth community, the profit, the proportion of profits from those items goes to side by side. The other two bigger organizations are the trans lifeline. So all other trans and gender nonconforming designs, those profits go there. And then the Trevor Project, which is the rest of the designs, something that we'd really like, you know, we chose side by side, because I'm familiar with it, I went to school in Richmond, we really like more, to focus more of our giving back to some of the more regional organizations that are doing work. So if you all have any recommendations, or if your listeners have recommendations, and you want to suggest an organization that's like on the ground during the work specifically, like you can see the impact to the community more directly, I'd love to hear it. So DMing us on socials or emailing us through the website, we are really open and want to like, get our giving back program to have a more clear direct impact.

Vanessa: 28:04

Yeah, awesome, can definitely see more clear direct when it's something smaller, too. So

Jess: 28:10

yeah, and I feel like a lot of those regional or, you know, local organizations don't get the same funding that, you know, the Trevor projects in the trans lifeline, although those are really great organizations and they, you know, do a lot of good, it's, it is easier for them to get funding. You know, even even folks who are not in the community might have heard of them, you know, or that's like, those are kind of some of the ones that you start to hear of, right away, right after, you know, kind of like HRC and stuff like that. So it's you know, that that starts to come up, especially within the trans and gender nonconforming community. So, um, but yeah, it is I totally agree. When I was a teenager in Atlanta, I, his organization doesn't exist anymore, unfortunately. But I spent a lot of time working with an organization that was really focused on supporting queer youth. And it was like, it was like a literally, you know, it was very supportive. It was very life changing to have that organization, they had support groups and events that, you know, had adults kind of as, as like, mentors slash chaperoning, like a little bit, but not like in an annoying school type way, but just like, you know, a way so that there were some, like adults in the building, and then the kids could, like, you know, do what do what they wanted to do and socialize and have a space to, and they would also help people who, if they got kicked out of their house, and stuff like that after they came out, you know, so that was, that was just really instrumental for me throughout high school. Um, it was really, really major. And I do know I will send you a link to there's an organization in Oklahoma that we highlighted if Like several episodes ago, when we were talking about next Benedict, that is a really great local organization in that area. And it's actually, like has some indigenous ties and indigenous run and stuff like that. So it's a very, you know, from the research that I did, it seems like a good organization. So I'll definitely pass that one. I don't remember the name of it to be honest, I'll have to check my notes. But I'll def I think maybe it was freedom Oklahoma, actually. Because I remember when I heard the name, I was like, that sounds like a right wing thing. But then it turned it turned out that it wasn't, but I'll double check that make sure that that's the name. But But yeah, that's, that's one I can think of. But um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's just, it's just great to be impactful in so many ways, but especially in those ways that are doing erect. Work with, with queer folks, and especially with queer youth, because we talked a lot we, you know, have on the show before about how, you know, our hearts go out to the queer youth right now who are experiencing this, you know, we're experiencing all this antiquarian as a trans sentiment as adults who've, you know, at least had time to develop and, you know, maybe have resources to go to therapy or, you know, things like that. And for queer youth, it just seems like it's just a really tough time to be a queer youth. So definitely want to support any organizations that are supporting queer youth. So that's awesome.

Misty: 31:30

If then, thank you for sending that recommendation over. In the future. Yeah. Appreciate it.

Jess: 31:37

Yeah, absolutely. For sure. Cool. Well, um, is there anything else you want to like? Add? Or, you know, from any of any?

Misty: 31:47

Um, yeah, I have a couple of things. So yeah, I mean, we, like our mission at euphoria threads is specifically to uplift, Trans and Queer joy. I'm being a, she and I are being very intentional not to let that turn into toxic positivity.

Vanessa: 32:07

Smart,

Misty: 32:09

feels like the biggest risk with that focus. But we chose that because there is a place and there's a time for rage and fight and like having teeth. And a lot of people are doing that really well already. So we didn't think we needed to add our voice to that. So what we're hoping to create is kind of a soft place to land on, you need a break from Doom scrolling, and you just want something that is showing some hope and brightness for the community. So with that, you know, we want to expand into creating more connection. And both of us are introverts and quite reserved. So this might be a pipe dream. You know, creating community events, whether they're in person or virtual to help bring people together. I've got some draft Spotify playlists that, you know, people can listen to on their on their way to and from pride events that might showcase new LGBTQ artists that they haven't listened to you, but also have some, like, pretty mainstream songs to keep your interest as you're getting through new music. So we're, we are an apparel and accessories business, but we're focused on the community. And so we're looking at different ways to expand in that way, and just create more pockets of joy and euphoria for the community. I also SJ created a discount code that we can share with you and for your audience. Awesome. Yeah, no, it's transcending humanity. True casting. That's the code. And it's 20% off your order. So Oh, yeah, it's, I don't know, anything less than 20%. Just doesn't feel big enough to me sounds like

Vanessa: 34:13

Yeah. But it's also as, as on the business end. But

Misty: 34:22

I guess we're making sure we're covering costs.

Vanessa: 34:25

That's very generous of you, though. So again, that discount code is transcending humanity. I'll have that in the description for people to check out. And so

Jess: 34:37

guess thank you so much for that. Yes. I, I will very likely be using that as well, for my order. I will take you up on that. But that that is awesome. Yeah. And I think I think that's great. I think yeah, 20% is, you know, like I get it. It's sometimes if it's like five or 10% It's like, oh, it was a few dollars, you know, but yeah, but yeah, at the same time, it's it is a tricky balance as as someone in business because, you know, you, it's so awesome to hear that you all are so invested in the community and want to be so active with the community. And it's also true that you have to be a sustainable business in order to do that you have to continue to exist. And so you, you have to, like, you know, you want to be generous, but a little careful, because if you're too generous, then, you know, if you're not covering costs, then that is of not being good. So, but I think that's, that is really wonderful. Well, so the, yeah, do you want to just tell us where people can find you? I mean, we've mentioned threads, but do you want to and we'll definitely put the handle and we can put the site in our show notes. So anybody listening, please check the show notes for this. But if you also want to call it out, that would be awesome.

Misty: 35:50

Yeah, so we're, it's euphoria. threads.com is our website and all of our socials are euphoria threads, co like CL company. So that's threads, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok. So

Vanessa: 36:08

it's great on the same consistent one over everything to

Misty: 36:11

Yeah, I wouldn't have chosen to put toe in there, but someone has has heard about it somewhere. And we want it consistent.

Jess: 36:19

Yeah, smile, because it makes it so Yeah, cuz if people are going cross platform, you totally need it. Also,

Vanessa: 36:25

honestly, I think adding the code gives it a little bit more of an official vibe, too. So I think it's actually a good thing.

Misty: 36:31

Well, look at that makes me feel better. Thanks. Good

Jess: 36:34

move. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. for joining us, Misty, and please, everyone listening, check out euphoria threads, put your put your queer dollars, give them to some queer people, let's get a little queer money circle going around. Get ready for pride you know get your get your gear get your flair. And and know that you are not supporting like Grady Target or Walmart or whatever other corporation is, like really problematic, even beyond the lack of real pride support. Yes, that's for another episode. But yeah, thanks again. Misty, and yeah, we'll have to catch up with you soon. I'll definitely send you that wreck. And we'll definitely have to keep keep chatting and see. I hope the pride season goes so well for you and SJ.

Misty: 37:29

Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great night. Bye. Bye.

Unknown: 37:37

I just Hi.

Vanessa: 37:39

We just got bigger on the screen

Jess: 37:41

now the screen change

Vanessa: 37:43

for for listeners. I know, I'm not sure how different is going to look for the video version. But we're, I'm trying out a platform called Riverside, which is like podcast, hosting slash, video slash all kinds of thing kind of doohickey. Instead of zoom, just, you know, switch it up. Because it also makes it easier for me to do clips and stuff like that for for advertising. So. So if you're wondering why things look or maybe even sound different, it's because of that.

Jess: 38:16

Yeah, yeah, let us know what you think. Anyone listening, we'd love to hear. Do you like it? Do you not like it? Well, so for the rest of the episode, we wanted to kind of continue the conversation a little bit about pride and queer business support. And I have seen several posts about Target and Walmart and such recently, it definitely is still fresh in LGBTQIA folks mind that it is not not a great thing to support. And there's been a lot of kind of SLAM posts of like, I found this back rack at Walmart, like facing the dressing room, just like a couple of crappy shirts or whatever. But I think we all know, I've also noticed a lot of speakers, like a lot of folks who do a lot of you know, public speaking as part of their, you know, job or making money or whatnot, their own business that they have been talking about that they're not booked as much. Like Angelica Ross mentioned that like she hasn't been booked as as much as she has in previous years, which is really unfortunate. And Joker Ross Yeah, well, and I feel like that Yes. And also some I've known I've noticed the same, basically the same story from some less famous folks too. That's a little less surprising from but yes, I think that that is indicative of a whole this Same thing, but a different thing. Because that's really showing that the business community, which is a lot of times who was employing those speakers, right, that the business community as a whole, you know, even a community that wouldn't necessarily have a merch collection, but they would have a pride speaker for their, you know, pride ERG or whatnot. That, that the businesses are less invested in the queer community, or there's something about it, that is having them be hesitant towards having speakers that they've had for the last several years. So that is a little troublesome, just as like kind of a flag in our, in our greater culture, that that is happening. And of course, it just perpetuates the thing of, you know, queer folks being isolated from the larger, like larger society. If we are less acceptable in certain ways in which we were more acceptable, you know, a few years ago, and now all of a sudden, we're not you know, the board is against it, or corporates against it or whatever. Like, that is a bit of a troubling signs. Yeah. So I did also just want to talk about and like, I have some questions for you about your business, Vanessa, I know you've been working on that more recently. And you know, I was I was trying to look up your site, but I don't think I have the right side because I was coming up with a different

Vanessa: 41:34

out there is there is a nother Vanessa Joy that's photographer. She's a much more famous photographer than I am. She's a full on influencer. Actually. I sent her a message the other day, see if she responds, just saying, Sorry, I honestly didn't know you existed when I chose my name. And then throughout my entire political thing, like, I wouldn't be surprised that people are reaching out to her. So but yeah, she's Vanessa joy.com. So if you want to check out that Vanessa Joy, and I'm Ben, Ben australia.com That one of my exes said it should be pronounced an Australian Idol. Because it's Esther dial. I still like the Australia better. I think it just flows better off the tongue. So

Jess: 42:20

I think it's your word. So you get to get well

Vanessa: 42:23

it's based off of estrogen, estradiol, but yesterday it was spelled estradiol, so Right. So yeah, it's been a struggle. Daikon was my photography and business coaching website.

Jess: 42:35

Okay, okay. Yeah, I did. I did come across the other. The other Vanessa Joy, and I was like, this is not this is not the Vanessa that I No,

Vanessa: 42:47

no, she's she's, she's, she's she's much more serious. Yeah, she's very pretty. Okay, coming

Jess: 42:53

across that way. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, so what I know you've normally you know, mostly done real estate photography, but you've recently started to do what some headshots and things like that. What other

Vanessa: 43:12

packages are you offering? I'm trying to branch out. So like with real estate, I also just started offering 2d floor plans floorplans of houses. I was trying out some different ones. And using Cuba Casa now, but I'm like, I'm limiting myself just doing real estate photography, especially with so much competition in my area, and so many realtors that won't hire me because I'm trans. And so I'm trying to break into headshots, portrait, senior photos, events, all that kind of stuff. So I just started advertising all that and I have to kind of build up a portfolio first. So I need some clients first in order to do that. But once I have some people on board can build out my portfolio. I think I start getting some more business that way. But when we real estate photography is what I'm good at. But I've been a photographer for 25 years. So I have a learning curve, but I also set my pricing accordingly right now let's yard portrait and has like I'm doing SR for this for $150 which is really, really cheap. But I'm also learning in the process. So I'll just say that later on. Nice.

Jess: 44:26

I know where you are. It's very red. But have you have you like considered at all like looking at bigger cities like queer community? I don't know if it's more like, I don't know. I would imagine that maybe like not a huge population still even in some of those bigger cities in Ohio but it's like it's also one of those things where like if you're trying to get like family portraits or something and you're a queer family or you know you are going to have a wedding and it's not even necessarily the event photography, but like the pre though Whatever though, like pre wedding photography and stuff like that it's a little more, you know, staged and yeah, that like, you know, sometimes it's like, as a queer person you want another queer person? Is that anything you would consider your close enough to any of those big cities to consider? Yeah,

Vanessa: 45:14

I mean, I advertise myself locally as a queer photographer. But because it also reached out the riffraff I don't want clients that don't want me around them. But I live close enough to Akron and Akron is a big enough city, I can get business out there and I can still get business out of Cleveland if I want. Some just depending on how much I want to drive. By night, Columbus is about two hours away. And I mean, eventually, I don't want to be in Ohio the rest of my life, I want to be in the Pacific Northwest. But Ohio keeps rubbing me and especially since I just signed on as CO executive director of Ohio legal rights. So that's gonna be keep me busy here for next two years. So yeah, I as much as I want to leave Ohio. I keep finding like you're

Jess: 46:04

digging in deeper self. And that happens. Yeah, sometimes that happens. Cool. Okay, well, I pulled up I pulled up your site. I love this. This is great. This is very cool. I'm pretty proud of it. Yeah.

Vanessa: 46:22

Yeah, it's great. Squarespace you can make such nice websites. out it's it looks so professional, but that entire thing took me like 45 minutes to put together. So it's awesome. Here's plugin Squarespace, not a sponsor, but could be.

Jess: 46:40

You could be Squarespace. Yeah, we would consider you stripe I

Vanessa: 46:44

highly doubt in Squarespace is listening to this with our 185 90 listeners. Well, maybe one of them might be you know, who knows? But no, no. We did. I am trying to grow the podcast just put me in touch with the feminist podcast collective. So I had my first meeting with them. And so you might start seeing some advertisements on this show for some other podcasts that I plug in. And then we advertised on there just to kind of help grow packets in general lately had been having trouble growing. So yeah. I don't know where that came from.

Jess: 47:27

Yeah, no, I think the supply of podcasts is just very high. You know, there's just, you know, like, there's just a lot of podcasts out there. There are so many, even my list of what I listen, very often when I work unless I'm really having to like deep focus on something. You know, and just around the house doing chores and stuff. I definitely, it's I listen to a lot, but I still have a huge running list of the things that I need to get to. So it's tough. Yeah. And it makes us more you know, we're getting a little more professional legitimate with some for real advertisements. And, and also hopefully getting yet our advertisement on some of their spots. It might also help us bring in some interesting guests, or at least

Vanessa: 48:13

network I'm definitely pushing. Actually, I've been talking to, I became after that last episode, Natalie Napa. She and I text all time now she gave me her phone number, and she wants to be on the show. So nice. But yeah, I'm looking to try to get like, more guests lined up to switch some like Ohio State House reps. And, you know, just really just brought in things like, especially like the stuff we're doing with the show where we're focusing more on humanity over the trans stuff. Just, you know, to broaden our horizons a little bit. Has nothing to do with photography. But you know, the podcast however I can.

Jess: 48:53

No, I mean, that's great. And I mean, the whole, you know, trans folks are like, we are whole people. I think we end up focusing a lot on transness. Because there's so much pushback right now, against it. But it's like, you know, we do all sorts of normal stuff to

Vanessa: 49:14

like, yeah, I don't know where I heard it. It's a quote that I I echo a lot, but the being trans is the least interesting part about us. Yes. So it's just what's up front and center right now. You know, we're all just real people. We just happen to have this one little thing about us that, you know, we can't help it. It's just it's just there so.

Jess: 49:38

Yep. And some people just can't handle it. And that's their problem. Yeah, fuck them. So,

Vanessa: 49:46

oops. Yeah, this shows never gonna be monetized on YouTube, so whatever.

Jess: 49:53

Well, since we're talking about queer businesses, too, and I'm here I figured I would also plug In my project that I've been, to be honest, the listeners, you know, I've been like kind of taking a break from it, just taking getting really kind of taking my breath, because I spent a ton of time last fall and winter, working a lot on this project. So I created an organization called making baby last year, I mentioned this on some previous episodes, but making baby is it's like a, it's a blog site, and I have some digital courses on there, totally online. It's for queer and trans folks who want to become parents. And I eventually would like to also have some more content on there for queer and trans folks who are parents like parental support and stuff like that. I have a whole big, whole big vision for it that I won't get into here. But I've been plugging away at some different aspects of it for a while. And I've been able to actually be hired by a couple of businesses and do a little bit of speaking from it. But I did, yeah, that's the only way I've actually figured out how to make any income from it. I'm just to try to keep it going. Because it I mean, just like this podcast, even though it's a small thing, you know, I kind of call it a project, it's a it's a business technically, and and, you know, it does cost money to just keep up just the site and all the all the functionality that I've got going there. So, so I just wanted to mention the digital courses there basically, to quote queer family building courses. And the first one is really an introduction, it's really best for people who are curious about becoming a parent, they haven't done a lot of research. And really, my goal of bringing all this information was really to present it from a queer lens. So instead of having it be like, when I was getting that information, looking to become a parent, it was like, information slated towards hetero folks, a lot of times we were having Why am I losing the word in for fertility challenges, there we go. Brain. And, and then there would be like, a little piece on there for like, Oh, and if you're queer, this is also relevant, right? So I really wanted to kind of flip the script on that and have it be that I'm talking to queer, I'm a queer person who's gone through this experience, done a lot of research on it, and I'm in my audience is queer folks, as well. So I really wanted that to, you know that to be the forefront and not to be where I was writing from. So the queer family building course is free. It's like, it only takes about an hour to go through the whole thing. But yeah, it's just, it's just an intro. And I just wanted to have that be something to kind of give the community and again, if you've, if you've been doing a lot of research on queer, you know, conception options, and queer family building, that one is probably like stuff you already know. But for people first starting out, I tried to make it, I tried to make it as non biased as possible understanding that even I cannot be completely unbiased. But I just did my best to present the information on issues, everything ranging from adoption, to, you know, at home insemination to inseminating, with a doctor in a fertility clinic, and in vitro fertilization. All of that, just kind of present the options that are possible, specifically talking to queer folks in the US. And then the second course is a little more advanced. It's really geared towards, excuse me, people who are trying to conceive, and also will utilize a sperm donor, whether it's a known donor or an unknown donor, but it kind of goes off of the like adaption track. And it's more detailed information. And that one is 20 bucks. But it's also it's a longer than the first course, it's still close to an hour. But But yeah, I just I have those on the site, I will make sure to link the site it's making gave me.com. So I figure I might as well plug myself over on here, plug in queer businesses, but But yeah, and I'd love to, you know, I'd love to share that with people, even if people just come and take the free course. Or even if they just come and check out the site and read a blog post or something. My goal was really to share information through a queer lens to queer folks and just try to support them, you know, in their life, but specifically in their family building journey. So, yeah, yeah.

Vanessa: 54:22

I mean, there are way more queer folks out there than people probably even realize that are looking to adopt or looking for fertility. Fertility things. Yep. Vanessa, you sound so smart. And just a quick community is pretty big. We make up about 15% of the population. So if you ever feel like you're alone, you're not if you're having if you're having if you're overwhelmed by the thought of, you know, kids and procreation and adoption, stuff like that, check out Jesse's site. So you can do I think tippy toes into it and know what you're doing. Yeah. Oh, I'm not that kind of queer person. I, but, you know, there are a lot that are very interested in, like,

Jess: 55:13

you know, to each their own kids care me not Yeah, I get it. She's bad because I have one. Well, you know that that is like, that's a lot of times what? What cures that reproduction bug is a child?

Vanessa: 55:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but

Jess: 55:33

no, it's all I just remind myself as a parent all the time when things are feeling a little tough which like both of us I know our kids are around the same age so mine's 442 Okay, yeah. So it's us, you know, they say terrible twos. Threes worse, three is worse, right? So terrible twos, then then when they're two, you start going terrible twos. I didn't know this was I didn't really know that this isn't that bad. And somebody says, well just wait until you have a three major. And you're like, What the hell is a threenager? And then they turn three and you're like, Oh, I get it. Okay. And then nobody warns you about four. Nobody says anything. There's no phrases. There's no cute thing. There's no nickname. But it is serious. It is serious, because they don't want to please you anymore. They don't. They've, they've got their setup. You know, they've got their food. They've got their situation, you know, like, and, and there they are just ready to just

Vanessa: 56:43

they're independent get not at the same time. Yeah. And it's absolutely maddening. So because you want to help them with something. And they want to do it themselves.

Jess: 56:54

You don't help them? No, no, no. And you don't rush them. No, no, because it'll take work on their own time. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, I try to remind myself that it's all temporary. That's my little mantra. If I'm having a tough time with it. I'm like, this is all temporary. This is all temporary. I have figured out though. Key to parenting is right about the time that you're like, you know what I have? I've figured out this phase. I've got it. I've got my tools. Were working better with this. I'm finally used it. As soon as you start thinking that

Vanessa: 57:32

next phase. Oh, yeah, it's out the door. So it's gone. Never think that everything's lined up. So the best thing to do is get advice from other parents. So I've heard that. Five is actually kind of a fun year. So from what I understand eight is like the sweet spot for kids like eight is the best year. But

Jess: 57:55

I don't know. Yeah, we'll have to we'll have to wait and see, I guess. And you know, it's everybody has their age ages are developmental periods that they're more comfortable with for whatever reason. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm going to use that as a segue. Because the last during the last episode I was talking about when I say polyglot, I think I was talking about polyglot, and I thought it was a polyamory term, but it wasn't right. It was not a polyamory term. I was wrong. And I called myself out on that. Okay, but I figured it out. Okay. The term that I was thinking of, was pollywog. Poly WA. Okay, so a pollywog can mean in addition to meaning, a larval frog or Toad,

Vanessa: 58:44

I was thinking, isn't that a pokimane? That's

Jess: 58:46

the science one, right? That's, I think, maybe so. I don't know. I know I shouldn't have been done, but I don't. Okay. So but pollywog in the polyamorous community can be a child who lives in a polyamorous household. Now the thing that is a little confusing about this for me is that this particular site that I'm looking at also says that it can also be a new member to a polyamorous relationship. So it obviously is there are different terms. I don't want to like get in trouble with any listeners who are like, that's not what pollywog means. But I wanted to look it up, I wanted to have a little bit of information. And then I have one other polyamory term that I'm going to share, just because like I said, I find these terms fascinating. the queer community terms, the poly community terms. I'm not Polly, but it's I find it interesting anyway. So Compersion the term is compassion. Okay, which I believe is just a new word. So Compersion is happiness at the joy of one partners. Wait, sorry, let me start over happiness at the joy of one's partner in another relationship, sometimes referred to as the The opposite of jealousy.

Vanessa: 1:00:02

That's actually, okay, I'm getting that. I never really thought I'd wind up in a poly situation. But here I am, you know, starting to see two women. And they both know that the other one exists in Nico with it. And they both have partners too, obviously. And like talking to my local partner, her other partner is a guy. And I don't feel jealousy that like, maybe I would if her other partner was another woman, I don't know. But like, I'm just more like, I like just learning about him. And like, I'm like, This guy sounds like someone that could be a friend. So. And like, I don't have that whole jealousy thing, which is interesting. When I thought I would, maybe it'll come up later. I don't know. But it doesn't really bother me. Like my relationship with the two women I'm seeing is my relationship with that. And they have their relationships with other people do it, maybe it's the estrogen in me to?

Jess: 1:01:14

I don't know. So it'd be our you know, yeah, the hormones are a big, big, big player in this, or even just a different time in your life. You know, I have been in polyamorous relationships before for a really long time. But yeah, it just isn't, isn't for me. But it's not a completely foreign to me, either. But yeah, that's, yeah, it's, it's interesting how, I mean, it's just interesting how we all evolve as individuals, right? It really is to try No, yeah. Sometimes you can really surprise yourself. I think trans people know that really well.

Vanessa: 1:01:59

Yeah, for sis listeners, like one of the first were the first things that trans people noticed during the transitions when they start medically transitioning. So I don't want to sound like elitist with it with the whole medical transitioning thing. But that's it, there is a medical transition part and how the hormones reprogram your brain so for me, I my estrogen, reprogrammed from a brain that had only been filled with testosterone, Jess was the opposite. And it's the way you see the world. Everything is so different. And that's one of the was is that was it. Same for you when you switch? It was was the mental thing, the first thing that you felt? Oh,

Jess: 1:02:40

yeah, I mean, I definitely think that I still think that the mental and an emotional changes are the things that are, are the most noticeable, like all the time, you know, and yeah, like the the physical stuff is obviously noticeable to with, with surgeries and hormones, but But yeah, the mental stuff is really and that was the thing that I didn't, I wasn't like expecting, you know, I didn't, like I didn't. I just hadn't really heard of that. Now, now that I've experienced it. And I'm even more, you know, more heavily involved in the trans community and not just the queer community at large. I am having more conversations with people around that. So I'm hearing about it more that that is very, I would say that that's, I don't want to say universal, but I would say that that's fairly common for trans folks. Absolutely. To have to have a really major mental shift, not just an internal mental shift in how you think about yourself, and that, you know, euphoria, that, but also just in the way that you react to things. And the way that you process things, either mentally or emotionally. energy levels, even like, pain levels, can be really different for people who are going through, you know, or are experiencing HRT or taking HRT. And yeah, I mean, for me, I think part of it was, I mean, a lot of a lot of it was I didn't even recognize dysphoria as dysphoria. I just thought it was like, I just thought it was sad. Just like, Oh, this is how I am, you know, and I didn't, it didn't. I didn't never once once I really started to understand like, that word, and that's what I was experiencing. And the flip side of that was was really huge. But yeah, definitely. And I've what I find really interesting about the mental piece though, just touch on that one more time is that I have experienced myself and I know you have said yourself, and I've heard several other people say that one of the biggest things is, once we get on the hormones that feel better to our brains. We are calmer Yes, and I think that's interesting, because, you know, my body was producing estrogen. Estrogen dominant, right. And now I'm moved to more testosterone dominant, and you did the opposite. But, but we both feel calmer, you know, which also kind of it doesn't surprise me too much from the estrogen perspective, but like testosterone has the whole hype of like, the anger piece, like I actually personally feel a lot, I'm a lot, I'm a lot slower to anger on tea than I am than I was before. I mean, so it's just interesting.

Vanessa: 1:05:43

It is, as you were saying, it's like, part of the trans experience is it's really, we have our brains are in the wrong body, and the medical transition is to try is to work to fix that. And so for you, your entire life, your body was producing estrogen in your brains, like where the fuck is my testosterone? I need my testosterone in order to survive. And from use the upset I was making testosterone and my brain is like, where's my estrogen? It's that simple. Yeah, well, trans experience It is that simple. Yep.

Jess: 1:06:17

It is true with the the science of the science of our brains. And they are looking into that more. I know, we touched on that in the episode that we did a while back with Shay barn. So if any listeners are interested in hearing more about that, you can probably pop back to that episode and, and listen to some more about that. But this is actually, you know, in addition to anecdotal experiences from the community, and the two of us specifically, this really is something that is being studied scientifically, as far as brain development, brain development in utero, and brain development throughout someone's life. And how hormones affect that development. And how a lot of people have trans identity have brain patterns that are aligned with the, the sex the the gender that they feel more comfortable with, right? So, so yeah,

Vanessa: 1:07:13

it's a trip it as well, it's I need to figure out how to sign up to donate my body to science when I die. Oh, yeah. Just because I think trans people need to be studied more. So to figure that out. If anyone knows, like a good way to do that to like, not just organ donor, but like, research donor for trans people to donate to universities, whatever, for science, please contact us at the show, because that's something I'd be interested in doing.

Jess: 1:07:40

Another reason to reach out to us. Yeah, yeah. You

Vanessa: 1:07:43

can reach out and touch us. Vanessa's Vanessa's libido has been since since I'm now back on hormones.

Jess: 1:07:55

Yes, your levels were adjusted and you're feeling I just

Vanessa: 1:08:00

got my test results. Were kind of like 497. Now up from that, too.

Jess: 1:08:05

It's I mean, I know that like they don't want you to go over a certain Yeah,

Vanessa: 1:08:09

but it's also only been two days since my check. I inject on Mondays and I, I was I was gonna have my blood test done next Thursday. But I was there today to get some STI tests done. And I'm like, I might as well just do my hormones while I'm here. So. But it still seems kind of high. But then my progesterone super low. So who knows? That's what doctors are for. So yeah, chat with her. They'll

Jess: 1:08:32

tell you well, if they try to mess with your medication, tell them I mean, you probably would do this anyway. But I'll just say it, tell them that you want to retest further away from your injection? Because yeah, I know, I know, you worked hard to get the medication at what you felt like was going to be a better level. And I saw someone recently talking to someone recently who went through a similar thing where they got the blood test right after they had done their injection. And then they were told it was too high. And they were like, let me come back and do that. Maybe not.

Vanessa: 1:08:58

Yeah, my doctor doesn't like working off of one blood test. So just like when I was low, I had two blood tests. That's so smart. Because yeah, cuz there could just be an anomaly. Yeah, I don't know. So yeah, but that's another thing. Trans people are used to needles. Yes.

Jess: 1:09:13

Lots of blood. Maybe needles, lots of blood work. They've been making sure that my blood is still flowing. That's, that's the thing that happens with testosterone. It can make your blood a little slow.

Vanessa: 1:09:24

Do you inject your tea? Um,

Jess: 1:09:27

I haven't been. But I'm actually just about the switch. Just about needles.

Vanessa: 1:09:33

Yeah, bad. It's just fine. It's just all the needles and we add more when we give ourselves. Yeah, we just so

Jess: 1:09:38

yeah, yeah, I've been doing the gel for a long time. It's been it's been good. I finally got my levels to where I wanted them to be. I was starting out really, really slow and low, which is what I wanted. I'm still not planning on taking the maximum dose just because I really don't want to mess with my hormones too much. I don't I don't want to do anything drastic. Yeah. I want to just see how things are. But I get really annoyed with the gel in the summer. Because you're, you know, like, I have a four year old and I don't want him to have contact with the gel. So I end up having to wear short sleeves when I really want to wear tank tops or like let's be real no shirt.

Vanessa: 1:10:16

Yeah, so you did all that too? I

Jess: 1:10:18

did. I paid for the lack of boobies. So you know, I want to like let it let it fly. I want to get some sun. You get a nice tan on my on my

Vanessa: 1:10:31

chest chirps trans guys are just the whole meme. You know, it's the whole thing.

Jess: 1:10:35

It's the whole thing. So So yeah, um, I I am going to switch to injections, because then I won't have to worry about that. But yeah, I'm I haven't, you know, I'm close to making that switch. I haven't quite done it yet. So we'll see where, you know, we'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed. But I think it'll be good. I think it'd be nice to not have to worry about it until you know once a week and

Vanessa: 1:11:00

and you know you're getting the right the same dosage every single time to Yeah,

Jess: 1:11:03

it's it's less of the gel is like Definitely. It's definitely a little bit. Is it really getting in there is it all getting in there? We're not quite sure. And it definitely tested even from even from my lower doses. My tea was like pretty low for a while. I don't know if my body just finally got used to absorbing it or something. But I definitely have heard I've heard from a lot of people, but it's a lot easier to control when you're putting it in your body. Because then yeah, it's really clear you really except

Vanessa: 1:11:31

to the searches. Yeah. It's just once a week and it's so quick. Yeah, no, the entire thing takes like four minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess: 1:11:38

So, so um, you know, I'm looking forward to that. Just because then I don't have to worry about having this like the weird after dry gel on my shoulders all day.

Vanessa: 1:11:50

crusty. Yeah. It's making me think of churches.

Jess: 1:11:54

No, no, it's clear. Okay. It looks nothing like just I just

Vanessa: 1:12:00

want dried trans girl come that's clear.

Jess: 1:12:03

Okay, that okay?

Vanessa: 1:12:08

You're like, fuck you. Wait TMI transplants were squirt folks. Just so you know, we squirt because we still have prostates

Jess: 1:12:15

know how. I'm always. Like, just a little surprised. I'm just like, wow, she really? Yeah.

Vanessa: 1:12:23

I went there. Yeah. I also just like educating people to know, that's great. Like, that's great. I don't have a filter. It's really important. You need to know that with this new position as at Ohio equal rights, I really need to remember to hold my tongue when I'm doing like official things for that. Like on the show, or, you know, whatever this is, this is us. But for that, like, I have to be professional. It's can be hard. Professional.

Jess: 1:12:54

It's good to exercise those muscles if you can, but I know it can be challenging. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, we should probably wrap up. Yeah.

Vanessa: 1:13:06

Oh, this actually has a timer on it. That's kind of handle Nice. hour in Do you have a timer on your screen? No, I don't. I don't know. Oh, I wouldn't say 18.

Jess: 1:13:15

Okay, so it's good time. I'll see if I can do this conclusion a little bit.

Vanessa: 1:13:22

Yeah, fuck it out. Okay.

Jess: 1:13:25

Thanks for joining us for this episode, everybody. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. You can find this podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts and Buzzsprout. That's all still correct, right? Yeah,

Vanessa: 1:13:38

pretty much any podcast, any podcast, most of our listeners are on Apple, Spotify Buzzsprout. Okay.

Jess: 1:13:46

You can also access our audio files and YouTube directly at our site at transcending humanity.com. And that's where we have links to become a patron to the show as well, which is a great way to support the show. We love your dollars. This is an independently funded podcast. And we really appreciate any listener support with that, because it helps us from not having to take quite so much out of our own pockets. Most of all,

Vanessa: 1:14:13

I want to take a chance to thank our bus buses, bus route subscribers, because you can actually subscribe to us two ways you can do it on Patreon. And thank you to our one Patreon subscriber that we have right now. Yes, and we have four buses for our subscribers, which now makes it so our hosting is free. Because they before they send money to you, they just apply it towards your bill. So our podcast hosting right now thanks to our buzz. It's hard to say Buzzsprout. Your subscribers has made this free. So that does help. Thank you very much to the four of you.

Jess: 1:14:47

Yes, thank you. Each and every four of you

Vanessa: 1:14:54

will get there eventually. Yeah, eventually I'll actually be able to you You know pay my co hosts so that'd be nice but eventually we'll get there yeah

Jess: 1:15:08

all right everybody thank you all thank you bye