It isn’t easy to be what society will call “different” as a business owner, but today’s guest, Rachel Pereyra is using her platform to be a visible queer woman disrupting the business mold. Rachel hasn’t always taken this approach of being actively out and proud, but when she decided to open her business, she wanted to create a safe and inviting space for others like her. In today’s episode, she’s sharing her own experience as a queer woman and what it has done for her business. If today’s episode resonates with you and you want to show support for the show, here’s an easy way to do so: Buy Me A Coffee! Rachel Pereyra founded Mastermind Business Services in 2020 to change the world through operations. She works with her clients to eliminate the hurdles of running a growing business or NGO that is focused on driving impact and sustainability. Rachel has over a decade of operations and people leadership experience spanning across several industries, this varied lived experience allows her to connect with clients where they are at and guide them to where they want to be. She lives just outside of Austin, TX with her wife, two kids, and two cats. When she isn’t working you can find her creative writing, cooking, playing board games, or having spontaneous dance parties with her family. Owning Who She Is At just 15-years-old, Rachel Pereyra realized that she wasn’t straight, she just didn’t know what to call it at the time. She liked girls in a way that other girls didn’t like them, but it was only recently that she settled on the label of queer. For her, queer has historically had a negative connotation, but she wanted to take the word back and embody what it stands for. Being Herself in Her Business For a lot of her adulthood, Rachel hid who she was at work in her career and even when she first started her business. She felt like she couldn’t be herself out of fear of rejection. She simply wasn’t out as queer in the workplace. When she transitioned into owning her own business, she realized that her business gave her visibility to the public, which was intimidating to her. Despite feeling more comfortable in being herself and showing who she really is to her audience, it has still been a struggle for her to overcome the negative thoughts and self-doubt. You don’t need to be visible for your identity to be valid. While Rachel has been intentional in building visibility in her business sharing about herself, some of it was accidental. She accidentally built her visibility by being herself in creating connections and relationships, yet was intentional in how she shared about herself and pulling back the curtain on how she identifies as queer. The online business space is very heteronormative, leaving Rachel to pave a path for herself as a queer woman. She wanted to be seen and known as the queer woman, despite people questioning it. Despite society pushing us to abandon parts of ourselves to succeed in life, Rachel is embracing it and finding exactly who she is. Rachel prefers to label herself as queer, because it allows her to not fit within a box. She is a person in her thirties just now feeling like she has the freedom to explore what her gender identity and sexuality means to her. Owning Your Voice When you choose to show up and embrace who you are, you’re empowering yourself and the people around you. You have the freedom to take these courageous steps an...