We were lucky to catch up with Charlie Sprinkman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Charlie , thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Queer and trans people deserve to travel locally and globally as their true authentic selves! So, I Charlie (he/they) built a worldwide map of queer-owned businesses. The goal is to connect the queer, trans and ally community with safer spaces locally or globally!
As in exchange supporting amazing queer entrepreneurs. No our resource is not only brick and mortar locations, we also have an full online section in our app which allows you to find queer-owned online resources and stores via the our app!
We launched our app February 20th, 2024 and have 70K+ downloads and 12K+ listed organizations so far.
Charlie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As someone that was raised in rural america (SE Wisconsin), growing up with very difficult. I was raised conservative and catholic! Extremely touch for a queer kiddo. If I would have know of a queer-owned coffee shop in my town (there is one close by on our map!), I would have loved to sit at that coffee shop and just see queer people exist (even when I was in the closet).
I came out at 21 years out. In 2019 for a job, I traveled to 41 of the 50 states. Constantly seeking out queer spaces, I was stuck and couldn’t find a resource that allowed me to find them. A few years later after attending Brave Trails which is a queer youth leadership camp for 12-18yr old youth, I thought of Everywhere Is Queer while driving back to Boulder,CO where I lived at the time. I was trying to think how I could connect the queer and trans community with safer spaces.
Since I have built a worldwide map of 11,500+ queer-owned businesses and launched an app 1 month ago that already has 52K+ downloads!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Engage! I have responded to EVERY single messages/DM/tagged story that EIQ has been tagged in. How I initially started finding queer-owned businesses was by searching with the #queerowned on instagram. Use the power of social media to connect and network! There is SO much potential.
Queer community as saved my life so I wanted my following and social media to portray and authentic community which is exactly what it is. I have built it out of the my queer heart because I care!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
It has! I am hopefully going to just starting paying myself a small salary soon though. Back in October of 2023 I quit my corporate job to pursue EIQ full-time!
It has been the hardest thing I have ever done but each day I get to engage and continue to support amazing queer entrepreneurs + connect the queer, trans and ally community with amazing spaces locally or globally!
I launched my business January of 2022, so it took just under 2 years for me to quit my full-time job. I miss making a steady salary but hopefully I will start to make a small salary which I am so excited and grateful that EIQ is growing every day!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.everywhereisqueer.com
- Instagram: @everywhereisqueer
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-sprinkman-b9ba05107/
- Other: TikTok: @everywhereisqueer
Image Credits
Cory Allen Hall – @coryallenhall (Instagram) for both headshots!