Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Miss Jai Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Miss Jai, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
With over 12 years of experience in public health and healthcare, my journey included serving LGBTQ+ youth and adults in clinical and community-based settings. During that time, I trained my colleagues on best practices for serving Transgender and Non-Binary (TGNB) clients and patients alongside my roles as a health educator, case manager, and program manager. Fueled by my passion, I embarked on this entrepreneurial adventure. After earning my master’s degree in Public Health, I launched my business, Toadhenge Consulting, LLC. My motivation came from reading research reports that consistently highlighted service providers (healthcare and public health professionals) as a substantial barrier to TGNB individuals’ access to care. Often, these providers lacked knowledge or, worse, were intentionally transphobic, resulting in TGNB people avoiding health services, having increased chronic health issues, and expanding the health disparities gap.
Gratefully, I received invaluable support from mentors, like my colleague Zami Tinashe Hyemingway of Spiritus Wellness, who guided me in initiating conversations with potential clients, building my business foundation, and linking me to other professionals in the field. I tailored my services based on the most requested training topics and expanded to include advanced training and technical assistance. Initially, I grappled with administrative tasks that were unfamiliar, such as accounting and establishing my LLC. With my first training payment, I enlisted the help of an accountant and an organization to assist with LLC paperwork.
In hindsight, I’d still seek external help but shop around more for better options. To promote Toadhenge Consulting, I created daily social media posts, launched a newsletter, and hosted live weekly videos on Transgender health topics. As my business grew, I found it challenging to maintain this level of online engagement, leading me to hire a social media manager, Arise Fenyx. If I could rewind, I’d delegate social media content and bring on a virtual assistant earlier. Because of my perfectionism and fear of mistakes, I held onto multiple business aspects for too long, detracting from my focus on helping healthcare and public health professionals learn how to serve TGNB individuals.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, my advice is to collaborate. I think sometimes as self-employed single-staff organizations it can feel like we are in competition with others who are doing similar work. However, I have had some of my most fruitful contracts from colleagues who speak on similar or complimentary topics. It allowed me to offer trusted alternatives when my capacity was limited or when a request fell outside my expertise. Moreover, this approach has enabled me to align my work with my values, channeling over $65,000 into the pockets of my TGNB siblings through collaborations and the hiring of TGNB talent to foster my business’s growth in 2023.
Miss Jai, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started in my field as a health educator for LGBTQ+ youth at a youth center in Tucson, AZ. As is the nature of public health, I bounced along many grants and taught about sexual health and substance use, suicide, and intimate partner violence prevention. I was a youth health educator for a little over 6 years before I made the leap to working in a clinical environment on a multidisciplinary team helping patients navigate paying for and remaining in care. Over the next 5 years, I would come to support more and more Transgender and Non-Binary patients who were struggling with staying in care and getting their healthcare needs met because of the way they were treated by healthcare and public health professionals. Patients often reported misgendering, using incorrect name, having their identity disrespected or disregarded, and ultimately receiving poorer quality care because of these interactions. This inspired me to start Toadhenge Consulting. I had already been training colleagues on how to serve TGNB patients, but I wanted to do it on a larger scale. I wanted to have a bigger impact. It was no longer enough to train the staff in our clinic if our patients would experience transphobia when trying to get an x-ray or when trying to access food assistance.
In January 2021 I launched my business and began providing training and technical assistance to healthcare and public health organizations. In just under two years, I have been able to train over 1800 staff for more than a dozen organizations on TGNB health disparities, creating affirming health environments, and best practices for serving TGNB patients and clients. I also have provided technical assistance to local, statewide, regional, and national organizations to develop clinical curricula, organizational policy and procedure, educational materials, and toolkits for collecting sexual orientation and gender identity information. The services I provide are tailored to the audience I work with to help connect what I’m teaching to the daily work and provide some actionable steps that can be taken immediately to make services more affirming and supportive of gender-diverse clients.
I also bring in co-facilitators and collaborators from the TGNB community who have expertise in the field and can provide alternative perspectives and viewpoints in training and technical assistance. In this way, Toadhenge Consulting provides more robust and intersectional training and technical assistance while also actively pouring funds back into the TGNB community and equitably paying TGNB educators for their expertise. In the past 9 months, Toadhenge Consulting invested over $65,000 in TGNB communities by hiring TGNB talent and co-facilitators. It is my mission to continue to pour from a full cup into my community and to ensure that every door is the right door for myself and my TGNB siblings when we need to get our health needs met.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think what helped build my reputation with healthcare and public health professionals is having worked in this field for over 12 years as a direct-line staff serving clients and patients. I have also been very visible in the field, especially at the local and state level. Meaning, I would request professional development opportunities through conferences, training, and further education from my employer. When I was at conferences and training I would push through my own discomfort with networking and ensure that I was introducing and connecting with colleagues in the field. I also became involved in local and statewide committee and volunteer work focusing on Transgender and Non-binary health and well-being, and was one of a handful of out Transgender people working in the field in the Southwest and would provide training, resources, and talk about TGNB health with all of my colleagues. This background and having done this work for an extended period of time enhanced my credibility and ultimately supported my business launch because my initial clients were all either previous colleagues or had attended my trainings in the past and knew the quality and value of my work. This, in turn, has helped me to launch in new markets because I have positive testimonials and have been able to test training and technical assistance offerings in a market that has supported me as I became a professional in the field.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Two strategies come to mind, the first is to recognize that there is value in getting in front of new audiences. This year I have been able to present at conferences, which often do not pay speakers for their training, but has been beneficial to the business because I get a chance to be in front of new audiences on a national scale. Collaborating is another way to get in front of new audiences. Working on projects together, conducting training together, and being a guest on a podcast or inviting others onto your social networks can help you get into new audiences with your work.
The second strategy, which I very much try to take to heart, is to not treat relationships transactionally. This means when I am meeting colleagues in the field or potential clients, I avoid approaching clients with the mindset of “How can I get this contract” or “What can they give me”. I instead approach with “How can we support each other” and “How can I help them meet their goals”. By shifting in these ways I lead with how I can build community and work together to improve our collective experiences. This also helps me to better identify when Toadhenge will not be a good fit for what they may be looking for and improves my credibility by not taking on work that is outside of the scope or expertise of the business. If I also know another colleague doing work that would fit, I can refer the client and further support the community that I’m helping create.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AskMissJai.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/AskMissJai
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/MissJai
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@AskMissJai
- Other: Link in bio: https://linkin.bio/askmissjai Interested in a service: https://toadhengeconusltingllc.hbportal.co/schedule/6500ef8a3a24360311c4c7e0