Content marketing to engage and empower customers You know your business better than anyone. Small business digital marketing, however, may not be your forte. This blog will review 5 tips for small business marketing and offer actionable insights on marketing a small business. Building an online community is vital in today’s business world. Using an omnichannel approach, you can increase brand awareness, elevating your brand to build trust and empower your customers with information and resources to find solutions to their challenges. At the same time, you demonstrate your commitment to a posi ..read more

For Healing Homes & Hearts, LLC Are you highly attuned to the emotions of those around you? Have you noticed that you sometimes sacrifice your own needs to help someone else, even those with whom you don’t have close personal relationships? Do you often put yourself in another’s shoes and intuitively understand their feelings? What is an empath? If you have a profound ability to sense the feelings of others, you may be an empath. Merriam-Webster defines an empath as “one who experiences the emotions of others” and “a person who has empathy.” In an article for Woman’s Day, Karen McLaren, M ..read more

By Mandy Carter, Reiki Master Teacher and QHHT® Practitioner Healing Homes & Hearts, LLC How is Holy Fire® Reiki I & II different from other lineages? William Rand and the International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT) introduced Holy Fire® Reiki in 2014. This newer form of reiki is now part of ICRT’s reiki classes. The ICRT describes it as “both powerful and gentle,” providing “purification, healing, empowerment and guidance.” Creating space for joy and healing My experience recognizing my healing powers was profound, and I’ve never faltered or questioned the path I have taken. The ..read more

By Alissa Paolella, The Buckeye Flame The city auditor of Nelsonville — who spearheaded a Herculean effort to save his city earlier this year — has a message for his fellow LGBTQ+ Ohioans: do not write off small towns. Taylor Sappington’s family has deep roots in Hocking County going back generations. When he was in the fifth grade, Sappington’s mother moved their family from Columbus “back to the hills” to live with his grandmother in Nelsonville. The small city in the Appalachian foothills has had its share of struggle, perhaps most significantly affected in recent years by the opioid e ..read more

By Alissa Paolella, The Buckeye Flame Local clergy and activists in Mount Vernon are organizing to provide support and resources to area LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.  In early October, supporters in the Knox County seat—about 40 miles northeast of Columbus—gathered for an organizational meeting to discuss forming a PFLAG chapter. While they were met by protestors, they forged ahead.  PFLAG is a grassroots network with over 400 chapters and 200,000 members and supporters crossing multiple generations of families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas acro ..read more

By Alissa Paolella, The Buckeye Flame The city council of Galion, Ohio voted 5-1 on Sept. 14, 2021, to update the city’s housing anti-discrimination ordinance with protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and passed a new ordinance to extend those protections to public accommodations and employment. Council approved the first reading of the ordinances during its August meeting, with two council members, Richard “Aaron” Ivy and Mark Triplett, abstaining from voting without comment. Councilperson Kara Ault, who spearheaded the initiative with support of the city law director and Equality Ohi ..read more

By Alissa Paolella, The Buckeye Flame New Richmond Pride started with a simple question in a local Facebook group: Are any local businesses celebrating Pride Month? Sure, there were some negative responses (“We don’t need gay people here.”), but local resident Michelle Johnson also knew there were actually tons of LGBTQ+ people who live and work in the tiny village. Her neighbors just didn’t realize it … yet. Those who had passion and energy for celebrating Pride in New Richmond migrated over to a new Facebook group to help focus their efforts. The group now boasts over 200 mem ..read more

By Alissa Paolella, The Buckeye Flame The Mansfield Gay Pride Association’s board of directors has pushed through unimaginable challenges this year to restart the Mansfield Pride Festival & Parade after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The celebration in August in Mansfield—the northeast Ohio county seat of Richland County, located midway between Cleveland and Columbus — moved ahead despite some tragic obstacles. The Mansfield LGBTQ community lost a huge supporter with the death of Sam Ramirez First, on Dec. 12, Sam Ramirez, who owned the local inclusive bar ..read more

On Friday, July 16, social media pages launched heralding the creation of the Knox County Pride Alliance, the first specifically LGBTQ+ nonprofit organization in Knox County, Ohio. The launch prefaces the forthcoming of a new 501(c)3 organization. The co-founders of this group are working to assemble a board of directors, identify a fiscal sponsor, and file articles of incorporation in the state of Ohio. These steps are expected to be completed in Fall 2021. The mission of the Knox County Pride Alliance is to work in pursuit of a more equitable community in this central Ohio locale. The g ..read more

Attention LGBTQ+ Ohioans: you are cordially invited to … a Coming Out Party! Whether you are in your teens or 90s, have come out to one friend, everyone you have ever encountered, or maybe haven’t told anyone (yet?), Rainbow Dublin is inviting you to its inaugural Coming Out Party on August 8. In addition to the day’s festivities, the event also serves as one of the first big occasions to celebrate the city of Dublin’s first LGBTQ+ community alliance. For the Rainbow Dublin origin story, we need only look back a few weeks to Pride Month. On June 25, the city of Dublin — a suburb 20 m ..read more