Singer Cyndi Lauper and British
entrepreneur Richard Branson are helping launch a publication
targeting LGBT business owners and corporate allies.
Lauper covers the premiere issue of
UNITE Business Magazine, where
she discusses working with Harvey Fierstein on the Tony-award winning
musical Kinky Boots.
“Harvey Fierstein got in touch with
me, and I was in after just one phone call,” Lauper explained. “I
have always wanted to work with Harvey but never thought it would be
something as big as a Broadway musical. We felt pretty good about it
when we first started on the project. We were hoping it would do
well and are just over the moon on how the audiences have responded.”
Branson gave advice to hopeful
entrepreneurs: “If you are starting a business from scratch, there
is only one word that really matters, and that is survival. There's
a very thin dividing line between success and failure, and it's very
easy to go on the wrong side of that line. So, you just have to
fight to survive.”
He stressed that it was not necessary
to criticize employees because “people know when they have done
something wrong, so they don't need to be told.”
“The more you can look at the best in
people, the more they'll give back,” added Branson, a strong
supporter of LGBT rights.
UNITE Business will officially
launch at next week's Community Marketing LGBT Tourism &
Hospitality conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is the second
glossy for publisher Joey Amato, who launched UNITE Nashville
in April.
“After speaking with LGBT business
owners and corporate diversity leaders from around the country, I
decided the time was right to launch UNITE Business,” Amato
said. “UNITE Nashville helped set the bar for LGBT
publications and we plan on raising the bar even higher with our
business publication.”
Click
here to read the premiere issue of UNITE Business Magazine.