What Makes Dazzle the Gayest Cleaning Company in America? 🌈
At Dazzle Cleaning Company, we’re proud to call ourselves the gayest cleaning company in America! 🧹✨ But what exactly does that mean? Let’s break it down with our founder Logan and CFO/COO Terry Cunningham.
Our Rainbow Roots 🌟
It all started in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where our founder Logan launched the company from a studio apartment. The vibrant LGBTQ+ community naturally became both our first clients and employees. As we grew, this foundation of inclusivity became central to our identity and mission.
More Than Just a Tagline 💝
Being the “gayest cleaning company in America” isn’t just about demographics – it’s about creating:
- 🏳️🌈 A safe, welcoming workplace for LGBTQ+ team members
- 🏠 A trustworthy service where clients can be themselves without fear of judgment
- 💪 A strong voice for inclusion in the business world
Everyone Is Welcome! 🤝
Here’s something that might surprise you: we don’t actually track how many of our employees or clients identify as LGBTQ+! While many do belong to the community, being LGBTQ+ isn’t a requirement to work with us or hire us. What matters is sharing our values of inclusivity and respect. So- you don’t have to be part of the LGBTQ community to hire or to work at The Gayest Cleaning Company in America!
The Gayest Cleaning Company in America: A Political Statement That Sparkles ⭐
In today’s climate, with over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills moving through state houses in 2024, our identity as the gayest cleaning company isn’t just about business – it’s a statement. We’re proud to be a visible, successful company that:
- 🌈 Celebrates LGBTQ+ identity
- 💕 Provides representation for young people
- ✊ Takes a stand for equality
Why “Gayest”? 💫
We’ve had discussions about updating our slogan to be more inclusive, like “queerest” or “most progressive.” But “gayest cleaning company in America” just works! It’s:
- 📢 Clear and memorable
- 🎯 Authentic to our founder’s identity
- 💡 Instantly signals our values to both clients and potential employees
Natural Selection 🦋
The Gayest Cleaning Company in America’s identity works as both a magnet and a filter. Progressive, inclusive clients and employees are naturally drawn to us, while those who might not share our values look elsewhere. It creates organic matches that lead to better working relationships and customer satisfaction!
Professional Excellence Comes First 🏆
While we’re proud to be the gayest cleaning company in America, we’re equally proud of delivering top-notch cleaning services. Our diverse team of professionals (about 60% women, 40% men) brings skill, dedication, and attention to detail to every job.
At Dazzle, we believe in creating positive change while delivering sparkling results. Whether you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally, we’re here to make your space shine – fabulously! ✨
Ready for a cleaning service that combines professional excellence with progressive values? Contact Dazzle Cleaning Company today! 🧹💫
Episode Transcript
The Dazzle Podcast is brought to you by the Dazzle Cleaning Company, the gayest cleaning company in America. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be part of the LGBTQIA community to hire or to work at Dazzle. I’m Logan, the founder of the Dazzle Cleaning Company. Welcome to the Dazzle Podcast. Each podcast will either be labeled as a client podcast or as an employee podcast.
And the only point of the podcast is to get you information in the way you want it. Okay, let’s get into it.
alright, welcome to the Dazzle Cleaning Company podcast. And today’s episode is, what makes Dazzle the gayest cleaning company in America? Which is one of the most common questions we get asked. We’re here today with Terry Cunningham, who is the CFO and COO of the Dazzle Cleaning Company.
Terry, what makes us so goddamn gay? What does make us so goddamn gay? Why don’t we, why don’t we have you answer this question first, Logan? I want to know what your answer is. All right. We, when we started Dazzle, when I started Dazzle, I was living in a studio apartment on Capitol Hill, which is a super gay neighborhood.
And just all my clients and all my employees were part of the LGBTQ plus community. And then as we grew, I liked that. I like being part of that community. And I’m a deeply political person. I can’t separate that from how I do things or how I do business or work. And so, the act of gayness is in itself a political act.
And so when I, the amount of negative feedback that we would get and still get it only deepened my resolve to continue to be the gayest cleaning company in America. So in the beginning I remember thinking like, if there’s like some kid in Idaho or rural Washington who is lesbian or trans or gay or whatever, and they’re having a really tough time.
It’s nice, I think. My belief is it’s nice for them to see brands and companies and other alternatives that are going to be available to them that really embrace who they are.
Do you want to add anything to that?
So let me ask you a question, Terry. Is this company just filled with queers up and down on the cleaner side and the employee and the client side? I have no idea because
We don’t ask people. It’s not a, it’s not a screening question that we it’s not a screening question for either clients or employees. Huh. But what I do tell, when I like talk to people who want to work at Dazzle, when I talk about being the gayest cleaning company in America, I say it doesn’t mean that all of our employees are gay, though many are.
It doesn’t mean that all of our clients are gay, though many are. But it does mean that we’re, like, pretty uniquely committed to creating a safe, tolerant workplace for members of the LGBTQ community. And we’re pretty committed to creating a service that the LGBTQ community can trust to welcome into their home without fear of judgment or reprisal or anything like that.
So that’s how I describe it. How many of our employees are gay? I don’t know. At least two though, because there’s two on this call right now. Okay. So yeah, we don’t ask that question, but we know, I, we know that LGBTQ people are overrepresented as clients and are wildly overrepresented as cleaners.
And as the political climate of this country has gotten more extreme on trans issues. We have had more people that are part of the trans community. as both cleaners and clients. And, we’ve had a lot of conversations. Should we even be calling ourselves the gayest cleaning company in America anymore?
Not because we’re going to try to make it something softer or less politically charged, but because it feels narrow sometimes. Like why not be the queerest cleaning company in America? And we know that the Our biggest fights right now in this country are attacking, political fights, are attacking trans people.
And we’re extremely committed to being an extraordinary ally. in the trans community. So right now, for example, there are the ACLU reports that there’s 532 anti LGBTQ bills go moving through state houses in 2024. And the Victory Fund, which is like the largest national LGBTQ Super PAC, basically, which I’m on the board for and do things with.
They report that there are only how about written down here, 1, 185 known out LGBTQ plus elected officials. in the United States, which makes up just 0. 23 percent of all elected officials in the United States. And so that means that if we want to have equitable representation, we need to elect an additional 36, 000 LGBTQ elected officials to positions.
So I say that because there was a time like during the end of the Obama administration and the Supreme Court made gay marriage, the law of the land, where there was something in, I thought we were on the cusp of a Hillary Clinton presidency. There was something in me that said that this issue was going to be like.
not an issue anymore. And we could move our marketing away to something else and maybe something radical, but it wasn’t going to be like polarizing and people were going to need, people weren’t going to need or rally to it because they’re going to feel really safe. And so it was going to be It just wasn’t going to matter.
What does it matter if you’re gay? I just thought that’s where we were going. Now, obviously, I was just breathlessly wrong. That is, we have actually gone, very far the other way. And, I guess there’s a question, how far the other way have we gone? Are we really moving backward?
Or, is it that it’s In the pursuit of rights when it’s on a national stage, is there just going to be like a vocal and really easy to see loud backlash to that? Which I think is a big part. I think that’s a big part of it. That really is why, right? It’s a political act.
And Do we do anything super gay at Dazzle, Terry? I don’t know. What does it mean to do something super, super gay? Everything I do is super gay. Just showing up to work is super gay. But it, but you’re right. It is a political act. And what I think our employees appreciate about the gayest cleaning company in America, as I talked to them about it, is that it works as a really natural attraction for people that share our values that we want to work with both like clients and employees.
They see that. And if they’re. tolerant minded and inclusion minded and progressive minded. They’re like immediately drawn to it. And so our employees really like that because they’re in clients homes where they feel like there’s a little bit of a natural connection that might be deeper than one might have with a cleaning company typically.
And similarly, I think when I, what I hear from our team is that they also like that it’s a pretty natural repellent. People who are maybe not as inclusive minded are probably not going to apply for a job at the gayest cleaning company in America. So it serves as this natural attraction repellent mechanism, which I think is great.
Totally. Agreed. And we always have not just There’s men are underrepresented in the cleaning industry and straight men certainly are, but we’ve always had multiple straight men on our team and they’re always awesome. Like we just always, it’s always been a part of it. So you certainly don’t have to be part of the L-G-B-T-Q community to, work at or to hire dazzle to clean your home.
Absolutely. Now, Terry, I think that we have a pretty equal representation. It’s a little balanced towards people who identify as female, but it’s, I think it’s around like 60 40. Yeah it’s, yeah, it’s pretty, yeah. And I’m always, I’m so inter, I’m so networked in with cleaning company owners, and sometimes they say the funniest things.
I had this guy who applied, and he seemed like he’d be really good, but I’m just scared what my cli my clients will think if I send a man, blah, blah, blah. I was like, what the hell are you talking about? Just do it! Okay Now, do we ever have any kind of like misunderstandings about what it means to be the gayest cleaning company in America and has that created any awkward issues?
Yeah. Occasionally we have clients who maybe don’t understand what it means to be the gayest cleaning company in America. There’s a little company, I don’t know if they’re still around, but there used to be a little company in Portland, Oregon. That it was like a gay air quote, gay cleaning company and their cleaner would come and I think they would clean in their underwear, which like, I have absolutely no judgment towards either delivering this service or buying this service, but it is not the service that we offer.
Not an available upgrade though. There are many available upgrades. See previous episode. This is not one of them. So there is like from time to time, there’s a little confusion. But mostly it shows up in the clients may request a specific gender. And we just don’t, we don’t fill those requests.
We don’t work with those requests. One, we don’t know the gender of all of our employees. And two, it’s we’re all of our entire team is very capable of delivering like a safe, high quality product. So we just like skip right past those requests. Yeah, so we’ve definitely had people that think that we’re like selling sex or something, and we’re not.
So I think that can sometimes be a little disappointing for certain people. And as far as cleaning in your underwear goes, the only thing I have to say about that is I, when I cleaned houses, I wouldn’t even do it in shorts because I don’t want like whatever’s going on around their toilet touching my knees or whatever.
So doing it in your underwear sounds difficult. But again, Or I will, I’ll say what you’ve said. Good for them! Just Good for them. I hope they’re thriving there in Portland, Oregon. Okay, so do you think that we have do you think that we have fully explained what makes us the gayest cleaning company in America and why we continue to be the gayest cleaning company in America?
I do, but I think I want to touch really quickly just back to this idea that we’ve talked about should it be the queerest cleaning company in America? Or the, I don’t know, most progressive cleaning company in America. And nothing has really stuck like the gayest cleaning company in America. I remember a meeting where we talked to our employees about this and they didn’t really, they weren’t that jazzed on a change.
So maybe just like touch really quickly before we wrap up here, Logan. I’m like, why have we stuck with gay even though It’s it could be viewed as like a little bit of an exclusionary term. It is absolutely a little bit of an exclusionary term. Which is why I have spent so much time talking to people and asking people about it.
And often asking like younger people who identify as queer or like trans people about it. And they all, every time I talk to someone about it They like the gayest. And, we wouldn’t become like the most trans company in America because I think that would be even more confusing for people.
And I’m not trans. And it would be, um, like appropriation. That would feel like capitalizing on like the lived experience and maybe some of the difficult pieces of people’s Experiences to build a company and make a profit and I’m not okay with that. Gayest I’m fine with because I’m deeply Integrated into the gay community.
I’m gay blah blah blah blah It’s fine. In my always exceedingly humble opinion. Now, the other piece is you have to find something that works. We’re a business, but you have to find something that works for marketing. And it it’s just hard to find, like it needs to say the gayest cleaning cup.
That sounds fine. It’s easy to say other variations on it, like the gayest and lesbian and by it’s just doesn’t work. So well, is somewhat exclusionary. At the end of the day, I think that it’s less exclusionary than some other options. And also people seem to get the message what we’re driving at, which is that we are A progressive LGBTQ plus inclusive company.
It’s in our DNA. It’s how we make decisions. It’s how we treat people. It’s in the candidates that we support. It’s just, that is what we’re doing. And I don’t think that it’s causing confusion on that to continue to call ourselves gay as a cleaning company. So we do now. Will that be true ever?
Impossible to know because language changes and we’ll see what happens. But for now I can stick with it. Alrighty. All right. You want to add anything else there? I don’t think so. All right. Terry, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Thanks for listening to the Dazzle Cleaning Company podcast.
Thanks for listening to the Dazzle Podcast. Join us again for more dazzling info next week. Until then, have a fabulous gay ass week.
