Astrid:
Something just occurred to me on this clear and sunny SoCal morning. You mentioned the thought of showing up to talk to potential customers presenting as Astrid and being concerned about that. If you haven’t already, what may help is putting together a professional looking pamphlet or flyer that emphasize great projects that turned out even better than the customer had hoped, testimonials to your work, etc. Perhaps that might be a way of maintaining focus on the work and the projects and less on you personally.
I retired one month short of 6 years ago and relocated to the SoCal desert. I present as DeeAnn virtually all of the time, except for specific instances. The last time was last spring when we got our initial vaccinations. I didn’t want people to be confused by my presentation not matching my driver’s license. Anyway, in the time that I have been here, I’m sure that I’ve met a number of people who have never interacted with a trans person face to face. I’ve gotten to the point where being a trans woman interacting with a non-trans person isn’t part of my thinking. My behavior is always as it has been in professional situations: friendly, on task, with a bit of humor and helping people understand that I am in their corner.
I guess the moral to the story is to avoid twisting yourself into a pretzel because you think that is what is needed. Above all else:
U B U!!
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