We’ll give you the opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of it. I’m not going to make you do it, you’re grown. If you hold people accountable, blind, or sighted doesn’t matter. If you fail, it’s not because you’re blind. 

Welcome to the Heard and Empowered podcast presented by National Industries for the Blind. You’re not just a listener here, you’re a catalyst for change. Whether you’re blind, visually impaired or an ally, this is your ultimate resource for building a fulfilling career and an enriching life. We’re on a mission to shift perceptions, open hearts and minds and unlock unparalleled job opportunities for the BVI community. Ready to be heard and empowered? Let’s welcome our host, Dr. Hoby Wedler. 

Hoby: This is a special episode recorded at the 2023 National Industries for the Blind Conference in Washington DC. Please excuse any audio quirks as we capture these conversations, but we guarantee the wisdom is pure gold. 

Hello, and welcome back to the Heard and Empowered podcast. Today we have the opportunity to chat with a National Industries of the Blind celebrity, Mr. Jeff Mittman. Jeff, welcome to the show. 

Jeff: Good morning. Thank you. 

Hoby: I’m excited to have you on here. 

Jeff: I’m excited to be here. 

Hoby: Jeff, can you tell us about your current position? 

Jeff: Yes, I’m the president and CEO of Bosma enterprises in Indianapolis, Indiana. And we are the largest employer of people who are visually impaired in the state of Indiana, so I’m very proud of that. More than 50% of my workforce is blind or visually impaired. So all the way from first line worker up to me as the CEO, all throughout the organization. 

Hoby: I love that, and I think that’s very powerful. Now, does your organization offer both rehabilitation services like orientation, mobility assisted –  

Jeff: Absolutely. We are also the only comprehensive rehabilitation center for people who are visually impaired in the state of Indiana. So we do orientation and mobility activities. We have a residential rehab center, I have employment services and I have senior services as well. So we serve all 92 counties of Indiana. 

Hoby: And how long is your residential program typically? 

Jeff: About 12 to 16 weeks, depending on the individual. 

Hoby: Beautiful. 

Jeff: We individualize the program to their needs and desires. 

Hoby: The importance, just so our listeners know, I’m sure Jeff can talk much more to this. But the importance of a residential program is that people can live at the center, wherever the training is taking place, and learn not only how to get around the campus, how to use their technology, like their talking computers, their cell phones with screen readers on them, they can learn braille, whatever the case may be. 

They also learn independent living skills. You’ve got to learn to cook for yourself, you can’t rely on people to do that for you all the time. Learn to grocery shop, learn to fend for yourself, learn to clean your house, right, all those things. And what are some of the other benefits you see to the residential opportunity? 

Jeff: It really provides people the opportunity to build the confidence in their skills as somebody who’s visually impaired, especially when you have somebody who’s lost their vision midlife or later in life. It gives them the opportunity to adjust to that and realize that, hey, I can do this. I can shop, as you said. I can cook. I can clean. Oh, by the way, learn computer skills and learn the skills I need to go back into the workforce or into further education. 

Hoby: Absolutely. That’s the bottom line, is really taking away those fears, showing people there is life after going blind or losing some sight and then empowering them, right? And that’s why we’re calling this show the Heard and Empowered podcast, because we see this as a way to empower people to take that first step or that 20th step or whatever it is in their career and challenge themselves and see the success of that. 

Jeff: Right. 

Hoby: To me, your story is incredibly influential, and I want to use it as a lens to really demonstrate to people what is possible. So if you don’t mind taking me a ways back in your life, in your experiences before you had anything to do with National Industries for the Blind or running an agency that employs blind folks. If you don’t mind just sort of walking me through, and I know it’s a bit of a vulnerable place, but telling me your story. 

Jeff: I don’t mind it at all. I was born and raised in Indianapolis where I live now. I ended up coming out of high school, went to college and college even back then, several decades I’ll say, I won’t give you the exact year, it was expensive. So I said, you know what? I’ll have the army pay for it. So I joined the Army. And my initial thought was I’ll do four years, get the college GI bill, go back to school, and finish. 

Hoby: Sure. 

Jeff: Well, I got in and I’m an infantry soldier and I absolutely loved it, and ended up staying and made a career out of it. I spent 21 years, seven months, and 28 days in the army. 

Hoby: Wow. And what rank did you move up to? 

Jeff: I retired as a Master Sergeant. Obviously, my injuries ended my career, right? 

Hoby: So you were injured on the battlefield? 

Jeff: Oh no, absolutely. So I did four combat tours. The fourth combat tour I was in Iraq. In 2005 I was an advisor to an Iraqi battalion, and I had my own battalion that I worked with. I was on a seven–man advisory team and five of us and an interpreter took off one morning to link up with our Iraqi brothers and ran smack into an ambush. 

And they initiated the ambush with an IED, an improvised explosive device, a roadside bomb. And it sent a projectile through my driver–side window, I just happened to be driving that morning. And if you drew an X across the driver–side window, where those lines cross on that X is where that projectile entered. It came across me, went through the radios to my right, went out the other side of the armored Humvee and left a hole through the Humvee the size of my fist. 

When it went through the other side, it took with it my entire nose, my lips, the majority of my eyesight, damaged my arm and knocked me unconscious immediately. And we went up over a rise and down into a canal full of water. And I woke up a month later at Walter Reed in Washington, DC with my wife speaking to me. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the hell she was doing in Baghdad because my last memory was being in Baghdad on the Fourth of July, actually, is my last memory of that year. 

I was hit on the seventh and I woke up somewhere around the eighth of August in Washington, DC. 

Hoby: Just to understand, the projectile went through the driver-side window on your left. 

Jeff: Right, yeah, the armored, yeah, the bulletproof glass. 

Hoby: Right through you, essentially. 

Jeff: Across me, across. It went right in front of me. 

Hoby: Right, and it grazed your face as it went. 

Jeff: Yeah. 

Hoby: And then went right out the other window and literally punctured a hole in both windows about of equal size? 

Jeff: Yeah, so it went through the window, went through the radios that sat to my right. 

Hoby: The bank of radios for communications. 

Jeff: Yeah, the bank of radios, the communications bank, went through that and then through the armor on the other side of the vehicle. 

Hoby: And this is something that I just am curious about, when you woke up a month later, how much time felt like it passed? 

Jeff: None, I had no idea what had happened. So when I woke up, as I said, my wife was speaking to me, and I was completely confused. And the other piece of that was I was unable to talk, obviously didn’t see well and was tied to the bed because as they were trying to wake me up, I was medically induced for that month. And as they tried to wake me up, I’d get violent. So they tied me to the bed so I wouldn’t hurt myself or somebody else. 

And I had a tracheotomy, so I had a hole in my throat. So I wasn’t able to speak either. So I just remember Christy, my wife, speaking to me, telling me what had happened as I was kind of coming to. It took several days for me to actually realize what had happened because you’re coming out of that fog, not realizing what time had passed. 

Hoby: It was literally like a light switch, right? 

Jeff: Absolutely, it was like going to bed at night and getting up in the morning. 

Hoby: Wow. And you mentioned something in the general session about what it was that really saved your life. Maybe you can just sort of chat about that a little bit and also about how you sort of went from waking up on the eighth of August or around there in Walter Reed Medical Center, to working with the agency in Indiana and where you are now, Bosma. 

Jeff: Yeah, so what I didn’t realize, and I didn’t realize this till later on. I had never heard of the Ability One program, didn’t know what it was. 

Hoby: Sure, because you were fully sighted. 

Jeff: Yeah, I was fully sighted, so I had no idea. And I was in the military and that’s what I did. So when I woke up and I started to – It’s a little bit of a long story. 

Hoby: Oh, tell it. 

Jeff: But I started to retrograde back into civilian life or back into the states and everything. And I started doing a lot of speaking events around the country. The army allowed me to do a lot of speaking events because I actually retired five years after I was hurt because I was in medical care that whole time. I spent over five years going through operations and recovery and everything. 

And I retrograded back, and I got involved with NIB. I ran into the CEO of NIB at the time, Jim Gibbons, at a function. He invited me to come speak at an event and I met a bunch of the agencies and I started to tour the agencies. And I realized when I was at one of the agencies, they were actually making the helmet pads that go on the inside of the helmet that we wore. 

Hoby: Okay. 

Jeff: And that was what was covering my head. I still have that helmet, it sits on a shelf behind my desk at work. And that padding is what protected my head when I took the full blast of that bomb to my head. And so it was some of those products produced by this program that I wore that day to protect my head. Now, I still had a TBI, a traumatic brain injury, right? But I was still able to function because of the protection that provided me. 

And then the gloves that they used on me throughout my medical care in the army and in the military are produced through our agencies. And then everything from the bandages they used, some of the medics kit, a lot of the products they used on the battlefield to stop the bleeding and revive me and everything else are actually produced by the Ability One agencies all across the country. 

Hoby: That’s incredible. 

Jeff: So learning that as I came back, it kind of dawned on me. Because when you’re an infantry soldier, I call for something, they drop it from a helicopter, I get it. That’s all I know. 

Hoby: Right. You don’t know where it comes from. 

Jeff: You don’t know where it comes from, you don’t understand the supply chain.

Hoby: It comes from a helicopter. 

Jeff: It comes from a helicopter. Helicopters have everything that you need, right?

Hoby: Right. 

Jeff: So that’s all I knew. But as I’ve come back, I realized that there’s somebody in this program right now that produced that padding in my helmet that protected my head when I took the blast. 

Hoby: Isn’t it remarkable to think about how many of our employees are truly saving lives every day and don’t even know it? 

Jeff: Oh, absolutely. They’re saving, they’re serving our American service members and our veterans and everything else. So the employees of Bosma, we hold the national contracts for a lot of VA products. And my employees see that as their service to the nation. 

Hoby: I love that. And we might not be able to serve in the military in active roles, as infantry soldiers, whatever you might want to serve as. But we can serve in other ways that are just as impactful. 

Jeff: Absolutely. 

Hoby: Yeah. 

Jeff: Absolutely, you can touch millions of lives you never know about. 

Hoby: It’s incredible. And the pieces that are produced, the things that we might feel are just producing another product for the federal government, these things have so much more meaning than we allow ourselves to think about on a day-to-day basis. 

What was your sort of career trajectory within Bosma, starting there and then moving your way up to president and CEO? 

Jeff: Well, when I started going around the country doing different speaking events and I did some speaking for NIB, I was coming to the point where I was going to retire. And actually Kevin Lynch, the current president and CEO at NIB, I was speaking at an NIB event, and I got done and I came off stage. And Kevin said, what are you going to do when you retire? I said, well, hell, Kevin, I don’t know. And he goes, why don’t you work for us? And I said, okay. That was the entire conversation. 

And I went to work for NIB. I worked at NIB for a couple years and then I left NIB to go work for the Department of Defense for about seven years. And when I did that, the former CEO at Bosma, Lou Moneymaker said, hey, why don’t you sit on my board? So I sat on the board at Bosma for about seven years. And then one day Lou goes, hey, why don’t you come work for me as my COO? And I said, okay. So I started working at Bosma as the COO. A year later I was the CEO and here I am. 

Hoby: Wow. When did you earn the title of CEO? 

Jeff: 2019, I believe. Yeah, 2019, so about four years ago. 

Hoby: Wow. And that’s one of the trajectories I like to think about a lot as we look at the life and the work within the agencies. There’s so much opportunity for upward mobility. 

Jeff: There is. There’s wonderful opportunity. I said I have people who are blind or visually impaired throughout my organization. Actually, within Bosma I have 17 people who are blind or visually impaired in leadership or professional positions. I have them in sales, three of my executive leadership team are blind. 

Hoby: Wow. 

Jeff: I have supervisors, I have managers, I have directors who are blind or visually impaired. I have board members who are blind or visually impaired. 

Hoby: You’ve got to. 

Jeff: So there’s a lot more opportunity than I think people realize, both inside and outside of the organizations. 

Hoby: Having the top of the top of an organization, like yourself, be someone who is blind, when you talk to someone else who reports into you who’s blind or a few levels below you who’s also blind, they can’t use the, “Hey, I’m blind” as an excuse. 

Jeff: No, there’s no excuse. There’s no excuse. Technology is the great equalizer if you put forth the effort. We’ll give you the opportunity. You’ve got to take advantage of it. I’m not going to make you do it, you’re grown. 

Hoby: How would you describe your leadership style? 

Jeff: Direct. 

Hoby: Yep, you’re very direct. 

Jeff: Very direct. 

Hoby: And you embrace people for earning their positions. 

Jeff: Earning, yeah. 

Hoby: And earning that promotion. 

Jeff: You hold people accountable. Blind, sighted, it doesn’t matter. If you fail, it’s not because you’re blind. 

Hoby: It’s not. One of my big things that I think is so important that I speak about a lot all over the country is you have to be willing to take on challenges. And sometimes we’ll succeed at those challenges and sometimes we’ll fail. But we can’t be afraid to fail. 

Jeff: You can’t be afraid to fail. And you’re going to fail on occasion. 

Hoby: Yes. 

Jeff: Everybody does, it has nothing to do, again, with your vision. When I started speaking across the country, I remember the conversation. I could take you back to the conversation where I decided to do that. I was sitting with my wife, I was at dinner and a gentleman said, hey, I’ve got this event coming up, this big national conference. Do you do any public speaking? And I said, yeah, I do it all the time. 

And he goes, okay, I want you to come out and do this talk, I need about an hour. I said, not a problem. We got done with dinner and my wife looked at me and she goes, “You don’t do public speaking.” I said, “I know, but how hard could it be?” I said all I could do was fail. 

Hoby: I love it. 

Jeff: All I can do is fail. 

Hoby: I love it. No, that’s exactly what is so valuable about just saying let’s go and giving it a try. And how good you feel when you succeed, that quality of adrenaline, that success adrenaline feels even sweeter after you’ve failed once or twice, right? 

Jeff: Well, I said it was very direct. You know the DiSC®  assessment, I’m a hardcore D. I’m out there, I look like a moon around Saturn, I’m so far out on the D. But what drives people like that is the accomplishment and the results, right?

Hoby: Absolutely. 

Jeff: So when you do that, you’ve accomplished something and then you take it up a notch and try to do something harder and accomplish something else. 

Hoby: Yeah. 

Jeff: And it just drives, it drives you forward. 

Hoby: And I’m sure, although you’re direct, you reward your employees for taking challenges and succeeding. 

Jeff: Right. Right. I tell my team all the time, I say, listen, if we make a mistake, nobody is going to die. There’s not a mistake we can’t recover from. You put forth the effort, you gather information, you make the best decision you can make, but the point is to take action. The only failure really is inaction. 

Hoby: True. 

Jeff: Doing nothing. You have to take a step, or you go nowhere. 

Hoby: Right. And a lot of times in the sciences, you know, I’ve worked with other blind folks, and they sometimes will say, oh, I have a lab assistant, they kind of do everything. It’s like, if you let them do everything, you’re not doing the learning. They’re just doing everything for you and when you get an A in that lab class, who do you have to thank for it, yourself? No. 

Jeff: Right. 

Hoby: I think we have to take responsibility for our lives and our actions every step of the way. And if we succeed, doesn’t it feel good when we can be celebrated? 

Jeff: Absolutely. 

Hoby: And when we fail, we’ve got to take the blame. Suck it up and deal. 

Jeff: Yeah. 

Hoby: And I don’t mean to be harsh or overly direct to our listener base here, but I think it’s so important that you know that in order to get anywhere, you have to try somewhere. 

Jeff: You have to start somewhere. 

Hoby: You do. 

Jeff: You never finish if you don’t start. 

Hoby: And there are so many agencies like Bosma around the country who offer training in so many areas and job preparation. So even if you’re not going out there and applying for a job, you know you still need training. Lean into the opportunities. Lean into your department of rehabilitation. Get your counselor on board with what you want to do and get the training you deserve so that you eventually can go to work. 

Jeff: Yeah, tell them what you want. 

Hoby: Absolutely. 

Jeff, we’re running a little bit low on time here. I could talk to you for hours, it’s been an absolute joy. I’ve got one question for you. 

Jeff: Sure. 

Hoby: What advice would you give someone who’s toying with the idea of stepping out of the house, maybe even despite what their family wants? Maybe their family wants them to stay at home and keep getting benefits. They don’t want to take the risk of that person maybe failing at work, to use that word again, and not getting benefits. And then the support for that person is on the family because you can’t turn benefits on and off month to month. It takes time, it takes effort. What would you tell that person and their family? 

Jeff: Do it. There’s dignity and joy in work. 

Hoby: I agree. 

Jeff: There’s dignity and joy. And I have dozens and dozens, there’s thousands, quite frankly, examples of people who are doing it across the Ability One program who have stepped out, stepped up, taken that leap of faith in themselves. Faith in yourself, that’s really what it takes. I can do it. I can do it.

Hoby: Yeah. 

Jeff: And once you make that decision, you’re 90% of the way there. All you have to do now is do it. And you see that, I have employees now who have gone out and they’ve gone to work, and they’ve gotten off benefits and they’re working and they’re professionals and their kids are in college, and they own a home, and they have cars. And they live life just like they’re supposed to live life, which is however you decide to live it. 

Hoby: Exactly. 

Jeff: So having faith in yourself will lead to independence. And the only person you’re really relying on is yourself. And when somebody give you the opportunity, you take it and you move out and you’ll be just fine. 

Hoby: The agencies build the ladders, but we need to climb them. 

Jeff: That’s absolutely right. 

Hoby: One last question here. When you were going through your post-traumatic stress of your injury and you are kind of one of these guys that just says just do it, I can tell. I’m not going to lay around in bed, I’m going to get up and get it done. But did you feel times of am I really going to be able to do this? Am I going to be able to continue? What were some of those hard times emotionally? 

Jeff: I don’t know, well, when I initially woke up and I came out of that fog of being out for several weeks, it took me a couple of weeks to get out of that and realize what was going on. The first visually impaired person I ever met was myself. 

Hoby: Wow. 

Jeff: So the first thing I did was look for other people who had been through what I was. And I got in contact with the Blind Veterans Association and some other things. And I started talking to other people. But the drive that pushed me was when I realized that when I woke up, I still had a wife and two children. And my injuries did not relieve me of the responsibility of being a husband and father. 

Hoby: Yeah. 

Jeff: And to me, that’s the luckiest thing that ever happened to me because that was the drive that pushed me. And I don’t know that I ever had a doubt I could do it, I just had to find out how to do it. 

Hoby: How to do it. 

Jeff: And that’s where talking to other people who had gone through, who had been injured on the battlefield, who had lost their vision, in the civilian world it didn’t matter. How do you do it? And once you figure that out, the rest is just you doing it. 

Hoby: You know you’re going to dance, it’s just figuring out what step to use. 

Jeff: Right, correct. 

Hoby: And there’s nothing like family to push us along and motivate us. You can be a better person for your children, for your loved ones. 

Jeff: I’ll tell you a real quick story about that. 

Hoby: Please. 

Jeff: The first time I ever went home from Walter Reed, after a surgery I had a 30 days recovery leave. And I was sitting on the couch, and I asked my wife to get me a glass of water and she just looked at me and said, “Get it yourself.” 

Hoby: I love it. 

Jeff: She’s said get it yourself. 

Hoby: Good for her. 

Hoby: She goes, I’m not waiting on you hand and foot for the rest of your life. You can figure it out, go get your own water. 

Hoby: And you did. 

Jeff: And I did, and here I am. 

Hoby: I love it. Kudos to your wife. 

Jeff: Absolutely. I would not be here without her, that’s for sure. 

Hoby: There it is. Jeff, I know a lot of people are going to be inspired by you and want to run questions by you. Do you mind if I just put an email contact in the show notes for the show? 

Jeff: Sure, please do. 

Hoby: This is Heard and Empowered, and we’ve just had a wonderful conversation with Mr. Jeff Mittman. Jeff, thank you. 

Jeff: Thank you, I appreciate it. 

Thanks for being a part of today’s conversation.

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