Kyle: 7 out of 10 Americans who are blind are not in the workforce, and there’s a dearth of opportunity. But be that as it may, the standard is the standard. Why? Because that’s what our customers expect. And that’s what our customers deserve.

Hoby: Kyle, I love that. We’re not handing out favors. We’re not doing good and being good Samaritans for these people. We’re all where we are because we work hard, and we earn it.

Welcome to the Heard and Empowered podcast presented by the 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 D.C., where I had an opportunity to lead a panel with four magnificent guests. One of us was sighted and three of us were blind and visually impaired.

We talked about how wonderful it is to have a workplace that not only accommodates us, but celebrates us, like the National Industries for the Blind industry network agencies. We then talked about how we’ve all been empowered by amazing mentors we’ve had in the past or have currently. We finished by talking about the need to shift the paradigm at large companies who still question the hiring of those of us who are blind or visually impaired.

It was an amazing conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please excuse any audio quirks as we recorded this chat live, but I guarantee you the wisdom is pure gold.

[Hoby’s introduction by Aneta Zawila-Jordan, NIB’s Vice President, Marketing and Communications.]

Aneta: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce Dr. Hoby Wedler, PhD in organic chemistry, marketing and sensory genius who turns his unique perspective into transformative social initiatives. He has been blind since birth, yet he sees the world in ways most of us can only imagine. Named the champion of change by President Barack Obama, his Forbes entrepreneur profile describes Hoby as a man with a mission, solving the problems of the business world in creative ways no one has imagined before.

As the CEO of Senspoint Marketing Agency, he partners with National Industries for the Blind to combat the staggering unemployment rates among the blind and visually impaired community. As you listen to him today, prepare to have your horizons expanded and your awareness heightened. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Dr. Hoby Wedler.

Hoby: Thank you so much, Aneta, for that very kind and flattering introduction. I am honored to be here with you all. How’s everybody doing this morning? Come on, how’s everybody doing? Yeah, let’s get excited about this. We’re a small but mighty crowd today. And I would love to ask you if you don’t mind, if you’re not already up in the front, to move as close in as possible so that we can join together and celebrate employment of blind people in so many ways.

I was asked earlier this year by Aneta to put together some plan and some way to get blind people excited about coming to work for all the amazing agencies provided and supported by National Industries for the Blind.

I am so excited that what we all came up with together is the Heard & Empowered podcast, a podcast for the BVI population, any of their families interested in bringing people back to work, and getting people excited about what the possibilities are, and ultimately building something where blind people are not only accommodated, but they’re championed for the amazing work that they do.

I got my PhD in organic chemistry and realized I liked people a little more than molecules. I still like molecules. I’ve got a friendly relationship with them: I talk to them all the time… it gets scary when they talk back! But I love people. I love storytelling. Despite having a PhD, which I thought would get me into most jobs, I applied as I was finishing grad school, as a lot of people do, to a very high-level position, a senior director position at a global company. I was applying to translate ideas from science, from R&D teams to sales and marketing teams because that’s what I love doing. I love taking things that people are doing in the lab and then telling stories about it.

I was there for a full day of interviews, starting at 6 a.m. I think and went until 6 p.m. All my interviews went great. I met with about 10 different people, gave a technical talk on the chemistry work that I had done, and talked a little bit about some of the marketing ideas that I had for the company.

My colleagues, and friends, and confidants at the company said the interview went great. I didn’t hear anything for a few days, then a week. Then I got a call from this skeptical HR person. And she said, “I’m sorry, but you’re underqualified and you didn’t make the cut.” Okay.

Interestingly, my colleague, and my friend, and my confidant, who encouraged me to apply for this position within the company, told me that the reason I didn’t get hired for that job was not because I was underqualified. It was because HR was too afraid of what accommodations I might ask for and what it would mean to have a blind person on their team. And that empowered me to say, “What am I going to do? If I’m not invited to sit at the table, I guess I’ve got to build my own.”

And that’s what started me on my entrepreneurial journey. But it’s also what makes me so excited to be launching today, the Heard & Empowered podcast, and to be the host for at least the first many episodes because we can do this. Blind people should not only be accommodated, but we should also be championed and excelled for who we are, what we offer, and how we deliver our skills.

And now I want to get into the nitty gritty of what we’re here to talk about today, which is a panel of four amazing people, two presidents and CEOs of their organizations and their agencies, and two incredible nominees for Employee of the Year. So I can’t wait to introduce this panel to you, and we’re going to have a great chat over the next half hour or so. We’re going to learn from each other.

So, I’ll start with my far right, Mr. Kyle Johnson, who is the president and CEO of Lighthouse Works and Central Florida Lighthouse in Orlando. Kyle started with them as director of development in 2013. And you can see a trend as we chat today of upward mobility, of people proving themselves and moving from one place on up, to when he gained the CEO role in 2019. Kyle, welcome.

Kyle: Thank you.

Hoby: Next to Kyle on his left is Sophia. And Sophia is an Employee of the Year nominee, also working at Lighthouse Works. Sophia started at the front desk and then moved her way up as a representative in the call center, moved her way up to lead. And now is the first ever recruiter for Lighthouse Works. Sophia, welcome.

Passing me, I’m sitting in the center, I will move to my immediate left to Alex Flores. Alex works for Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and is also an Employee of the Year nominee. Alex started with Lighthouse Industries about three years ago, near 2020, when he started in shipping and packaging. And he started getting interested in machinery. How these machines work? How do they operate? He started working on the line. And now is a filling line lead for Lighthouse. You see this upward mobility trend?

And finally, on my far left, my dear friend and colleague, Sharon Giovinazzo, President and CEO of Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired of San Francisco. Sharon will tell you her story, but she started immediately after becoming blind, working at an agency and moved her way up to the position of CEO for several organizations, and came to Lighthouse about a year ago as our president and CEO. Alex and Sharon, welcome.

Sharon: Thanks, Hoby.

Alex: Thank you very much.

Hoby: So I have a few questions that I just think are really fun questions and really engaging questions. We’re going to be focusing on employment, but also mentorship because I truly believe that mentorship is what empowers us all to do the great work that we do. So my first question is, why is it so important to employ people who are blind? And what about employing people who are blind inspires you every day? So that’s a question for the CEOs here, and then for the employees of the year and the employees of the agencies. What makes you love coming to work every day? And what inspires you to love your job and embrace what you do as an employee of either Lighthouse Works or Lighthouse for the Blind of San Francisco?

I’ll start with Kyle and Sophia. And I want you guys just to think about and discuss this question and how it resonates with you. Either one of you can start.

Kyle: You want to go first, Sophia?

Sophia: What makes me proud of my job actually is the representation at Lighthouse. We have blind or visually impaired in almost every role, so others can see it. And I’ve talked to a lot of candidates and their main thing is, can I really do it? And with Lighthouse, they can see that yes, you can. Whatever you want to do, whether it be supply chain, call center, supervisor, HR, vice president, you know, there’s representation everywhere.

Kyle: I think the importance of employment in human beings’ lives reaches far beyond one’s ability to see. And a life without purpose is, I think, a shame. And so, when you see a population of people that have life experience, knowledge, expertise, talents, abilities, hopes, dreams, ambitions, irritations – am I right, Sharon? – and they’re the most educated disabled group on planet Earth, and yet not included in the workforce, I think it’s a huge opportunity cost for society.
And so I know that we are all in this together to change that. And I love that we have competitive advantages, distinct competitive advantages. Our customers are interested in working with us because our workforce is unique, not in spite of it.

Hoby: Oh, I love that. I love that. Both of you, Sophia, telling us what it’s like to be needed and be wanted, and Kyle telling us we all have desires, we all have dreams. And these agencies, folks, make these dreams realities.
Alex and Sharon, what do you think is so important about, and so exciting and exhilarating about employing blind folks?

Alex: I for one, find that when I come to work and I spend time with all my co-workers on the production line, that I find opportunity everywhere. I find opportunities for growth. I find opportunities for connections to be made. That is what drives me to come to work every day and what makes me want to be a part of the Lighthouse.

I’ve seen a lot of my co-workers and a lot of the people that I worked with throughout the last couple of years go on to meet a lot of their own personal goals. And, to me, that’s the best part of being part of the Lighthouse, that I get to go on a journey with them as I grow myself as somebody who is visually impaired.

Hoby: I love that. I love that. And it’s all about the daily connections that we make. And the fact that we see our peers excelling around us encourages us to do our very best, doesn’t it?

Alex: Yes, yes, it does.

Hoby: Sharon?

Sharon: You know, Hoby, for me, it’s one of those things that’s personal to me. In fact, it was 19 years ago that I attended my first NIB conference, and I was an employee of the year, just like Alex is. And for me, because I had the opportunity to work. I was a veteran in the army, I was a combat medic. If I hadn’t had that opportunity, I would have had no marketable skills as a person who was blind. I needed to learn how to be a person who was blind. I needed to know how to apply those skills.

I had plenty of opportunities. So now I want to pay it forward and I want to be able to give that opportunity to everybody else. I say that my job at Lighthouse is to be the chair-stacker: remove obstacles so other people can accomplish their dreams.

Hoby: Boy, I love that, I really do. To me, listening to you guys talk about what inspires you about employing blind folks, about being a blind person who is employed is exactly why we’re here. You know, there are so many groups that purchase the products that we make, like the Department of Defense, the AbilityOne Commission®. So many different people are excited about this, and what they’re doing is they’re giving us the opportunity.

And I just love what Jeff Mittman said yesterday, that his life would not have been saved had it not been for the amazing employees and the amazing agencies that we have out there. That’s the power of all this. Anyone want to comment on anything before we move on?

Kyle: Well, I just want to emphasize, too, and we try to share this with the community as much as possible. We don’t do a ton of work in the federal government, but we do a lot in other markets. And when someone comes in and they hear, for instance, call center, nonprofit, aligned agents, they think they’re going to sacrifice something along the value continuum. And it’s not malicious. We are very intentional about starting everything with value, performance, and quality.

If value, performance, and quality is not established consistently, reliably, and predictably, then the blindness isn’t going to be part of the conversation. And so, it’s very important for people in the community and the business community to understand that we are not doing Sophia a favor. Sophia started at the front desk, then became a call center agent, a lead, and then a recruiter because she was very intentionally working behind the scenes to educate herself about human resources.

She interviewed competitively to earn that job and she does a great job at it. So our customers aren’t doing us a favor. You know, we work for Disney, Universal Orlando, the State of Florida, all these companies. They’re not doing us a favor; we aren’t doing Sophia a favor.

Will we invest more heavily in an employee who is blind to hit the standard? 100% we will because 7 out of 10 Americans who are blind are not in the workforce. And there’s a dearth of opportunity. But be that as it may, the standard is the standard. Why? Because that’s what our customers expect and that’s what our customers deserve.

Hoby: Kyle, I love that. And that’s exactly right. We’re not handing out favors. We’re not doing good and being good Samaritans for these people. Every one of these employees is where they are, and I’ll include myself here. I’m an employee of my companies. We’re all where we are because we work hard, and we earn it. Nothing is handed to us. I love the way you said that, the way you framed that.

With that, I want to move to mentorship, something that is near and dear to me. Simply put, I think mentors provide a guide for us that we don’t necessarily know that we need. They see our future, they get to know us and understand us, and they see a future for us before we see that future for ourselves. I want to talk a little bit about how we are mentored as individuals and how it feels to mentor your employees from the CEO and president standpoint.

So, for me, I have several mentors in my life. So many who have helped me, my graduate advisor, Dr. Dean Tantillo, so many of my business friends and colleagues. I absolutely wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for people who saw that little future in myself before I saw it for myself. That’s the power of really empowering someone.

We’re talking about the Heard and Empowered podcast, but the people who really do the empowering in our lives are the mentors who surround us. So, if you don’t mind, explain the power of mentorship and how mentoring your employees helps both them and you excel. And for Alex and Sophia, explain how being mentored and having that guide for us helps us so much.

And I want us all to think about our lives and how we’ve gone through life. And tell us who one of your mentors is or has been. I’m going to start this with Alex and Sharon.

Alex: Okay. Well, for me, I can speak very highly of one of my mentors. When I was growing up, I was still in elementary school. This is very important to me. I used to know him as Mr. Brian. He used to be a volunteer who used to come to school and who used to come to teach me about just making things accessible. He used to teach me programs like JAWS, and he used to also bring me magnifiers that I used to use in class.

And he was really the opening gate for me to learn that there was more in the world available to me than just what was handed to me. And in a way, that taught me to really advocate and try to find out what else was out there. And I’ve taken that to heart, and I deliver everything that I can to push myself and the other people around me to try to expand their horizons and try to find the thing that they want to do and how they want to do it.

Hoby: I love that. I love that. Do you still keep in touch with Mr. Brian?

Alex: Unfortunately, he has passed away since.

Hoby: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.

Alex: Quite a few years ago.

Hoby: I love that story. Let’s actually go to Sophia. Tell us about a mentor that you’ve had or what you think of the power of mentorship.

Sophia: Well, mentorship is so powerful. It plays such a big part in who I am today. When I first started at Lighthouse, all of our town halls were in person and the executive team would get up in front and say, “If you want any of our jobs, just come to us and you can shadow us and see how things work.” And that’s what first got me into human resources, because I went to the human resources person at the time and I said, “Can I do this?” And she said, “Why not? You can do anything.” And it was so powerful, and it stuck with me. And I believed her, so I worked on doing that.

When I initially went blind, one of the counselors at the Lighthouse also… she is so fearless. I consider her a mentor because she is completely blind like me, but she does anything she wants. She’s professional, she’s a CVRT. And I still go to her today because she travels by herself and I’m always like, where can I go? Is this accessible?

Hoby: And do you thank her every day you see her for what she’s done for you?

Sophia: I don’t think she would accept it. I think she likes it when I keep asking her stuff though.

Hoby: I love it. Sharon, you mentioned something to us that you are the one that removes obstacles. That’s what you see your job as at Lighthouse. That also involves mentoring people. What are your thoughts on mentorship? And I really want to hear who some of your mentors were and are.

Sharon: Well, some of my mentors may be sitting in this room, so I have to be careful about naming names because I don’t want to forget anybody. But you know… a story about mentorship. So I had a meeting with one of my employees and I asked her what her long term plan was. And she said “To take your job.” I said, “Then training begins today.”

And I mean, it’s so important that we empower, especially our blind and visually impaired employees, but any employee. But we need to be able to provide that opportunity. And we need to be able to provide an example also, to know what is possible. Like Sophia said, anything is possible, and we need to be able to model that as blind leaders.

Hoby: I love it. I love it so much. And when you think about your sort of role as a CEO of an organization, how do you see mentorship sort of tying into your relationships, all the way from your direct reports to people that work in other buildings and other departments? I see you working, because you and I work very closely together. You’re always finding what people are good at and empowering them. You really are.

Sharon: Well, I think that’s just part of the natural cycle, isn’t it? I mean, to see the best in people and that’s all you want to see.

Hoby: Right.

Sharon: And you want to highlight that, and you want to bring that to the surface.

Hoby: I love that. I love that. Kyle, tell us about your journey with mentorship and your love for what you do and why you do it.

Kyle: Well, I think our team… We’re very accessible as an executive leadership team. And I think it’s funny when somebody says, “Well, I don’t want to bother you, you’re the CEO.” I’m like, “I’m your teammate,” you know?

Hoby: Right.

Kyle And in many ways, if you take the org chart and flip it upside down, we work up to Sharon’s point. We’re there to support and help empower others. The employees, the people doing the work at Lighthouse Central Florida and Lighthouse Works are doing very honorable work. And so, I believe very deeply that these are people before they’re employees. And because of the commitment they’re demonstrating, they deserve to be happy. They deserve to have tools. They deserve to have talent around them. They deserve to have a voice. And so a mentorship is part of that, right?

And one of my mentors, for instance, was our previous CEO. Many of you know her, Lee Nasehi, and she taught me so much about grit, determination, and also about really never being satisfied with what we can accomplish as professionals and as a human being. But there’s also no greater privilege or responsibility, I think, than to mentor anyone who steps forward and says, “Will you help me?”

And I’m telling you, the number of people that – it’s been more at Lighthouse – but throughout my career the number of young people that step forward and say, “Will you help me?” is a short list of people. And so, if they do that, if they take that step, then I think it’s our obligation as leaders to do everything we can to say, “Yes, I will help you and the training begins today,” as Sharon said. It’s critical.

Hoby: It’s so important. Folks, it doesn’t matter if you’re on this panel, in the audience or listening to this recorded podcast, thank your mentors now. Thank them tomorrow. Thank them 20 years from now. And honestly, thank them whenever you think of them because that’s what’s so powerful to them and they love hearing how they’ve impacted your life.

I want to move to a different topic now, which is the topic of companies that might not understand what we’re capable of as blind folks. We have a really special environment here at NIB, here with 100 or so agencies that we support, because everybody here understands that blind people should be celebrated for their talents. We’re not doing them a favor. But a lot of people, bigger companies in corporate America, don’t get that. And the little story I told you at the beginning of this panel, I hope shed light on that.

So my question for you all is how do you think we can shift the paradigms within both small and large businesses that don’t feel that they should hire blind folks? How can we show them not only that we should be accommodated and given reasonable accommodations, but that we should be championed and celebrated for turning something that a lot of people see as a disadvantage into a game-changing advantage? Let’s start with Kyle and Sophia.

Kyle: I think we out-value. When we demonstrate excellence consistently, it speaks for itself. And as a parent and as a professional I believe in show me, don’t tell me, right? And so, either we are hitting the metrics and doing a great job for our customer or we’re not. I love the objectivity of that. It removes a great deal of subjectivity there.

Hoby: Totally.

Kyle: And so as a field, we need to do a better job presenting the work we’re doing and presenting the talent that we bring to the table. A lot of times, you know, we had to learn, at Lighthouse Works, a big lesson. And when we looked back at our marketing and the way we talked about what we were doing, it was very mission first. Well, that doesn’t establish credibility when it comes to value, performance, and quality in the eye of a potential customer or the eye of the consumer.

We know we’re incredibly passionate about it. But we had to turn everything that we were doing upside down, right? And so lead with value, performance, and quality, lead with KPIs, lead with what a business is looking for in a potential partner. And then, oh, by the way, we also have got our unique workforce. And, oh, by the way, since you’re hiring us for the contact center, typically contact centers have a very high attrition rate. Well, with our blind colleagues, our attrition is below 3 or 4%. But 40% of that center are sighted people and their attrition is below 10%, which is still remarkably lower than industry average.

And then really demonstrating, too, that you have a number of agents that report to leads, a number of leads that report to supervisors, and roughly 75% of the leads and 75% of the supervisors are leaders who are blind. And so by leveraging them at every level, as Sophia said in the beginning of this, we have leaders at every level. It’s really how we counteract the perception, and quite honestly, the limiting assumptions and biases that people have. We talk about our business like a business, and we demonstrate past performance. And we show them these things and then, oh, by the way, you’re also helping a well-underserved population contribute to our community and our economy, rather than relying on it.
What would you add, Sophia?

Sophia: I would say that low expectations are a huge enemy of the BVI community.

Kyle: Low expectations?

Sophia: Low expectations.

Kyle: Yes.

Sophia: So if we’re given the right tools, screen readers, and if you get someone in who has those skill sets, they can do anything anyone else can do. Just having the right accessibility, digital accessibility. And making sure that those tools are there, I think that that would let people know, other companies know, that hiring someone with a visual impairment could be beneficial for their company. Not only are we great people, but also once we get in there, because most people want to work so badly, we get the opportunity and everything is working fairly, then I think that digital accessibility is just as important.

Kyle: Well, I’ll add too, Hoby, if it’s okay.

Hoby: Yeah.

Kyle: At our peak of the last growth spurt we had, Sophia was our first recruiter. Now we have a few, three, right? But she’s a senior recruiter and she was responsible for bringing in 30 to 40 candidates every couple of weeks.

Hoby: Wow!

Kyle: And we heard Sophia say earlier, a very common question is, but can I really do this? And does Lighthouse Works really enable us to do the work through accessibility and those things? What I love is the credibility of the recruiter saying, “I’m blind and I’m able to do this job.” This company is that, they are the real thing.
There would have been a lot of people, I would imagine, who are blind who had never worked perhaps, or it’s been a long time since they were in the workforce, who never would have taken that step if not for the credibility they got through speaking to our recruiter, Sophia.

Hoby: Showing, not telling.

Kyle: Show me, don’t tell me.

Hoby: There it is.

Sophia: And we always tell them that it’s the same expectation across the board. There’s no lower level of work for you because you’re BVI or higher because you’re sighted. Lighthouse is fair all across.

Hoby: I love it.

Kyle: We don’t have blind jobs, we have jobs.

Hoby: Sharon and Alex?

Sharon: So I love the expectation thing. I say that you can lower expectations and people will live down to them; if you raise them they’ll live up to them. So I love that, Sophia. For me, I tell people that I sell blindness every single day. When I walk into a business, when I walk into an airport, get on an airplane, I am constantly selling blind people because I need to present that positive image when I’m going into places.

And we know there’s a 70% unemployment rate, and a lot of that is because of stereotypes and misconceptions. But if we can prove, if we can be blind positive role models, the businesses will eventually get it. It takes a lot of selling though, it really does. But that’s one of the ways that we’re going to change this, is just by going in, networking with these businesses, and presenting the value that we do bring. This is not all about the mission at that point in time. It’s like you said, Kyle, it’s jobs. Not blind jobs, it’s just jobs.

Hoby: Jobs period.

Sharon: What do you think, Alex?

Alex: Well, I think that is very important, Sharon. I think that it’s very important to me, all the challenges that we face from day-to-day head on and that’s how I choose to meet my own expectations for myself, as well as those of others, because I don’t find any other way that we can expect to grow and to represent what we really want to represent. And that is that we are capable and that we are not just blind employees, but employees and people.

Kyle: I was just going to say, you heard Sophia say that there’s so much doubt about being in the workforce. And then to her saying to the candidates, the standard is this, period. And we will work with you to get there, but the standard is that, because that’s the promise we make to the customer.

But think about the amount of talent on the sideline right now because of those misconceptions and biases. They’re on the sideline right now. And what I’ve picked up on respectfully, and Sophia correct me if I’m wrong, but we have around 300 blind colleagues, and what I pick up on is, one, a great depth of gratitude because they’re given an opportunity, a real one. They work somewhere where they’re treated as equals, because they fricking are, and given opportunities for upward mobility.

But I think there’s also a little chip on the shoulder for us because somebody who has walked into a restaurant and had the person they’re dining with, the waiter asks them what they’re going to eat and things like that, where they know they’re counted out, they know people don’t think they can. When you have a chip on your shoulder and something to prove, you tend to do one hell of a good job.

Hoby: It’s true.

Kyle: And so there are so many competitive advantages. If we can just trust process, technology, and training, provide leadership, and a bold vision, and mentorship, as you had spoken of, Hoby, all things are possible, and you can smoke the competition.

Hoby: It’s true.

Sharon: What a beautiful formula there, Kyle.

Hoby: Love it.

Sharon: I love that recipe; can you share that with us?

Hoby: We turn something that a lot of people, a lot of society thinks of as a disadvantage into a huge advantage. And to be honest, and this is what I tell anyone that I am honored to mentor or anyone in the community, that we’re just people who happen to be blind. And guess what? To be competitive in a sighted world, you’ve got to be better than the sighted folks.

Sharon: That’s right.

Hoby: You’ve got to work harder. You’ve got to get it done. You gotta sell blind.
I want to hear a few questions from the audience.

Audience Member: My question is, when you talk about putting value to the front of the mission, how do you present the mission in a way that’s shown as a benefit to potential customers? How can that be used, not only as an, “Oh, and by the way,” but also as part of that value?

Hoby: Kyle, you want to jump on this one?

Kyle: Yeah. So again, I think what you’re asking is how, yes, we lead with value, performance, and quality, but the mission component is important. And how do we demonstrate that as being a competitive advantage and not a “let’s hope this works,” right? Because if I’m a customer, a potential customer and I’m going to invest multi-million dollars in this contract with you, I need to know that the proof will be in the pudding.

Some of the things that were already talked about, we commonly say with our prospective businesses. And that is we do this work with a chip on our shoulder. We have a supply chain team that has six or seven times self-funded and created slogans for their team and printed their own shirts. When you have people printing their own slogans as a team and wearing those shirts with pride, you’re cooking with grease.

Hoby: If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is.

Kyle: Right. And when it was Peter Drucker – and I love to remind Kaleb Stunkard, our COO of this. Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, right?

Hoby: I love that.

Kyle: And many times, if you have a strong culture, if people know that you care, people know that you’re trusting and investing in them and mentoring them and leading them, they will climb the wall. And I’m telling you now, a lot of our competitors out in the marketplace they’ve got like Todd who forgot to come to work on Tuesday because he doesn’t care.

And so that commitment, that overcoming the 7 out of 10 barrier, that being believed in, and having a true voice, and being treated as equal, because you freaking are, I wish I could give you metrics around that, but I frankly think there’s just a bit of magic that happens when you have that kind of culture and it’s contagious. And so, we kind of… I’m going to shut up in a second, Hoby.

Hoby: You’re good.

Kyle: We have a joke that our facility is like the Venus flytrap because if we can get a business prospect curious about our value, performance and quality and they come in and they speak to people like Sophia or Angel in supply chain or any of our call center agents, there’s a level of sophistication and credibility there that sells itself. I’m sorry, I’m a nerd about it. I’m going to be quiet. I’m a geek about this.

Hoby: You’re awesome. That was spectacular. Sharon, Alex, Sophia?

Sharon: So it’s about the mission. It’s always about the mission, but it’s the quality that we can bring to a customer. And I think what it plays off… with leading, with the mission, is blindness is a primitive fear, fear of darkness. And people, they can’t get beyond that. So if you can sell them and you can get them in the door, that’s how you’re going to do it. Or if you’re going to walk into a business to get somebody placed, that’s how you’re going to do it. And then it just happens to be the blindness.

And I mean, that really is a selling point. But you really have to sell them on the other parts first, because I really think that it’s a primitive fear that we play into.

Kyle: The heart and soul of a company, the heart and soul of a team, matters a great deal.

Sharon: Yeah.

Kyle: What it isn’t, is a value proposition, right?

Sharon: That’s right.

Kyle: So, yes, everything for us is a derivative of the mission and we do this for the mission, and we do it for the love of the work that we’re doing, and the admiration and respect for our teammates. All that stuff is very real. And that’s the furnace that’s fueling it. But again, it’s not a value proposition. And we need a marketplace to see us as a business solution, not a charity. You know what I mean?

In philanthropy, we’re selling a vision and a promise, right? In business, here in what we’re doing in National Industries for the Blind, we’re not selling a vision and a promise. We are selling performance, KPIs, and making customers happy, right? Those are real things. And so that’s why we have to have a powerful, unique value proposition that gets them leaning forward, and then they believe in the blind.

Hoby: To all my blind friends, I’ll speak on behalf of all of us, all of us who are employed and working hard: never hire us because you’re being a good Samaritan. Hire us because we’re good at what we do.

Alex: I totally agree.

Kyle: Well I think it’s a betrayal of your mission and it’s disrespectful.

Hoby: Exactly. Folks, thank you so much. Unfortunately, we don’t have time for any more questions. And this is a message to everyone in this room, and I want to close today’s panel with the following three remarks.

Number one, you are enough. Everybody in this room, everybody listening to the show, anyone thinking about getting a job as a blind person, or as a sighted person, as long as you delivered your personal best, you are enough.

Number two, you are not alone. Nobody in this room is alone. You have a community around you that supports you, in the agencies, in NIB and in the world. And as such, people want to support you. You’re not alone.

And number three, every one of us is amazing. Sometimes as blind folks, those low expectations creep in and we get told how amazing we are because we can tie our shoe in a cute little bow. That’s not amazing. That’s what everybody needs to do because I don’t want to trip over my shoelaces. We’re amazing because we have grit, we have tenacity, and we work hard, and we always have our mind and our eye on the prize.

And just because we happen to be blind doesn’t mean that we are any different or any better than anyone else in this world. So remember, if you don’t remember anything else from today or anything else I ever say, remember that you’re enough, you are amazing, you are not alone in this world.

Thank you so much for joining us. Huge thanks to our panelists. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Sophia. And thank you, Kyle. This was an absolute honor to have you with us today.

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