MaryBeth: And even as dark as that time period was for me, there is so much light and so much joy now. My life is beyond incredible at this point. Like losing my sight gave me the life I wanted, which sounds so weird, doesn’t it?

Hoby: No it doesn’t.

MaryBeth: But it’s so true.

Hoby: No, it sounds so beautiful.

Welcome to the Heard & 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: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Heard & Empowered podcast where we tell stories of employment for folks that are blind and visually impaired, and we show that being blind is not a problem at all because anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Hey, before we get started I have a really exciting guest to introduce this week and I’m so thrilled about that, but before we do so I just want to thank all of you who listen to our show religiously and who are just tuning in today so much for your support. Thank you for the love. Thank you for listening. Thank you for telling people who you think should know about our podcast to listen in and get inspired, and to not only be heard but also to be empowered.

So that’s what we’re all about here and I really appreciate you all. You are so loyal and such an awesome group of folks. Please try to help me expand the group of listeners that we have spreading the love, sharing the success stories you hear here on the podcast and just making this a very exciting and wonderful show that it is, and making sure that it falls in the ears of the right people who should hear it.

This week I told you we have a very special guest. And first of all, this person I consider her a good friend, but she also is one of the employee of the year winners at the 2023 NIB Conference and Exposition that happened in October in DC. And I am so excited to be here with MaryBeth Clare. MaryBeth, welcome to the show.

MaryBeth: Thanks, Hoby, it’s so good to be here with you today.

Hoby: This is so much fun. Thank you for your time and for coming and sharing your amazing story of success and all that you’ve done to achieve great things in life.

MaryBeth: Oh, thanks.

Hoby: So as I always do, I love to get to know the person behind the mission. So if you can just tell me a little bit about your childhood and sort of who MaryBeth is so we have some context. And then whatever you want to share with us about your early life and your journey with blindness. Anything you can share with us that allows us to get to know you would be just incredible.

MaryBeth: For sure. So I grew up mainly in the Seattle area until I was about 12, and then I moved over to Idaho. I love Idaho, I consider it my home. I’ve been here for over 30 years.

Hoby: Idaho and Seattle are beautiful places.

MaryBeth: They are, I love Pike’s Place Market, it’s so much fun. It’s such a great place. And I’m a coffee connoisseur, so coming from Seattle is just like perfect.

Hoby: We’re going to have to talk about that because I’ve done work in coffee as well. I can’t wait to talk to you more about that.

MaryBeth: Oh yes, that will be great. That’s awesome. So I had a fairly good childhood. I grew up completely sighted and then I started to get migraine headaches in my early 20s and it escalated to an occipital neuralgia. And so I went to Stanford Hospital for some treatment and I had a very bad reaction to the medication, I went into cardiac arrest twice.

And when I came to, I lost consciousness and when I came to the second time I only had very limited vision. Just the very central vision, I had no peripheral vision. And of course I was in complete denial of it, so I just kept going about my day. Well, not my day, I got released from the hospital and just kept going about life as normal. And I didn’t want to give up driving, that was the hardest thing for me.

Hoby: I hear you loud and clear.

MaryBeth: Yes. And one of my dreams was to be able to ride a motorcycle. And so my dad, brother and I went to the STAR course here in Boise and I was having so much fun trying to ride a bike for the first time. But with only central vision and no peripheral vision, you’re going to crash a lot on that bike. And I crashed four times, and the last time the bike ended up on top of me and I had a sprained ankle. And that was when my family was like, “Okay, we need to do an intervention, you clearly cannot see well.”

And then from there, that was in April of 2018, and then in July of 2018 I woke up without sight. I do have some light perception and I can make out some shadows and some shapes and stuff. But it was almost overnight because I went to bed on the 17th and it was still, the central vision was there. The last person that I saw was my little dachshund, Brickman.

Hoby: Oh my gosh, I love dachshunds.

MaryBeth: They’re so sweet. Yes.

Hoby: Is Brickman still in your life?

MaryBeth: He is still in my life, he just turned 11.

Hoby: Oh my gosh.

MaryBeth: Yes, he’s a little sweetheart.

Hoby: Oh, that’s so cool. I love dachshunds. I love their cute little shape and their little yippy barks. They’re amazing little pups.

MaryBeth: Yes, he and I howl together a lot and I used to play piano before I lost my sight. I’m relearning how to play piano now and he loves to howl whenever I play piano. It’s just the sweetest thing ever.

Hoby: Oh, that’s adorable. Oh, he’s totally hanging out with mom.

MaryBeth: Oh yeah, he is. And he’s named after Jim Brickman who is a piano player.

Hoby: Of course. Oh my gosh, I love it.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: Do you know what it was that took away that last little bit of vision?

MaryBeth: I don’t know what it was and I’ve been extensively tested over at Stanford and they didn’t even see this coming either. They thought that my sight would either just stay with no peripheral vision or that slowly over time it would come back. And so they’re like, “You’re still going to have that central vision. Just learn how to get around better with some orientation and mobility and all that kind of stuff.”

And so I had signed up for independent living at the Idaho Commission for the Blind. So I had just a couple months of some training with a great guy over there, Steve Archibald, who was training me just with the cane and then doing some stuff in the kitchen and all that. And then it was just gone. They think that there was a disconnect in my brain to my eyes when I had lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. So they have no official diagnosis for me, it was just one of those random things that happened.

Hoby: Wow. But just like anything, you sound like a very happy person and you sound like you’ve totally overcome any barriers and found joy in life without sight.

MaryBeth: Yes. I like just keeping on going and trying and trying and trying because the only time I feel like I fail is if I stop trying. So the more that I keep pressing on, I know I’m going to be successful in the long run.

Hoby: I love that. That’s so true. That’s exactly spot on. That’s my attitude and that’s what keeps us going. We just have to keep pushing and keep trying and we will figure it out. That’s just the way it is.

And on that note, tell me a little bit, if you will, please, about your journey from July in 18 to your first day of work at Envision Xpress. You told me that you worked at Envision Xpress as a lead cashier, which is amazing. So tell me about that journey, that time period, those couple of years between losing eyesight and then jumping into the workplace.

MaryBeth: Okay, I lost it July 18th of 18. I got my guide dog on his second birthday, which was February 25th of 19. And during 2019 I lived at the Idaho Commission for the Blind, learning everything you can learn, doing all the vocational rehab.

Hoby: Where did you get your guide dog?

MaryBeth: I got him from Guide Dogs for the Blind in Boring, Oregon.

Hoby: Oh, I love that. And what’s his name?

MaryBeth: His name is Hubble, like the telescope or The Way We Were, whichever way you want to look at it.

Hoby: There you go. And does he get along with Brickman?

MaryBeth: To begin with, Brickman wasn’t so sure about him because he was taking mom’s attention, but now they get along splendidly. They’re very good brothers.

Hoby: Oh, that’s awesome.

MaryBeth: And it’s fun taking the guide dog for a walk along with the dachshund. And then I use my cane.

Hoby: I love that.

MaryBeth: It’s so much fun.

Hoby: I love it.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: So what prompted you to go, you know, that’s not very much time. Six months to go from losing your eyesight to then deciding, you know what, this is what I need to do. I’m going to get a guide dog and I’m going to go with it. What helped you make that decision?

MaryBeth: I knew that I needed to press on or I would die. And I know that sounds very dramatic, but I had already had a history of self-harm and suicidal ideation. I don’t do that anymore. And if anybody needs help, please call 988, which is the national hotline for suicide prevention.

Hoby: That’s very good to know. Thank you for telling us that.

MaryBeth: Yes. You’re welcome. And so I knew that if I just stayed in that dark place, that I would take my life eventually. And I didn’t want to do that because I love life. I love being around people and I do love it. And so I needed to just continually press on and give myself some sort of purpose. And I found that in my job that I have now.

And so the Commission for the Blind helped me find this job at the Air Force Base. I called Marla Page, who was my boss back then, and her and I just instantly clicked. I came out and did a trial run at the beginning of March of 2020. And then on my second day of work, the base closed down due to Covid. I was like, “Oh my gosh.”

Hoby: Right, “Oh my gosh.”

MaryBeth: I was like, “It just figures I finally get a job, I have this great purpose.”

Hoby: One thing after another.

MaryBeth: It really was. It was crazy. But I’m like, this is my new life. I had my first home by myself, both boys, boys as in my dogs, they were very happy in this little duplex that I was renting out. I was happy. I’m like, “We’re going to make this work because I need to be able to be independent and live on my own, pay all my own bills and just enjoy life.”

And so I came to work every single day because we were deemed essential to the mission. So I still got to come into work, even though there were lots of airmen who weren’t able to come in and they had to work remotely. And I took that time to memorize the layout of my store and learn about the different products that we carry. I made a location system so I know where every single item is within the store. I made braille tags for all of the items with their location, a short description of what they are. My Perkins Brailler and I became very attached for the first year that I was here.

Hoby: You and me both, the most useful tool.

MaryBeth: Yes, I love my little Brailler. It’s very useful.

Hoby: I don’t hold it against it that it was invented in 1950, I still use mine on the daily. And being a math and science person, that’s how I went through school, is using the Perkins Brailler. So it’s an amazing tool.

So tell us a little bit, let’s go back a little bit. Losing your site in 2018, now it’s March of 2020 and you’re already using the Perkins Brailler to label things. So you must have learned braille completely.

MaryBeth: I did.

Hoby: At the Idaho Commission.

MaryBeth: I did. I’m not very good with contractions.

Hoby: That’s okay.

MaryBeth: I usually just spell it out letter by letter.

Hoby: That is okay.

MaryBeth: Yes. Yeah, I learned all about using the computer and JAWS, braille, orientation and mobility, activities of daily life, woodshop, which was my favorite.

Hoby: Yes, tell me about this. Tell me more.

MaryBeth: Okay, so in woodshop we got to make our own name plates and we got to pick out the wood for it. And then they had these little templates that you could carve out your letters with for your name. So that was really fun. That was my first project that I did there. So I have one that says MaryBeth and a second one that says Clare, because the MaryBeth didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted it and I was upset. So they let me do a second one.

Hoby: Awesome.

MaryBeth: And then my second project was making a cutting board, and there are two different types of wood. I’m told that there’s a light color and a dark color and they alternate. So I got to make that. And then the last one, which is my favorite, they let us pick our own project and I designed and built my own desk that I get to use every day at home. I’m in college, so at home I do all of my college work. So I do that full-time and then I go to work full-time. So I don’t have much time for a general life right now, but I will be finished in August.

Hoby: Look at you, that’s amazing. What are you studying in college?

MaryBeth: Business management with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, public relations and leadership.

Hoby: I love that. That is incredible.

MaryBeth: So it’s very exciting.

Hoby: And do you sort of want to do your own thing, run your own business one day?

MaryBeth: I do, I want to open my own publishing house. And I want to have my offices in a bookstore and coffee shop and just have an all-in-one thing. I think it’s going to be amazing.

Hoby: We are two peas in a pod there, I am all about creative things happening in coffee shops.

MaryBeth: Yes!

Hoby: And as an entrepreneur, I’m just going to say this openly, that if I can ever be of assistance to you in whatever you do, you let me know.

MaryBeth: Oh, I will.

Hoby: I’m right there for you in every step of the way. You know that.

MaryBeth: Thank you. Yes. Oh, that’s awesome. I will definitely be contacting you.

Hoby: Hit me up. Hit me up, reach out, I’m right here. Always.

MaryBeth: Awesome.

Hoby: Always here and excited to help.

So let’s pivot back over to Envision for a second. Envision is the parent organization that has facilities in both Wichita, Kansas and Dallas, Texas.

MaryBeth: Correct.

Hoby: Is that the same Envision?

MaryBeth: It is the same Envision.

Hoby: Awesome.

MaryBeth: Envision Dallas does a lot of manufacturing. They make highlighters and stuff. And then over at Envision Industries, which is in Wichita, Kansas, they make a lot of trash bags and reflector belts.

Hoby: Nice, and they do a lot of printing.

MaryBeth: So those are our different manufacturing. Oh yes, and the printing. They make the business cards with the Braille on them.

Hoby: Braille business cards. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And tell me a little bit about Envision Xpress and what you guys do in general.

MaryBeth: Okay. So Envision Xpress, we have 16 different base supply centers all across the United States going everywhere from California all the way to Millington, Tennessee. Four of them are in Colorado alone, which is really cool. So over here at the Mountain Home Air Force Base, which is based in Idaho, we’re like 45 minutes away from Boise, just to kind of give you an idea of where Mountain Home is.

Hoby: Sure. Thank you for that.

MaryBeth: You’re welcome. We take care of the 366th gunfighters. So we have lots of planes out here. We have the MUNS Squadron, which is in charge of ammunition and all of that kind of stuff. What we do here is in our little store we have all the different office supplies, janitorial supplies, and deployment gear. So we can take care of the airmen everywhere from a pen, like the B3 pens that everybody loves. They’re the pilot pens, they have red ink, black ink, and pencil all in one. They’re awesome pens. Everybody loves those pens.

Hoby: I’ve got to get one of those for me, yeah.

MaryBeth: Yes, I can send you one.

Hoby: Oh, thank you. That’s very sweet of you.

MaryBeth: Yes, they’re awesome.

Hoby: Nice. So everything from those pens to –

MaryBeth: Yeah, from those pens to deployment gear that they need.

Hoby: And that’s like everything from like belts to –

MaryBeth: Belts, cold weather gear, jackets, hot weather gear, neck gaiters, balaclavas. We work very closely with Advantage and we promote their jackets that they make. They’re very nice, heavy jackets and they’re much less expensive than like the Massif jackets that are around 700. And while those are nice, not every squadron can afford a Massif jacket. So we have another jacket that they can get that’s only around 200, which makes it to where more people can get it, which is really nice. And then it keeps the people really warm on the flight line who are out there when it’s snowing, because we got 36 inches of snow within a period of two days this year. It was crazy.

Hoby: Yeah, and what you’re able to do there is you’re able to totally help these airmen with the amazing work that they do to keep our country safe. And you and I might not be able to fight in the military, but we can serve and assist and be a huge part of these amazing people’s lives.

MaryBeth: Yes. And I wanted to go into the military at one point, but I wasn’t allowed to. I have a bleeding disorder, asthma, and I’m a cystic fibrosis carrier as well. And so I went to the office for recruitment and they’re like, “No, we’re never going to take you.” But I wanted to be able to give back in some way, and this is my way to be able to give back.

Hoby: This is your amazing opportunity to give back and support. And I just, I love it. I appreciate what you’re saying so much. And it’s so important to be able to do that.

MaryBeth: It is. It’s very important.

Hoby: Now, does the Base Supply Center sell, you mentioned a jacket made by a group called Advantage, do you guys also sell products that are manufactured by National Industries for the Blind nonprofit agencies?

MaryBeth: Yes, over 80% of our stock is what NIB does. And I always promote all of those things. I’m like, “Sure, you could go buy a G Pilot pen, but I have this equivalent right here, which is made by people who are blind or visually impaired and you’re going to be giving back to us in our community because, you know, we’re a nonprofit.”

And we really want to promote that. And it’s what we want to sell because we’re helping us be able to have these jobs that are going to give us purpose. So by buying this pen, you are investing in a person’s life. If you buy this Pilot pen, you’re just going to be investing in some CEO’s life that already has, you know, their own jet.

Hoby: Exactly. And I bet when you say that, I bet 100% of folks say, well, that sounds great. Let me support the community that needs the support.

MaryBeth: It does, yes. I’m like, “If you buy this pen, you’re supporting me and you’re supporting the people who made that pen.” So I just love it when they actually see it in action and then they start taking care of it and buying those products instead.

Hoby: That’s amazing, and asking about them and supporting them in every which way.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: Yeah, no, that is absolutely phenomenal. And do you guys sell food at the Base Supply Center?

MaryBeth: I do not sell food here, no. We’re not allowed to for our contract.

Hoby: Janitorial and deployment gear?

MaryBeth: Yes, janitorial, office supplies and deployment gear.

Hoby: Love it. Absolutely love it.

MaryBeth: And we work a lot with DLA for the deployment gear that we get.

Hoby: And what is DLA?

MaryBeth: They make a lot of different products that our contracting office here wants us to use. They are some sort of government agency, I don’t remember what it stands for.

Hoby: No, no problem. Yeah, no, no, no, but that’s great. And you mentioned another name of something, I can’t even pronounce it, that you guys sell. Neck gaiters and what were some of the other things that you threw out?

MaryBeth: Oh, a balaclava.

Hoby: Yeah, what is a balaclava?

MaryBeth: It’s a five-in-one hood. So you can wear it five different ways. So you can have it to where it’s just like a watch cap. You can have it to where it covers your face. You can just have it on your neck. You can do it to where it just covers your mouth or your mouth and your nose. It’s very helpful for when you’re in high wind, cold areas like we are here.

Hoby: Wow, I love that name too. I had to ask about that so that we knew exactly what that was. Thank you for explaining it.

MaryBeth: You’re welcome. Yes, it sounds a lot like baklava, which is one of my favorite desserts.

Hoby: I agree.

MaryBeth: And I often say that instead.

Hoby: A balaclava, baklava, I can hear the similarity.

MaryBeth: Yes, it’s very similar.

Hoby: And I also agree with you about the deliciousness of baklava. So very, very good there.

Now, you are, every year NIB does a conference and exposition where folks who do manufacturing and whatnot can exhibit their products. And a lot of folks, you know, buyers from military bases and whatnot come and view the products. But the conference part of it honors several employees of the year, someone from many of the different nonprofit agencies that are served by National Industries for the Blind.

They pick some of their best and finest employees and send them as winners or their nominees, if you will, as employee of the year. And only two people become the actual winners of the award of employment of the year. And you, my friend, at my first ever NIB conference, were one of those two winners.

MaryBeth: Yes, the Peter J. Salmon Award winner.

Hoby: Congratulations on winning the Peter J. Salmon Award.

MaryBeth: Thank you.

Hoby: That is such an accomplishment. And just from talking to you, so well-deserved and such an amazing thing. Can you tell us about the process of applying to be an employee of the year?

MaryBeth: Sure. So every year the nominations are open, I think it’s in the January/February timeframe. My boss at the time, Marla Page, said, “You know, MaryBeth, I think you really deserve this.” So she filled out the whole application that NIB sent and she turned it into our HR team.

And then from there, the HR team went over all of the different applications that they received because any supervisor can nominate their employee.

Hoby: As many as they want.

MaryBeth: As many as they want. And so I was competing against some of the best of the best within Envision itself. And they chose me, which was very exciting.

Hoby: Congratulations.

MaryBeth: Yes, and they sent me to Wichita for the employee luncheon, which was really fun because I got to see the manufacturing, I got to go through the two different offices, the corporate office and the industry’s office. Because at the corporate office, they have an ophthalmologist there who does a lot of research on blindness. And they have that whole research center. There’s workforce innovation to where we can just promote jobs and get people ready to be in the workforce. It was really neat to see it all in action.

And then they honored me with being the Envision Employee of the Year. And then that’s when they made the formal announcement that I had won the national. But back in May, I was in DC for the advocates meeting because I am a NIB advocate and I started that in 2022. And it was at that meeting that Mr. Monteferrante, our CEO, called me to tell me that I won the national award and I had to keep it a secret for a month. It was so hard to keep it a secret.

Hoby: Oh my gosh, that’s so hard.

MaryBeth: Like I’m at the NIB headquarters and he’s calling me telling me this. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I have to keep this a secret.”

Hoby: Oh my gosh.

MaryBeth: It was very, very hard.

Hoby: I get it. I can only imagine though. That’s so much fun. But you and I both, I think, share Michael Monteferrante as a very good friend. He’s a wonderful man.

MaryBeth: He is, he is a wonderful man.

Hoby: And cares so much about our community and pushing us forward.

MaryBeth: He does. He does, he’s amazing.

Hoby: Yeah, just a truly incredible leader. But let’s talk about the actual process. So what does the Peter Jay Salmon Award honor someone for doing? Just outline some of the attributes that they want to see in a Peter Jay Salmon Award recipient.

MaryBeth: Sure. So the Peter Jay Salmon Award is for a direct employee, and that’s somebody that is just like directly involved in working with the military and selling the stuff that we make. So it’s a person who is, for lack of a better word, on the front line, working with the process of getting the material to the person, to the military.

I’m not 100% sure of the exact qualifications for the direct employee of the year. I know some people in manufacturing can get that too.

Hoby: Nice, nice. But someone who’s working directly to make the world go round and make things happen, right?

MaryBeth: Exactly. Yes, make it happen so we can get the military what they need in their hands at the appropriate time.

Hoby: That’s incredible. And tell me what it’s like, I mean, you are a true rock star and celebrity for a week when you win the award.

MaryBeth: I was.

Hoby: So tell us about the journey at the NIB conference and what that was like.

MaryBeth: Oh my gosh, I had so much fun that week. I felt like I was the queen for an entire week and I was digging it.

Hoby: As well you deserved.

MaryBeth: Yes, I was just loving it. Oh my goodness. So when you’re the employee of the year, for any of the agencies, you get to bring somebody with you. So your spouse, your friend, just somebody that you want to bring with you. So I brought one of my best friends who was my boss, Marla Page, with me because I wanted her to be able to experience it with me.

She’s the one that nominated me. Her and I have worked hand in hand throughout this whole process. She empowers me every day to be able to go out there and do my best. So she was the one who went with me. So she got to see DC for the first time, which was very exciting for her because she had never been there before. I just loved bringing her there. And I have an uncle who lives out there, so she got to meet him as well.

But going to the conference, gosh, I don’t even know where to start. It was such a magical week.

Hoby: You were on TV, right? You were on NBC?

MaryBeth: I was. I was on NBC promoting jobs for blind people. I talked about how I applied to over 60 other places. Nobody would hire me because of my disability. Even at one place, I went for an interview and the interviewer said, “You know, I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but there’s no way that my company is going to invest in getting you the accessible technology you need. I think you would be perfect for this position, but there’s no way that they’re going to pay for it.”

I appreciate his candor very, very much because it’s not like I was at home sitting waiting for that phone call. It helped me be able to move on to the next job.

Hoby: Well, that candor is important, but it really is depressing, isn’t it?

MaryBeth: It is.

Hoby: And I had an experience like that, that I won’t go into great detail here, but I had the same experience where I had an ally at a company who said, “HR is just too worried about liability, you know”, and it’s amazing. It’s just amazing how much judgment there is without really knowing what we can do. People love to pass their own judgment, their own opinion, et cetera, et cetera.

MaryBeth: They do. Like, I am fully capable. The only thing I can’t do is drive. I can do anything else.

Hoby: Exactly. Amen.

MaryBeth: I set my mind to it and I will do it.

Hoby: And you know what? I always say that your brain is the biggest opportunity center. It’s where everything can happen, but it’s also the most powerful thing that can hold you back, right?

MaryBeth: It is.

Hoby: So if you want to do something, tell your brain, hey brain, I want to do this. And I guarantee you, you will find a way. You will absolutely find a way to get it done.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: Wow, so that message –

MaryBeth: That’s so right on.

Hoby: Thank you. That message that you delivered on NBC was so powerful because people need to hear that.

MaryBeth: They do.

Hoby: And now you’re a member of this amazing family of agencies and you’re working with Envision Xpress and loving every day of it.

MaryBeth: I do. I love every single day of it. And I love all of my co-workers. We have so much fun. We’re a very tight-knit group, there are five of us out here. Marla is now a purchasing agent, but she does work out of our store. I have a new boss who is great to work with. He was a unit deployment manager at one of the squadrons, and so he really understands what the people need when they’re out on the front line or on the flight line. Wherever they’re at, he knows what they need.

All of my co-workers are actually retired military. So it’s really fun getting to hear their experiences within it and just understanding how vital a base supply center is to getting them what they need. Because all of them have had experience of 20 plus years with using the base supply center and now they work at one.

Hoby: That’s absolutely perfect. And couldn’t think of better people to work the base supply centers with you.

The other thing that I heard in something you said a few minutes ago about laying the store out and having everything labeled on tags, you really take ownership of your store, don’t you?

MaryBeth: I do. I call it my store.

Hoby: You take it very, very seriously and make sure that everything is in the right place and that you can offer that amazing customer service experience for anyone who comes in.

MaryBeth: Yes. Yeah, my customers come in, they’ll either email me their shopping list and I will go pull it for them and have it ready for them when they come in. We do deliveries as well. So they could just pay over the phone and we could get it delivered to them. But sometimes, you know, they come in and they’re like, “Hey, MaryBeth, I need help finding this one item.” And I can go directly to that item and find it without any problem. I find things easier than my sighted co-workers do, honestly.

Hoby: Oh my gosh. And it’s because we have to have systems. We have to build systems out so that we are as organized as possible. And then those systems that we build oftentimes make us more efficient and sometimes more effective than our sighted co-workers, right?

MaryBeth: Absolutely. I mean, people think that I’m sighted because I get around the store so well. I mean, I use my cane, I use Hubble, but I just can go there first thing every single time.

Hoby: That’s amazing. And you know, isn’t it wonderful and joyful providing that truly legendary, excellent, quality customer service?

MaryBeth: It is. It gives me so much purpose every day. Like, I can go find this for this person, they’re not wasting their time by just searching and searching for it. I’m helping them save time. I can get them in and out quicker unless, of course, they’re on a break and they want to get away from their shop, which sometimes does happen because we do have three dogs here. And so sometimes they just come to play with the dogs, which is pretty fun.

Hoby: Oh my gosh. Well, that’s customer service too. Who said it wasn’t, right?

MaryBeth: It is.

Hoby: Having dogs and making people’s lives a little better when they come to the store is so important.

MaryBeth: Exactly. Yeah, we have music going to make it more of like a fun energy.

Hoby: I love it.

MaryBeth: I try to put out a lot of, you know, good energy every single day for all of our customers. We have a little coffee pot in case anybody wants coffee. You know, we just, we try to make it a very good experience for them so that way they will keep coming back to us.

Hoby: Exactly. And do you ever take Hubble off harness and let people play with him?

MaryBeth: Not too often at the store. I did at the beginning and then Hubble started to think that just at work was play time. I’m like, “Oh no, hold on.” However, when the little Frenchies are here, Dexter and Diesel, I do let him go outside and run with them for a little bit. So he still does get some play time as a dog, you know, because he really does need it. He works very, very hard and he does a fantastic job.

Hoby: Absolutely.

MaryBeth: But I do need him to actually not be aggressive with people and want to jump on them and play with them when I need him on harness and working.

Hoby: Right, exactly.

MaryBeth: It can be a hard balance.

Hoby: I totally get that. But dogs, just like people, need our work time and our play time, you know?

MaryBeth: They do. They absolutely do. And he is just the biggest love and goofball ever. He is so much fun.

Hoby: Oh my gosh. So you’ve done something that I just think is so admirable and so cool with inviting Marla with you to DC to receive your award because if we don’t thank our mentors, if we don’t thank those people who are responsible for helping us, who sort of see a vision before we see it for ourself. And that, I can tell that’s what Marla did for you.

MaryBeth: She did.

Hoby: Oh my gosh. And by paying it forward and saying, hey, thanks so much for your support, let’s go to DC together. How cool is that?

MaryBeth: It was so much fun.

Hoby: How cool does that feel when you now have the power to help one of your mentors?

MaryBeth: Yes, it was the greatest feeling ever. And we had so much fun on our girls trip and Mr. Monteferrante and Buddy Sell, Justin Morgan, those are some people in our executive team, they were all there as well. Our other employees of the year were there. They took us out to a beautiful dinner at Ruth’s Chris, which was so much fun where we just got to celebrate the Envision employees of the year.

They bought all of us little corsages that we got to wear. I had so much fun with them and it was good just to be able to get to know some of those people a lot better than I had known them.

And then at the conference, Marla got to learn a lot about the ABORs. They’re the ones who come into the bases to make sure that AbilityOne® is being sold and that contracting is buying our stuff. Because we have a big fight with our contracting office often about them purchasing through us because they’d rather go small business set aside, which then just puts us under. I mean, we get half a percent of DoD spending. Small business gets 20% of DoD spending. I’m like, “That’s not okay.” We need at least 1% here.

Hoby: And are you going to be at this year’s 2024 Advocacy Conference in May?

MaryBeth: I’m not sure yet, I haven’t heard back if I’m going to be there or not. We’re working out some logistics.

Hoby: If you’re there with me, we’re going to be getting out there and telling people how important it is for 1% of spending to be for AbilityOne.

MaryBeth: Yes. Yes. I’ve been sending out letter after letter in every single state that we have a store in or manufacturing. I’ve been working with Mr. Monteferrante and another person and the other three advocates within Envision to be able to get this out there. So just last week, I sent out, I think it was 53 letters just to make sure people get it. And I’ve worked very closely with one of Senator Risch, he’s an Idaho senator, with one of his legislative assistants. We have a very good bond.

He has actually come out to the store to see AbilityOne in action. And so I’ve been working with him to see about getting this 1% as well. It’s so important to advocate for yourself and for others. It’s what we need to be able to keep our jobs and keep the military with what they need. We are so vital and I just don’t think that people see it that well. And I want to be the voice that just shouts out, let us keep our jobs. Let us work with the military. Let’s do this because we’re such a vital part.

Hoby: There’s so much good that’s happening.

MaryBeth: I mean, we’re not the heartbeat, but we might be the lungs and you need that to be able to live.

Hoby: Absolutely. And there’s so much amazing work being done by AbilityOne.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: Let’s just spread the love and get the world to know about it.

MaryBeth: Yes, and I spoke to all of the ABORs while I was there, the AbilityOne representatives. I talked to them about the need for us to be able to go into contracting offices and say, let’s work with AbilityOne, the base supply center who’s selling AbilityOne and actually start implementing rules and consequences if you don’t follow that this is on the procurement list and this is what you are required to buy.

Hoby: Exactly. Exactly.

MaryBeth: Yes.

Hoby: Oh, it’s so important.

MaryBeth: It is so important.

Hoby: Well, just remember, every time we get to thank our mentors and support the AbilityOne program and do the amazing work we do, let’s do it.

MaryBeth: Absolutely. Continue on. It’s so good.

Hoby: It’s so important.

MaryBeth: And I loved being able to share that with her. It was amazing. She was there with me through that. And then she got to hear a lot of the great speakers that we had at the conference.

Hoby: There were some really good ones.

MaryBeth: There were some really good ones. I really enjoyed the assistive technology one where we got to learn about the new Be My Eyes app and how they have the Be My AI in there. I use that all the time now.

Hoby: I do too.

MaryBeth: I love that. It’s so much fun.

Hoby: It’s so good it’s almost scary.

MaryBeth: It is. And it’s so descriptive.

Hoby: I know.

MaryBeth: I was stunned with how descriptive it was.

Hoby: I recently opened my refrigerator, said, “Be My AI, what’s in my refrigerator?” It told me a lot of things and then I said, “Okay, now give me a recipe that involves everything in this refrigerator.” And without skipping a beat, it pulled it off and it was amazing.

MaryBeth: Wow.

Hoby: I was like, “What?” So you got to try that. That’s my assignment.

MaryBeth: I will try that. I’m going to do that and then I will email you what happens.

Hoby: Please email me what happens.

MaryBeth: Yes. That’s so cool.

Hoby: Oh my gosh. Well, look, just a couple more questions. What would you tell someone, like think about yourself back in 18. What would you tell your then self, if you put yourself in the MaryBeth body from July of 2018, knowing what you know now and with the empowerment that you’ve received now, what would you tell MaryBeth six years ago?

MaryBeth: I would tell her to keep on going because life is just going to get better and better and better and better. And even as dark as that time period was for me, there is so much light and so much joy now. My life is beyond incredible at this point. Like losing my sight gave me the life I wanted, which sounds so weird, doesn’t it?

Hoby: No it doesn’t.

MaryBeth: But it’s so true.

Hoby: No, it sounds so beautiful, MaryBeth. It’s such a beautiful thing. And thank you for spreading your happiness and your joy and your passion for just living life to the fullest with us.

MaryBeth: Yes, you’re welcome.

Hoby: Thank you.

MaryBeth: It is my pleasure. I love sharing it. And if anybody ever wants to contact me, I’m there for them.

Hoby: Tell us how we can get a hold of you.

MaryBeth: Oh, you can email me. It’s M-C-L-A-R-E @envisionus.com. Yes, you can email me. You can call me. I mean, you could put my phone number out there if you wanted. I don’t know if that’s silly.

Hoby: Thank you. No, we’ll put your email and phone number in the show notes.

MaryBeth: Just the email? Okay, perfect. Yes, I’m more than happy to help. I work with all of my cashiers very, very, very closely. I even have a group for them once a month and we just talk about how we can make our stores better. I’m happy to talk with anybody else who’s at a base supply center that wants to implement like a location system or something. Or if you’re just feeling down for a day and you need someone to bring you up, send me an email. I’m happy to be there for you.

Hoby: You’re amazing. You’re amazing and people are going to be so inspired by hearing your story, MaryBeth.

MaryBeth: Oh, I hope so.

Hoby: Thank you for your time.

MaryBeth: You are so welcome, Hoby.

Hoby: Have a great day.

MaryBeth: It’s been a joy talking with you. You too.

Hoby: Likewise, it’s been an absolute joy for me. We’ll have you on again sometime.

MaryBeth: Sounds good, I look forward to it.

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