Episode Show Notes
Welcome to another episode of the AFB Possibilities Podcast. To mark Vocational Rehabilitation awareness week, which spans June 9th - 13th, AFB’s Tony Stephens sat down for an engaging conversation with Dr. Randy Pierce of Future Insight and Russell Martello from Visions to discuss the benefits around holistic approaches to rehabilitation.
Tony, Randy, and Russell met through the annual Vision Serve Alliance Conference this past April, where they spearheaded a track on holistic rehabilitation for people who are blind or low vision. At the end of the conference, they were committed to carrying on the conversations from the conference. So, Tony was excited they were able to join him to not only share their passion for this innovative approach to fostering independence, but we also get a sense of the rich history each guest has, which has helped form their own success in the field of blindness and low vision.
Russel serves as the Chief Development Officer for Visions, which is one of New York’s leading rehabilitation centers for people who are blind or have low vision. Randy serves as President & CEO of Future Insight, one of the leading rehabilitation centers in New Hampshire. Blinded in his early 20s, Randy is also an avid extreme outdoor enthusiast. You can learn more about his own adventures across the globe in his published memoir, See You at the Summit: My blind journey from the depths of loss to the heights of achievement.
AFB Possibilities is a podcast from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Check out the podcast page for past episodes and transcripts HERE. Be sure to like and subscribe to catch future episodes, and consider making a gift today to help support this podcast and our broader work to create a world of endless possibilities for people who are blind or have low vision.
AFB Possibilities Podcast, Episode 4 Transcript
Intro by Tony Stephens (00:00):
AFB. You are listening to AFB Possibilities, a podcast from the American Foundation for the Blind. I'm Tony Stevens. June 9th through the 13th is Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Week. We mark this week with a special episode focusing in on holistic approaches to rehabilitation. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Vision Serve Alliance Conference just outside Phoenix, Arizona. It was the end of April and it consisted of a broad range of issues encompassing the blindness and low vision field. I had the opportunity to facilitate a track and it was focused on holistic approaches to rehabilitation some of the non-traditional ways that we deal towards creating and fostering independence for people that are blind or have low vision. Sure, you still learn orientation and mobility and braille and all the necessities, but then it scans everything else as far as opportunities to create a passion for getting outside and being independent. I had a chance to facilitate that panel with the following facilitator and co-presenter who helped us out. They are equally passionate about getting outside, finding different ways that we can become more independent and inclusive in society. Dr. Randy Pierce is the president and CEO of Future Insight in New Hampshire and Russell Martello is the Chief Development Officer with Visions in New York City. So we hope you enjoy this conversation with both Randy and Russell and hope that you'll find the topic just as passionate as we do.
Tony Stephens (01:39):
And welcome back everybody to the AFB Possibilities podcast. I am your host Tony Stevens with the American Foundation for the Blind. Excited today to have two special guests on our podcast today for AFB Possibilities. It's coming after the Vision Serve Alliance conference brought our worlds together and little did we know it was a great opportunity to get to know other people and have a chance to keep the relationship going and I'm so excited that relationship has brought them here to AFB Possibilities. But at the conference was facilitating I should say because we'll meet the other co-facilitator in a second, a panel and a track around holistic approaches towards rehabilitation. We're going to be talking a little bit more about what that means and what that entails, but we had the subject matter expert and my other co-facilitator at that conference and I'm so excited we bonded so well. We said, Hey, let's keep this conversation going. And so here we are today, bringing it to AFB possibilities. So in that sense, let me welcome our two guests today, all the way from Concord, New Hampshire. Welcome, Randy Pierce. Randy, good afternoon sir. Thank you for taking time to join us today.
Randy Pierce (02:50):
Good afternoon Tony. Great to be here with both of you and all the listeners.
Tony Stephens (02:53):
Exactly. And we're glad you're here. And also from New York City, my old beloved home, but so excited that Russell Ello with Visions, the rehabilitation service provider for Manhattan and New York City is here as well in other parts of New York. We'll talk a little bit more about what Visions does, but Russell, good afternoon sir. Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day.
Russell Martello (03:15):
Good afternoon. Very happy to be back here with you guys and honored to be on the podcast. Looking forward to it.
Tony Stephens (03:20):
Yeah, it's been exciting. We have been swamped with lots of chilly rainy days in this late spring when we're recording this here on the East coast. I think they even had a nor Easter up in New England I felt like the other day. So I miss our Scottsdale, Arizona weather we had at Vision Serve. I don't know about you guys, but it was beautiful. Yeah, it was nice. What was in the community? Was it Paradise Valley I think was the name of the community we were in.
Randy Pierce (03:46):
Exactly right.
Tony Stephens (03:46):
Yeah. So it was a slice of paradise that brought us together there. We'll talk a little bit more about that, but let's find out a little bit more about our hosts today. So Russell, I'm going to start with you, share with me one of the great things about AFB possibilities is we have a chance to talk with folks with lived experience with blindness and dive into their world, what makes them tick, what makes them thrive, but also to those allies in our space as well who maybe don't have a visual impairment but are very much immersed in the space. Share with us a little bit about what you're doing at Visions now and what got you just in general into this field of working with people with blindness and low vision. I'd love to find out more about that.
Russell Martello (04:29):
Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm the Chief development Officer at Visions currently. So that's all things, fundraising, marketing, communications, events, basically anything we can do to bring in more resources and partnerships to provide the services we provide to people of all ages with visual impairments and their families. And I do have a personal connection to the industry. I've been in the industry about 20 years and I got my professional start in blindness services while I was working on my master's degree in counseling at Hunter College. And I worked at a school for the blind called the Lavelle School for the Blind in the Bronx at that time, who serves people with very profound multiple disabilities. And that experience combined with having a grandfather who was deaf and blind really got me into this professionally and kept me here and kind of telling on what we did up in Scottsdale, really supporting that whole person, especially those with multiple disabilities. And that's why I'm still here and I love what I do
Tony Stephens (05:44):
And definitely Lavelle has always done such great work and that personal experience, you were at Helen Keller Services for a while. I know, which is where I got my rehab services in New York City when I was in Brooklyn and another great namesake. We all love anything tied to Helen here at AFB as folks know, but that's fantastic. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. And Randy, we're going to cut over to you. I was excited to find out you're the president and CEO of Future Insight, which is 113 years old. You are not 113 years old, but with us a little bit about what brought you into step into that role, what is future insight and then what brought you in that role, but just what made you sort of get into this space of being a voice and a leader in this space to help make the world more inclusive and more independent for people that are blind or have low vision or other ability challenges?
Randy Pierce (06:38):
Sure. Tony, you and I have a shared experience. We both have a vision impairment, otherwise you would've seen the gray hair on my head and maybe questioned whether I was 113 years old. But my journey began at 22 when I went into an unexpected and pretty rapid site loss journey. Two weeks from fully normally conventionally cited to legally blind and then 11 years to total blindness. And the organization that helped me turn from where many of us go, Russ in counseling probably understands that pretty heavily, but there's a lot of denial, there's a lot of anger, frustration, and I came to a rehabilitation organization called the New Hampshire Association for the Blind, same organization, they just rebranded in 2017. So I've been with 'em for 36 years now and I know the value of what they did to help me reframe my life. And I went off and had a very successful life and three and a half years ago, they came back to me and said, we need some new leadership and we think what you've done showcases that and not because I'm blind, I think we all try to avoid that mindset. It's not because of our blindness except in the fact that I think my journey of sight loss helped prepare me with adversity to take on challenges and how to thrive with them. So I think I'm more successful because of losing my sight, but that's the reality and that's what brought me here three and a half years ago to lead the organization.
Tony Stephens (08:07):
Fascinating and wonderful to hear in that sense that I feel in so many ways that same vein of I don't think I had much direction in my life until I went blind when I was 15. And it really sort of got me straightened up in a lot of ways, but then went off and worked a long time, not in the blindness space, but then in that sense of as I matured and got older and began to see all the fortune that I had mainly at the hands of others that helped we stand on the shoulders of others to help me be independent that I wanted to try to give back. Was it a similar sense of that when you came on board at Future Insight, that idea that because I'm so stoked to be able to share some of the parts of the world you've been able to challenge. I mean, New Hampshire has its share of lovely landscapes, mountainside and outdoor adventures, but your adventures have taken you around the world that I'd love to talk more when we begin to talk about the power of getting out and just stepping out of our safe space sometimes.
Randy Pierce (09:10):
Exactly. I heard many times it's impressive what you've accomplished despite being blind. And lots of us hear that and I always try to aim to reframe that. No, it's not. Despite it might be because, and that's certainly the passion purpose to why we work in the field now after doing other things very successfully.
Tony Stephens (09:28):
Yeah. Excellent. Well, let's get into the subject at hand because it's interesting and it'll dive maybe into a little bit more of our experiences and our observations. I would consider us, all of us very well versed in the blindness space. We do work in the blind biz, so to speak, using little air quotes on either side of my head with that. But that sense of the people we interact with, we were tasked at the Vision Serve Alliance. So folks that don't know VSA is a wonderful organization that's kind of the membership association for a lot of the agency providers in the blindness space. They do great work in sort of leadership training and capacity building, but also to once a year convene similar to how AFB has their leadership conference sort of voices from the field to really wrestle and tackle with a lot of key issues.
(10:13):
This year, Russell, Randy and myself had a chance to work on a track at the Vision Serve Alliance conference in Scottsdale, Arizona that was focused in on holistic approaches to rehabilitation. Now you may ask yourself, what exactly does that mean? That's what we want to try to unpack here. I mean, we know that in a lot of aspects, holistic approach means the broad approach. There's not just one way to try to tackle something, but that when you bring things with a large breadth or a large landscape or a plate to work with, you can have some interesting outcomes and results for Russell and for Randy, what did it mean for you all coming to this conference in your own head? What holistic approach to rehabilitation even means? Did you have a good sense and did that change after we had a chance to really work with about 10 other people in the field of blindness to really dive in and discuss this and try to map out the path, this approach towards rehab that's pretty innovative could take.
Randy Pierce (11:14):
So I'm never shy. I'll jump in and I want to hear Russ's perspective because he helped with your assistance guide us to expanding what I came in with whole H-O-L-I-S-T-I-C, holistic. It really could be spelled whole W-H-O-L-E because it really means the whole person, right? It's Greek origin, holos the entire,
(11:32):
And it's the notion that rehabilitation treats the vision aspects or the site loss aspects and all of the rest of the things we do falls into holistic. So the way I really try to mindset it is that we get some support. Those of us who either have lost vision or even if you've had no sight or low sight your entire life, as you go into new areas, you may take some support. And how do I apply the skills I need to manage these new areas without sight when they likely were designed with a lot of sight in mind. That's the how do I do those things. But the motivation to do 'em is all the things that are important to each individual and that's the rest of it. That's the holistic, that's the art, the music, the sports, there's a broad range of things that you'll bring together and it gives you the practical application. And unfortunately if you don't use things, you lose them. So I like to switch it around, promote the positive, not just avoid the negative. Holistic gives you an avenue to do the things that are important to you and utilize all those skills that help you work beyond your site.
Tony Stephens (12:42):
I like hearing you say the word motivation in a sense. Russell, I'll throw it to you and be curious to get what your sense was coming into this, but also too a sense, I mean you come from a counseling background
(12:54):
And we talk about, and Randy, I'm sure you've witnessed this over and over again as well. Sometimes the biggest challenge is just to get the people off their couches to even get the confidence to take that cane and take that first step towards independence. But if there's ways to build in this stuff like mountain climbing, for me, I'm a sailor. The experiences that can broaden and create passions but really work as a catalyst towards motivation towards independence. I'd be curious to get your sense of that, what it was you even saw as a counselor, that space. But tell me a little bit about what your thoughts were coming into this conference.
Russell Martello (13:31):
Absolutely. Well, I love Randy's definition and what you just shared, and Tony were very in sync as well. And to me it's really supporting the whole person, not just their functional vision needs, but also their emotional health, their community connection, their long-term quality of life. And that includes everything, diet, exercise, et cetera. The healthier are, the higher your quality of life is going to be. So as a counselor was my specialty was working with kids and it's not easy to have kids open up with the things that are going on. All of them had some type of issue that required an IEP, so could be family issues, could be emotional, could be behavioral, et cetera. And you had to get them to open it up. There had to be a hook. So there was a lot of art therapy, there was a lot of play therapy.
(14:32):
And that's what I found in program design worked really well. Also, when I was at Helen Keller, there had to be something that opened them up to these traditional things, these traditional voc rehab services. And there's a lot of things that they have not dealt with yet emotionally. Maybe there's things going on at home, maybe their parents really haven't wanted them to try things due to safety. Maybe they're just not ready yet. And if you're a kid or even if you're new to vision loss, some of these things can be daunting. They can be boring in relation to other things. So if you can make an exciting, if you can get activities, if you can get them really going, to me, that was something that really produced success in these programs. We had a choice of what we wanted to do in that conference and I was really drawn to this area for that reason.
Tony Stephens (15:28):
Thanks for sharing that, Russell. It is making me think. Randy, when you mentioned earlier that perception that, oh, you're so impressed. I get it a lot too, that we're so impressed that you can do these things, look what you can do as a blind person. But that exhilaration that you mentioned, it's almost addictive. I come from music. I've never been athletic per se. I'm kind of a music nerd, but that rush you get on stage, I have done things like whitewater rafting, that rush you get going down a river for any human, not just regardless of what your ability is when you're out there living life, it can almost become addictive in a sense. That desire. Randy, have you found that with some of your excursions around the world the first time, do you remember the first time you did something that you might say is adventurous or something that was beyond the norm of just getting out of your comfort zone? And then am I alone in thinking there's almost like an addiction sometimes if
Randy Pierce (16:35):
You No, you're absolutely right. And I think Russ alluded to it right when he said, to get the excitement, I want to excite the folks that we give service to and then invite them to utilize it. And the first step is always belief people, regardless of sight or anything, there's people who don't believe in themselves or what they want to accomplish. And that is such a difficult place to live because then you're not restricting yourself by your passion. You're restricting yourself by your belief and that age old quote, whether you think you can or think you can't, you're probably right. And so the first step is believing, and that's once you believe there's an incredulity that invigorates. And that's where the magic begins in my mind.
Tony Stephens (17:20):
How did that manifest it in yourself when you were 22? Do you remember? Well, sort of going over these, hearing those, no, I can't voices in the back of your head, but then something sparked it. What was it you think in yourself that created
Randy Pierce (17:34):
That? I did on many levels. One of my first approaches, I started martial arts when I started my journey of sight loss. And I just wanted to increase my awareness and understanding and certainly helping them learn how to teach me was a fun part of learning that I could do things. But the big change came the first time I had the spa and I was the only blind student and I took a long time putting my pads on and listening to everybody get tired so they'd be breathing harder so I could hear them and know where they were. And I learned that was helpful. But I remember the first time I did something in that that was beyond my expectation and I sort of said to myself, well, why did I set that expectation? Why did I even come here if I didn't think this was possible?
(18:17):
But I think sometimes we fake it until we make it a little bit. And some of that happened in that. So for me it was martial arts, it later became mountain climbing. And I just speak to that in part you've alluded to it, but mountain climbing for me came because I have a neurological condition. So my optic nerve died, but it also killed other parts of my body. And so I spent one year, eight months and 21 days also in a wheelchair. And that was hard. And when you lose anything, when you lose sight, when you lose loved ones, when you lose the ability to walk, you understand how valuable it is to you. And it's not the sight loss, it's all the things that you lose potentially because you aren't doing them because you think it's not possible. So for me, walking, when I came back to it after a lot of hard work, I celebrate it. And that led me to hiking and my vision was sort of the afterthought in the restriction. Even though before I lost the ability to walk, I would've told you I couldn't climb mountains despite Eric Meyer out there because blindness was my prohibiting factor and just totally untrue. But that's the lie we can easily buy.
Tony Stephens (19:23):
Yeah, you made me think back, and Russell correct me if I'm right, visions has a summer camp, doesn't it? It has a youth camp, does it?
Russell Martello (19:31):
Yeah. So we have a 37 acre campus in Rockland County, New York. It has a lake, we have a boat and we have a lot of different things that you can do on those grounds, railed, hiking, et cetera. And it's really helpful in kind of the things we described to getting people to open up to other things they haven't tried before, getting them to open up to nature. Many of the people that we serve are from the five boroughs and they haven't really been out in those types of environments. So
Tony Stephens (20:06):
Just to be around nature in the woods, if you've grown up in the Bronx or Brooklyn and do they have a camp? I'm bringing this up for a reason. You made me think of this since memory I had Randy because does Future Insight have a camp too?
Randy Pierce (20:20):
We work with a camp, a lot of our staffers for the youth.
Tony Stephens (20:24):
Yeah. So I went blind when I was 15, and the old adage of you never forget how to ride a bike.
(20:32):
And I'll never forget there was a camp, I went to camp for the Blind. It was run by the Lions Club and the idea was it was just a massive field and somebody had a bike and I was a city kid, obviously when I lost my sight when I was 15, I could no longer ride my bike. And this was a year or two later, but I got hold of a bike and I was like, you know what? There's a field. There's nothing I can hit just wide open space. I'm going to try to ride a bike. And gosh darn it, if I felt like I forgot how to ride a bike, it was not as easy as I thought. But once I got going, there was that sense of something that was the past that just was brought back again and it was like I'm back again.
(21:19):
It's almost like the comeback kid in a sense, or those stories that every human sort of experiences that, and you made me think of this, Randy, when you were talking about being in the wheelchair, just that idea, that sense of liberation to being not confined. And that camp for me still to this day was probably the space where I had that passion. We would do other things too. We would canoe and there was art and music and horseback riding and all that stuff. But it really was that approach that really just sort of excited me and said, you know what? I don't want to be just sitting on my laurels at home. A lot of other blind kids I would interact with through our school system back home, that kind of stuff. So that's why I asked about the camp. But that sense memory, Randy, it was such a just that sense. I totally feel you on that.
Randy Pierce (22:06):
And it's interesting in the youth movement, I'm sorry, Russ, in the youth movement, one of the things that I think is we know camps open the avenues so that you're not confined in your mind. You get to see that you can do these things. I think part of this holistic mindset is to take some of those fundamental lessons we've known for years with the youth who are visually impaired and carry them through to adults.
Tony Stephens (22:32):
Not even for youth that are visually impaired, but just, I have two sons that are perfectly sided, but it's their camps that build kids that are told by teachers or maybe you're not the smartest in the classroom, maybe you're not this or you're not as fast as other kids in soccer. But then it just the exposure that it gives them something and then they come back with a huge passion, a sense of independence. So yeah. I love that. Randy, and you were going to say something Russ as well?
Russell Martello (22:58):
Yeah, yeah. It reminds me of something. One of our group members said she cited herself and she has three kids with visual impairments and she said that a child should just be a child. She felt like she'd like to see a time where whatever she's doing, wherever she is, whatever service she's utilizing place, she's visiting, that her child doesn't have to explain that they are blind, that they can just participate. And I think that's really great about these camps and your story reminded me, Tony, you can just go for it. And there's a lot of things like that at visions and there's a lot of things like that in what Randy does and what you do in all these environments where a kid can just go for it. A person of any age can just go for it. Even at these older adult centers and older adult programs, we do that. I know, Randy, you do that as well. And it's important. It's important for people to feel the confidence that you can just go for it again. And like you said, Tony, be the comeback kid. And I like that. Yeah.
Tony Stephens (24:05):
So one of the things that we were sort of exercised with as we were together with a bunch of other cohorts in the field of blindness was sort of identifying ways to kind of expand, increase due outreach. Randy, you mentioned in a sense this kind of being a universalistic approach for people that are visually impaired. But I think we've discussed too that it's just humans in general. The idea of fostering and exposure and excitement can make everybody better. Where are some of the challenges you all think that we're facing in terms of vocational rehabilitation? They're probably not going to be giving out grants left and right for sailing programs or hiking programs. There are some wonderful foundations that support that. A lot of foundations I know that support sports activity and youth and stuff like that. But where are some of the areas you think where this can expand? Particularly like Randy, I mean you run a nonprofit that focuses just on this area of rehabilitation for the blind. How can we get the word out a little bit more about the power and potential this has?
Randy Pierce (25:14):
We talked a little bit about it in Scottsdale, right? Stories sell, stories, excite and get people involved. So sharing stories is a part of it, but data tells. And to me the power in this is we do vision rehabilitation services, we do orientation and mobility. So we give folks these skills and then very often they minimally use them because they think, I just want to get by. I don't want to challenge myself because of fear, which drives a lot of folks who are uncertainty. And if you get excited enough to face the parts that are hard, that lets you start exploring and utilizing the rest of those skills. And to me, the biggest barrier is probably transportation for most folks. And how do we help them? It's not just orientation, mobility. There's challenges well beyond that in navigating the world, especially in a rural town.
(26:04):
But the more we solve that problem means the more we're putting people out there in the world doing exactly what Russ does, just living life, not living a blind life, but living life and happening to experience blindness as well. And that's the first barrier to me because that will start the exposure that will let the stories sell themselves that will start promoting people. I can tell you from the conference, I've had a lot of agencies reach out and say, tell me more about this program or that I would put in the holistic sense of it,
Tony Stephens (26:35):
Exciting. I would be hard pressed. You mentioned transportation, which I know that's a key area we look at here on the research side at AFB, but did either of you get a chance in Scottsdale to ride in a Waymo car?
Randy Pierce (26:51):
So I didn't ride in it, although my wife and I had seen it both in San Francisco and Scottsdale, although Claire did and videotaped and shared the experience. Very powerful.
Tony Stephens (27:01):
For folks that don't know, Waymo is the Google version of their autonomous vehicle and it's currently being serves the metropolitan Phoenix area as well as like you said, Randy in San Francisco. I think they're just in la, they're coming to Washington DC next year. We're really excited. I mean, it's obviously going to be a long time before it's in Concord or can maybe even manage the streets of Manhattan, but it was exciting to think in my lifetime I had a chance to do that. And with my guide dog, my very large guide dog that always deters Ubers to open their doors to me or other ride shares. But it was exciting. Did you Russell get a chance or no?
Russell Martello (27:39):
I didn't get to ride one.
Russell Martello (27:41):
They looked amazing, but when I was on the way to the airport, the pickup time wasn't going to cut it for me. So I'll have to do it next time.
Tony Stephens (27:49):
Well, we'll have to find if I can get you guys down to Washington next year when we will have to go on an inaugural ride in DC and video it or something like that. It is a big transportation issue. New York City definitely has transportation in a lot of ways. What are some other areas, Russ, you think of though in addition to transportation or beyond transportation as some of the barriers maybe that we can try to?
Russell Martello (28:15):
Sure. I think as leaders in this industry, the three of us and everyone at VSA, we can help educate all leadership at our companies, all staff of the importance of including these types of things in our services. Because what is some of the holistic approaches we're talking about, it's added expense. And I'll give you some examples and you have to show people why that added expense is going to lead to future revenue. So we had programs where built in would be recreational things built in would be buying professional clothing, your first suit, your first business casual attire, things that just made kids feel really good. And at the end of one of 'em, we had eight kids going indoor skydiving. And if you start associating your rehab services with skydiving, with looking good, with feeling good, with going to a movie where audio description is piped into the entire theater when you didn't even know that was something that existed, you'd be surprised how easy of a sell it is for all these kids going back and telling their friends, would you believe what I did here? Would you believe all of a sudden you have more referrals coming in than you could ever expect and you have a waiting list. So I think kind of educating your own staff about the value of what we're doing, about the value of adding things that aren't just the traditional rehab services is really important. And although it can be a barrier, I think it can be a moment where you get people really excited about adding it.
Tony Stephens (30:06):
So we've been chatting about how can we make the things that excite us pathways to our own success, not just in terms of maybe around our blindness for Randy and myself, but just in general, Russell with you as well. What excites you guys right now? Again, this is a universal idea. The holistic approach is not just used in blindness rehabilitation, but what is it that is most excited you maybe in life that again, as champions for this? Cause we have to sort of bear witness to the fact that yeah, if something jazzes you up, even if it's a concert or playing music or art or anything, I want to know a little bit more about you guys. We only got to hang out sort of in that professional way. Randy, what most has excited you in life? You think your major point of excitement in life, when were you most at awe jaw dropping moment?
Randy Pierce (31:10):
Well, my jaw dropping moment, it probably comes from some of the adventures I've taken, but it's probably not what still excites me the most. It did at the time. I did a tough model. I've actually done three of them. And I remember when I did the first one, we were problem solvers, right? And that's what people who experience challenge like AKA, everyone learn to do more challenges you learn to face the better you get at doing lots of things that you need in life. But we figured out how are we going to solve all the problems of what a tough mutter obstacle course race mean? And we went out and did one, and my team is amazing. We worked together, succeeded on every obstacle. And so the folks at Tough Mutter said, Hey, we kind of like to showcase this for the world. Would you like to go out into LA and we're going to film you doing this?
(31:57):
And I said yes. And I speak to that because it's confidence. Confidence comes from competence. Confidence is just all the skills we learn and the practical application of them, right? Practice makes progress. You believe in yourself, you go out and do these things. So I said yes. And then we go out to LA and the first thing they did was tell me, by the way, all new obstacles, we made 'em bigger, better, harder. And I'm thinking, great. That's exactly what I was hoping to do. But here's the obstacle they asked me to do. Climb up a platform 25 feet up in the air water down below, you leap 10 feet out and grab a trapeze bar swing on that trapeze bar and at the end of your swing let go. And as you're going through the air, there's a bell hanging out there. Midair ring that bell.
Tony Stephens (32:37):
You're making me think of Tom and Jerry cartoons. We did the elaborate play, ludicrous the mouth. Yeah, keep going, keep going.
Randy Pierce (32:44):
Exactly right, right. It's ludicrous to me and one out of 10 people succeed on it.
(32:48):
But here's the thing about any challenge or success, my team watched this and we didn't watch it with the, oh, how are we going to do this? We watched it. Where are people failing? What do we do different? In our team, there was six of us, five out of six of us succeeded in ringing the bell, myself included. Now you said, what's the moment of excitement? I mean, literally I get a finger on the bell, I flip it, I hear it ring as I'm dropping down to the water down below and there's literally thousands of people cheering because they stopped to make me do it with nobody else. But here was the moment of real celebration, the producer, they've got three camera crews out there to film this. And I come out of the water, the crowd's still cheering, and the guy says, can you do it again? And I'm like, well, help me understand why. And he's like, well, we didn't actually have a film on the bell. We didn't think you could ring the bell. And I thought about this, you're willing to fly me across the country to do this and you won't even choose to have a camera on the object of the goal,
Tony Stephens (33:46):
Expectation of failure. Interesting.
Randy Pierce (33:48):
And that's where I was like, that's the mindset I want to change, is this lack of belief purely, somewhat arbitrary. Yes, it's hard, but if you're going to pay somebody to go out there, if you're going to believe in somebody going out there, be all in because that's how we have to do anything. I didn't do it again. Instead I said, Hey, there's thousands of people. We live in an age where everybody was recording that. Go get some of that footage. And that's what we did. But that was where I started to say, I'm going to believe in myself beyond all expectations. And I want that for every single person in our world to learn to do that. That's what excites me.
Tony Stephens (34:27):
I mean, the reason I asked this question was in a sense of these are universals. It's not just tied to our blindness, but lessons that everybody can take in their life and sort of the reality. Russ, I'm curious. I mean, I dunno if I could ring that bell myself. Mine would be much more subdued. But what about yourself, the idea of just what's excited you in life a moment, a jaw dropping moment?
Russell Martello (34:55):
Absolutely. So something that has always excited me more previously was really sports and physical events. Now it's ai. I'll get into them both a little bit, but going back to Randy, and I'm going to secretly give away something from his book, which I encourage everybody to read. You have to plug that at the end, Randy. But I was really into martial arts, Brazilian juujitsu specifically, and just made me feel really good best shape I've ever been in. And this is while I was at Helen Keller doing internship programming. And there was a kid who I could tell had great potential, but it was just hard to break through to him. He didn't want to come to workshops, he was just struggling and he was really athletic. He was into wrestling. So I got him an internship at my Juujitsu school doing admin work, and I knew that he would probably give it a shot.
(35:52):
So sure enough he did. He really enjoyed it. He was really good at it. And that's when he started getting involved in the kind of rehab stuff for the first time. And the part I'm going to give away from Randy's book is the instructor who I was good friends with started having people roll, which is called in Brazilian jiujitsu, go against each other under blindfold. Not a lot of people knew that he was legally blind. He had albinism and it wasn't apparent to everybody, but he was amazing with or without blindfold. And it was just something I thought was really cool going on to ai. I personally really enjoy dabbling with it. I think it's amazing. It's fun for art, it's fun for video, it's fun for music, but it has a lot of really good practical approaches as well. Applications, which I've discussed with Randy, and he has amazing ideas around that.
(36:51):
One thing I think it could do, which a lot of people aren't thinking about those who provide services in our industry, they get into this because they love helping people. They get into this because they're creative. They get into this because they like providing service. They don't get into it because they like writing reports, because they like admin work because they like entering data into databases. And I think if we as leaders can really help streamline those processes with ai, we can free our staff up more to do the things that they love A a, these extra things that they may not have time to do, these extra things that they may feel burnout at the moment. And that's something that really excites me about AI in this industry that I think people may not be thinking about yet.
Tony Stephens (37:39):
Man, again, two great perspectives that aren't just tied to what makes us unique as people that are blind, but fantastic across the board for all of the world. You mentioned the book, Randy, tell us a little bit about the book and then how can we find out more about both you all or your organizations?
Randy Pierce (38:01):
Sure. So my book is called See with the Summit, my Blind Journey from the Depths of Loss to the Height of Achievement. And the reason from it is I do a lot of motivational speaking or sometimes corporate speaking where it's about how do we communicate, how do we manage adversity, how do we manage change, whatever the roles or goals. I've literally at this point spoken to hundreds of thousands of people and they always ask, what are the things that lead to your mindset? And for all of us, we're all individuals as people, we have more in common than different. But as individuals, those differences highlight our parts of the journey. So to answer some of those questions took 104,000 words. It is out there at the Library of Congress. I don't have its DB number, but it's on Audible, it's available on paperback. But really wish to share my journey, but to share it candidly, because there are hard parts for every person I know every day.
(38:56):
And managing those hard parts is about accountability. And accountability isn't a punishment, it's a reward. That mindset shift is so important, right? If you can choose to be accountable for yourself and for the goals you have, that's what'll help you get there. And the reward is getting there. And so that's really what I try to do in the journey. As for my organization, future in Sight, we've been doing the same thing for 113 years, which is every age, every stage, low vision, no vision. Every part of the state I live in, we're here to give you the foundations you need to do the things you want. And then in a holistic sense to provide avenues for getting there. And I really believe we started with this journey to say that there is a pathway to get there. And the trick is to find out how to get people on that path.
(39:47):
And that's where the holistic part comes in. But I also believe the biggest barriers, finances you both highlighted internally for organizations and externally from funders. But I think both of those problems can be solved when you see the differences that come from this, right? It has to be results driven. And the big data project, which we got from Vision Serve Alliance shows the consequences of not getting people excited. The health consequences are tremendously bad. And if you can get people utilizing these, you get to the whole person. Those consequences turn around. And that data hasn't been studied enough, but we are working on it. And that data is what's going to drive the future funding to ensure we do take these steps to make sure whole people are wholly a part of our world.
Tony Stephens (40:33):
Yeah. Russell, what about you with visions in a sense of impacting the people and the five boroughs and beyond?
Russell Martello (40:43):
Sure. So yeah, I encourage people to visit www.visionsvcb.org as in victor cat bravo .org, and you can learn more about what we do currently. If there's anybody listening who has children with visual impairments in the summer, we have weekends where the entire family and caregivers can come up and stay for the week at no cost to participants and do exactly what we're talking about, learning about vision, rehab, learning traditional things like Braille while the whole person is being supported, having fun. And in my opinion, most importantly, while parents are also receiving training side by side and learning how to support these new skills at home when everybody returns. And we have weeks for babies and toddlers for typically developing youth and then for children with multiple disabilities. So if you take a look at our website, you can learn more about what we do. We provide services to people in all of New York State. We can even take people from out of state for some of our residential services. But I'm excited about the future in general for this industry. I'm also excited about the future of Visions. We're about to hit our hundredth anniversary next June, and I'm hoping we'll be around for another a hundred years and growing and adding things that are current for everybody out there. And I really enjoyed listening to both of you share what you do and your motivations and your organizations. It's really impactful.
Tony Stephens (42:31):
It's been wonderful to have our circles sort of ally come together. And I know it's not going to be the end for this, so it's going to be the end of the podcast now for our listeners. But we're looking forward to keeping this relationship going and the conversations going, looking forward to seeing what's on store next year for Vision Serve Alliance. And we're already putting together the program for our own AFB Leadership Conference and trying to take some of the things from the Vision Serve Alliance conference and thinking how we can continue to keep momentum going as well. And some wonderful areas. Gentlemen, it was fantastic getting a chance to talk with you again here today just as much as it was getting a chance to hang in Scottsdale. Thank you so much for your perspectives and everything like that. We'll have links in the show notes to the organizations as well as your book, Randy. But yeah, guys, thank you so much.
Russell Martello (43:22):
Thank you, Tony.
Randy Pierce (43:23):
Awesome gentlemen, thank you. And I look forward to a lot more work, including another conference together.
Tony Stephens (43:36):
Thanks for listening to AFB Possibilities, a podcast from the American Foundation for the Blind. To learn more about AFB, visit our website www.afb.org. AFB Possibilities was produced and edited by Tony Stevens at the Pickle Factory in Baltimore, Maryland. Digital media support from Kelly Gasque and Breanna Kerr. Theme music by Zizo compliments of Artlist.io. Be sure to like and subscribe from wherever you get your podcasts. And for questions or comments, email us communications@afb.org.
Outro (44:35):
AFB
