Episode 55: Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce & Guiding Bright Minds with Tiffany Feingold

Tiffany's motivation and passion for Guiding Bright Minds and the Chamber stems from her own personal journey as a parent of a neurodivergent child. Tiffany, welcome to the pod.

And it stems from a conversation, you know, that we had with Amanda, Danny, and I all working together to say how can we collaborate, just with our experiences individually as we're doing in the neurodiversity community. And it was through those conversations that it came about that we needed to look at a chamber and chamber support.

And through that conversation when we brought it up and saw that, hey, there's no neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce anywhere, in the country, and all of us are looking at each other thinking, we're all CEOs of our own organization, Danny with Tact, Amanda with Firefly Autism, and myself with Guiding Bright Minds. And we're thinking, oh, we can't, you know, that's a lot. That's a huge task to create a chamber. And then we thought about is how can we not.

We have an obligation, especially uncovering that it's not out there. And looking at the world today of unemployment and some of the staggering statistics that I'm sure we'll get into, we felt that, yeah, we cannot not do this and move forward with creating this opportunity.

One way to solve this is to take this population and make sure that businesses are fully ready and capable to work with them successfully. Any kind of stats you can share would be helpful. And I'm just curious what's gotten in the way in the past of, you think neurodiversity chambers of commerce getting started and creating these opportunities?

We just launched two months ago, It came to fruition within four weeks when we launched it from the date of August 16th to say go to when we launched it on September 16th, to bringing it to the forefront because we are dedicated, you know, to being the leader in providing neurodiversity affirming business practices. Ensuring both businesses and individuals reach maximum potential. But like you said, I don't think it's just unique to the neurodiversity world.

I think overall, in general, we're seeing employers struggling to find quality employees. To find or connect or have them become committed employees as far as their loyalty and finding that space. And so what we wanna do is not just on the neurodivergent population, but also in whole, what are our practices for hiring? What are our practices in the resume process?

I talked to one autistic who was in the interview process, he has the college degree from Yale, and they asked him, what color he is, if he could color. And in his mind, there's so much to that thought process that are personality tests important in all jobs that are out there? Probably in sales jobs. Yep. You probably need that. You need that, be able to connect.

But what we wanna look at is the whole universal process of how we hire, retain and onboard employees and we are just shedding light on that neurodivergent community saying that there's some ways that are appropriate, but I don't know anyone who's ever gotten out of a new job saying that was the best onboarding experience. Wow. I loved that interview process. It is something that we have to just as a whole take a look at. What does that mean and is it set up for success?

Some people are good at, you know, talking their way through an interview, some aren't. But the one who talks their way the best through that, are they necessarily the best person for that position? And so it is so much, Jonathan, in opening the doors to say, let's look at how we've done our hiring practice. What does that mean? What is that onboarding?

Look at the uniqueness of every individual, not just those that are neurodivergent, but those that might need different accommodations or different things, but that's pretty much every employee as we know.

We're looking not at huge adjustments that need to be made, but once they are in place, once they have been onboarded, then once they're at a good fit, the results show that there is up to 140% better production. Loyalties there, the creativity's there. So all it are these mild modifications to say, let's look at what and who is gonna be the best fit. And look, if it's a job that maybe is online that doesn't need to be nine to five, can somebody work over the evening hours.

Is there an opportunity during a staff meeting who, somebody who can't sit for a full hour to walk around? I think, you know, what we hear from a lot of employers too are, well, I don't know that's gonna change the social aspect of my team. Or is that gonna impact, how others feel and comfortability. And what we need to know and understand too jonathan, just like in all walks of life, we are gonna make mistakes. It's not gonna be perfect.

We don't ask all the right questions, but also giving grace to allow for those mistakes to be made and those mistakes to be had. When we think about working with employers, it's not having a separate, you know, division set up for those who are neurodivergent, because any population wouldn't wanna be, oh, okay, you're considered nuerodivergent, so here's our onboarding process for you. I mean, that's kind of insulting actually.

But what it does also is having a conversation of inclusion of what it means, knowing that, it doesn't matter if somebody's gonna be on their computer all day doing data entry or if they're, a data processor if they make eye contact with somebody, is that crucial to their success or is the level of knowledge of the details of the job they're doing more crucial to that success? So I think it's just a mind shift in looking at what makes sense of the job the employers are looking to hire.

And what's appropriate in hiring that job and having conversations, with other employers who are maybe neurodivergent themselves, other employers who have been successful. And that's what we wanna create with the Chamber, is a community that works collectively together, knowing that there are gonna be, again, mistakes, mishaps, but being okay with that. The first step to improving what this looks like is by having those conversations and knowing that you're not gonna be perfect and that's okay.

Gut check me. But B, why if so, like why are they so bullish on the work that you're all doing?

And then, as a governor looking at unemployment rates and the statistics and knowing that there are amazing qualified, viable people to fill those seats, how do we collectively work to do that? So yeah, and we've actually had several conversations with some people at the governor's office in different departments, because one of the things we wanna do, is having those communities, and especially starting off with policy, what does policy look like?

How do we support, and make sure that inclusion is happening? Because when reality is, as you look at, there's a lot of diversity and inclusion, equity and inclusion, teams in the organization. Most of them don't include neurodiversity. So it's like, let's take the blinders off to the whole world. What does that mean for every person? And when you think back in time, Jonathan, time when people were like, well, could women really go into the workforce?

Well, does a minority have the, you know, same ability? I mean, the conversations that we had really not too long ago are the same conversations now that we're seeing with this community and it's so unfortunate when you see some of these resumes of somebody graduating with honors from Yale, the level of focus in detail and going to 20 job interviews and not landing one of them.

There's a problem with the system becuase this person is so qualified and once again hired, once understood will be that end all, be all employee. We know based again on statistics that the neurodivergent community has that level of loyalty. They have longing to connect, but just understand they might not connect in the same way we do. So much growth and opportunity, but it's great to have that recognition, especially from the local leaders here in Colorado.

Can you tell me a little bit more about your son and how he inspired you to start Guiding Bright Minds and has continued to inspire you?

And my husband grew up with dyslexia and adhd, and I saw him suffer and I saw the impact of what insecurity can be like when you are judged for not being the same as others. Why aren't you reading? Are you lazy? He was called by teachers stupid. And that's heart wrenching that in today's society not understanding that all of us are going to have some differences in how we learn. We all have different abilities.

We all have different ways in which, you know, we like things and learn things and are creative. So being open-minded to that. And then when I saw my son struggling in school, getting kicked out of daycares and swim lessons because he had high sensory, processing. And so when it was loud and overstimulating, he had a hard time controlling that. And that made his impulses even that much greater. So, you know, it breaks your heart as a parent. You just want your child to be happy.

You want them to fit in, you want them to be accepted. And so watching that and knowing that, in a half day kindergarten, which was only four hours, you know, he's in the principal's office every day. And thinking, okay, we have quite a journey ahead of us because I want my child to be truly at peace with who he is, and what his abilities are and maybe some of the abilities are not. And that's okay.

So my husband and I decided, and talking with the community, this amazing community that we're in with several professionals of where do you see a gap for parents? It is hard. It is overwhelming when you're going through that, when you're getting calls daily and you see it's the school and you're like, oh my gosh. You know, I'm trying to, to also work and trying to be a parent, trying to figure this out.

And so that's how Guiding Bright Minds came about is I wanted to help parents because I know what it's like on that journey. I know when you feel hopeless and you feel lost and you're just like, heart is broken because all you wanna do is help your child. And so being able to help parents through that process, and that's why we created this network of professionals, we created this community to work collaboratively together.

To really just help parents and create an opportunity that we're all working together. Great people kind of like the chamber too in that sense. We all do great work individually. How do we come together to impact education? I mean, again, Jonathan, I go back to 2022 and so many parents are still struggling with schools and IEPs and 504s and with dyslexia and ADHD and all of that, and, it's our kids that are impacted. It's our kids that are getting hurt every day from just not being understood.

So it's definitely pulling on the heartstrings of what we can do to make a difference for the community.

Why are you doing and having options for them too? Because we know, just because somebody's vetted and qualified too doesn't mean it's always a great fit. So helping the parents as far as what to ask for, what to look for, how to find a quality provider, what does that mean to you? And uncovering the questions you don't even know to ask. Because when all these calls are coming in and you know your kids disrupted in school, he can't come back. She's this and they're, this is all happening.

I mean, your mind is also just overwhelmed. The community to have parents feel supported, to know that these are quality providers, to also have free education, to be kind of a one stop shop. So they come here, they can find out what's a 504, what's an IEP? And then we wanna expand. We wanna also impact the extracurricular activities. How do we train coaches? How do we train instructors to work with our kids?

There's really not a fit for those with soccer and tennis and art and gymnastics and all those. So to me it's about bringing that community together, educating, stopping the stigmas and stereotypes, and allowing our children to just be loved for exactly who they are and not thinking that they have to be changed or different because that's what the norm says, but that they're embraced.

Okay, understand what that means and what that looks like, and then let's look at their strengths and all of that piece of it. So I'm very passionate as you can tell about what that means. I think it's crucial for parents and for the community.

Being out there and having those conversations and, you know, from this community, it's so hard for parents to really find, to know, to search. So being able to provide that, and I've talked to so many countless parents, and I would say 90% of them are probably crying when they're talking to me because they're at their lowest point if they don't know what else to do, their kids getting threatened to be kicked outta school. They're not working with them.

They're not sure where to go and what services. So it's just working from the heart of what you know people need to do and just doing it. I think one of the biggest challenges though, and barriers is because there's so much I want to do. And that's hard for me because I hear a need over here, I'm like, we can do that.

I hear a need over here, I'm like, well, I can train all the instructors and work with them and there's such an opportunity out there for more community building because it's not just impacting those who are touched by the neurodivergent community, but it's impacting all of society who needs to understand what this means, because we're talking one in five kids and those are only the ones diagnosed.

So if you think of one and five, let's just up that to two out of five, you are gonna be surrounded by neurodivergent individuals. Those that diagnosed and those that are undiagnosed. It is a part of society. It's who we are. So the blinders need to come off that there's them over there or this over here. We're all in it together.

And that's what I heard and I directly witnessed you do in spades is just go out and talk to people whom you want to help, and the more you get their voice directly as opposed to try to infer or, um, represent what you think they might need. That's really powerful. So that's one. And the other is just tell your story everywhere. And I've always really appreciated that about you, of, you're telling that story on the, you know, the one in five kiddos that are neurodivergent.

You're telling stories of parents like literally crying, because they don't know what to do and they don't know where to go and they're so overwhelmed. And those two things are super powerful. And you know, it's really interesting I know much of your career Tiffany was spent in the insurance world. You worked with a number of different payers.

Um, so it's really interesting that you pivoted then to working more directly with, uh, providers in the community, with parents and ultimately with kiddos. Like what did you take away from your prior insurance career that really informed all of this important work you're doing now?

When you're thinking, will something be covered? What's gonna be covered? How much do I have to pay? What does that education look like? Well, this is what my provider said, you know? And nowadays the reality is you can have, one person going to five different providers all prescribing different drugs, and nobody's looking at what that impact could be to the health of that person. And it's kind of chaotic in that.

And so it started with me just having those conversations like, you know, you can question providers, you can interview providers. If your pediatrician you don't feel is giving you the right advice, then start looking around and start engaging differently with those providers.

So I think it added so much more in looking at the end of what the consumer is experiencing and just how they're being treated from an insurance standpoint, from the collaboration of the broker of what their relationship is to, to helping those groups and that customer service piece. And it's truly understanding and hearing because when you're talking about your child who's nuerodivergent and you're talking about insurance coverage, we're talking about a lot of money.

One procedure could be thousands of dollars. So to be able to understand benefits, to be able to have a conversation, and coming from a place of compassion of saying that, you know what, if somebody needs to get their diabetes medication, but they can't afford that, what are the options there?

Just like if a mom needs or dad needs help for their child who needs to get, you know, occupational therapy, ABA therapy, just regular, mental health therapy, cognitive therapy, What does that look like and how do you break it down to decide what is first and foremost most important for my child. What are the services that I need to have now to protect my health?

So I had an opportunity, you know, through my 20 some year career in health insurance and also becoming a leader for, 16 years where I got to lead sales teams and account management teams. So that also helped too from just advertising and marketing and just really understanding that if you focus on Main Street and you focus on the person who needs those services, that's all you need to do. Everything else will come because you know you're making a difference and you know you're making an impact.

So I'm grateful for what I learned through those years of working in that industry and working for various leaders. It also opened my eyes to going to now, the discussion on the chamber of what employers, you know, that hiring process. I was a hiring manager. I had to interview, I had to go through that and what were my practices? They are not well thought out. They are not well laid out.

I don't know any organization that has something that this is that perspective and it should be critiqued to that job. I interviewed for sales and account management's gonna be different than when I'm going to interview for somebody who's doing data entry, but it's not how it works today. So, so much growth and development through that process.

Did you write it out? I have to visualize it. What are the pros? What are the cons, what are the key aspects you want for your child? Is it social emotional? Is it academic? Is it friends? Is it to be understood? Or is there a medical condition that needs to be addressed? Are there concerns about dyslexia? So write it down first and then ask, especially if it's a pediatrician or whoever it is.

How many children have you worked with who are autistic, who are adhd, who have cerebral palsy, who have, executive function or sensory deficits, what does that look like in the wheelhouse? I would also ask them, what has your training been in those areas? Have you been trained? Because a lot of training is not done specific to some practices, depending on what that looks like. But I don't know if there's, a certain number of hours that pediatricians need to go to on neurodiversity.

I'm pretty sure there's not, but those are the questions of what's your familiarity with this? And then, when it comes to whether you're looking for ABA providers, what is the onboarding process? What's the level of communication that you're gonna have with me? And what is your flexibility in working with me as a parent?

I mean, I used to think, especially when I was in corporate America and my son's going through this, I'm like, okay, great, I'm gonna send him to occupational therapy and that's gonna be good and I can go about my job. Well, that's not a reality. As a parent, you're gonna have to be heavily involved. So what does that look like and what training?

I would ask the provider, what training and coaching advice do you give to me, so I can continue that after they leave therapy and what that looks like. So I know it's not specific questions I gave you, becuase it does depend on the area. But just think about what you want for your child, but asking them if they have experience, what their years of experience, why they're doing what they're doing, and what that meaning is and the objective of how they're gonna help your child.

And I think that's really, that's a critical part of, that journey as a parent more generally. And as you described, like writing, writing it down. That is such saline advice, Tiffany and I don't know, this is anecdotal, but I recently heard, so like 10% of people actually set goals, and 1% of people actually write those goals down. And if you look at the wealth of the 1% of people in the world, it's phenomenal wealth, right?

And, I don't know if it's a corollary effect or not, but like, write your goals down and then when it comes to your kiddo, write down what you want for them and what you want and would expect that feels like really powerful advice.

There's something that's happening and that's where then, you know, making that decision to say, okay, if my pediatrician's saying, no, you don't need to worry about it, that this is the process. I don't think so. How many autistic kids have you worked with? How many kids with dyslexia have you worked with? Are you familiar with adhd? And if they're not, it's okay to say, you know what?

I think I need to find somebody who, who has that experience, because there's nothing, and you know this, greater than early intervention when we know a child is struggling socially, emotionally, academically. So whatever developmental areas that they're at, the sooner they can get in and get that support, the better that experience is going to be. So just trust your gut as a mom, as a dad, as a caretaker.

You know, you're seeing it, you're feeling it, and just allow yourself that you know what's best.

And we're like, uh, no you know, we all have full-time jobs and if we hadn't allowed it to kind of blow over, we wouldn't be here. It would not be at fruition, but we did it. And within four weeks of saying, how can we not, we launched. Do it because you know it's right, it's needed and trust yourself. And stop, because as we all know, we can have a great thought and then we have those stiff, no, you can't do that. No, you're not capable. No, that doesn't make sense.

And you allow that to fester. We might not have some of the best organizations we have today. It's about not being afraid to fail and just saying, I don't have all the answers, but I'm jumping in. I walked away from a 22 year career to start something that I didn't know if it was gonna be successful, other than in my heart to say this has to be.

Because if I can stop one tear from falling, if I can hug one other parent to say it's gonna be okay, if through the chamber we can help another, neurodivergent employee, find an employer because the employers have what it takes to hire, to train, to do all of that, you know, that's the path to what creates success in my mind.

I have a variety of topics because there's such a variety of topics to discuss. So that's how you can find me is at Guiding Bright Minds. I'm also on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. We do have a Facebook support group. So there's just different ways in which to definitely follow me. And on Facebook is where I advertise, webinars that we have come coming up, um, events that our providers are doing, um, podcasts that our providers are doing, all books that they've written.

So all kinds of ways to get that education and information. And then if you're interested in learning more about the Colorado Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce, it's cndcc.org. So it's abbreviation cndcc, so the Colorado Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce.org.

And we have many different membership levels that you can look at from students starting at a hundred dollars, a year membership because we want to have that community coming together to employer large groups, over 50 employees at $1,500 for the membership of the chamber. We just launched, September 16th, the official date. So we have a lot more, we wanna do, a lot more we wanna provide, but we'll have blogs and other ways to educate you on our website as well.