Serina the audio snob

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
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Speaker 1 (01:17):
Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another exciting episode of
Aaron's Opinion, the podcast for blind people where we speak
about critical issues in the blindness community and all other
issues from across the universe and galaxy. My name is
Aaron Richmond. And of course to get in touch.

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With the show.

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get your podcast. So don't forget about that either. Okay, okay,
there we go. Took care of all those things. Now
on to today's guest, someone who, as I said, really
really likes audio. She's really a snob, She's really a character.

(03:54):
And her name is Serena Gilbert, but perhaps you know
her as her other name, Blindy Girl. I was basically
scrolling through the feed on Facebook, as we like to
say in the business, as I will say in a
minute when you play the interview segment. I was scrolling
through the feed spying on the other podcasters, as we
all do. In case you've wanted to do podcasters spy

(04:15):
on each other. Sure I do. And I saw, and
I came across this woman who calls herself Blindy Girl,
and she does a great job.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
She puts out.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Videos about blindness and educating the world about the thing.
All the great stuff that we as blind people are
able to do and everything that you would want to.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Know about blindness.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
So I reached out to her. I noticed that she
had has, you know, seven thousand followers. I didn't think
she'd get back to me, to be frank, but then
she did. We had a wonderful conversation, and I asked,
I said, so, Serena, do you want to be on
the show? Do you want to be the next guest?
And she said sure, So here we go. So we
talk mostly about how we have a lot of jokes,
a lot of laughs in this one, a lot of

(04:53):
serious stuff, and a lot of just a wonderful dynamic.
What really stands out to me about tonight today's guest
is her ability to just have a great conversation. She
is so friendly and so conversational, just enjoying it so much.
You know, I can tell that she just loved the
conversation and really wants to be in the podcast. So

(05:14):
we want to definitely take this moment to welcome Serena
Gilbert or of course blinding Girl. And of course don't
forget that that means that we need a very clever
title for today's episode, as always, so, of course you're
listening to the Aaron's Opinion Podcast. My name's Aaron Richmonden.
Now let's sit back and let's listen together too, Serena

(05:35):
the Audio Snob, Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another
exciting episode of Aaron's Opinion, the podcast for blind people
where we speak about critical issues in the blindness community
and all other issues from across the universe and galaxy.
For those of you who don't know, or to our
new friend, our new guest, our new person that we're

(05:57):
interviewing tonight, my name is Aaron Richmond.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Of course, apparently.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Considering that she's a content creator with six thousand followers,
she claims that that's not her day job. Well we'll
get to that in a minute. But I was just
sort of scrolling through Facebook, as all of us do
in the podcast space, you know, spying on all the
other great podcasters around the community, and I see this
thing called Blindy Girl. Come to find out, she's a
great content creator. She produces great educational videos helping blind

(06:26):
people all over the world, and she is just quite
a character and obviously a very kind and a very
you come across as a very warm and upbeat and
just a fascinating person to have a wonderful conversation with.
As it turns out, her name is actually Serena Gilbert,
or blindy Girl.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
So what I want you.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
To do is tell me as I always like to say.
And again, I don't know how much or if any
of my content you've absorbed or researched or anything like that,
but I do like to ask a question that will
build the conversation forward. So who is Serena Gilbert? Because
without a Serena Gilbert there never would have been a
blind girl. Who's Serena Gilbert? Who's blinding girl? What do

(07:03):
you do for the day job? And all of that
and a whole lot more. So go for it from
the top.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Go I goth so many questions, Aaron. First of all,
I did dive into your content while I was folding
laundry today, and I am impressed.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Well, while folding laundry, not not.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
That's usually when I listen to the podcasts.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's just you know, so I'm laundry. Oh, oh you
know that I got. I gotta be a little bit
of a comedian here, so which I do like to
I can be very silly and sarcastic. So I'm I'm
laundry material. Not not on the porch with the with
the with the v now and the good meal material.
I'm just laundry is.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
Just laundry, okay, all right, but you must have your
past life, Like I don't know how you spew off
your intro.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I'm like, oh my goodness. But anyways, my name is
Serena Gilbert. Aaron asked me who I am? What I
how I describe myself? Like there's so many different things,
like I'm a mom, I worked full time, I do
content creation. I do so many different things because I
just I love keeping busy, so my day job. Aaron

(08:14):
will be very surprised by this. I asked him if
he wanted to know first or if he wanted me
to surprise him, and he opted to be surprised. So
I actually am from Colorado and I work for my
vocational rehabilitation agency. I've been with my agency for almost
fifteen years. I started out as a counselor working with
young adults that are transitioning from school to either college

(08:37):
or work, and then I've worked my way up and
now I am a program manager under our Youth Services unit,
so helping to create and expand services for students and
youth with disabilities. And I also do audio description quality
control where I am the blind quality control specialist that

(08:59):
review audio description tracks to check for this script and
narration and make sure things are clear and there's no mistakes,
and to give notes back to the writer, the mixer
and the narrator. And then I run blindy Girl as well,
where I share just a lot of really really funny
at least I think they're funny educational material. So it's

(09:19):
education part with humor and then videos and just putting
myself out there to hopefully help others that are in
the same situation or educate others that don't know a
lot about the blind community.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Oh no, doing a great and you're doing a magnificent
job of it, by the way. Your your videos are
so cheerful and so serious, and you you go about,
you know, delivering your content in a really understandable way,
but also in a really just a really natural way,
just a really really pleasant and a really natural way.

(09:56):
And I think that's something that I appreciate because I
think that there are you know, a lot of creators
all over the world who produce overly produced content, and
that kind of bores me. But what's interesting about what
you're doing is your content is just very very you,
very natural, very raw, and just still very good, very
high tech.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Obviously your tech skills are great, but.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Your your delivery of how you produce what you do
is so good and so needed in the in the community.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Also, I really.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Appreciate the fact, by the way, by the way, that
you're working in Voke Rehab for the state of Colorado.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
I really do.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
A little bit more now now off air, I can
really delve deeply. But I'll tell you a little bit
about my background that I actually grew up near Washington,
d C.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
And I went to university near Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
And you know, and I really needed when I was well.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Now I'm curious how old?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
How old do you think I am?

Speaker 4 (10:56):
My gosh, don't ask me that. That's a loaded question,
isn't it. I don't want to guess, Aaron, don't make
me so if I have to guess your age and
you have to guess mine, So that's the deal. I

(11:16):
don't know. I don't want to guess, but I'll guess. Okay,
I know that you do. You teach language arts or like,
tell me I gathered that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
I go ahead, So I teach English as a second
language online. And I'm a bilingual English French guy. French
is my second language. But but I'll save you. I'll
save you the I'll save you the age thing.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I'm actually thirty three. I turned thirty four next week.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
So when I was, you know, transitioning to university, and Serena,
I think can tell us a lot more about this.
You know, us blind people, we have a really hard
time transitioning from high school to university. And my concern
is that and you're seeing it too. I'm sure in
your state, too many blind people are not going to university.

(12:04):
That's one problem in my opinion, and then the other
opinion that I have is too many blind people when
they are in university are not able to complete university.
And then that just adds to the whole, you know,
unemployment crisis that US blind people have to deal with.
So really walk us through, you know what things you're noticing,
as far as voke rehab goes in Colorado, how you're

(12:25):
actually preparing people for university and the workforce.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
I mean, it's really important.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
So I'll start with a little story time. I am
actually a previous client of our vocational rehabilitation system. Unfortunately
I didn't become a client. And how I was I
think my sophomore year in college for a variety of reasons,
and when I transitioned from high school to college, I

(12:54):
went to my local college here that it was just
more comfortable for me in a familiar environment. And you
are completely one hundred percent correct, Aron, And I don't
know if it's it's unique to individuals disabilities. I don't
think that. Unfortunately, high school is preparing our young adults
for that huge, huge transition. You go from having your

(13:16):
whole day planned out for you and having very big
consequences if you don't go to class like you get
in trouble, you get a suspension or a lunch attention
or something like that. Your parents are on you because
they know immediately that you didn't go to class. To
a college setting where the professors don't care if you
come or don't come like that, they're not there to
bbsit you. They're not there to know your accommodations unless

(13:40):
you tell them your accommodations. You have to get those
things set up in advance, and that's just not how
high school is. It's set up for you in high
school because it's going from that entitlement system to in college.
You're still entitled to accommodations, but you have to voice
those accommodations that you need and go through the Disability
Services office. So I say all that to say that

(14:01):
when I transitioned from high school to college, I actually
failed a class my very first semester. I am not
ashamed to say that I literally failed a class. And
then I got a D in another class. And I
failed one of the classes because I skipped it too much.
That was and it was in the syllabus. I just
didn't read it. And the other one it was because
I did not understand the material and it was not

(14:23):
utilizing the accommodations that I should have. It was macroeconomics.
I'll never forget it. It's very hard subject for me
to grasp, and it was a teacher that taught in
a very old school manner and it was just really
really hard to grasp. So all that to say what
we're doing now with Colorado and really nationwide as there's

(14:44):
pre employment Transition Services which allows students in Colorado beginning
at the age of fifteen, to start accessing services to
help them explore what did they really want to do
when they're exiting school, So they get to explore all
those big ideas that they have of the dream jobs
and then learn about what it takes to get there,

(15:05):
learn about the college opportunities that are out there and
what that actually will look like if you want to
be a lawyer, or how many years of school is
that actually going to be, and how much reading and
public speaking and just all the things. And then also
allows for young adults to have access to work based
learning experiences and just learning those soft skills that everyone
needs to be employed successfully, so that we call them

(15:28):
preets lovingly and I just it's my favorite opportunity that's
out there, and a lot of people just do not
take advantage of it, Like a lot of over young
adults don't see the value in it quite yet. So
we're working on that. But it's a great, great opportunity
to really set yourself up for success so that after
you graduate, you're not kind of having those big scary

(15:51):
things for you are failing classes or not completing college
and things like that.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's really important and you're so right, you're so wry.
Most people fail exams, I did, most people fail one class.
Everybody does, So I mean to say that you failed
one class or one exam, I mean, I mean every
everybody does that. The truth is everybody does it. They
just don't. They just don't have the courage to admit it.
So that's that's understandable.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah, So in the in the end, what did you
get a degree in? If if I might have misunderstood,
but what did what?

Speaker 3 (16:26):
What?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
What were you studying in the end? And what what
is your official degree in?

Speaker 4 (16:31):
How do you ask me that? It's kind of ironic.
My undergrad is in communications PIP, the minor in business management,
and then my master's is in rehabilitation counseling.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Okay, really good.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
So now I've asked this question, and I don't specifically
remember to whom I spoke with two about this, but
it's a bit of an oxymoron and a bit of
an interesting paradox. How in the rehab community they always call,
you know, they always called rehabilitation counseling. They always call
it rehabilitation, you know. And I think that's ironic because we,

(17:08):
as the blind people. We don't need to be rehabilitated.
There's no rehabilitation. I was just wondering, have you given
any thought to that, Serena, what's that about? Because us
blind people, we're fine, don't We don't need rehab there's
no rehab, Like, what what does that theoretically mean in
the scope of your work? You know, that whole rehab thing.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
I've actually given this a ton of thoughts. I'll give
you a little history lesson. So vocational rehabilitation really comes
from it's from you know, nineteen something. I don't even remember.
I should know this. The Rehabilitation Act is from nineteen
seventy three, but it really comes from before that, when
soldiers were returning home from World War Two, I want

(17:48):
to say. And the purpose of it was actually for
the soldiers that had gotten injuries and could no longer
work in the you know, the combat or the infantry
feel that they were in for them, and to be
able to be rehabilitated into a different career field. So
that's it's just a really old school term, and it
really is a fancy way of saying like to remove

(18:09):
those barriers and to provide those supports that somebody might
need vocationally to get into employment. I personally do not
tell people, like when they say what do you do,
I don't say I work for vocational rehabilitation unless I'm
you know, in the presence of people who get what
that means. I usually tell people I help young adults
with people that have disabilities find employment, because inevitably I

(18:32):
say I work for vocational rehabilitation, they immediately either jump
to you so you're a substance abuse counselor.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Or all right, no, that that actually makes sense now
that you're explaining it in that in that framework, I
never would have jumped to that. But but that's understandable. Unfortunately,
it's unfortunately understandable given how so many people suffer from
substance abuse sadly, so that that's on one, that's not

(19:00):
an acceptable jump to make. But I can understand where
people would get confused about that.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
I've actually wanted for a long time, and I don't
know if I happen on Nursty because we have bigger
fish to fry. But I wanted for years to change
how we refer to vocational rebilitation because there's nothing that
says what we have to call what we do to
make it where it's a more relatable name for people
that are participating in services. But that could be years
down the road. I know there's some states that have

(19:28):
changed it.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
And what would you change it too, if you could
come up with.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
It, Oh my gosh, something that had careers in it.
You know, that made it really clear that it's you know,
we're about careers, not just your you know your job.
We're about building a life for you and making it
more of a pathway. So I'd have to do some
some digging, but I wouldn't have vocational or realitation.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
How about how about how about how about right?

Speaker 3 (19:57):
How about work with a blinding girl?

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Nice?

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Something like that.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
There's some people that don't like my name. I don't
know if you've seen that on my page.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
You know, you know what I gotta I gotta say
I have no idea, nor nor do I give credit.
And and one one piece of advice that I have
for you in case you wanted advice, whether you want
it or not. And this is something I tell my
family members, this is something I'll tell anybody who listens.
I'll tell you, Serena, the greatest gift that you, Serena

(20:28):
can have is the ability to ignore people just as
well as you pay attention to people who deserve your attention.
So that's what I can tell you. I for the record,
I have no idea who it was. I don't know
what they said on your page. And I don't mean
to be blunt, but I don't really care. And it's
not because I don't care about you or your page.

(20:49):
It's because I don't. I don't use. I'm not going
to give some some clown the satisfaction of knowing that
they upset me. And that's a very subtle thing.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
So yes, and it.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Should be taken, by the way, in a philosophical way, Serena,
that should be taken as a compliment. You should take
that as a compliment to some extent, a backhanded compliment.
But no, I did see that you said something to
somebody about not saying unkind things.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
You know some people you.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Know related to my name that one I will defend
the people who support me till that.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Why would somebody This is it's the silliest thing.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Why would somebody?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Why would somebody like not like your company's name, blindy girl, like,
why like?

Speaker 3 (21:37):
What's not to love about that? I love it. That's cool, Like, okay,
that's you.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Like, what's wrong with like what was their illogical logic
of why blinding Girl's wrong?

Speaker 3 (21:46):
I'm just purely curious.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Oh no, no, I am such an open book because
I posted about this, like I don't keep secrets. Some
people see it because I spell it b l I
n d y, but we all know like blindy bld
i E. Some people think that that's a derogatory term,
like blindi's anxiety's you know, like it's I don't feel
that way.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, you're on Aaron's opinion, Eron's opinion made of rolling.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
It's not derogatory.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah, and then people don't like that it's blindy girl
and that I'm a grown woman. I'm like, okay, what
blindy woman doesn't sound good? So I chose girl, and I.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Blindy Girl's cool.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
It's easy. It's easy to say. It's cool. It's you.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
That's what attract Like, I know this is going to
sound really creepy and awkward, but that's why I noticed you.
That name caught my attention. Hey, that's kind of cool,
blindy girl.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
I want to know.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
That's what I'm from about.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
You know, that's actually really cool, you know. So, yeah,
what a great transition. So okay, so you're doing all
this voke rehab stuff. Glad that we cleared up what
it is, right, But it takes a really special person
like you to decide to create, to get into content creation.
And you've been asking a lot of questions about content creation.

(23:00):
And I will more than happily answer any questions you
have for me in regards to my perspective of content creation.
But so you know what, what really lit a fire
under your ass to get into content creation?

Speaker 3 (23:11):
And what made you?

Speaker 1 (23:13):
What tip you over the edge to getting into it?
And how did you build up your brand of blinding?

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Girl? So I've always had groups that I run. So
I have the assist of Technology Community for the Blind
and visually impaired. I know it's long, but it's search
engine optimized so people find it well.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
I've never well, not me, I've never found it.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
Well. Now I'll invite you to it. I always have
had that community. I forget how many members are in there,
maybe eight or nine thousand something like that. Yeah, it's
a great.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
What are you doing.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
I need to we need to work, we need to
we need to dial.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
Around for like ten years though, that's the excuse. So yeah, yeah,
and my blind Girl pages technically been around for over
ten years, but it was stagnant for a really long time,
and a couple Christmases ago, just one day, I was
just sitting there and I was like, I asked my husband,
we used to have a picture of me, Like, while
I'm doing this quality control, I just want to share it.
And I just started sharing more about what I'm doing,

(24:09):
and it just kind of grew from there. I just
really like sharing what I'm doing. To be honest, I
like making people laugh. I like having people feel that
they're not alone. And there's not a lot of corners
on this social media earth where you can really find
truly relatable content when you're blind. I know there's a
lot of blind creators out there. I feel that I'm

(24:30):
quite unique and my approach. I'm not here to be divisive.
I'm here to share my thoughts and gather opinions. But
I'm never gonna put someone down for their opinions unless
you're being mean to my followers. I'm not going to
be very nice to you. But I don't know. I
kind of just it's funny people always ask I'm like
I just kind of started doing it, and I only

(24:52):
recently started filming videos. I was terrified of videos, like
absolutely terrified. Now I can just knock them out like
nothing else. But I used to be terrified of just
recording myself and looking awkward and being weird and things
like that. But I've gotten over it.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
In the laws super cool. You know. It's those weird
videos though, that are getting the most views, like the
awkward part, like the amateur awkward part. Like if you do,
like you produce professional videos. But I'm just saying, if
you produced a video right then you realize looking back
on it, or you had your husband or a cited
friend look and they said, oh, Serena, this looks kind
of amateur, and then you should say, well, of course

(25:27):
that's me. Like it's it's like there's a element of.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Charm.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
It can be very charming when it's done in an
amateur way, but still well at the same time, that's
what makes it cool. You know, things that are unrehearsed
and just natural, that's what makes that's what gives it
the flavor that it has. You know, I mean, I'm
racking my brain. I've been in the podcast business for
five years. I started during the pandemic, but I will

(25:55):
tell you that I've been immersed my whole life. I've
been immersed by audio from day one. I was born
with a congenital heart defect in many health issues, so
from day one, I was listening to talk radio from
day one, so I always had the ear for it
for thirty years and things like that. And then during
the pandemic, I got into podcasting for many reasons that
we'll get into later. But no, I don't recall really

(26:17):
seeing I don't really remember noticing Blindy Girl until very recently.
And I don't quite know how I stumbled on it really.
It just sort of, you know, tinkled in, as I
would say, tinkled into my feed.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
You know, Facebook's changed its algorithm, and I think that's
what's helped me grow is it's not followers based anymore.
It's more like your interests. So if you're showing interest
in a lot of other blind content creators or blindness
related groups or disability disability related groups, it's surfacing other
things that you might like, Like if you've gone to me,

(26:51):
probably are stumbling across people that you've never even seen
in your feed. Before and you're like, who is this?
And then but it that's most of the people who
see my content now are non followers. It's very interesting
when you look at the stats.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, I'm not sure it's interest based. I mean it
could be. I mean it's that's a huge part of it.
The other part is the reaction tray. You know, who's
liking it and the level of reaction right, whether they're
caring or loving. You know, I think Facebook secretly looks
very closely at that. So maybe without realizing maybe I loved,
Maybe I pushed the love or care on one of

(27:27):
your reels, right, and maybe that's how it got pushed
into me like that. It is very very ironic. What
about what about your YouTube presence? How many followers, how
many subscribers are on on your YouTube?

Speaker 4 (27:39):
You to need some love. I don't post there very much.
I haven't quite figured out long form content yet. I'm
just not there yet. So I've been posting some shorts
over there, but it's it's abysmal. I'm not going to
like say, it's not like I'm just I'm just starting
to build that up. Facebook is my bread and butter.
That's just where I know how to really interact with
people and keep growing it. It just seems to be

(28:01):
even my Instagram doesn't grow as fast as my Facebook.
There's just something special about Facebook.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I think a lot of it has to do with
the reaction tray and that the Facebook algorithm is able
to really tell and identify who is truly engaging with.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Your content more and more readily, I think.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
But the other part of it is I think it
is supposed to be a mystery, and I think we
as creators are supposed to work hard. I think is
the point at producing great content and really digging into
it and really caring about the content. And people can
tell when you care, you know. So Okay, so you're
producing a lot of these shorts, as I've seen, But

(28:43):
if someone has never seen a short from Blinding Girl,
what are and you've kind of alluded to it, But
let's really kind of dig into some of your main
keystone issues, right, So what are your keystone issues, your
main roadmap items that you really want to change around
the country and around the world for blind people. But
what do you what are you really trying to do
with your with your content.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
Really want anyone who has any level of vision loss
to not a feel like they're alone. That especially when
you have a traumatic loss of vision or it's very sudden,
and you know, it can feel very very isolating, both
physically and emotionally, because just there's not a lot of
people on this earth that really truly understand what is
going on in that moment for that person and the

(29:27):
different stages of grief that they're going to go through
for that, and that you know that you could have
lost your vision twenty years ago and you could go
right back into anger and bargaining, you know. So that's
a I really want to build a community where people
feel that they can relate and be heard and support
each other. Of course, employment is a really big thing
for me. I want our community to understand that employment

(29:48):
is possible and that you don't have to settle for
you know, the disability payments that barely sustain you. They're
good for all kinds of things, Like I received Social
Security when I was going through college in my first job.
Like there's definitely benefits to it, but it's not meant
to really help you build a long term life and

(30:10):
a good retirement when you're done and things like that.
So I like sharing content that kind of supports and
encourages seeking employment or starting a business, or doing the
things that bring you joy and not feeling like just
because you have the vision loss that you can't do them.
But then the most important thing that I feel that
I share is just realness. One of the reels I

(30:31):
shared last week was, Hey, guys, I'm about to go
to a coffee shop and I'm super anxious about it
because I've never been there before. And here's all the
things that go through my mind when I'm about to go.
And to hear other people say, oh my gosh, same
for me, same for me or Aaron, you can probably
relate to this navigating the public bathroom, like nobody knows
where anything is in a public bathroom because they're all different.

(30:53):
I just want people to not feel like I'm the
only one going through this and this is abnormal that
I'm feeling anxious about going to meet my friends for dinner. Like, no,
it happens to us all at some point.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Absolutely, absolutely, all these you know, these experiences happen to
all of us.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Absolutely, they do.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
And I think it depends too what I'm starting to notice. So, like,
like I said, I'm thirty three basically thirty four.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I've been blind my whole life since birth, since day one, right,
But when I was well, when I was really little, like,
I had to have surgery, many surgeries actually to correct
my vision to some vision, usable vision which I have
now to get around and it's pretty good. But I'm
really noticing in cogn and cognitively understanding that when you

(31:39):
become blind later on in life, that really disables you.
And I don't mean that, and I don't mean that
quite in that way that I said it. I think
I would like to go back and kind of explain
it in a different way. I wouldn't want to say
that it's disabling, but I would want to say that
it seems to me that people who become blind and

(32:00):
i'd later feel feel very like, very stuck, you know,
very depressed and very sad. And you brought it up
too with the bargaining, you know, where they would want
to think, Oh, I you know, if I bargain hard
enough or if you look hard enough, the vision comes back.
Well in some cases, in most cases, in almost all cases,
it never will come back once it's lost, yes, or

(32:23):
it never does. I've never known anybody to recover vision.
I mean the answer is medically, is it possible, Yes,
but it's incredibly rare, you know. So yeah, that's what
I would notice is that there's a huge difference difference
emotionally between someone who is born blind and someone who
becomes blind later. So you though, So were you born blind, Serena,

(32:44):
what's what's your vision?

Speaker 3 (32:45):
You know, vision situation?

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Oh, I haven't reat night as pigmentosa, so RP for short,
because that's a lot of syllables. And I wasn't diagnosed
with it until I was I think thirteen was when
I actually got my diagnosis.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well that's where the symptoms start when you're a teenager.
That's always it always happens when they're in middle school
and high school is when it really starts to affect them.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, I've noticed.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
I never knew that I always had horror vision. Even
when I was born. My mom said that my eyes
were crossed. I know there's a fancy term for that,
but I don't remember what it's called. So there was
a surgery for me when I was like two years
old to I crossed my eyes and then I always
just had horror vision. It's just always been a thing.
So I'm sure there were some symptoms when I was younger,
but you are correct. It definitely got more noticeable in

(33:31):
middle school, high school, and then especially college with the
night blindness. And yeah, the strain of like not being
able to really read a magazine or a book or
anything like that anymore.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
I mean, if you have to strain, you can't read it.
I mean that's the like, that's how it works. If
you're straining, you're not able to that's the thing. But
we see a lot of people that say, well, I'm
going to try hard enough, and and to some extent,
I kind of understand that. I understand it to a point,
but you can't, like if your eyes don't work anymore,

(34:01):
they just don't. Like you can't you can't force it
to work.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, So did you grow up in Colorado
your whole life? Have you lived in Colorado you, like forever?
Your whole life so far? So?

Speaker 4 (34:16):
My dad was in the military, so i'd basically say
I was from Colorado. We lived here the longest, and
I stayed here. I've been here, gosh, pretty much since
I was like eleven or twelve, and I'm forty two now,
so I guess that's like thirty years now, so pretty
much we've lived all over though. I lived in Germany
for a few years, in Texas for a few years,

(34:38):
but Colorado's where we've lived the longest.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Oh good, good, And how long were you in Germany?

Speaker 4 (34:45):
Three years? Third through sixth grade? I actually loved living
in Germany. We had so much freedom because we lived
on a military base, so it's super safe. We were, like,
I had more freedom in third grade probably than most
middle schoolers have now.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, yeah, do you still do you still like practicing Deutsch?
Do you still still speak Deutsch pretty well today?

Speaker 4 (35:05):
German? It's funny they like they taught it to us,
but you know, as an immature child, we only learned
the cusswords, so I never actually got fluent. I'm not
like learning new languages didn't click for me. I took
years and years of Spanish too, and I just never that.
My brain doesn't work in learning new languages unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Ah so you never learned like conversational German, Like you
couldn't go back to Germany and be able to speak
like fluently in German.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Oh no, no, most people there spoke English even off
the base. Yeah, so, and I don't know, being lived
with so much military presence there because there's Air Force
and Army. It was we had a kind of a
community there that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
That's wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
And And during the years of third grade to six
were you starting to lose your vision during those years
did you notice when you were in Germany that you
were having a difficulty seeing?

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Really? I mean I wore glasses, they were super thick.
I got made fun of, you know, But I don't
know that I thought I was like super different than
anyone else. I think it was probably when we moved
back to Colorado and in middle school and I went
to a sleepover and we went out for something I
don't even know what. But then when we came back,
it was dark, and I like ran right into a

(36:23):
brick like pillar by a garage. And that's when I
was like, all right, definitely something different here. But I
even with that happening, though, I didn't start using the
white cane until I was in college. It took me
a long time to really accept that I needed to
use a cane and not just kind of, you know,

(36:44):
stumble along.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
I've noticed that there's a lot of allergy to the cane.
A lot of people are allergic to it. I've noticed.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yeah, there's a stigma with it because I've also been
a guide dog user and for a while, and you know, then, Aaron,
you get treated way different when you have a guide
dog than when you the kinge significantly.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
In good ways and bad ways. It goes both and
it goes a lot.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
Of that you get too.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely really good. Where did you Where
did you get your guy dog from?

Speaker 4 (37:14):
I Dogs for the Blind, h.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Dogs for the Blind. So good.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I was Guiding Eyes for the Blind in New York. Yeah, yep,
that's really good.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
California, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Oh okay, then so you went to the California campus
of it, did okay?

Speaker 4 (37:30):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Really interesting. And what dog did did you have? Like
what like what was their name?

Speaker 3 (37:35):
How long did you have have her? Like things like that.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Yeah, h His name was Weston. He was a yellow
lab weighed about sixty pounds. I got him in twenty
twelve and he retired and coved during COVID. He decided
think it was he didn't want to work anymore, so
he retired and then he was our pet for about
four more four additional years before he passed.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I got mine two thousand and nine,
and then she worked for about ten years and then
she passed right at the height of the pandemic in
twenty twenty. She was like, she was like, oh this
She was like, oh, this pandemic's crazy.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
I don't, I don't.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I'm done dealing with this nonsense. This is too weird. Yeah, yeah,
that was tough. That was That was a tough year
at twenty twenty. That was a weird year.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, I was and all that. Yeah, that's hard.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
But with all but with all that, though, that's how
I got into the podcast space. I mean, I was
always listening to podcasts around the blindness community. But I
noticed something that I think you would agree with is
that a lot of these other blind creators are not
open to my opinions and are just not open enough.
And I wanted to create an environment where anybody, you know,
you know, you and so many other great people from
all over the world can come up to my microphone

(38:49):
and share what's really on your mind. And that's really
what I wanted to do, is to create a welcoming place.
And I think that That's something we've really lost in
the in the podcast space and in the content creation space,
is that people just are not always welcoming when they
people are not always welcoming when they.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Need to be. Is a is a big issue for me.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
You know, you don't have to agree with the person,
but you do have to welcome them a little bit,
you know, you have to know how to behave a
little bit more. And I think people have really lost
lost touch with that reality, at least in my estimation.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
Would completely agree with you, Aaron. I was just talking,
you know, with some friends about this, and this can
probably be said about any community. But I do really
feel like our community is getting extremely, extremely divisive, and
I don't quite understand why. Like there's just a lot
and maybe it's social media because the things that are

(39:44):
said on social media probably wouldn't be said to people's face,
like half the stuff, Yeah, well about it, or if
there's just a lot of anger, but there's just so much,
so much divisiveness, and it's getting frustrated.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
I think what is happening in this This is only
a speculation. This is neither a fact nor an opinion.
These are just thoughts. Going through my head. As you
get to know me more and more, you'll discover that
some of the stuff I say you should really tune
out because it's neither factual nor opinionated. It's just words
that are coming through my brain. But what I think
actually is happening is I think, respectfully speaking, I think emotionally,

(40:23):
people have been completely derailed from the pandemic. I think
that really freaked people out, and I think moving forward
from that, I think people are really are just really
not sure now that we live in this new age,
this new information age. I think people are not really
sure how to fit into this new size of clothing

(40:44):
or whatever analogy you want to create, right, I think
people are just not sure how they can fit in.
You know, too many people, whether they're blind or not.
Too many people are not working in the public sector.
Too many people work from home. People are just not
getting out and they're just it's not you know, it's
an emotional experience. You know, a lot of times, when

(41:06):
I was a little boy, my father worked for his company,
whatever it was. You know, the reason why he kept
working is because he needed to. You need to get
out of your house, leave the house, go outside, do stuff,
you know, it's part of our mental psyche.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
We need to do that.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
And when we aren't doing that, that causes obvious damage
that we see today, and it's probably causing a lot
of other problems that we'll find out about thirty years
from now. You know, that's only my estimation. But people,
people are really divisive.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Once somebody asked me to come to a podcast. Now
they knew who I was, and I know who they are,
and we know each other well, and they said, Aaron,
come to the podcast because we know you, you know,
voted for so and so in the election. I said, no,
I'm not coming to your podcast to talk about that.
Absolutely not. They said why not? And I say, because
I refuse to talk about anything that will divide the country.

(41:55):
And the only reason I got into podcasting was to
unite blind.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
People all over the world.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
So one on one, off air, if you really want
to know, not that you do, I would tell you
who I voted for all air. Privately, I don't care,
but I'm certainly not going to I'm not going to
divide the country or divide my listener base just because
just because everybody else does.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
That's not a reason to be divisive. Yeah, what do
you think?

Speaker 4 (42:19):
No, I completely agree, because there's so much more that
our community has in common than we have not in common.
That's absolutely But then you know what I mean, we
banded together, like there's so much more we could do
if we weren't fighting much.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
I see no reason, at least in my opinion. This
is an opinion. Now, I see no reason for there
to be conflict. The only thing I see is a
reason is the reason to come together, whether you're a
creator of a podcast or a listener thereof the only
thing I see is that people should come together and
enjoy the quality of the content together. We should be
sharing more and more, which is why I have a

(42:57):
Facebook group, which is why I have WhatsApp groups and
things like that. And I hope you're active on WhatsApp
because what'sapp is I have a globalized WhatsApp thing for
the guests, and then there's a then there's a public
WhatsApp and yeah, whatsappens really uniting. Well, WhatsApp is an
incredible software, It truly is. Yeah, but that's that's interesting.

(43:19):
So you said that you think that the algorithms in
the Facebook world are changing, right, So after all you have,
if you don't mind me saying this, you have at
least six thousand followers, and I apparently have.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
Around two hundred.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Now you have six thousand, two hundred. Yeah, no, seven
seven thousand, two hundred.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
Okay, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
That's wonderful. No, I want you to be successful.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
I care.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
That's that's the good. That's you know what that means.
That means that I'm right. The fact that you have
seven thousand followers right shows that I was right to
reach out to you.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
It shows that you're doing the right thing.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
So that's that's to my compliment, meant that I noticed that,
and I only have around one thousand, although I have
thousands of downloads and many listeners. The other problem when
you create continent is you have all these secret fans
and secret listeners, so you never really know but.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Who is following you?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Who are these seven thousand followers from what countries and
what dynamics and what have you learned about that?

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Joss looked at that this morning randomly, it's like eighty
percent from the US, and then below that it's UK, Australia,
Ireland and camp and it's a little bit more men
than women. But I think that is the Statistically, I
think more men have vision loss than women, so it
kind of makes sense. I don't know, it is all

(44:45):
all over the place.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
That is that's okay. That surprises me that more men
than women, because I'm not sure that okay, that is
a little weird because generally when men see a woman's
women content, they usually scroll past and we would rather
find most men would rather find stuff for men or
stuff that they relate to that's a man.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
So I think you say that it's interesting being a
female content creator. I've talked to some others. We get
really odd comments and attention from men, so it doesn't
surprise me. Yeah, there's there's been some people that have
been blocked very quickly. They're very bold and just very disrespectful,

(45:35):
so it doesn't surprise me. And there's there's a weird
phenomenon there that that some men just do not filter
themselves and comments and private times.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
So yeah, well there, I mean, there's no excuse for it, none,
none at all. But I think the other thing is
these are these are men that probably many of them
might not work, they might be at home, they might
they might truly be on purpose being weird on purpose,
but what they might actually be is lonely. They might
just and I'm not justifying it, but I understand exactly

(46:07):
what I'm saying. I am not justifying or supporting inappropriate
behavior at all.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
It's not okay.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
But I think what has happened is when people get lonely,
they start to go stir crazy and then start making
comments that they would never make in person, but they
feel the need to make just because they don't feel good,
you know, to some extent, you know. And then other
comments are just rude, mean people that just want to
be weird rudos, weird weird, rude, rude, rude weirdos for

(46:35):
no other purposes. It's a weird play on words. There's
some people that just want to be trolls, and I
think there's a lot, you know, I think there's you know,
the funny thing about the trolls online is that they
love being trolls. Some people just really have fun being
a online problem for somebody else. Like, I don't get

(46:56):
it because that's not how I am, But some people
just love it. They love the characterization there.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
I agree. I agree. I think that some people are
just bored and this is gonna be a little controversial take,
so I'm sorry, but we're going to go there. I
do think that sometimes in our community, our social skills
can be a little bit different than in the sighted world,
because it's really hard, Like I'm very awkward sometimes in person,
Like I'm pretty good virtually, I'm but in person I

(47:25):
get really overwhelmed very easily, especially in like a noisy environment,
and we don't have that benefit of reading someone's face
or body language to know whatever we're saying is uninteresting
or you know, not landing, or when to speak even sometimes,
So sometimes I think that stune us a little bit socially.
Unfortunately not everyone, but it does happen.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
No, I think you're very right. I think that blind people,
and especially me, given that I'm not only am I blind,
but in addition to it, I also consider myself to
be a little bit on the asper spectrum. I'm also
a little bit on the autism spectrum myself, So I
can totally relate to how you would say that our
community interacts differently.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
We definitely do.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
The fact that we interact differently, that's definitely not any
That's not an excuse though for people to be to
go out of their way to say rude stuff. That's
still not that's still not a justification, but it is
it is accurate to say that though, for sure. Yeah, yeah,
that's that's really that's really interesting.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
That's like really interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
What about some like positive comments, like like, what are
some positive ways that you've been impacting other people? What
have people said to you that has some nice things
or some positive encouragements. Obviously people have said a lot
of nice things, a lot of positive things, or else
you never would have kept going.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
So what else have they said to you? That's good.

Speaker 4 (48:52):
One of the favorite comments that I get are the
comments for people like I, I'm so glad you shared this.
I've been going through this as well a lot of
just love and support. Like I get a lot of
comments fore people like I love your content. Keep creating,
like you make me laugh all the time. There's some
fans that say hi to me every time they see

(49:13):
the posts. They just say hi, Which I love that,
And I just love that when I can even talk
to like parents of blind children, where I share my
content with my child so that they can see that
you know, these things are possible, and like I'm like,
that's just really awesome, and I'm very very active, and
I do try to reply to comments and hopefully it

(49:36):
doesn't get too out of control. It might take me
a week, but I do read every single comment.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
I was impressed by that, by the way. I was
impressed because at first, you were to really be blunt
with you, as if you didn't think I would be blunt.
To be blunt, you were giving you, You gave the idea.
At first, I wasn't. I actually wasn't sure to be
to be real with you, to really level with you,
to give you a solid as we say in the business.
I wasn't sure if you wanted to come to the
sh or not because you weren't responding. But but then

(50:03):
when you started to respond, I started to realize, Oh,
maybe she is going to come. I hope you can
be understanding that a lot of the creators who I've interviewed,
especially people with larger profiles, Typically the larger profiles and
the more followers the person has, I've noticed, the less
likely they are to actually commit to coming to the show.
You know, they have bigger, bigger engagements, and they get

(50:25):
distracted more easily.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
And things like that.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
So that's the only reason why I thought that. But
now that I see how genuine you are, and you know,
I don't have I don't have any any complaints now
you're You're absolutely lovely to interact with. And and no,
I don't think you're awkward at all. I think I
think you're very understandable. You're just very natural and very
easy for me to relate to. You're very relatable, which
very relatable in a very direct way. That's one thing

(50:49):
that that I noticed. Yeah, absolutely, and I appreciate it. Yeah,
and I I appreciate that you're sharing your content with parents,
because I really do appreciate that. Fortunately, luckily I'm not
a parent, Thank God, this would be a really scary
time to be raising a child. But what I will

(51:12):
say is that I'm in a couple of the parenting
groups because my mother, as I can tell your your
parents were my mother, and my parents were huge advocates
for me when I was when I was a little
guy growing up in the nineties, and so my mother
in particular, is all over Facebook and all the parenting
groups and all these parents. Like the other thing that
just bothers my mind is like the parents that ask

(51:35):
ask questions that they should be able to google.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
You know that that actually does bother me if.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Somebody if I say, well you should help your kid
to turn on voice over and they say, well, what's voiceover?
Like I'm really not trying to be an ass, but
like in my heart, I'm saying, just google it, like what's.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Like? What's that about? Serena? Have you figured that out?

Speaker 4 (51:58):
It's not just our community. So I'm a mom, I
have an eleven year old boy, and I'm a lot
of mom groups. As a result, the same thing happens
in mom groups and stuff, and like our groups that
relate to our community. I don't know what it is.
I think that they just like kind of crowdsourcing things.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Well whatever, why can't they just Okay, okay, you didn't
really answer my question. Why won't Why won't they google stuff? If?
Because what really does bother me about that? Intellectually? And
I'm not asking people. I'm really not trying to burden
people by thinking, by overcomplicating and thinking too hard, which
is something that I do to myself. Is I like

(52:37):
to use you know, I like to think, But if
you can't, for me, it's about being respectful. If you
don't have enough respect to do the research. Then why
should I help you do more research?

Speaker 3 (52:50):
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Do you have a philosophy about that, about how you
can tell when people are being genuinely helpful or genuinely
asking like, what's your what have you noticed?

Speaker 4 (53:01):
Yeah, I'm weird and I'm on the opposite spectrum on
that with you. I love feeling needed. I know that
sounds really bad. I love feeling like people can get
help from me. So there's this personality thing called true
colors and there's different colors, and it's do you know
what that is? Have you heard of it?

Speaker 3 (53:20):
No?

Speaker 1 (53:20):
But I'm just but you know that you know that
I'm gonna I'm gonna be a little bit sarcastic. So
why so why don't you tell me what it is?
And then and then I'll ask the question.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
Yes, I'll tell you what true colors is. So there's
four different colors. There's blue, orange, gold, green. Blue is
like the relator like we like to I don't want
to say people pleaser, but we think about how people
feel and really want to know about like what why
why are you angry right now? Or what's going on?
How can I help you? How can I support you.

(53:49):
The orange is more I'm trying to think kind of
adventurous and you know, can get easily distracted and like
like to seek thrills and things like that. Gold really
likes to This is the policy, that's what it says.
This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to
follow it to the t and I'm going to stay organized,
and I'm going to all these things. And then green

(54:10):
are the data people that people who like to look
at the data, organize it, talk about it, but only
talk about the data. They don't like long meetings, those
sorts of things. You need all those people on your team.
So I say all that that I am the blue,
Like I really like helping people, and I'm going a
helping field, so it makes sense. So I don't mind
when somebody asks a question like that, Like I feel

(54:31):
like if I know the answer, I'm going to tell you.
And then I might say, hey, like there's a lot
of resources on the web, but this is what it is.
I'm not going to tell you everything. But I do
not mind helping people.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
No, that shews a lot of light that that helps
me to understand why people are asking. So in other words,
people would ask those types of questions in these groups
not only because they want to know about what the
what the topic is. Say they ask about voiceover. It's
not it's not that they want to know completely about
what voiceover is, but they want to have a genuine
interaction while learning about it.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Be fair. The other answer is pretty simple. It's that
it popped in their head and they wrote on Facebook.
They just weren't there. I don't know, so.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
You're so you're gonna just so. Your default setting is
just to blame the social media company. Right when people
ask a silly question, just blame you. You know, do
you hear yourself?

Speaker 4 (55:30):
I know, I know, But it happens all the time.
It's not just like our community like it's every right. Then,
there's so many Googleable and chat gptable.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
And I'm not I'm not understand. Let me let me rewind,
let me remind, let me rewind my brain. I'm not
saying I'm not shaming, although it sounds like I was.
I'm really not shaming people or making people embarrass it
feel bad about asking questions. But what I support is
people asking questions after they put forth a good faith

(56:01):
effort to learn about it themselves, right, That's kind of
my thing. If you come to me, Serena, and let
me give you an example. If you come to me
and ask me a question on Facebook, Aaron's opinion, I
want to get into podcasting, how do I do it?
I might give you some information, or I might say, well,
why don't you research it and come back to me.
And then if you researched it and came back to

(56:22):
me and said, Aaron, I want to get into podcasting,
and I want to have a shore MV seven plus microphone,
and I want to use a spreaker as my host,
and I want to connect with YouTube and build an
email list. And then the next sentence says, so do
you think I should get into podcasting? I would say yes,
because you've done the research. That's how That's what I mean. Yeah,

(56:42):
that's exactly what I mean. So for stuff like that,
I would want people to try a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
For me, it's about showing.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
The self respect to do the research, to show me
that you care enough for me to answer for you. Okay,
totally fine. It's about that you genuinely care about make
and the person feel better, which is also good. Let's
balance it out, I'm more of a I'm more of
a green and gold you know, Yeah, oh, for sure,
for sure. Yeah, and it does depend on what they're

(57:11):
trying to research and things like that, for sure. Yeah.
So you have an you have an eleven year old?
Did you say you have a son or daughter? A son?

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (57:21):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (57:21):
I know I've never asked this, this really awkwardness. Is
going to sound kind of like a silly question. So
everybody asks you this, and I'm sure you have a
speech prepared, so since I've never actually asked a blind parent, so,
what's it like being a blind parent? What are some
things that you've noticed in observations and some statements you
can make about being a blind parent today?

Speaker 4 (57:43):
The same as being excited? What I'm just kidding. It's
it's really funny that you asked this, because my sister
just had a baby three days ago and.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
She congratulations by the way, being so excited.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
She's the only girl and the ovel. We're so excited.
But some of the same anxieties that she has. I
had some of the same axis I had she has.
She's like, how do I change her diaper? And how
do I do this? They really trust me to just
take her home and take care of her, and yeah,
you'll be okay. It's the same types of things. I
remember when I found out I was pregnant with my

(58:13):
son and I was talking to somebody else who very
recently had a baby, and I was like, I don't
know how to change his diaper. It's gonna like, how
do I know if I got everything? And she's like, Serena,
I literally changed my son's diaper in the dark almost
every night. You'll be fine. So okay, And he doesn't
get away with anything he thinks he can, But I
don't know. I just have a little This is super cliche,

(58:36):
but I you just have that parent intuition. You just
know when your kid's getting into something they're not supposed
to be doing that. The harder parts are obviously, like transportation.
My husband is cited, so he does, you know, all
the transportations for our family. But you know, Uber and
Left help us too, So if it's something he can't do,

(58:56):
then I'm not afraid to grab my kid and let's
just uber and over there so you can do the
activity that you need to do. The hardest part for me,
and this is gonna sound really weird. But it's attending
kids' birthday parties. If it's not my own child's birthday party,
it's really really hard for me. It's very overwhelming. I
don't know who's talking to me when there's different parents,

(59:18):
I don't know. It's like the thing I dread the
most is going to birthday party. And that sounds really weird.
But I don't think I'm alone in that.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
No, I would see you probably aren't.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Yeah. Yeah, And how many blind parenting groups are you in?
Are you? Are you in a lot of arts? So
are there a lot of blind parent groups for blind parents?

Speaker 4 (59:38):
I'm actually not inn any. I'm a weirdo.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Okay, that's okay, that's weird.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
Yeah, I had started a blind parents like Facebook group
on Facebook, and off, wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
There already be? I mean, I'm sure you would be.
I'm sure you would create a wonderful one, But wouldn't
there already be blind parent groups for blind parents?

Speaker 3 (59:56):
Have cited children.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
When I traded this one. This is a long time.
It's just stagnant.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
There wasn't actually this. Yeah, I'm sure there's tons now,
but this was back when Facebook groups was first kind
of becoming a bigger part of Facebook when I created
that one, and I'm I'm kind of the weird blind girl,
Like I'm not like I have friends that are blind
that I obviously chat with and stay in touch with
and things like that, but in my community and my

(01:00:23):
closest friends, they are cited. It's just kind of how
it worked out. And maybe it's the industry that I
work in because working in voke re Hub, a lot
of the friends that I've made have been through work,
so they have a lot of understanding of my disability
and my needs and not treating me differently because I
have the disability.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Yeah, I don't know, that's that's really interesting. I'm sure though,
that if you wanted to get into blind parenting groups,
I'm sure there's a division. NFB would have some sort
of division. Not that I'm not that I'm a big
NFB or ACB. I'm kind of neutral about that. I'm
neither really, you know, I'm kind of I kind of

(01:01:04):
hover between those two organizations really and see all the
stuff they put out. But I'm sure that NFB has
a blind parent group.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
I positively do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
After all, they have NOOPBC, which I'm in that and
so is my mother National Organization and Parents of Blind Children.
So here's kind of a question that I've never asked. So,
given that your son is cited correct, Yes, So I
have what has been like the craziest question that like
maybe a friend of your son has asked you about

(01:01:35):
being a blind person, Like do little kids like I've
never really given it any thought, but like, do little
kids like notice that you're like the blind mom, And
do they ever like ask questions like good questions about blindness?

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Like do they ever think of good questions to ask you?

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Tony? Kids are pretty oblivious sometimes because they're in their
own world doing their own activities. Like they'll come to
me and be like Trey's mom, can you look at this?
And I'm like, hey, dude, my eyes don't like lately
you guys, Oh yeah, okay, but they just don't.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Because that's sweet.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
I think that's good. That's actually encouraging.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Yeah, I'm not like using my cane in my house,
you know. And even my nephews they'll forget. They'll be
like Auntie, Serena, look at this, look at this, and
I'm like, you got to explain it to me. Guys,
like I can't see it you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
That's you know what I think. I think that shows
that you're very well adjusted to having RP. And I
don't mean that in an insensitive way at all. I
think that you're very I think you're very comfortable in
your own skin with RP. And I think that's that
that that's a good thing. Actually to show that they
actually don't really notice the blindness and are oblivious to it.
That shows that it's not really that. That shows me

(01:02:44):
that your blindness doesn't disable you and it doesn't define you.
So I think that's a compliment. I think that's very
sweet and very good. But after they do notice that
you're blind, do they still ever ask you questions like
do they ever want to? Do little kids wonder about
that or not at all?

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
Like so can you see me? Can you you know,
like you know, the things like that. But it's I
just the only question I remember, and I don't even
know was in my twenties when I got this question,
And it wasn't a young adult. I think it was
another individual with a different disability than my own. And
I was at the bus stop and I had glasses
back then because they did help at least stabilize my
eyes a little bit and not have so much astigmatism

(01:03:21):
and things like that. And I had my cane and
she looked at me and then she was like, if
you're blind, why are you wearing glasses?

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
But that's good, So why don't we explain? Right, it's
cute to laugh about it, but why don't we explain that?

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
Right? Why don't you explain it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Because that's that's actually a really hard thing for people
to understand. So definitely explain it. Why do we wear glasses?

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
Literally, only ten percent of individuals that have you know,
that are considered quote unquote we'll say legally blind. I
don't really like that term. I don't know why, but
see like nothing at all. The rest they see maybe
like is that that perception object perception or detection whatever
they call it. Or maybe they're low vision and can

(01:04:07):
you know, read print but it's large print but we
can't drive, or you know, there's just such a spectrum
of the different levels of vision loss, like some might
lose their central vision, others might lose their peripheral like me,
There's just it's so many different things and so many
different eye conditions, and sometimes glasses are even for protective

(01:04:27):
because of sensitivity, Like there's just so many different things
arin you know that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Yeah, that's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
So the answer in case it wasn't clear, and it's
really hard for people to get it. Blindness is a spectrum,
you know. That's why I think with other health conditions
and other disabilities and other abilities, other abilities that have
less of a spectrum don't have this whole spectrum issue
that blindness has. You know, blindness is a beast because

(01:04:53):
of the spectrum, because of the variability, and with other things,
although there's certainly variability, and I'm sure we'll get a
lot of creative comments about this, but other disabilities certainly
have variables and variability, but blindness is tremendously variable.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Yeah, what did you have to do? I'm just curious, like,
what did you have to do?

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Back to your work in order to become a voke
rehab counselor, Like when you were taking classes about that,
Like when you were learning from lecturers and professors about
voke rehab and you know, what is the attitude that
they portray in the university setting to other people who
are cited about blind people?

Speaker 3 (01:05:32):
What are some of the social things you're noticing that they're.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Portraying that's actually really interesting. So when I got my master's,
I got it. I think graduated in twenty eleven. I
want to say I did it online mostly, And then
there is a couple of in person like seminar kind
of things over the summers and when you're going through
the rebilitation Counseling degree. It's kind of just trying to

(01:05:58):
think of the word like you learn a lot, but
it's not like it's not like how it actually is.
When you get your first state vocation.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
What are you doing? What are you doing? Just click and.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):
Learn. You learn a lot about like meta class mesic
disabilities and like counseling theories and career counseling theories and
system technology and things like that, but the way that
you practice it and learn about it in school, it's like, Hey,
this is a fifty two year old male. He had
a tramatic brain injury, and that's it. Like that's the
only disability he has. In the real world, when you're

(01:06:34):
working with people, it's rare that they have just the
one disability. There's there's a factor that it's maybe he's
got the traumatic brain injury and a hearing loss and
some PTSD because of the traatic brain injury. Like there's
just so many different things that all intermingles that they

(01:06:55):
don't quite teach in school. It's also theoretical there and
then you get in the real world of this is
what I'm going to be doing for my work, and
you know, you learn it in your internship and your
practicum and you're like, okay, this is very different. They
also don't teach you a lot of how to work
with youth, which was my specialty. I loved working with
young adults. I still do. And the expectation that the

(01:07:19):
young adults they're going to change their mind like one
hundred times and that's okay. They're going to lose their
jobs sometimes that's okay. Like we're here to support them.
We're here to give them that safe place to try
and fail. They don't talk a lot about transition stuff
and the master's program, which hopefully that changes. I mean,
like I said, I graduated, like you know, fourteen years ago,
and that was before pre employment transition services. But now

(01:07:43):
half of the people that we serve are twenty four
a younger. Like, that's a lot in Colorado to be
serving that many that are twenty four younger, and we
have to have those skills to work with younger adults.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
So I mean it really great.

Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
I learned a lot about a lot, but it's different
in practice. Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
The fact that you're having to provide services to people
that are younger, these young.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Adults, well that's that should be a clue.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
That we're not doing. I mean, I'm glad you're providing services.
I would I mean, I've dealt with let me put
it to you, and you can read between the lines,
no pun intended. You can read between the lines when
I tell you I've dealt with a variety of counselors. Okay, period,
next sentence, I would be I would be honored and
very pleased to have you as a counselor because I

(01:08:31):
can tell that you truly care and that you would
truly provide the services and truly truly have a vested interest.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
But I think though that a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Of people, unfortunately, you know, my opinion and my experience
has been that a lot of people who get into
booke rehab get into it just because it's something to do.
They don't they don't truly, they don't always care.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
The way that you do.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
And I think the fact that you care so much
about the youth is is really important, and you're right
it is because it's it's the future.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I am so certainly not a doctor, and I never
will be a doctor, but if I was, I would
certainly be a pediatrician. I would take care of children,
because that's certainly the most important, right the future is
always the most important. So that's that says a lot
right there, you know, definitely, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
That's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
So you had to do like a practicum, like like
an exercise to prove that you know enough to be
a counselor.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
So what do you have to do for your practicum.

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
Where the prodcum and the internship are basically the same
for me? Okay, So it's just when I started working
back when I started working for DVR in Colorado, you
could actually be hired on as a full time employee
with eighty five percent of your degree done and be
hired on like as a full counselor as long as you,
you know, finish your degree. So I did my internship

(01:09:50):
and practicum was essentially my first year of like actual work,
like I was a full counselor. So it was It
was very eye opening because I had a case load
eight thing. I was a regular employee, but it was
still counting as my internship for my schooling. But they
were one in the same from just all together.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
Okay, okay, so what did you specifically do during your internship.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
I was a full fledged counselor, so I had a
caseload with high school students or people who were not
really high school students. They had just exited high school,
so young adults usually about twenty five or younger back then,
kind of at twenty to twenty five age range, and
I would help coordinate services for them. I had a
lot of students going to college, so helping support them

(01:10:35):
make sure they had the financial funding that they needed.
But then also this is a technology and advocacy that
they needed to be able to be successful. I remember
when I first started, I took over the caseload, and
this was years later. One of my favorite clients looked
at me and was like, when you first started, I
didn't trust you because you looked like you were like fifteen,

(01:10:56):
and I just didn't think you knew what you're doing.
But now look where I'm at, and I'm just so
thankful for you, and it's just like, okay, so cool.
But I just I don't know what it is about
young adults. I just love, love working with them when
they're that young, to help them realize their dreams, you know,
before they're fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
You know, Yeah, except there's one problem. Then when they're fifty,
then they have the crisis, and then they have to
come back to you.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
So don't worry, they'll.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Be back, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think a lot
of people are afraid to talk to a counselor. And
I think the fact that our society is where it
is shows me that there's not enough counseling, is what
it shows. It shows that we really need your agencies.
You're in Colorado, but we really need book rehab in
all states to be supported, and we need this support

(01:11:40):
very badly obviously. Yeah yeah, So and what are some
of your crazy hobbies? You're obviously a character. You come
across as a very fun and upbeat person. So what
do you like to do when you're not working. You
spend time with your family, but what else? What are
some hobbies you like to do?

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Not a big hobby. I really really really like shopping.
It's like I'm I'm a typical girl. I love shopping.
And then, like I said at the beginning, I love
doing it's extremely freelance, the audio description, quality control, Like,
I just love doing that. It's it's really fun. But yeah, shopping,
you know, I'm I'm I'm not that deep. So like

(01:12:25):
I like fashion, I like makeup, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Okay, all right, cool? Cool sounds good, sounds good. I
have to I have to wonder, have to ask, So
what other?

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
How many other podcasts have you been on over the years?
Who else have you connected with around our great community?

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
You might know I was on Blind Abilities a lot
with Jeff Thompson. We did tech abilities.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
Do you know you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Let me let me tell you. Knew that I was
gonna make a statement. I didn't know that, But now
that I know what, I'm going to make a statement.
I have been trying to get Jeff Thompson to come
to Aaron's opinion. And each time a guest says that
they talked to Jeff Thompson and they were on his show,
I say the same sentence over and over again, and
the dream has never come true. So okay, here we go,
try again, get on for you blindy girl, can you

(01:13:12):
tell Jeff Thompson that Aaron's opinion would absolutely be honored
to interview blind abilities period.

Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
I will bother him. I will. I will bother him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
I will. I would a I love his accent, I
love the way he talks. Blind abilities is a great product.
It's it's They're great. I would love to sit philosophize
with him for an hour, hour and a half like this.
I would love it if he would be if he'd
come to the show, I really would. How did you
get in touch with him? I'm just like, how did you?
How did you get how did he find out about you?

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
How you found me? It was back in the day
when Twitter was, you know, way more active. Pron well
back then it was Twitter. That's how long ago, Jeff
and I can't even tell you how many years it's been,
but that he reached out to me and said, do
you want to come on the show, And then we
started doing like tech stuff, and then we started doing

(01:14:02):
some job podcasts and things like that. It's been a
little while since we recorded. I'll have to get back
with them. But yeah, it was through Twitter.

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
Just that simple.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
Okay, yeah, Well, since it's that simple, blinding girl. Go
back to X and say, Hey, Jeff X at.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
App blindabilities whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
I don't know what their handle is, but at whatever
it is, hey come to Aaron's opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:14:27):
He's on X two. Talk to him.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
I will definitely hit him on so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
That's who else?

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Who else have you have you interacted with over the
years that I would know or maybe not know?

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
Well, do you watch like audio description shows and know
some of the narrators and things?

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
In other words, are you asking if I know some
of the narrators who provide audio description for shows that
are for sighted people?

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Some a little bit? But I don't know who else? Though?

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Who else have you talked to like maybe I would
know or not know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
I'm really close with Royce Danielson, I call my he
was a connection actually through Jeff Thompson.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
He's an absolute the business. Yeah, I would love.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
To get him on the show. I bet I could
get that for you. I'm more confident in roy than Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
You're being You're not supposed to say that out loud.
You're being on a podcast, you're killing You're not supposed
to say that.

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Oh, I really do think roy would probably I'm I'm
an open book. I'm an open book, so I do.
I've been on podcasts with Roy before too. He has
one called the a DNA Podcast where he interviews the
audio description related things. Yeah, I'm on the one he
just released. Me. Actually never knew he.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
I never knew I know, so I don't know him personally.
I know of the guy. I've heard the name. I
never knew. See, I never knew he had a podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
That's incredible. I need to know. That's really good.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
Yeah, it's the Audio description Network Alliance is the title
that it's all under. And like I said, he just
released one. It kind of has a really cool announcement
on it. I'm just gonna leave it at that. But
but just something really cool that I'll get to participate
in on a panel in July.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
Oh, that's really cool San Diego.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
I'll just say that it's in July. I'm doing it virtually,
but it's at a very big thing that happens in
July in San Diego.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Uh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
Yeah, that's really cool. That's super cool.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
All right, who else have you talked to around the world?

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
Fran Fischler back in the day, because we used to
do that Blind Tech show. Mm hmmm, that might be
about it. I can't and I don't think there's any
other podcasts they've been Oh I have, I can't remember.

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
That's really interesting, really really fun. I'm also sure.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
As we walk towards the end, not the end, but
towards the end of a beautiful conversation to which you've
given me an absolutely Oh actually wait wait, let me
let me let me remind myself again. So so, anyway,
so I understand that I understand that that you do laundry,
which is a good thing to do, and I understand
while you're doing laundry you listen.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
To Aaron's opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
So what I'm just curious, So what have you absorbed
from my content that you've listened to.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
I literally listened to part of the one you just
released with I forgot her name from Romania.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Oh yes, she's incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
But I just started it and I was just like, man,
is Aaron an auctioneer? Because the way that you can
rattle off your like intro, I was like, that's really impressive,
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
What's your what's your intro? Or like, what's your slogan
that that you like to say?

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
About about you? What's what? What's your thing that you'd
like to say?

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
The thing I say all the time is that I'm
an audio description snob that you will see everywhere. Oh,
I must about it. I really, yes, very proud to be.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Oh okay, I just generated in my brain. I'm not
going to tell you what it is, but I just
generated a perfect title. That's cool that you're an audio
description snob.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
I like, yes, I'm very particular about it. But that's
why it's a good thing. I do quality control for it, right,
I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:18:13):
I don't know. I don't know. I don't I didn't
know that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
They only hired snobs for quality. I didn't know you
could get snob in quality. That's still that's cute. Okay,
So Serena, as we always like to say, though, if
you blind, now you can ask it from the perspective
of either blinding girl, which for the record, we had
Aaron's opinion. We salute that name and don't ever say

(01:18:35):
anything unkind on those Facebook pages, because you know what,
I'm discovering that this this blindy go this this Serena
Gilbert's a really nice person, so we we really love
you in the community. People should be nicer. If you
can ask me, Aaron Richmond, only one question now to
really make me sweat, to see if I'm worth my
salt as a podcaster, What do you want to know

(01:18:55):
about me?

Speaker 4 (01:18:58):
Well, okay, this is cliche, but I really am interested
in it. If you could interview anyone that are alive
on your podcast, who would.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
Be dead one?

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
Let's start with the let's well, you only get one dead?

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
Oh oh it's oh, it's not it's not a multiple guessing.

Speaker 1 (01:19:17):
Oh no, it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:19:18):
No, the only one.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
Yeah, I mean, I would.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
Say it's hard because it's hard for a good reason,
because there's so many wonderful creators it's hard to pick one.
The answer I would give is that I would love
to interview. The people that I love interviewing are people

(01:19:42):
like you, people who are real people who really show
me that they care and are kind and truly care
and truly connect and truly plug in you know. So
those are the types of people that I want my
corner like you, those are the types. But people who
really want to be here. I'll tell you, I only
we really want to interview people who really want to
be interviewed.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
So if you don't.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
If somebody in the future really doesn't want to be interviewed,
that's fine, but I really don't want to interview them either,
you know. So that's kind of my philosophy about life,
is that if you really want to be here, I'll
listen to you. If you really don't, that's okay, And
that's kind of my philosophy.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Yeah, although you kind of weaseled
out of it a little bit, I'm just going to say.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Well, I kind of have to weasel because, you know why,
because I want to give the world the impression, which
is a true impression, that everybody's welcome.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
If we start naming people, then that actually makes other
people feel unwelcome.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
And I've been made you see.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
The reason why I intentionally weaseled is because I've been
made to very recently. I'm not going to tell you
what it is because I'm past it now, but I
was in fact made to be felt. I have been felt,
have been Other people have made me felt or other
people don't even explain it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:04):
Other people have made me.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
Other people have given me the idea that I'm not welcome,
and I really don't like being hurt. That way. So
that's kind of why I really want people to be
comfortable talking to me. I really want to have conversations
and I really want people to be comfortable and welcomed.
And that's a very subtle thing that I fully believe intrinsically.

(01:21:29):
So yeah, that's that's that's me as a person.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
There's nothing we're feeling like you're not welcome in a
place that you're going to, and especially truly or digitally.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
Especially considering how much I care about the community and
what a vested interest I actually have in the podcast space,
you know, especially that that really you know that really
that really traumatizes people. You know, you'd be surprised. I
mean you know this, but you'd be surprised to know
that when people are when people are hurt in that
way and feel that they're unwelcome, that really does affect

(01:22:02):
people very much. So yeah, that's really really, really fascinating.
If someone wants to get in touch with either a
Serena Gilbert or a Blinding Girl, how can those people
be reached?

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
I am most active on Facebook. Like we talked, I
would say, connect with me on Facebook. It's Blindy Girl
spells a little different b L. I n d y
g I r L. I also have an Instagram. It's
at blindy Girl Official. Someone took blindy Girl. I don't
know who that is, but it's blind Girl Official is
my Instagram YouTube is also a blindy Girl. I don't.

(01:22:43):
I do have like my personal profile on Facebook, but
I prefer that you connect with me on my my
blindy Girl.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Cool cool, absolutely, and we'll certainly talk coff here about
these things. But we'll definitely give each other a follow
over there and I'll definitely see what's going on on
your on your Instagram. You notice that the Instagram was
not quite giving you the the push that Facebook has,
so but no, we'll still get connected on the on
the socials.

Speaker 4 (01:23:07):
Absolutely don't do TikTok, though I have a TikTok and
it's I struggle with putting content on a platform.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
I mean, it's all, yeah, it's a little weird, it's
it's all very similar. It's nothing, it's with everything you've
already accomplished. TikTok would not be out of your wheelhouse.
It's it's not anything too complicated. It's just at this
point I would say that if you feel the pull
towards Facebook, just keep on doing what's working, is what
I'm going to say, because then with TikTok you have

(01:23:34):
to build up the following and it's a little bit well,
that's another environment. TikTok is like another another another environment
kind of, but it's very similar to Instagram and it's
very similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, all right, don't hang
do not please, don't hang up. I don't want to
talk to you for just another minute. But Serena, Serena,

(01:23:56):
blindy girl. It's been an absolute honor and pleasure to
welcome you to the Aaron's Opinion family, the family and
the podcast where you and other blind people are forever welcome.
I want you to understand that Aaron's Opinion welcomes you.
You are, you are forever welcome, and you're you'll never lose.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
My support because you're doing the right thing.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
So thank you so much, and no one can ask
you to come back right.

Speaker 3 (01:24:19):
Say it again? What I didn't catch it?

Speaker 4 (01:24:20):
What I said? You know, I'm going to ask you
to come back on, like, we'll love to think of
some cool topics. But I you're awesome to just chat with.
So this is probably my last time chatting with you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:30):
Oh so wait a minute. So that's pretty good. So
in other words, you want to come back to my
podcast so that you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
Can talk to me about the stuff you want to.

Speaker 4 (01:24:38):
Talk about, the endless topics erin.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
That's so cute.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
That's because usually the other person would have a podcast
and they would they would invite they would, they would
invite me to their podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
I know, so you'll invite yourself back.

Speaker 4 (01:24:54):
Yes, I'm just inviting myself back. That's how I go. Yeah,
that's how I roll.

Speaker 3 (01:24:58):
That's adorable. So that's other podcasters. I yes, you can
come back for one for another. That is so cute.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
So you're basically bumming off my podcast. So you want
to you wanna be, you want to be, you want
to bum off my podcast. So so you're so you
don't want to do the resoarch to create your own,
but you want to bum off of mine. Yeah, I
love it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
Well, I should warn you that I think you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
Should create your own because you have a bigger audience
than me, So I think you should work with me
to create your own thing.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
Okay, all right, so much you know this.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
That's that's a blast. That's that's absolutely adorable. I loved
talking to you. Absolutely all right, well, absolutely wonderful pleasure
to have you on the show, and of course connect
with her, as she says, click the link in the description,
and of course, seriously, blinding Girl, You're forever welcome on
Aaron's Opinion. And until next time, everybody, keep creating all

(01:25:56):
that great content out there, and until next time, trust me,
there is a next time. Until then, help one person today,
help one million people tomorrow. You've been listening to Serena
the audio snob right here on Aaron's Opinion podcast, the
podcast for blind people where we speak about critical issues

(01:26:18):
in the blindness community and all other issues from across
the universe, and Galley a great job. Will get to
in a moment, Blindy Girl. One two four zero six
eight one nine eight six nine one two four zero
six eight one nine eight six nine Aaron's Opinion six
at gmail dot com. A A R O N S
O B I N I O N six. That's the
number six. Aeron's Opinion six at gmail dot com. Don't

(01:26:38):
forget about joining the WhatsApp community and Facebook group Aaron's
Opinion podcasting community. Don't forget about following along on Instagram
at Aaron's.

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
Opinion and all of that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Don't forget to like, follow and write a review of
the Facebook page Aaron's Opinion podcast. Remember, the only way
for others to find out about the important work we're
doing here at Aaron's Opinion is for you at home
to and rate and review, rate and review.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
That's the kind thing to do.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
And don't forget. We don't care where you're listening to
us from. Just as long as you're downloading the episodes
and enjoying them, that's really all that matters. And of
course we want to take this time though to thank
our top three countries in the download contest. United States,
Thank you, Canada, thank you Serbia. Thank you as always
to all three of those countries. If you want me
to say your country, please well download this and many

(01:27:27):
other episodes of the podcast, So thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:27:29):
Don't forget about following along on of course X.

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
You can even join the Patreon for free and even
occasionally consider joining that TikTok. Actually, let's see, I forget yeah,
blinding girl, Serena's following me on TikTok. We do follow
each other on TikTok. I forget you guys, you at
home out there, shed go check it out. I forget
if she actually sent me. I forget if she tagged

(01:27:54):
me on TikTok or not quite frankly, but she is
on TikTok for sure. But most of what you see
is on her Instagram, where you can just go to
my page or hers and be able to see the
tagg post. That's the power of the technology anyway, to
make a long story short or short story longer, as
I have the habit of doing. Don't forget about following

(01:28:14):
along on X and YouTube aut Aaron's Opinion TV. Don't
forget about liking the video and of course commenting below
and tickling the bell notification and pushing all notifications to
know when we premiered the next video on the channel.
Remember when we premierre the video on the channel, that's
exactly the same time it can be downloaded on Apple podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
So don't forget it, all.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
Right, everybody, Well, I want to basically wrap it up
today by saying, Serena Gilbert, blindy girl.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
You know, no matter what, let me just tell you this.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
I loved that conversation, whether you know, and if you
if you had come to me and said, Aaron, I
have one follower and we had had the conversation we
have we had had, I would have loved the conversation regardless.
You are so easy to talk to, You're so positive,
you're so friendly, and you're just so there, and you

(01:29:05):
just have such a cool way of playing. You're just
you're you're just You're just a great conversationalist. I just
I just loved having you on my show. Oh but oh,
by the way, by the way, I have to confess that,
you know, whether whether you're folding laundry or trying to
bum off someone's podcast, Yeah, I had.

Speaker 3 (01:29:23):
I had to throw in that joke.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
I just I just could not possibly resist because at
the beginning of the interview, you know, she mentioned the
folding laundry while listening to Aaron's opinion, which you know, hey,
you know, okay, some people are overly honest, Okay, all right,
and then she mentioned and then she had the honesty
to admit that she doesn't want to start her own podcast,
she just wants to bum off.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
Of ours to talk. I adored that, I really did.
That's so cute. I think she said.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
I think Serena should start her own podcast and use
her own followers, because she'll have a larger audience than
us here in Eron's Opinion, but I take the compliment.
It was very cute, very sweet. Anyway, anyway, Serena, you
did an absolutely magnificent job and.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
You are forever welcome.

Speaker 1 (01:30:08):
You are forever welcome in the Aeron's Opinion family, no
matter what you're doing when you're listening, or no matter
you know, no matter what, you're forever part of the
Aeron's Opinion family. Don't forget it. And by the way,
I'm going to give you guys a little cliffhanger at
a little clue that Serena kind of gave us a
future guest.

Speaker 3 (01:30:28):
So thank you, Serena.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
When you well, anyway, thank you for giving us a
future guest. And we will certainly be in touch soon
about that matter. So anyway, to make a long story short, Serena,
thank you for being another wonderful guest here on the podcast.
We want to take this time to thank all of
the other guests, or actually all the other podcasters around

(01:30:53):
the network here at Aaron's Opinion. Remember, we technically do
not have a network, but we basically are one because
we have so many other great contributors all over the
universe and galaxy.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
So we want to take this time to say thank
you to all of the other podcasters and radio stations
who continue to syndicate or talk about Aaron's opinion around
the universe and galaxy. We couldn't do it without you.
Thank you to all the guests, past president in future
who continue to share your knowledge of the show and
continue to share your knowledge each week on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
We couldn't do it without you either.

Speaker 1 (01:31:24):
And of course, least but not last, last but not least, However, however,
we like to say it thank you to you, the
listener at home from the United States, Canada, Serbia and
many other countries from across and around the universe and galaxy.
We couldn't do it without you.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
And I know, we know, you know. There are millions of.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
Choices in that podcast catalog, and we thank you for
choosing Aeron's opinion. All Right, that's good for this one,
So there you go. We'll be back soon with another
exciting episode. And I really love that one today. All right,
everybody will take care and certainly go give Blindy girl
some love, because she is a creator that's worth it.

(01:32:04):
She's certainly worth the like she's worth the subscription and
she's absolutely worth worth learning from.

Speaker 3 (01:32:10):
So there you go, all right, everybody, we'll be back soon.

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
And until next time, everybody, keep listening out there, keep podcasting,
and have a wonderful, wonderful day. All right, you're listening
to the Aaron's Opinion podcast. My name is Aaron Richmond.
And until next time. Help one person today, help one
million people tomorrow.

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