The Real Struggles of Dyslexia: Raising Awareness Beyond Flipping Letters

If you're feeling the frustration of being misunderstood and underestimated because of your dyslexia, and it's holding you back from reaching your full potential, then you are not alone!

David Greenberg is the strategic advisor for the Florida Panthers, co-founder of Greenberg Capital LLC, and a business performance coach. His unique experiences and insights bring a fresh angle to our discussions. David's relatable approach and deep understanding of the challenges faced by dyslexics make him a valuable addition to our conversation. With his ability to see the bigger picture and articulate thoughts in a way that resonates, David offers a wealth of knowledge that will undoubtedly strike a chord with our community. We're thrilled to have him on the show, sharing his journey and wisdom with all of you.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Understanding dyslexia experiences and challenges can lead to greater empathy and support for those affected.
• Overcoming adversity and defying expectations showcases the strength and resilience of individuals with dyslexia.
• Exploring the impact of dyslexia on personal and professional success can provide valuable insights for personal growth and career advancement.
• Discovering advancements in medicine, mental health, and learning disabilities offers hope and potential solutions for managing dyslexia.
• Sharing personal stories and raising awareness can inspire positive change and foster a more inclusive society.

Rising above Limitations
We share our personal journeys, highlighting how we've been able to thrive despite our dyslexia and emphasizing the significance of resilience and tenacity. By resisting societal constraints and self-imposed limitations, we've tapped into our inherent abilities and strengths. Our conversation imparts a powerful message of hope and determination, aiming to inspire fellow dyslexics to harness their potential and rise above any obstacles they encounter. Li3: Dyslexia's Impact In this episode, we delve into how dyslexia has played a critical role in shaping our personal and professional success. Drawing from our personal experiences, we demonstrate that, when channeled positively, dyslexia can lead to extraordinary outcomes and unique achievements. The narratives we share serve as evidence of dyslexia's transformative impact, inspiring others to see their own dyslexia not as a barrier but, rather, as a potential springboard to success.

Transcript:

 00:00:01
Welcome to word blindness dyslexia exposed. I am Juliet Hahn. I'm here with my co host, Brent Sopel, and we are here to change the narrative. We want to educate, but we also want you guys to understand what it is like to be dyslexic and how things can change. So join us every week for word blindness dyslexia exposed.

00:00:26
Welcome back to word blindness dyslexia exposed. I'm here with my co host, Brent Sopel. Hello, Brent. Good morning. And we have a really special guest.

00:00:36
So, David Greenberg is the strategic advisor for the Florida Panthers, co founder, Greenberg Capital LLC, and also a business performance coach. And I got to meet David in person. We have a fun story of how we met, introduced, but then we got to meet in person. And the thing that was really fun is that there was another dyslexic. You guys know the listeners.

00:01:01
Hahnny fetty, who is my boss, but also has been on the podcast before. And one of the things that we saw, really cool, David, is that you mentioned a couple times, and I mentioned the fact that there was three dyslexics at the table, and now, again, there's three dyslexics. It was a joke of three dyslexic people. Dyslexic. There we go.

00:01:21
Walk into a blah, blah, you know, so it's like, where's the joke? But actually, it wasn't a joke. We learned a tremendous amount of things and commonalities that in my wildest dreams, I would never have understood. Yeah, David, I heard. I got the update.

00:01:37
Yeah, just what you just said, the commonalities, the connection. I always talk about relatability now with those other two obviously being women. But was there a lot of relatability at that table when you guys were together last week? Oh, yeah. It almost took a little bit of my superpowers out.

00:01:59
I'm like, oh, other people have these. It's like we were talking about, well, no, I'm empathetic and I'm this, and people come to me, and I'm like, it was wild. It was a great feeling to know that there's other people out there like me. It's kind of like I'm a big Star Trek fan. Up when this one alien found the other aliens that were still there, I hadn't seen them, and they thought they were all gone.

00:02:23
So to be at a table where people. And we don't see this enough in life in a lot of areas, and that's why with you, with your hockey background, when you're a bunch of hockey players, you connect in a different way. When I meet traders that used to be on the trading floor that's now extinct, we're like the walking dead, and we meet each other. It's like there's this life that comes back into us. But to be at a table where people just really understood some of the frustrations that you went through in life, because nobody gets it.

00:02:52
Very few people that I've ever met, and I'm not saying in a mean way, nobody gets it. It's just they can't possibly understand. And to sit at a table for an hour and go, wow, I was totally relaxed and at home, which I can't say that I am most of the time when I'm with people. So I think that was a real good takeaway. Well, the listeners will know is, I met you a year ago.

00:03:18
I just turned 47. She's the first person in my life in 46 years I've connected with. No, with those points that you talked about is the dyslexic points, the struggles, the understanding, being misunderstood every single day, it's the hardest thing in the world. So as you being a know, you connect on a surface level of the trading, you're talking about the bell and things that I would never understand. Juliet, we've never been in that pit, but to be able to sit at that table and the three of us to sit here and you said something very key is that you could relax in a way that you've never relaxed before.

00:04:02
Which is why we do this podcast, is why we have individuals like yourself on there that can connect and can let those shoulders down. And you're understood in this world 100%. Yeah. And people, you need that. And it's so funny that especially when you think that you're all alone for.

00:04:23
You're, what, 47 now, right? 47 going on 67. My brain is 77 from all the hockey. So I'm waiting for my handicap sticker to show up here so I can park closer. But we're good.

00:04:35
Yeah, that I understand. But I know I'm getting up to a certain age, which we won't discuss, but it's just so nice to finally, my whole life, you just wonder, and then you meet these people in the desert type of thing, and you're like, okay, you get it. And it's given me a lot of food for thought in the way that I want to handle going forward for the rest of my life and which frustrations and which people I want to be around and which people I don't so it was more than just three people talking at the table. I'm the type of person that really looks inward afterwards and said, what did I get out of it? And how can I become a better human being for myself and others because of it?

00:05:15
And it was a very interesting thought process the past few days.

00:05:22
Can you elaborate on that for the listeners? Because you're right. We talk about her and I all the time, about that connection of how we feel. So what were some of those things that you're internalizing after that conversation with those dyslexics? You don't have to get personal, but just that feeling.

00:05:42
I'm an open. You know, one thing was, we spoke about how we have the ability to see things differently, and this is no better or worse. So I don't want to create, like, a hierarchy type of concept. But I brought up the movie that minority report, when Tom Cruise is sitting there and flipping these things. Yeah, this.

00:06:02
This. And I've seen in other movies the virtual reality in front of them. And that's the way that I found that I've always looked at life and to meet other people that can see the bigger picture, where some people are so caught up in the weeds. Right. And I just think that we have this innate ability.

00:06:17
No different with your hockey. Being able to see the. You could see the field with your field hockey. Okay. I mean, lacrosse.

00:06:25
I'm sorry? Lacrosse. I did both. Okay, good. So I covered myself, me being in the pit.

00:06:32
We looked at life this way, not linear, not in a straight line. So when I talk about three dimensional thinking with my coaching clients and things, it happens to us naturally. And I didn't realize that it happened to us naturally. And walking away from there realized, I want to be around more people that think that way. It was an easier conversation.

00:06:51
It was a more relaxed conversation, and it was a conversation where I talk about time and space and all this other stuff, and people look at me, oh, you're so deep. You're so deep. I'm like, I don't think I'm that deep. I'm just looking at what's really out there. There's more than just TikTok, Instagram, and the linear things of what we see in life.

00:07:13
And if you really look at space and time and everything else, you realize, hey, there's a lot to talk about, and there's a lot to learn more than just what exists on a simple plane. And that's kind of what I felt, because the conversation went so deep so quickly, and nobody looked at me I didn't feel like anybody looked at me like, oh, here we go again. You get into this deep mode, and he's doing this and he's with that. It was just like, give me more. And it's like we were almost, like, hungry people talking to each other, and we were feeding each other with the thoughts that we were talking about and were able to express in a way that I didn't have to repeat it two or three times.

00:07:49
People didn't look at me like, what the heck is this guy talking about? And the look in their eyes and the look in my eye, no pun intended, the look in my eye that I was like, yeah, she gets it. So it was nice. It was a very unique and enjoyable experience. I love that so much.

00:08:08
And, David, the thing that's so cool is that you see Brent and I, and we talk about this whenever we have a guest on. I always have this silly smile on my face, and if someone's watching this back at YouTube, sometimes we're talking about hard stuff and I have this stupid grin on my face. But it's because of that connection, and what you said is so true, because we've all been in situations where we're talking to a group of people and it doesn't flow as well, and you don't feel that deep connection. But when you're talking to people that understand because they've been through similar things, as you said, it's just comfortable. And it's because there's the understanding, and that's what we want to do in the dyslexic world.

00:08:46
We have really big goals, and I know we're going to hit, but doing this, just starting with the conversation and starting with the stories that we can share with each other, I just had someone reach out to me and say about yesterday or last week's episode and said, thank you for bringing up about when you have two parents and one parents are divorced, and there's a kid that's dyslexic, and she's like, I totally felt seen and heard, and it was her situation that we were just talking because of another situation. So it's, again, these relatable conversations that we can have with each other that are so comfortable because there's also no judgment, right? Because we were the kid in class that was trying to hide or try to get away lazy, and that we were this. And I'm like, no, I've read it five times. Not sticking in there.

00:09:38
And it's interesting. You bring up this thing about flow, which I didn't even understand it until this person I met about a year and a half ago. I was talking to her. I'm like, listen, I don't get it. I can't write a paragraph.

00:09:50
You put me to ask me to write a paragraph of my thoughts or a sentence. I can't do it. But when I get up and lecture, I can talk for 2 hours without notes. And by the way, I don't remember, like, any tv interview I did, any CNBC or Fox, whatever. You're like, how do you do?

00:10:03
I'm like, I don't know. And I would go and I would look at the video and the who knew? Who knew? I knew that. And it would just come out, and I would do these two hour lectures and I would have to look at them again.

00:10:17
And then I was thinking, am I crazy? It was like, do I have a brain tumor? Is there something going on? And then she looked at me, she says, no, you speak in flow. It's actually a term about when you can speak from one topic to a topic to a topic.

00:10:29
Like my friend said, I can talk to an empty chair for an hour and someone make it interesting. But that concept of flow made me realize that the dyslexia, where it held me back in writing and in reading and in a lot of other things, that my brain established another form of getting by. And that form was be able to. That form was be able to talk, to present and to get my thoughts out where I could never do it in a paragraph or in a sentence or, God forbid, anything longer in school. But you put me up in front of the class and I could just blow everybody else away with the story and have it really melt in their head about, with the description and everything else.

00:11:12
And I think that's something that, it's interesting that I think we found at that meeting, too, that we all had flow. We could have spent another two days if they would have brought food and maybe a bed, take a nap in. Just. We only touched the tip of the surface of what we could have spoken about. And when you have three people, two of you, that knew each other so well, that could be intimidating for somebody to walk in, which it wasn't for me, because I sat down and immediately it wasn't that two on one.

00:11:41
It was just, we're just a bunch of people talking about something in common. And it was truly a remarkable experience. That's me also. I can stand people. Like, I've done commencement speeches, I've got in front of hundreds and thousands of people what are you going to say?

00:11:57
I'm like, I have no idea. No clue? No. What are you going to do in this interview? No clue.

00:12:04
What are you going to do? No clue. We're walking into a group. I'm going to. Speech is like, what are you talking about?

00:12:09
I'm like, once I get up there, I'll just take it. Yeah. And my way is, I'll see where they take it. Because whenever I speak, it's not about me. Like you said, it's an open book.

00:12:26
I will talk. Whatever question. I'll give you an example of when I spoke at boys school here in south side of Chicago last year, kid raised his hand, 750 boys, he goes, how do you get people to like me? All right, now we're down a completely different path. If he asks about drugs and alcohol.

00:12:44
So there's nothing scripted. They dictate where I can go. But I'm the same as you. Oh, wow. Where'd that line come from?

00:12:51
I didn't know that. But you know what's really cool is this is what. And I was just talking to someone about this yesterday because I think, David, we touched on that, and Brent knows that I touch on that. There's so many times where I do the same thing and someone will say, can you repeat that? And I'm like, no, I actually can't because it just comes.

00:13:05
I said, it's almost like an outer body, really? And it's really wild. But then you listen back and you're like, I nailed that. I'm so good, right? Because you're like, I can't believe.

00:13:16
But you know what you're talking about. And I was literally talking to someone about this yesterday because I've done a lot of deep diving since I've been doing the podcast. And it all stems back from figuring out how to be seen or not seen in the classroom. So I figured out 100%. It became a defense mechanism, then became my superpower because I tried, okay, if I speak, a teacher looks at me different, or I can get my friend to help me in this way, but okay, that teacher, I can't.

00:13:44
So I need to hide. And this teacher, this is what I bring it. My kid is the same exact way, and it's fascinating now, watching him navigate things. And again, it's such a positive thing. And so when I was talking to this gentleman yesterday, he's like, wow, I never thought about that.

00:13:58
And I was like, well, that's one of the things I used to do with my storytelling clients. Go back to when you were young and figure out how you learned, but how you also showed up in the classroom, how did you stand out, and how did you hide when you wanted to? And if you think about those different things, sometimes you could think about the skills that you learned without even realizing you learned them. And so that's where I became a master communicator, because I got the good feels from adults when I talked, and then I had to do papers and stuff like that. That's when I got the shitty feels where I got what you're not trying focus.

00:14:30
If you just put a little effort like you do on the field, this would be so much better. And so those kind of situations when we go introspective and we think about those things and not a lot of people do it. And it's not just a dyslexic ADHD thing, but I think we are very good at doing it once we start. Healing well, because we've always had to look inward and say that we might have an issue and then we're okay with that. But I'll tell you an interesting thing about just an interesting story.

00:14:58
So when I was going into 10th grade, 11th and twelveth grade, I went to a private school up in Connecticut, and my grades weren't that good, so they gave me a psycho vowel beforehand. So this woman gives me a whole vowel because they're like, why is your iq here and your grades down here? And so I literally found it when I was 50 in a box somewhere when I was moving. And what she had written was, he will get by in life and excel because of his verbal skills, of being able to connect with people and listening all the things we just listed. However, he will suffer grade wise.

00:15:35
But you should take a chance on this guy, meanwhile, okay? And I call up and I'm like, hi, is this Dr. Quinlan? I'm like, yeah. I said, what's your email?

00:15:47
I want to send you something, and then I'm going to ask you to do something. So I send it to her, and I said, I want you to google me, okay? And I said, you made a difference. I said, because if you didn't see this in me, I would not have gotten into that program. And you nailed it.

00:16:05
Every one of those lines about my verbalness and my ability to connect with people and the way that I handle people is going to surpass what I can do in school and for them to give me a shot. And I said, in all that thing that you see on the Internet, I go, I owe it to you. And she just hysterically broke down. She's like, no one's ever done this for me before. She goes, and I have to tell you, I was a 20 something year old kid when I wrote that.

00:16:29
I thought I was right. I said, but you were right. And to make her day like that, and I just wanted her to know that, to me, life's all about making a difference in other people's lives. That's the greatest gift that I feel when I give or I can do. It's not money, it's not any power, it's not any other stuff.

00:16:47
Been there, done that, got the t shirt. But to see that this lady nailed it and the fact that we're still doing it right now and that we're bringing it to the next generation of saying, listen, you might not be doing that well in school, you might be struggling, and you might not be able to do math. For my board packets that were supposedly confidential for the exchange, I would give it to my accountant. I'm like, you need to go over that. These numbers are popping all over the place.

00:17:13
I don't get it. And then we'd write notes, and I'd go in and I'd look like a superstar. But you learn to work around these things, and I think that what you guys are doing is tremendously great. Well, that's absolutely amazing that you reached back out to her, that you were able to connect with her and tell her that story. It was amazing that you had her.

00:17:43
I never had that person. Juliet is my first person that I've ever had that. So thank God that happened in your twenty s, and we're able to be here and have this conversation, and that's what my goal is. 16. Thank God that somebody noticed me.

00:18:04
And that's what I want. Never words. I never want a dyslexic dysgraphic to calculate an ADHD kid from here moving forward, never not to be seen. That's why a few taglines, the foundation. You're not alone.

00:18:24
That's what I want, to grow this to a world level where there is never a kid feeling the way you do, or where Juliet did, or what I did when I was standing grade nine and getting laughed at and taking 46 years to have somebody to understand me and connect. So we're grateful that you are here and sharing that, because that's a pretty powerful story. It is. And you know what? And David, totally.

00:18:53
I absolutely love that. And I love that you. But again, that's where your empath, right? You wanted to show her, hey, you made a difference. And so many people need to do that.

00:19:01
Go know, Montgomery just got. He just committed. I'm not going to go into detail because we're signing the paper, but I said to him, you need to go back to a couple of the orthopedics, right? That helped you when you fractured. Go back and just let them know where you are and let them know.

00:19:16
Go back to Southport and let them know where you are because that means something to them. Like, hey, you made a difference in my life and more people need to do that. And I remember when I first met Brent, I said to like, did you have the person? My parents were that person. I had friends were that people.

00:19:32
I think my siblings were those people that saw something in me that lifted me. But Brent didn't have that. And what I became fascinated. And I think we've talked about this on a couple different podcasts now, especially with the one we did with Stephen Key, is like, Brent went right into the league, right? So that was where his, this is your path.

00:19:51
But we had to kind of figure it out. And me being a female, I know women will get pissed at this, but I married my husHahnd, he was doing successful, I could stay home, right? So it wasn't like I had to be the breadwinner. But as men, it's still a societal thing, is that you're the breadwinner. And so if you're struggling at something for Brent being like, when I get out of the league, what am I going to do?

00:20:15
That always was on his back. And that kills me that someone wasn't there. Like, you do have skills, you have other things that you can. Good, let's build them up, let's look at them, let's explore them, because every professional athlete is going to go into the real world. That is inevitable, right?

00:20:33
Their career is going to be over. And we need to have those tools because of ones that are learning disability. But maybe they don't even know. And it's like, let's everyone. And that's what I always want people to hear on this.

00:20:45
If you see something in someone, tell them, I really think this is great. I see this skill in you, and it's pretty amazing, right? And to carry that one step further about how as a male dealing with this, we were also not allowed to be upset about it. We were not allowed to be frustrated about it. We were not allowed, technically, to have any bad emotions about it because guys are not supposed to cry.

00:21:09
They're not supposed to suck it up, step up to the plate and stop fucking complaining. Right? So you put that on top of it, because all I heard was, you're lazy. You're this. I'm like, no.

00:21:21
Somebody once said to me, a teacher once said, listen, if you concentrate on your work as much as you concentrate on girls, you do great. I'm like, no, the girls were easy. That was easy. People was nice to go out for dinner and pizza. That wasn't a problem.

00:21:35
But reading that thing and remembering it the next day and then having to look at a word and then realizing, no, it spells something. Did I spell it right? And then going back and forth and going, no, actually, it is spelled right. But I couldn't trust my spelling on certain things. And now, even now, I have the screen that I can zoom in and I'm like.

00:21:55
And the letters are literally flipping back and forth sometimes. And we were brought up in a time where you're not allowed to just say, listen, I'm having a rough time, and ask for help. I'm happy to see that. We've progressed since then. We've progressed.

00:22:11
We got a long ways to go. Like I said, I called the documentary here to change world because that's my goal. Hockey was just a stepping stone to be able to give me a platform to get in front of the people, to grow this, to change world, to fight the people's making money off kids that are struggling. I don't care. I take punches every day.

00:22:40
You don't get necessary for no reason. So I'm ready to continue to do that. It's a start. We got a long ways to go, but I'm determined to change this world before, you know, leave this world. That's where we all have that one thing in we.

00:22:56
And we kind of laugh, David, because it's like we keep tumbleweeding dyslexics through word blindness, but then also just from talking to others, right? And it is that relatability that is so important and really in anything, right? When you're a new mom, it's like, okay, it's nice to have someone else that understands if you're a new dad, same thing. Like, my wife has gone a little crazy, but then your friend's like, oh, so is mine, okay, I'm not alone, right? There's things happening, and it is talking about it, and that's what we're making, okay.

00:23:27
To talk about it, because, as Brent said, no one wants to go through what we went. Actually, we talked about this last week, but I reconnected with a friend from high school, and he actually said to me, I thought you were one of the smart kids. And he was dyslexic, and he didn't realize I was dyslexic. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And we just had this crazy kind of back and forth.

00:23:45
And he's like, all you want to do is hide. You don't want anyone to know. And that is so true. And I said to him, I guess we didn't talk about it because I was ashamed. I didn't know that he wasn't good in school.

00:23:55
It was one of these things I'm like, when I was a freshman, I had a teacher ask me if I was retarded in front of the entire class because I had to read out loud and I messed up. I guess it wasn't something that I went back and said to this friend, yeah, my teacher called me retarded because it's not something you want to live. And so having that connection where we know adults now can make a difference in these kids, where it doesn't happen, where they can say, I am dyslexic. I'm struggling and be able to have that voice because of the platform that we are creating and what Brent has done with the Brent sopal foundation and continue to grow that, because that is what is important and that's what is needed. Yeah.

00:24:33
And the way that I look at it, know, it's funny, we've all been that kid in class that figured out which paragraph they're supposed to read and praying that we weren't off by the paragraph to get ready for it, and then take that deep breath and hopefully it doesn't screw up. But the way that I look at this is that. And I always screwed up because I would count, because then they had somebody. No, you read another one, Charlie. And I'm like, no, he's only supposed to be one.

00:25:01
That one was a short one. And I get the long one. And then, God, I remember those days. I still remember that part of that process that we're doing is not letting them feel like victims and not letting them feel bad about it, but empowering them to let them know that the leadership that we can teach them is by getting over. And there's always a solution, and it's not hopeless.

00:25:26
And that's the message that I get out to people and things when we're dealing, when I'm coaching them and I'm working on different areas, and some of them are dyslexic, some is just insecurity, some of them are other things. And we're performance anxiety or anything. But the point is that you're not a victim. It's up to you to take a breath to realize that truly exists. And now let's figure out what we can do about it.

00:25:49
Because I always start my speeches at my lectures that how did a c student from Syracuse University that has a two point that I was so low, but how did I achieve what I achieved in life? And that's by never looking at myself as a victim, being grit, determination, and just figuring out a way. And everybody can figure out their own way, but there is a way. Did we talk about this yesterday, Juliet? Me being in AA, going in rehab, and counting the paragraphs, so I had to read.

00:26:21
Yes, we did. We just talked about the paragraph thing yesterday. I wanted to shoot myself.

00:26:29
Question for you. Being a guy that are in that boardrooms and teaching that, because we talk about this all the time. The two women that you met, obviously, Hahnny and Juliet, they're together in boardrooms, and they're able to support each other with ideas. Everybody keeps talking about dyslexia being a superpower. I'm like, you're right, it can be.

00:26:55
But you're not supported in boardrooms. A lot of times that I have found wherever I say something like, what the fuck are you talking about? That might be the dumbest thing ever. You're an idiot. You're stupid.

00:27:08
Because they don't believe there's a second or alternate way of thinking. Now, when you're in those boardrooms, obviously, you being dyslexic, how many people are there? Do you see the light bulb connects? Or how many people look at you when you first say something like, the fuck are you talking about? It's a little bit of a mixture, but if it's a deeper topic, I tend to hit that off in the past.

00:27:35
I said, listen, some of you might think I'm crazy, but I need you to expand your mindset for a second, and I want you to look at it in another way. And I've looked at. You might think I'm nuts, but just take a second and realize that what I'm going to present to you is a different viewpoint of this. Just hear it. Let me know.

00:27:54
And you'd be surprised how many people go, wow. We never thought about it in that direction. So I'm a firm believer if you can cut it off at the past and get there, it's all about mindset. And if you can change their mindset before they even have the thought, they're open, that's why? When people say to you, my kids are like, come sit down.

00:28:13
Oh, God, what I do wrong? I said, who said you did anything wrong? That's their first mindset. So I say to them, I said, listen, you did nothing wrong, but I want to have a conversation with you. And all of a sudden, they don't think that they've done something wrong.

00:28:24
So the walls don't go up. But I do that in business as well. And that's what I teach my clients. It's all how you present something, because there was a long time I didn't present. I was ready, shoot, aim, okay.

00:28:34
And it was just like, it doesn't always work. But I've learned that if you can preface something, it's kind of like kneading the dough right before you start baking. If you can put them in a mindset to start opening their mind up, to think about looking at things differently, most of them will take that moment to look at things differently. You might lose them halfway in if it's whatever, and that's okay. But they're going to give you that first step in, and I'm no longer surprised because it just works so much to see.

00:29:04
People really do want to learn to look at life differently. They've just never had the opportunity to do it because they get into this loop, we call them the loops of doing the same thing every day, the same thought pattern for years, decades, or whatever. And I'm the guy that tends to break people's loops by saying, okay, I know you've always thought about it this way, but just step out. And when I talk about my classes, about three dimensional thinking, so what I'll do is I'll hold up a glass of water and say, well, no, half full, okay, it could be half empty. And then I start listing 34 other things with the water.

00:29:38
And I'm like, you guys only look at this in two dimensions. And I go, you could always take your first thought, throw it to the side, and come back to it. But let's start thinking about this in other ways. And when I explain that in the boardrooms and the meetings, I've actually had very good success in people coming up. Wow.

00:29:53
I never thought about looking at that way. And then those become a lot of my coaching clients because I said, well, wait, do you see what I can do with your whole thought process going forward if you look at it in a multidimensional form? And again, I think that we come by that naturally, but most people are so set in their ways that they. Don'T do you ever say one of your lines? Does that make sense in your meetings?

00:30:16
I sometimes say, I hope that makes sense. There are times I says, does that make sense? And then I'm saying, I'm sure it doesn't make sense, but trust me, let it. Just think about it for a little while. Because sometimes it's so this way, right?

00:30:31
And then all of a sudden, people have three days later, like, I know who's really listening because there are phone calls I've gotten. Like, I was thinking about what you said, and I don't agree with you on this, but I kind of understand how you might think that way. But how about we figure out something that will work, right? A little bit of each. One thing I think that we're all good at is actually compromising and realizing there are very many ways to get to a solution.

00:30:55
It's not my way or the highway, because we've had to question ourselves for our entire life. And then when you start getting used to that, the questioning is not a bad thing. It can be a good thing. First we question ourselves in a negative way. Oh, am I doing this good?

00:31:09
Am I writing this good? And then all of a sudden, we found out that by questioning ourselves, we're keeping our mindset open, and we're open to other ideas, and we're open to bring other people into the ideas, and we're not closed minded. And as I always say, when there's thought and when there's life, there's endless possibilities. And I think that we tend to see the endless possibilities in ways that a lot of people don't. Yeah.

00:31:31
And, you know, I love because Brent and I talked about this. Do you not? It makes sense. I used to say it, and it was more as coming probably from a slightly insecure spot when I was in business and stuff, because of people would be like, I don't understand. Can you repeat that?

00:31:47
I just had it actually with my kid. I'm like, I am saying exactly what I'm. And this is my nondislexic. He's like, mom, you're not making sense. And I'm like, but I don't understand how I'm not making sense.

00:31:57
And so then I had to break it down and write. I'm like, I don't understand how you're not understanding this. I'm saying it so clear. He's like, I literally don't understand what you're saying. And I got so frustrated.

00:32:08
But then I was frustrated in my head, I'm like, I don't understand how he does not understand this. So I had to break it down. But I used to do it when I worked or early after the kids, if I was talking to people, does that make sense? Do you understand where I'm coming from? And I started to do it when I started the podcast, and I actually had one of my editors say, stop saying, does that make sense?

00:32:31
And I was like, well, this was when I first started interviewing. I was like, well, I want to make sure the person understands. And they're like, yes, but you sometimes are now saying it too much. It became like my filler. I was able to take it out.

00:32:43
But when Brent does it, and I was saying to him, he does it a lot when he's coaching because he wants to make sure the kids, well. No, it's this difference between does that make sense or do you understand that? And the other thing, too, is that what you don't realize, that most people, when they do a soliloquy at a meeting and they do the same thing we're doing, they might not say it, but the first thing when they sit back down is they say, did that make sense? And does everybody understand? We have a way of order.

00:33:09
Everything comes out of our mouth, right? Just no filter. So a lot of people feel that way, and they just don't say it because everybody's got imposter anxiety and syndrome and the whole bit. And I'm just like, get used to the fact that everybody has it. And then some people cover it up better than others, right?

00:33:25
No, it's so interesting. So I do want to take it because Brent hasn't heard. And Brent, you can interject on any of what we just talked about, but I do want to talk about you now, knowing you're dyslexic, going know, being in the trading floor and then your experience where you lost your eyesight. Because I heard the story, and I was like, remember, I said to you, I was like, I need to know the story, but I kind of want to wait to listen to it on the podcast. But I think it's really important for me to know.

00:33:50
But then I want you to take it through because it is pretty, and I want the listeners to really listen to this. So, you know, you're dyslexic, you know, you've struggled, you've gone through it. And then all of a sudden, especially when you think about right brain, left brain, when you're dyslexic, you're more right brained. So can you take us through the situation that happened well, let's go back. In time from when I was really young, like when I was eight, the guy that had atropy in my eyes, and I had ambioglia, and I had to wear a patch and circle every e in the New York Times.

00:34:21
And then as I got older, I had keratonus in my right eye, which I could only see with a hard contact lens. So being in the pit and being so quick on your feet, and as we spoke about, I was one of 17 traders that was taken down to quantico to be drilled by the generals to find out how we thought so independently and quickly on our feet and can make decisions. And I talk about now how I can help people do that as well. But we were in the pit, and we saw this way, okay, so we could input all this information. And was it true?

00:34:52
I could go to a restaurant and hear five different conversations on five different tables time, and I could see things. If I was talking to you, I would see the person walking behind you with a blue shirt holding this, and I can put it all together. So what ends up happening is that about ten years ago, I am in a restaurant, I have a hard contact on my eyes, bothering me, and I know my rewetting drops are contact case. And I took my finger, I put it in a glass of water, I put some water in my eye, and turns out there was bacteria in the water. And I scratched a corneal abrasion on my eye.

00:35:27
So I had this massive bacterial infection, was in my basement for about two months, in pain, any kind of light. If any of your viewers ever had a scratch cornea, imagine that tenfold. And then it turns out it cleared up, and then I had to get a cornea transplant. So this is like in the movie adjustment bureau. I've never been able to see well out of that eye.

00:35:47
So I get a cornea transplant, and I take off the shield in the morning, I give you the lubricant bottle for the first time, and I was fully right eye dominant. If you walked over to me on the trading floor and pretend like you were punching me in my left side, I wouldn't flinch because I wouldn't process with my left side. I even read with the tilt in my head. My mother picked that up when I was a kid. So I get this corneas transplant.

00:36:09
I take the shield off, I can read a lubricant bottle. I'm so excited. I walk into my closet, the t shirt, I pull it off the hanger, it gets caught on that little thing on the side of the hanger, it spins around, snaps it to me dead center in the eye. I take my t shirt, I feel all the goo coming out, put it on my eye. They rush me to the hospital.

00:36:26
They find a cornea underneath my eye. They find the lens in my bathroom. And over eight years, it hit a nerve. I was in bed for about eight years, on and off for months at a time, because the pain from the nerves and the headaches were so bad. But also what I noticed is that when the eyes were fighting, the eyes started fighting each other because this was so blurry.

00:36:46
And then it was going blind, this. And the left eye was trying to take over. So it's going back and forth, back and forth. So finally I got to the point where, and I used to wear a patch. I got to the point where I said to my wife at the time and my ex wife, I said, we lived in this place in Florida, which was a gated community with a little store outside and a couple stores outside the thing, and that I was going to be the truman of Woodfield.

00:37:10
I was never going to leave again because I couldn't take the input even of lines on the street coming at me. And I had to move from New York to Florida because I couldn't take people coming at me from being so good at processing to then not be able to process was just something I couldn't handle. So I had just given up. And I was like, I was just done. And I was going to just, as I said, the truman of that little area, never leave.

00:37:32
Stay on my golf cart and call it a day. And then Fox News calls me up. I did a lot of interviews for Fox, CNBC, CNN, and all this for oil. And they're like, we need you for an interview. I'm like, I'm not doing interviews anymore.

00:37:43
I was just beaten. I was 70 pounds heavier than I am now. I'm not doing it. We just need you. We're sending a car.

00:37:49
They send me a car. A friend of mine says to me that I got my suit guy in. You need to come get a. I'm like, I'm not getting suit. Don't eat a suit.

00:37:56
Finally calls me up after the interview. You have to show up. I need somebody to come. I go, where are you? He was a block away.

00:38:03
So I'm like, okay, I'll come. I sit down, and all of a sudden, this guy walks in, Dr. Hahn for the Panthers. Eye doctor, Florida Panthers. And Charlie says, tell Hahn your story.

00:38:13
So I tell him my story. He says, so wait a minute. You've done no neuroplasticity training of your brain since you lost your dominant sighted eye? Like, what's neuroplasticity? So we had this whole long talk.

00:38:25
He brought me to his office. I started training through all these new computer systems and a thing called a neurotrapper, which is balls flying around and retrained the left side of my brain. And because of that, one meeting is why I'm back out. I'm back out on all the games. I'm back out in public.

00:38:41
I'm back out doing everything.

00:38:45
And I lost 75 pounds, actually. And it's always nice when your ex wife bumps into you looking like this.

00:38:56
That's what happens. But it really made me realize that the dyslexia got much worse, because now, literally, I have a Dell computer that I'm talking on. That's a big screen, but I can zoom in and move it, whatever. And now there are times that even with my reading glasses, I have to zoom into the letter because the letters are flickering back and forth. Okay.

00:39:18
That I before the O is the o before the I, and that's just the dyslexia now. Supercharged. And then also, every once in a while, we talk about sometimes the brain just goes on such overload. I need a couple of days off from stimulation. But, yeah, so it was quite a journey.

00:39:34
But again, it shows you that I had a problem. I found a solution. I worked my ass off to it, and I didn't let it stop me. And that's kind of been the feeling of my life. I was a drummer.

00:39:45
I couldn't read the sheet music right, because the things were all over the place. Charles Perry, his buddy rich's Arthur. I told my mother, this kid will never be a drummer. So what do I do? I said, well, screw you.

00:39:57
And I taught myself, and I became lead drummer in. I was Hahnned in high school. They said, oh, you'll never be on the board of the exchange. What do I do? I end up being the youngest member.

00:40:05
One of the youngest members on the board tell me I'm not going to be able to do something. But that all comes from just being dyslexic and not letting that be me and finding ways around it. And in our world, what we need to make sure that we teach people is that nothing is hopeless. It's a bitch. It can be a pain in the butt.

00:40:23
It can be frustrating. But if you take a breath and you figure out a plan, and you try, okay, this plan didn't work. And, okay, let's try this plan. And that plan might not work. Let's try this way.

00:40:32
Maybe you need to listen to books on audio like I do. Maybe you just make sure that you never write anything again. And by the way, even voice to text screws me up because I can't tell if it's wrong.

00:40:45
But luckily now with some of the new technology and software out there, that we're in an age that some of these people will never have to deal with the frustrations that we felt, but they need to embrace it and say, okay, this can help me and not be embarrassed by it. I do a lot of voice detecting. Not as much as I should, because my daughter, who's a lawyer, says to me, dad, just promise me something. Whenever you send out an important text or whenever you send out important email, please send it to me so I can proofread it, because you're not even close on some of this stuff with letters and everything else. And I had my good friend Bobby said to me, you know, I've known you for 40 years, and I know I know you because I can decipher your text.

00:41:27
I look at it. Okay, I got it now. So those were all things. And it was all, again, my eye journey was all part of the dyslexic journey and all part of the. As dyslexics, I think we're very strong people, because those of us that were able to get through it and get by it have a lot of things that we can teach the people that are frustrated now and say that, listen, we've done it.

00:41:50
Brent, you're a major hockey player. Look at your career. Juliet. Look what you did with not only lacrosse and your field hockey, but what you're doing with your life and your kids and your podcast and your business with marketing. So we're living proof that, hey, listen, it can be done.

00:42:10
And to me, when there's hope and there's a possibility of a good future, it can raise people's spirits and know that you'll get there. But it takes a lot of work and a lot of understanding, and it's. The grit that's one of the things. And what's one of my favorite questions when I ask on your next stop? My first podcast, I always ask, when someone has a story, I'm like, what gave you that grit?

00:42:33
And it's always fascinating to me because you know that when someone's got a lot of grit, they had a lot of struggles. Well, and then sometimes that's the thing that you think I know raising three kids, my two, I'm like my oldest struggled the most. But then sometimes I would say, like when they were younger, I would say to my husHahnd, we need to cause some stuff. They need to get some more grit. Because I know that it's like you need to have those challenges, but then again, you don't want people to suffer with the self esteem because it all comes back to that self esteem.

00:43:01
If you can have the self esteem and still have the grit, that's when superpowers come, right? You have that grit and that self esteem. Well, what I teach a lot of people is that to get the self esteem, you need to get through the grit. And the bottom line is that, you know, my term that I talk about now, the crystal generation, that so many parents are creating, this crystal generation, they look great, but they break easy because they've never had to, they've never had to get through struggles. I believe that, yeah, you don't want to hurt.

00:43:30
There's a way to build up somebody's self esteem without spoon feeding them everything they have to do. And the way that I build up self esteem in people and confidence in people is like, I'm like, go do this. You're going to get your teeth knocked in, you're going to fail. You're just going to suck at it. And then I look at them and go, by the way, at end time, you're going to suck a little less and then suck a lot.

00:43:49
Very few people pick up a hockey stick or a lacrosse stick or a business book at the age of nine and are awesome, okay? And I explained to these people, those people that are great, the greatest, and even the people that are good are all people that when they sucked, they didn't get upset that they sucked. They knew that if they really worked hard, had grit and determination, that they'll get to a level of prowess that they can be proud of, maybe not be the best on the team, maybe not even be a starter, but they can be somewhere that they can be proud of that they participated. And that's what we're missing a lot when the parents take is they're not helicopter parents, they're bulldozer parents. They take away everything that the kid has because they don't want it.

00:44:29
So that's another thing for your other podcast. But trust me when I tell you that what we've done with having those issues, we can speak on that in an expertise way because we're living proof that, listen, we had to go through a lot of crap and not only that, back then, people really made fun of you, and teachers were brutal on you. If a teacher called you lazy now or retarded now, okay, they would be out, right? I mean, what the teacher said to me, this is white. I'm still not over it.

00:45:00
It's like you were a roamer. All you did was roam around. I'm like, no, I was kind of, like, trying to escape from you calling me on something like that. As you said, I was trying to hide. I never realized that until now, but, yeah, I was trying to hide.

00:45:12
Trying to hide. Let me ask, because we talk about this all the time. Juliet always says, ornate confidence. You're right. With the grit, determination.

00:45:25
We got to go through Shit to get to the other side, to be the best we can be. But what kind of support did you have from your mom and for myself? I didn't. In the terms of dyslexia, I didn't find out until I was 32, so I just thought I was dumb and stupid, and I still wake up every day thinking I'm stupid to this date. So Juliet's mom was a teacher.

00:45:53
Dyslexia was a common theme in their house. It was talked about, so it was okay. So I always talk about is that extra know build up in there of internal support from family members making dyslexia okay. Dyslexia okay wasn't okay in my house because it wasn't work when my daughter got diagnosed. Then we made it okay.

00:46:15
So what kind of support did you have from your mom? Supporting you, pushing you to find that self esteem in different ways? It has nothing to do with my parents. It has to do with my generation. They didn't even know really what it was.

00:46:31
They didn't really understand what it was to them. You were just. Yeah, you had some learning disabilities. You had this, that, or whatever, okay. You had dyslexia.

00:46:37
So they were always a little frustrated that they said, as I said, my iq, I tested off the charts, but yet I was only getting these grades, and it was a different time. So I have my self confidence because my mother was great, my father. I learned that no matter what you deal with, you can fix it. Right? And I teach at my class.

00:46:58
I have a whole class on screwing up because I tell the kids, what are you going to do more than you ever even think you're going to do? I'm like, no, you're going to screw up more than you ever knew. It's not about the screw up. It's about how you handle it. But it's like, think about it.

00:47:14
You're on the ice, or you're on the field and you miss the thing. You get nuts. Or just roll your shoulder and come back and get the puck of the ball and take the shot. You miss the shot. Who gives a crap, right?

00:47:25
You take another one. But I think it was a time that it was so. Because Juliet is so young, right? I am so much older than her. When I went to school.

00:47:36
The Dinosaurs.

00:47:40
Are you 53 or 54? I'm going to be 60 in two months. Oh, holy shit. Okay, well, you look great. Oh, that was rude.

00:47:47
Holy shit. Him on his age. Oh, that was rude. Oh, my God. If we did that to you, you'd be going through the screen at us.

00:47:54
For a guy, it's the biggest compliment. So thank you. I appreciate that. Means I've worked hard. So Brent's the.

00:48:02
He's the baby on. Let's. Let's talk about bodies. Let's talk about brains, where we go. But the thing is with, we still have a big enough age gap that, well, if we were both single, we could date, because it's okay now we have a big enough age gap that the parents of my generation know.

00:48:26
It wasn't that they were doing anything malicious. It's like, okay, you have dyslexic. They didn't have a plan. It's not like they said you have dyslexia. We can get you into x, y, and z.

00:48:39
It was like, okay, you have some learning disabilities. You need to work harder. You need to spend more time. And what nobody understood is that you could work as hard as you want and have as much time as you want. Or the old thing.

00:48:50
Just look it up in the dictionary. I'm like, I can't look it up in the dictionary because my vowels and things are not even close. And I literally would go to every page and go like this. I'm like, it's got to be here somewhere. And since as a dyslexic person, I didn't read, I memorized words.

00:49:08
So if you don't read and you can't trans. I speak more phonetically and spell it phonetically, which I thought should have been a whole different dictionary and allowed to use. I would literally write words, and my teachers would yell at me, that's not how it's spelled. That's how it's spelled to me. So it wasn't a parents issue.

00:49:27
It was a time and life issue. I love how you put that, because it is. Because we do talk about, I was born a fighter. I almost like, I had the cord wrapped around my neck, and my mom would always say at times, like, I don't think you should be this confident. What is happening with this kid?

00:49:43
But I was also a fighter. So if the teacher told me, no, you can't do it, I was like, fuck you, I'm going to do it. And our town was kind of not that way. So I was just like, this spunky kid that was like, I'm just going to figure it out. GuiHahnce counselors, you're never going to college.

00:49:56
Stop this game. You don't work hard enough. And constantly, you're too know, you're too focused on the boys. You don't work hard enough. You're distracted.

00:50:04
I mean, it was always that narrative that I would get from every fricking teacher all the time. And so it kind of just made me. When we talked to Dr. Tim Odegaard, he was saying that he basically went to become a doctor. I was like, he's a dyslexic.

00:50:20
He became a doctor because he had a chip on his shoulder. He's like, that's basically why I did it. I think part of mine was when someone said, no, you can't. I was like, I'm going to figure this out. Fuck you.

00:50:31
Yeah. But I do think it was because it could have been generation. I think I was born that way. But then I also did have a lot. I was a lot like my dad.

00:50:41
My mom is very different, so she kind of got a kick out of me. And so she would kind of always like, I know. She'd be like, well, no, you can't do that. But then I knew she was kind of going, I'm just going to let her go because she's going to do something. My father was great.

00:50:56
And he's like, there's just no excuses. My father was like, there's just no excuse not to do something. And I saw a guy that did, and he was brilliant. He was definitely not dyslexic because he graduated three years early from college. But he was in all these multiple different jobs, and he was having a hard time that he found the one job by going to a restroom and meeting somebody that was speaking to him.

00:51:19
And they, well, why don't you come seek commodities? But he taught me that, one, I talk about my time life moments, but two, he's like, he never gave up. He was just in one job after another. He was a stockbroker. He worked for his father.

00:51:32
He was a liquidator. He was selling motorcycle helmets. And then he taught me that no matter what, you just keep pushing forward and you can brush yourself off and take a couple of days to beat the shit out of yourself, but at the end of the day, it's all on you. And I was never allowed to be a victim. And I think that while I might have felt frustrating when I was a kid, like, why won't you listen to that?

00:51:58
I thank God every day when I see myself now, especially with the headaches that I still have. And as I said, we talked about, I'm a 911. I was in 911, and I was secretly down there for three months with the exchange. We were the only building open down there. But I have health issues, I have body pain, my bone pain and everything.

00:52:17
And each day, the first step I take when I get out hurts, and the last step I take hurts, and nothing stops me. And I think that's really a message that people in today's world, that the minute they get offended or somebody looks at them the wrong way, they jump. Oh, my, no. And that's what I'm working with a lot of coaching clients with, getting them up to the level of the pure grit and determination that you need to be successful in.

00:52:48
Mean, totally. But I think one of the things, because I do find it mean, David, that was brilliant. But I think because of Brent's being a professional athlete, it actually hurt him in a different way because it was like, this is what you're going to be. We already know this, so no one saw anything else in him. And then getting out of the league, it's like, again, you're the man you need to support.

00:53:11
But he had no skills. And then he was ashamed because it was like, I don't want people to know this. We got to figure it out much younger because we had to. He didn't. And so I really think, again, yes.

00:53:22
Was it amazing that you could be a professional athlete? Do you have a platform? Did you have fun when you were doing it? At times and all of that. But I think all of that and then really when he left the league is when that grit started happening.

00:53:35
And he is like a bulldozer. He's like, I have dreams and things, and I know I'm going to do them because I don't want any kid to ever feel this way. And so I think his journey, again, I think all of our journeys happens on purpose, and I think his journey, where it started, happened on purpose, because then the goals that he has for the dyslexic community and to really blow and disrupt is going to do it, because again, he's like, I've been through everything.

00:54:04
There's days where I'm like, wait, what happened today? Are you kidding me? No. Brent, I give you all the respect in the world for what you've done and what you've gone through at the exchange. We had a lot of people that have been through things and didn't come out as amazing as you.

00:54:24
So it is hard work, and I give you the total respect and honor for everything that you're doing, and I. Thank you for that. Well, thank you for telling your story. Like I said, what you just said from the time you wake up, that first step to that last step is pain, but you're not going to let it stop you. Those are some really fucking powerful words.

00:54:48
Yeah. I mean, again, three dyslexic at a table. Maybe not in person table, but at a table. And this is what, tumbleweeding dyslexics. I mean, again, the connection that we have and the understanding that we have for each other is something that.

00:55:06
And we're all from all different walks of life, right? We're all from different walks. We talked about age, race, sex, whatever. Religion. I don't guess not race, because we're all white, but whatever.

00:55:15
God's country. I know. Well, you're canadian and you're jewish. So different.

00:55:25
All we're going to remember from this entire thing is, did you say 51. Or 52 that you were?

00:55:34
I said, I think. Are you 52 or 53? I knew you were because I just turned 50. I will take it. Okay.

00:55:41
That, you know what? I'm going to go out, do a little Hahnce of joy. David, that's your new nickname, 52 or 53. Are we talking to 52 53 today? It's like, no, it's not the president.

00:55:56
But one of the things I love so much about this, again, we can talk about hard times, but we can also laugh so hard because we have been through it and we know that it's going to be okay, but it's the support. And, Brent, I'm going to do a couple of statistics. We talk about. I mean, David, you just talked about, your know, was out of charge. Dyslexic doesn't mean you have a low iq.

00:56:19
We've talked about this. When I test, I had a low iq. So they were like, this is the best she can do. I just wasn't a good test taker. And that's one of the things that's really frustrating, is the services now, they still do these stupid tests that they did before and it's crazy.

00:56:34
The other thing is that prison, there are so many dyslexics in prison, it's more than 50%. And we're missing out on some brilliant, creative minds because they couldn't read at a young age and were just brushed under the rug because of where they lived and probably their family life. And that's not okay. And that needs to change. That is not okay.

00:56:56
No, absolutely. I agree with you. I could throw a million more statistics out there, but none of them are alone. Each one of them. Nobody's alone in this journey, David.

00:57:10
We talk about relationships. Being married to us, whack jobs isn't easy to understand us. So all dyslexics, non dyslexics, you never know who will connect to this, who will need to hear this, who has to hear this. Everybody talks about heart and stroke, or you talk about certain things. Dyslexics don't die.

00:57:39
Suicide is a trip of the teenager the last ten years. 90% of the suicide notes left are dyslexic traits. So, please, Juliet, you love. This is your line. You always finish off the podcast in a great way.

00:57:53
Rate, review, share. You never know who needs to hear this, because it's true. 50% of people in prison are dyslexic. Yeah. As far as you mentioning what it's like to live with us, I'm like, listen, I always say if I could take a vacation for myself once in a while, I would.

00:58:10
You and me both.

00:58:13
A lot going on in here, because I think also with the dyslexic group, we have a tremendous rotating thought process that sometimes just you can't put to sleep. And it's just like I always tell people, one of the reasons why I stay so busy is because when I'm not, it's a rough place to be in here all the time. It's exhausting. And I think that's part of the fact that our mind, especially mine, now with the one eye, but our minds, as dyslexics, had to work on overdrive all the time just to comprehend and keep up with the people that had a linear thought process and didn't have to reach it. Because as a dyslexic, your brain is literally figuring out everything twice.

00:58:55
It doesn't trust its first thing that you see. And what I learned from Dr. Hahn is that everything, not only it's not the nose, not the ears, everything starts with your intake, in your sight, into your brain, and then it processes it. If you look at a piece of meat or something. Everybody thinks you smell it and then taste it, but your eyes have already seen it before you smell it, and it's already sending brainwave patterns to your nose and your mouth, and they're doing more and more research on this.

00:59:19
So when you look at things and things are this way or not exactly what we thought, the brain is a constant correction, and we know that. And I think that's part of the reason why we're, frankly, so tired a lot and so exhausted. But at the same time, we can work at such a high level so quickly. Yeah. And one of the things that you said, and I think ADHD, because someone might say, well, that's more ADHD.

00:59:42
But I kind of sometimes put them all together, is I literally can do that. Like, if I'm at a restaurant sometimes if it's too much stimulation, I'm like, oh, my God, I just heard 15 tables, and I saw all the things in college. That was one of the things that, at the big auditorium that I really struggled with because I was like, the professors up here, I can see all these different things happening, and I'm intaking them, and I'm like, okay, that's how many red shirts were there? That's the cute guys that were there. That's the person tapping on the table.

01:00:09
That's the clock. I can hear the clock ticking. And so learning to do that, as I feel like we get older sometimes, we do get better at being able to not process as much. And it's also, if you're not like, as you said, New York City other, I get so excited because it's like this energy. But I know others that are dyslexic that it's too much for them.

01:00:31
They're like, oh, I don't know how you do that, but Vegas is like that for me. Vegas, when I get to Vegas and I'm going there next week, but I know I have to take a breath because it's so overstimulating that you are so tired at the end because your brain doesn't shut off. Try it with one eye, right? But the other that you also need to think about is that we've mentioned ADHD and blah, blah, blah a few times.

01:00:57
Those were just invented, those names. In the x amount of years, there might be a different name or a different category for what we're talking about that the data hasn't even put into a category yet. So where people say, well, you're ADHD, you might not be, but you might have a whole bunch of other stuff, but we tend to put these silos. So what I look at it is that I've kind of like kicked out the silos because they talk about young kids being ADHD and no, they're just active. And by the way, if they were in sports and they got tired by the end of the day, instead of being on their phones all day, they would probably be able to do better in school because they're just bored with the school system, and the school system is not the right place for them and they're not acting out.

01:01:39
They're just like, what the hell am I doing here? And on the field, 100%. A lot of kids that are over medicated for absolutely the wrong reasons and then some kids that really do need it, right, because it is there. But I think that we're going to find that now with AI on so many different levels that they're going to be able to no different. What they do with Sloan, they put your, with Watson, the computer from IBM that was doing so a long time ago, that you can literally say this symptom, this symptom, this symptom, and they can put in 20 different things and push a button and the AI will take everything from every patient all around the world and spit out, okay, this could be a possibility faster than any doctor could ever put all the things together.

01:02:21
So I think we're going to see something in the next ten years with not just medicine, but with also mental awareness, mental health, learning disabilities, autism, on all these different things. Because of the new age that we're in, that we're exponentially finding out more information, more technology by the minute, not so good in certain areas, but as a Star Trek fan, we hope that we take this technology and use it for good and not for TikTok videos of people Hahncing. So we can only hope. Thank you for taking the time, David. Obviously, we got more to do together.

01:02:56
We've got bigger purpose to do together and connect on. Get the three dyslexics, or maybe four dyslexics around the table again to continue this conversation. But your story, your journey, what you're doing now is remarkable and thank you for sharing. But like I said, continue looking forward to continuing these conversations and getting together and grouping together, do some amazing things in this world. Well, thank you for having me on.

01:03:26
It was an honor. Maybe the new podcast will be, will be three dyslexics. Get around a table.

01:03:35
But I have to tell you something, it's inspiring, and I think what you guys are doing is great. And thank you for making my day. Thank you. And guys, David and Brent, always. But it's important.

01:03:45
And as Brent said, I say it all the time. Like, rate, review, and share. You don't know who needs to hear this story. You don't know what neighbor, what friend is like. Wait a second.

01:03:53
You know what? I think X, Y and Z was dyslexic. And they're really struggling right now. They need to hear. Because I can't tell you how many times Brent and I get messages after we have an episode go out and someone just thanking us.

01:04:03
Hey, thank you for talking about this. It's not easy. I know it's not easy talking about a teacher calling you retarded or how you couldn't read or how you don't know your lefts and rights and you're 50 years old and yoga was hard because you really couldn't figure it out. Those things are not easy, but they're important because we want others to know that you're not alone. So again, rate, review, share, and again, thank you so much, David.

01:04:25
And as always, Brent.