Rebecca Prejean, please, Rebecca, tell me about your vision.
So my ultimate vision for business and life
is that everybody has the right to learn without disclosing
their actual disability or their challenges.
As people, as humans, we all want to learn.
We all want to get better.
We all want to succeed.
But nobody should be forced to disclose
that they have autism or ADHD or anything like that.
We really should have a much more inclusive perspective
and a much more open-minded perspective about the world
that we live in.
And that's in life and in business.
So my vision for my business and everything else
is to make sure that everyone is supported,
no matter what you're coming to the table with.
That's incredible.
So you're like subtly breaking down the walls inside
of the workplace that are preventing somebody
from being on the same level as the next person.
Exactly.
And sometimes it's subtle.
And sometimes it's not.
It just depends on the business and kind of where they're at.
But ultimately, we encourage people
to start building these things into their foundation.
And it's not just good for the employees.
It's good for business.
It's good business practice overall.
Absolutely.
That's great.
So where did your vision come from?
Where did that start?
What was the originate?
Honestly, it started for me becoming a mom.
I have a seven-year-old, almost eight-year-old son
at this point.
And he is actually autistic.
He's on the spectrum.
He is verbal.
He does struggle in social situations.
So there are a lot of the more common traits
and characteristics that people are aware of with autism
that he does deal with.
For me, however, I was already working in L&D,
learning in development, when I was pregnant with him
and when I had him.
And as he got older and things started to change
and he was diagnosed at around the age of four,
we started to see that it was hard for him to get services.
It was hard for him to be supported.
It was hard for him to really get the things
that he needed to get from school
and other kind of settings.
And so what we wanted to do was try
to create a world, a program through my business,
where people who are adults who are experiencing
these same things actually are supported
and don't have to struggle.
We had to call school districts
and really, really rally to get him support.
And that's not something that we'd want people
to have to experience in their workplaces,
where they go to make money and they go to be successful
and they go to take care of their families.
It's already stressful enough sometimes at work.
And so if you're not able to learn,
if you're not able to get what you need,
it's almost an uphill battle that you can't really win.
Right.
And to me, it sounds like you are playing a key role
on making sure that everybody's on the same starting platform
at least or getting there.
Yeah, that is absolutely the goal,
is to try to make sure that everybody is on
as level of a playing field as possible
when they get started.
Absolutely.
So I know you talked about having your son
and that kind of kickstarted you into the,
you were already in the learning and development,
but having your son kind of kickstarted you
into this phase of it.
What's your why for getting into it?
Is it just your son or is there more to that?
There is a little more to it.
I was a facilitator at the time
that I had him and everything.
And like I said, he wasn't diagnosed
until around the age of three or four.
And I think my why was really more
of an introspective moment
because ultimately what I started to realize
in the company was we would have people in training,
they would struggle, they would leave,
they would do all of these things.
And at some point it became a,
well, they just can't cut it kind of thing.
And so we never really looked outside of that
into a place of, you know,
maybe it's something we're doing.
And for me, it really became a moment
when I had him and all the things were happening
and he was not meeting milestones
and we had some suspicions of autism
that no, the problem is us.
And in a lot of ways, the problem is me.
And that was a very hard thing to really sit with.
Like that is a difficult thing for anybody to sit with.
No, the problem is me because I'm looking at it
through a very neurotypical lens.
I'm looking at it through almost a selfish lens
in some ways.
And for me, the why really became,
or really was stemming from that moment of,
no, the problem is us and we should be better
and we can do better.
And in life, I was raised,
if you know better, you do better.
I'm from an army family.
So essentially it's,
if you know that there's something that needs to be done,
if you know you can do better, go do better.
And I mean, just all of that together
really became my life.
Absolutely.
It's a crazy jump to take.
And I feel like everybody has that problem
whenever it comes to seeing if what is the issue,
if the problem is within yourself
or if the problem is outside something you can work with
or try and work around.
But if the problem is within yourself,
a lot of times people will hit that mental wall
and they're like, no, how am I the problem?
I'm never the problem.
I'm perfect in my own eyes.
And people a lot of the times hit that.
So congratulations on hitting that wall and saying, okay,
we need to figure out a way to work around this
because I am the problem here.
I congratulate you on that.
Yeah, it's a hard moment,
but I think in business and in life,
we've got to get past that if we can,
because it really does hinder a lot of progress
for ourselves and for others really.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.