Resiliency The Podcast

Welcome to today's episode of Resiliency the Podcast. I am Jenn Quater, a global communications expert and CEO of a PR firm called The Smart Agency. I am joined by my wonderful and renowned global cohost, doctor Kelly Culver. She is an international consultant with more than three decades of experience as a director, entrepreneur, strategist, executive coach, and she's our resident doctor of resilience. And today, we have a really amazing group to introduce you to and two wonderful people for you to meet who absolutely exemplify resilience.

Today's guest started a company called SpeechHens. This is a private speech and language clinic in Simcoe, Ontario up in Canada, and their mission is to provide comprehensive speech and language services to individuals of all ages, and they're helping clients to improve their communication skills, which, of course, also improves their overall quality of life. Their clinic, Speech Hens, recently won the prestigious ONE award from the FirstOntario Credit Union, which highlights their dedication and hard work and their contribution to their local community, which is of huge importance to them. And you're gonna hear more about that. And that's why they hear on resiliency the podcast because communication and community are so important.

These are absolute pillars of what make a quality life. So they definitely have something to share today. Please, my listeners, welcome miss Mary Ann Ward and Laura Downey of Speech Hints.

Yay. Thank you. We're we're just thrilled to be here. Honored to be part of your podcast today.

Yeah. This is really amazing.

Yay. Well, we are we're ready to dive in. We think what you do is amazing. You know? I mean, we can talk all day about resilience, but you guys are in it and you're putting your hands into this and you have a mantra and a motto that I love and it is communicate with confidence.

I think there is no better way to help people. I'm in PR. Communications is something that I live with. I can't even imagine not being able to communicate. So I wanna hear more about this and and what this means to you.

And, really, can you explain this big audacious resiliency goal that you've made in creating speech hints?

Yeah. Well, oh, where do I start? Just communication is everywhere. It's everything. Think of all the different ways that you communicate in a day.

I think a lot of us take it for granted. You know, texting, casual conversation, phone calls, podcast, virtual sessions. Like, all day every day, we're communicating. And, as speech pathologists, we work with people who have difficulty with communication. So, near and dear to our heart to help people become more resilient communicators, we love what we do, and, our goal is to help help our community communicate with confidence.

Yeah. It really kind of has expanded and exploded, I guess you could say, because our goal was to really just bring a service here that didn't exist. So we started by running

man.

You sound like a beautiful Laura is what you're sounding like.

I'm getting over a cold up here in Canada. So we started by running speech therapy summer camps and, from there we saw the need continue to grow for our services in our rural community. The closest services are thirty minutes to to an hour away, so we really are rural, and that's when in 2019 we opened the first and still to this day the only brick and mortar private speech and language clinic, in our area and a vision was just to yes, not only to bring a service that didn't exist, but now our goal has continued to provide services that don't exist in our area. So, we are a rural hub for different kind of allied health services, including occupational therapy, psycho education consulting, and we want to continue more, bring more to this area that doesn't exist as well. And our scope of practice is so wide, so we provide services for many different types of, not only communication, but, lots of different areas including, yes, speech, language, literacy services, and feeding services, as well.

We started working with children, but now that has expanded to working with adults. We also have partnerships in our community with our local hospital, with autism programs. So just continuing to grow and to make our community more resilient.

There's so much breadth and depth in what you just said. I mean, you you the the breadth of what you're covering is so important. I I wanna highlight two things as we talk first about kind of the resilience of of being the first to create this in a rural community, I wanna point out that you said we're the first brick and mortar clinic in in in this area of speech pathology. And then you said 2019, which catches my ear as a business owner, because a lot of things changed in 2020, and lot of things have been happening since. You know?

And so I I wonder if because we're, we definitely want to get into I I I we wanna hear a little bit about some of the families and the people that you're helping. We wanna hear about these food therapies. We wanna hear about this. But I wonder if just for a moment, if you could speak a little from the heart and talk to us about being kind of pioneers on this journey. And I'd I'd say the question is really, what does it mean to you through the lens of resilience?

Mary Anne, do you

want a way to go?

Yeah, there you go.

I don't think I've ever been told that we are pioneers in something, so that really is very honorable. I don't think of ourselves that way but really creating a path that didn't exist in this area, is something that we, yeah, I guess we have paved that way. We've we lived in bigger cities and grew up we grew up in bigger cities, we started working in bigger communities, so when we came here to start our families we knew we wanted to do something and be something and no offense to our partners we didn't want to be just known for, who they are we wanted to be known for creating something in our community, so you know seeing resiliency I guess is

When we talk about where we came from and the the struggles and obstacles that we faced growing up and for me, you know, crippling shyness, social anxiety, that was a huge obstacle for me. I've I've always had this kind of underlying sense of ambition and hope, I think, that that helped me power through that. But I love the idea of helping others. Like, I was not a a a confident communicator at all. I learned that over time and just the thought of supporting other people in my community to help them communicate with confidence because it's so important to be resilient, to communicate well, to communicate at all.

And I think that that has kind of helped navigate us to where we are. Like, at least that's where, I know Laura has a similar story and, yeah, that's kind of where Hawaii's field resilience relates to what we do.

I know that, the two of you met at school at the University of Buffalo. So maybe, Jen, to kinda pick the pick up your point about the 2019 as a marker in the sand just before COVID. Laura and Mary Anne, you met you both met at the University of Buffalo in speech pathology school, and there was something about you that clicked and connected. And and I'm gonna put a spoiler alert out here right now, be full and frank with everybody. Mary Anne is my glorious, magnificent sister-in-law.

So I am not objective at all when I speak about them. So just to our listeners, you know, if I if I tone it up, just live with it. Because I'm super proud of what they've been able to do and coming together.

Sorry. Everybody likes a toned up doctor Kelly. Okay? Turn it up. Yeah.

We'll bring in your whole family to get all that energy. So we like it. Yeah.

That's just It's just so super cool because you came together. You said we can do better. You were both working for other organizations. You know, Laurie, you touched on it. You wanted to be known for who you are and things that you do.

You saw a gap, you know, in the school system, and you said we can do something different. We're gonna start bricks and mortar, and then COVID came. And you both had different backgrounds. You know, Mary Anne, I remember you. You were working with adults in a hospital.

You know, our my my father slipped and hit his head and and needed needed to, you know, recover his speech. Mary Anne was working with him in a hospital. She'd already met my brother Aaron by then. So there's this huge roundness, and they don't they don't blow their own horn very well, Jen. So you and I gotta try and draw it out of these lovely, lovely women because what they said to me the other day was it takes a team to help their clients be set up for success.

And and I see that's what you're doing. But tell us a little bit about, you know, University of Buffalo before Jen kinda does a bit of a deeper dive into some of the stuff that you actually do.

I guess for me this this is a good point for me because this, when we met it was a real eye opening experience for me. A lot of things kind of hit. I struggled all throughout school. I struggled with connecting to learning and academics and I just always thought I was dumb, just to put it kind of bluntly and, it was just yeah, it was something I always struggled. I was always a daydreamer type of person.

I thought, why am I not I have to study really really hard in order to access the learning when other people seem to not have to access it, as easily? Like it just it was always a struggle for me growing up but I continued to push through because I knew this was my goal was to do, like, if I could continue this learning in this path, I could be someone great, I could be a speech pathologist. So when we got to university at Buffalo, that is where we met, there was some really unique experience there where the second year students had to screen the first year students coming in to make sure that, you know, we didn't have any speech, language, literacy, those kinds of, difficulties ourselves. But, in screening us, I remember the room and everything. I still remember the two the two individuals that had to screen me and they had to read a passage.

So it was a listening comprehension activity. They read a passage to me and I had to answer like five questions and it was about a pendulum. That's all I remember. Because I I failed at each of those questions. I could not answer the questions because my mind and my anxiety and everything was spinning and I couldn't answer them.

So they gave it to me a second time. They read through it and I had to answer those questions again and I still didn't get them and I bombed. And there were two other areas reading comprehension as well was another one, and so the the clinical supervisor came into my room and she had a chat with me and she she talked to me about this being a, you know, difficult area for me and if I've known that I've had this difficulty. And when she was talking to me it was like the very first time that I I I connected with that and I realized, Okay, this is a difficulty that I'm having, I'm not dumb. She said, No, you just have a different way of learning and especially if the material maybe doesn't interest you and that's okay, but this is, this is something we can work with and do you want some support?

And she did give me a few tips for being in a lecture and and that was very helpful but I didn't want it to be diagnosed. I didn't want to have that. I just wanted to know, you know, I had just finally kind of connected that I this was something that I had been struggling with my whole life and it finally made sense. So that was kind of what our experience, at Buffalo, at the University at Buffalo, kind of started with, but then it just unlocked, I think, so much more for me, in regards to learning and yes. Kind of goes on.

When we were at Buffalo, we joked one day that we were gonna start a private practice. It was just a joke. You know? Hey. Let's start a private practice together one day.

And then Right. We we weren't even even, searching for that. Like, we we went on their separate ways. We ended up in the same town, and then we started a private practice together. And I think our similar struggles in our past, I think, brought us together, and it was kind of destined that we that we do this for, like, small communities like this.

It really speaks to the power of intention. You know, I I always I I hear people talk about anything you say, it it it's it's entered into the energy of of the universe. Right? And and when you when you speak, it happens. And so even if you're joking, hey, we should do that, you were able to bring that to fruition, which is amazing.

And and what I hear, you know, I I I picked up you. You said, while you had these struggles, which my heart goes out to you because I can understand where that where that can lead, that that lack of being able to communicate can really lead to to self speech probably and self, a self identity or self view that could restrict you from your your most happy and thriving life. And so it it's really interesting to me. And and what's also interesting is the fact that the process, like, you were talking about, you weren't looking for some sort of exact diagnosis. You were looking to understand yourself.

And so it seems like a real process of self discovery, which I I feel like, and I've been reading a lot of Eckhart Tolle. I think that's how we pronounce his name. Right, doctor Culver? I always mess it up. I was calling him Eckhart Tolle.

We did it. Thank you, Tolle. But he talks a lot about, you know, how there's this e you know, there's the ego, and the ego is this identity we create, but then there's the real self that's us. And I and I think that resilience has a lot to do with discovering that real self and and who we are and and acknowledging and accepting. So with that in mind, I wanna talk, I wanna turn the conversation for a moment to adults with diagnosed excuse me.

Adults with undiagnosed attention deficit disorders or other disorders that they you know, learning disabilities that may have helped them to to communicate. How many do you think there are? What have you encountered in your private practice? Talk to us about that period of self discovery for adults and what it means to discover that, and and how that relates to resilience.

Yeah. I well, the short answer is I think there is a lot of, adults with undiagnosed learning disabilities, of various kinds. I think we're better at identifying those, and also when it comes to reading and writing, for example, a lot of those adults didn't go through school. The schools were not using evidence based approaches. They were letting, like, kids who had learning disabilities were not identified well and not supported well.

And now that changed the whole or it can change the whole trajectory of your life. Like, if you can't, you're not a a strong reader or writer. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada being that learning to read is an essential being, like, an essential human right. Just think of all the ways we need written communication on a day all the time. I'm constantly texting.

I'm learning emails. I'm, reading a menu, reading real time. It's just we're always we're communicating all day, and written communication is a big part of that. So if you if you can't you didn't want to read or write, that can be have a deep impact on your life. And, so in 2019, the the Ontario Human Rights Commission did a deep dive into how Ontario's public education system was people reading and writing, and the the the inquiry was called the right to read inquiry.

It was it was pretty groundbreaking. It was a scathing report. It turned out that the education system was, not doing those failing students who had learning disabilities like dyslexia. And, dyslexia, you know, the prevalence is about one in five. So these kids were not being well supported.

The schools were not using evidence based approaches. And so beyond serious human rights mission looks at the human rights issues around that. It's a basic and essential human right, and we were not doing right by these children who are now adults. So may may have a diagnosis, may not have a diagnosis, but I just think the more like, maybe there was a diagnosis there. Very unsupported to the whole schooling, the wrong approach to keep them, these these things.

So we've let a lot of people down, and I think that, you know, if that would have really impacted their sense of resilience, not been you know, so right. We we should be able to read and write when we need school. It's gonna change everything for for you and your future. And, yeah. So I just I think about all those adults who were kids who were just unsupported, and it's heartbreaking.

One of the things I that I see in that is, you know, a a big piece of resilience that we talk about here is being able to just look at things and accept them as they are. You know? And I think when you say that, you've given some heartbreaking statistics, and yet here we are. We're here today, and that happened. Right?

And so now you have a a group of people who don't have those skills, and and, hence, you bring this this service, which, again, you know, this is where innovation is born of resilience. And and I I see that as chicken and egg and chicken and egg. You know? And so I wanna ask, looking ahead, as you guys now have brought this service to life, you are working with adults and children. But, again, looking just for the moment at adults, what's a success story?

What does it look like when you do breakthrough and you do give this support? Can you know, talk to us about what that looks like.

That's a fun one. That's that's oh, oh, I love my job so much. There's so many success stories, and I do a lot of literacy intervention here at the clinic. A lot of those kids come to me on my caseload. And, the best part of my job is when child comes to the clinic, they in reading and writing, like, despise it.

They don't wanna be there. It's painful for them to work on it. The school did not and how to read. They they're in grade two, four or three usually when they come to us. And then they work we use evidence based approaches here, and we're working with them over time.

And then my favorite part is when they make that mindset shift. They're like, well, what are we reading today? What do I get to read today? Oh, well, this is what we're gonna do today. Well, yay.

That's exciting. And, you know, like, I had this one boy who didn't think he came to the clinic just absolutely he could see tears burning in his eyes when we were working on it. It's so hard for him. And, it got to the point, he started to become successful. He had that mindset shift, and then, being was a hockey player as well, a very good one.

And he had the chance to be on the rep hockey player. But and I would I would even in a waiting room, he said this to his dad, I so there was a scheduling conflict between, like, him coming to his sleep time for his his reading and writing, stuff and his rep hockey schedule. And he said to his dad, I wanna come to speak ten. I don't wanna do rep hockey. I wanna come here and and and continue my my learning.

I'm like, oh my gosh. He picked weekends over rep hockey. Like, wow. Like, you know, my work here is done. This is amazing.

Like, just to see that mindset shift, that's what I wait for in all my clients. It's just like, oh, they've made the shift. They're confidently reading or they're confidently writing, and it everything looks like it really affects mental health like Laura talked about it. And we see it in a a lot of our clients, not just with reading and writing, but, with articulation issues when no one can understand them a lot when they talk. It really gets frustrating and makes like, I've had kids here and makes them feel the reading and writing, like, it makes them feel done.

They say that. Like, I just feel so done, and it it it really affects them. And we we just wanna bring out that confidence in them. And when they make that shift, I can I'm doing this. I'm doing this.

This is awesome. Like, just as everything for me.

I think that mind shift is is important in all in all children. When you see that, like Mary Anne said, in that unlock, you know that you've changed that trajectory for them in their in their path in life. And I think you had brought that, you said that point as well, Mary Anne, because a lot of parents might think, Okay, if they can't read or write, let's just read more to them. We just need to practice reading more to them. And, although that is a great skill, we're not gonna say don't read to your child, that is not the thing they need, they need to learn that skill, they need it taught a certain way if they aren't picking it up right now, and when they come here and they unlock that, and you see it switch for them, and it's now created this this whole new path for them where they may have avoided so many tasks before, they may not have, you know, turned out to be I think we'll see in a decade when all these kids come back to us and they're adults, we'll see now what they are doing with their lives and maybe just knowing what they may have done differently, if they didn't get this, this shift for them, if they didn't get these opportunities to learn these skills.

The the good news too in in Ontario after that, even with 14 note, Ontario has to completely change how they teaching manual writing to a better, like, evidence based, approach. So they're likely and hopefully, see less and less kids coming into the clinic. But even even then, even if they're doing the right thing, some kids still need that one on one extra opportunity and, maybe have more than just just what you're going on.

I I think what you've you've talked about is the concept of missed opportunities. Both, Mary Anne and Laura have talked about that. I have a friend who's, a little older than me, and at her age, she was just diagnosed with ADHD. Now why I'm telling this story is because she struggled in university and struggled and struggled and struggled and, you know, barely got by to get her degree. And in the email that she sent me to tell me that she'd been diagnosed with ADHD, she said, if I had only known when I was in university, it wouldn't have been so hard.

My path would have been different. I wouldn't have when I was downsized, quit my job, move to a rural community in Northern Ontario. She's been unemployed for twelve years. She said my life was wasted. So it's this how you change the opportunity for people.

You know, you talk about this trajectory. And I look at this person who I've known for thirty plus years, and she's looking back on her life saying, I wish it had been different if I had only known I could have been someone.

Yeah. And earlier, Jen talked about that, I got the inner self, like, the authentic self and and just getting in touch with that self can be empowering. And I think, yeah, that that's true. Like, just knowing that about yourself sometimes when we work with our clients, and we kind of take stuttering, for example, and you explain what it is. You empower them with knowledge, and then they feel relieved often.

That's what it is. And, boy, these are some things we can do to to make it easier. And it was it's, like, kind of like, it's everything to them. I'm just, like, that knowledge alone. Like, oh, gosh.

I understand it now. Like, and then, you know, then from there, the journey to accepting that.

We often get hung up on these diagnosis or parents do and think of it as a very negative stereotype, negative associations with a diagnosis, but really it just gives us answers, it just gives us more information so we know how to treat that child. We know what supports they might need or might not need. And having those diagnoses sometimes now we are we are the very first professional to tell their child to tell the parent that they have their child might have a diagnosis of ADHD or that this is some red flags that we are seeing. Maybe this is something you need to get checked out. And this is why we are saying this because it, again, it could change that trajectory, could change that path for them to get the supports that they need.

And again, thinking about my story, sure, I didn't want to be diagnosed later in life, but if I had just known about these supports that I needed earlier on. Same thing. It could have helped so much more.

So I wanna turn the, the conversation to community because I think that that's, you know, when I hear this, I mean, again, it's it's to be honest, it's frustrating. If I you know what I mean? Like, it's irritating and frustrating because it's like, I'm like, I hate that these people have gone through I mean, I hate, doctor Kelly, that you have a friend that feels like she wasted her life. Like, I hate that. It makes it makes me angry, you know?

But I also see that, like, that energy doesn't serve anything. Right? It doesn't serve anything for me to just be like, oh, I I hate that this happened or or you know? But I I think that what does serve us is exactly what you're doing. And I I kinda wanna bring it back to in the beginning, you were both like, I don't I don't know if we're pioneers.

I mean, all we did was all we did was carve a new path where there wasn't one. And I was like, isn't that what a pioneer does? Don't they put a get in a wagon and go make a new road? And that's what I'm saying is, like, you've made a new road. Right?

And and I think and I think and I wanna be careful too because I'm I'm nobody's medical anything, okay, aside from once being a nurse for a few years, not officially, but, you know, on the sidelines. But but I wanna be clear that we're not just talking about ADHD or dyslexia. We're talking about autism. We're talking about, I I I assume, a myriad of other, I again, I'm not medical, so I don't know all the terms. But we're talking about a myriad of of things that people face.

And you could call them issues, which would brand them as something negative or diagnoses, which brands them as something maybe scary. Or you could just say, okay. This is your path. And and here at Speech Ins, we've created, you know, a light that you can walk with, and and it's the way to read or the way to learn or the way to eat. I heard you talk about food exploration.

So I I wanna kinda get you know, we've talked a little and more of the esoteric of, like, the the big trends of why this is happening, but I wanna get more granular and look at, like, the community impact of these people who are walking in your doors and who are are learning these skills like food exploration. Talk to us about that for just a few minutes, and and what does success look like there, and why is that important? Tell us everything about that.

It's kinda yeah. It seems like not something that fits with a nurse scope, but it it absolutely is. So I am a pediatric feeding therapist and it's something I wanted to explore more about when I was having difficulty with my own children. But there were also kids coming through our clinic doors that we were assessing with speech sound disorders but they also had this picky eating profile and I wanted to know more about it. So actually during COVID when we could do online learning, I did a whole bunch of, professional development in order to to have this title now.

And oh man is it unlocked so much for us and, just to know why the reasoning why children are picky or selective eaters. Many people think it's a parenting issue or behavioral issue, the child just refuses to eat, and I'm just gonna force them to sit there and eat, when really they lack the skills to eat. And it could be something to do with their sensory system or their oral motor skills, and that's where I deep dive into it. So to help, I guess to expand the reach to many children, I teamed up with a local farmer to create a food exploration program, and this is a very hands on experience with food, so it unlocks that sensory component to feeding. So, just getting your hands dirty and getting your hands on more different types of food that you might not have wanted on your plate, but it's okay, you don't have to eat it because we're gonna explore the food in different ways.

And that has been very eye opening to see how many children can benefit from this program. And, yeah, a lot of really nice success stories. I still get emails from parents saying, you wouldn't believe what Johnny touched today! Because they know the end goal isn't about well, the end goal is eating, but it's not the immediate goal. It's a long term goal to get them to eat broccoli or eat peas.

But what what else can we do with it? So, yeah, and specifically I had had a boy just recently that I worked with, with autism and his mom was very concerned that he was only eating chicken nuggets and french fries and and maybe two other things and wanted him to eat more and every week she'd come into the program and ask, okay what did he eat today? Said, oh nothing but we he touched something which was very very big for him to be able to touch and squish something. And the one day she picked him up and said, Okay, did he eat anything today? And I said, Yes, he actually did.

We we made potato latkes that day, which are like potato pancakes, and I talked about how it smelled like a french fry. And so he gave it a lick, and then he gave it another lick, and then he gave it a bite, and next thing I know he had gobbled two of these down. Both. So, she was just so thrilled that he he ate this and you know there's many different stories like that as well because, I feel like a lot of kids struggle with being picky eaters, at home. So There

are two things that make me think of the first I wanna just say is is the the family impact. You know, I I mentioned before, we got on that I I have a a connection to this, and I've seen how when when one child in a family has this to face and is not able to eat, it affects everything. It affects how mom gets to work, how dad goes to how, you know, how the how brother, you know, exists, it affects the entire family. And so to be able to alleviate that stress. The other thing I just wanna point out just as I listen to you is, you know, we live in a world, doctor Kelly Culver has a TEDx talk where she talks about the pings and pops and zips and zoops of all the digital and everything.

We'll, and I, again, I run a a PR and marketing firm where I I I believe, as of the last statistic, I think we have three seconds or something to get someone's attention. We are in the we're in this world of now of of immediacy, and I find it so interesting that that as as practitioners, as as health care providers, what you're giving these people is time.

That's very astute, Jen. That's very astute. You're giving them time, and and and you're giving them time too as a family, which is which is a small community. Our family is our first community to build the resilience together. You're absolutely right.

And so everybody then becomes confident. That's really that's a brilliant insight, Jen. Woo hoo. You need the doctor today, not me.

Woah. Woah. Hey. Now do we have, like, a write in PhD? Is that something I

can do? Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

You're on it.

I literally wrote that down. I flipped that line and wrote that down. Yes. Six

days. You're absolutely right, though. Like, time we're giving them time together that's not so successful. You're giving them time, like, giving them opportunity and time. Yeah.

That that I like that, and I'll be thinking about that tonight.

Well and you're giving them to, like, one of in in my own TEDx talk, which is all about navigating change, you're you're giving them that the, I call it, like, nurture your own garden of thinking. You know? And and there's something so important in that at at any age. You know? If if someone gives me something to eat, I'm like, okay.

Maybe. You know? But if it's my garden, if I grew it, I know where it came from. You know? And that takes time, lots of time, and lots of, like, allowing yourself to explore just as you're saying, Laura.

I know he didn't eat anything today, but he touched something. You know, he put his hand in in the dirt, quote, you know, metaphorically speaking. So I I I think there's something so critical here for all of our listeners to be thinking about, which is is the time it takes. You know? And and and there's massive benefit to this, so so think about it.

But there there is time that it takes that you can dedicate that will bring that resilience forward.

That's a big thing. Like you said, you hit the nail on the head when we just want quick results with everything that we do. How many of us have done a dieting trend and we just want it to be, you know, like that? There is no magic pill. It all takes time.

You've got to find the right approach that works for you. But over time, over time, it works. And, you start implementing these skills and teaching new strategies, new skills, it will work over time. But, it's not one magic wand quick fix of anything. And, that is something that we actually explain to parents in their assessment is if we had a magic wand, we would waive it to make your child gain these skills just like that.

But, you hold the magic wand, actually, and we are gonna teach you what to do at home because you see your child every single day. And that is something that is more powerful is that parent training piece because you are with your child.

That makes a lot of sense. You have you have you know, it it is again, well, it's it's either it's parent training in both cases. Right? So it's the parent training the child or the parent training the child within themselves as they learn. You know?

So it it makes a lot of sense to me. But it it also again, just from a resilient standpoint, it reminds me of nature is what I wanted to say. We've talked about this in other episodes. We've talked about resilience looking like a willow tree that stands through the storm. But more than that, it's about how nature is both fast and slow.

Right? Like, everything that's happening, all this all the little cells and everything is multiplying fast, fast, fast. But really, I I see a flower that blooms quite slowly. And so I I think that there is an understanding that needs to be had about the the pace of life and about society and where and and society goes back to, like, what you talked about with schools and and institutions and, you know, at at the at at the wide level, there's this kind of rubric that says, hey. This is what the masses need.

This is what we're gonna do. And I think that what you're doing is breaking that rubric and saying, hey. Let's let's take the natural course of giving people what they need, and what you're seeing is resilience. So tell me how that feels to you to be delivering that kind of resilience.

It's so amazing. It it it really does. It it's second straight. So, yeah, we just I come to work every day, and I just love my job. When you talked about time, I think, you know, time passing you, working on something can feel really hard and woah.

But when I talked about that mindset shift, after that point, time is now not doesn't feel so hard. Because some of these kids, you know, they come in, it's, I don't wanna this is so hard. I don't wanna be doing this. And then you make they make that mindset shift, and you're like, hey. I love coming to Sweet Penn.

I I still have a lot of work to do, though, but it feels a lot different. And the struggle is good. Struggle is good, and how how do we get through that struggle? We keep going. But, I think about growth mindset.

I was reading a bit about that and and just, if you can change someone's mindset, then it'll snowball from there even though it's so hard.

That makes sense. Laura, what do you think?

Oh, gosh. I mean, it's hard to think that we're in a very, well it is. It's a very rewarding career where we do get to have a big impact on children. I mean, we work with children but also with adults. Like, it's not too late to to to develop some, skills as adults as well.

But I don't know, it's just it is very rewarding and I think about if if these were some Them. I don't know. It's just a rewarding career all in all. And to be able to teach resiliency to children from a very young age, I mean, there's nothing more impactful than that. So

So, Maryann and Laura, the speech hands recently won the one a awards from FirstOntario Credit Union. And these awards help small businesses who are making game changing advancements in their community. I I know that you've spent a lot of time in, in building up that capacity. But one of the things that struck the one a awards was something that you call Treats in the Streets. What's that?

So this is a community event that we wanted to create in order to bring more traffic to our downtown, which is a very struggling rural community even before COVID. So, we had 25 businesses, join in our very first year of doing it, and a hundred trick or treaters went door to door to these local businesses, and we've been running that event every year since, and, just last year we had over 50 businesses involved, we had the fire department involved, we had food trucks involved, and we had a thousand children and their families come to our downtown trick or treating, and oh man, it just brings tears tears to my eyes, because this is something we started just thinking that we wanted, some of the children we work with to feel more included in a holiday. For those that can't say trick or treat or can't say Halloween, they may feel like they cannot go out on Halloween night because they're gonna get made fun of, or they're gonna be forced to wear a costume if they they don't like wearing a costume. So, we wanted to make this a very inclusive event for all of our, our children that we work with, and it really has done that and has exploded.

And, we are running it again in two weeks, and we can't wait to see what is going to happen this time. And, every year, I must say, we get fully involved and we dress up as a group and, I don't know, I can't even can I give you a hint of what we're dressing up as?

Please.

Okay, well, we are

gonna be Inside Out characters this year. Of Of course. Each are a different emotion and, like, ew. And might be discussed. I'm envy.

Oh. Yeah. Beautiful.

Well, I can attest to the, to the Treats in the Streets because I've been to it once. Because I my niece, Mary Anne's daughter, Charlie, she's six. And, I've gone down to Treats in the Streets, and it's just absolutely amazing to see these kids who might not normally otherwise be able to participate going absolutely insane. So congratulations on that. And I

think if we keep this Yep.

This level of energy up, the next so we're into rapid fire question time. I hope you're both ready. We We're gonna go really fast. What's your okay. Ready?

What's your favorite movie or TV show that makes you feel resilient?

Okay. For me, it's a book. But first thing comes in mind in the book, but one that made into a movie, so I think it qualifies.

Do it.

Yes. Clan of the Cave Fair by Jane Awe. Jane Awe. Very empowering to me.

This is hard. Are we both answering? Do you want us to both answer

the choir?

Okay. Mine would be a movie, A League of Their Own, because it's like female empowerment in the sports industry. I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the soft spot for Jen and and Asap. Excellent.

Now what about a song? You know, Mary Anne, we won't tell you how how songy and musical Mary Mary Anne is, but she can play the guitar amongst other things. What's your favorite song?

I'll go to the next time.

Mary Anne, I like the build up. I'm more about the music rather than the lyrics, but I love a good build up. So any song that, like, starts really calm and gets really exciting makes me feel empowered. I just wanted to take on the world.

Okay. We are completely opposite Nope. Than our answers, but that's okay. Mine is, Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson, and there's just a reason why, because it was playing on the way to, when we first got the keys for this clinic of ours, and it was just like Yes.

Stuck with me ever since.

And now I'm like, that yes. Yeah.

Awesome. I did not know that story. I love that story. Okay. So what's the last thing that made you laugh?

Like

Honestly, Laura, we spend our work day laughing at each other, at ourselves, like, laughing till we cried. I don't know. Like, earlier, I think we bumped into each other a couple times in the kitchen, and we were both, like, getting more snacks. And we just had a good laugh and, that's that's every day. But, literally, it's one.

And, yeah, we had a good laugh over that, making fun of each other.

Same exact answer. It's always me and I together laughing. And that's the environment we set here at work is just fun. Let's laugh together.

Can't take your tone too serious, you know? In life, we gotta

Yep. That's right. So have you put your heads together to collectively come up with what's a question you'd like to leave for future guests?

Yeah. We we thought about it separately, but we kind of

have similar, answers. So, I would say because we are a duo, we do everything together. Even, we have learned to be resilient together, too. So, for the future guests, who would be your go to person to to get through something with, to be resilient with?

I love it. And then I would add to that, what characteristics in that person makes them your go to person? Like, what do you speak from them? What makes you feel resilient when you're allowing them?

You're a good therapist. That's good. That's a good question. Why? I look forward to asking that of future guests.

And with that, I have a a question that was left by a past guest that I'd like each of you to please answer. So, the question is and this is really great through that lens of food exploration and giving ourselves time to explore that. When you are feeling in need of resilience, what is your go to food or beverage?

Yeah. Well, that makes me think comfort. And my my comfort food is always chicken parmesan like no matter what restaurant I'm I go to I need to know what their chicken parmesan is like and if it can beat my mom's because it's that Italian heritage for me it's a chicken parmesan it is

beautiful Mary

Anne glass of wine can I say that

yes of course

do this yourself give

me a glass of wine and I'll take on the world

white wine amazing

yeah White wine?

White wine. White

wine. Chicken parmesan.

With I was gonna say, I would do maybe the red with the chicken parm, but you know what? Take it either way it goes. Guys, Laura, Mary Anne, what an honor to have you today. You are really truly changing the world in in one one speech hand at a time, and and I think that I I'm very honored to to know some pioneers in your community, and that is you. And I'm very honored to have had the opportunity to share this story of resilience.

Where can our listeners find you, learn more, follow you, and continue this journey with you?

We we're on Facebook, Instagram, and we have a website. And for all of the handles, it's at speech hands or @speechhens.com.

Beautiful. @speechhens.com. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you as always for listening to us. You can find us on resiliencythepodcast.com or at resiliencythepodcast on all the socials. If resilience is something that you're interested in, we encourage you to subscribe to us on YouTube or like this episode wherever you are listening.

It really helps us to continue building this community and keeping this resilience going. And as you know, resiliency the podcast is the place for stories, strategies, and inspiration that help you to embrace change, overcome challenges, and redefine resilience. So again, we hope you'll connect with us and continue to learn. I am Jen Quader. You can find me online at jennquader, j e n n q u a d e r, or at jennquader.com, where my company, thesmartagency.com.

Our beautiful, wonderful, amazing, illustrious cohost, doctor Kelly Culver. You can find her online. Her company is the culver group dot c a. That's dot c a for Canada. She's also at doctor kelly culver on Instagram and LinkedIn.

So for all of us here at Resiliency the Podcast, we are grateful. We are we, honor the ability to communicate with confidence. We wish that for you in every way, and we thank you again for being here for a beautiful episode and look forward to continuing to be resilient with you next week. Stay strong. Be resilient.