What would be a good bridge to that for someone who is sincerely trying to understand and also to communicate respectfully, sensitively with someone who is different?

Ask questions.

Ask questions about the other person's experience and ask in a way, in a tone that it's obvious you genuinely care, not in like a defensive, like you've done wrong.

And so I'm asking you all these questions, right? But in a calm, I genuinely care about you and your life experiences.

So just asking basic general questions.

And that bridges, that starts the conversation.

And then you realize, oh, well, they're human.

Tell us more about that.

Mm-hmm.

Because I had such incredible support, I was then able to accept and receive that grit for myself and that gratitude and say, "Okay." What is my purpose? What is my gifts in this world? So I wanted to be that support system to others.

I was deeply passionate about being that support to others in the world.

So through the organization, I do speaking to organizations, corporations, associations, and I also do one-on-one coaching.

So again, the goal is to speak to organizations that are going through a specific change that's major that they need support, how do I navigate through this change? And so I tailor it very specifically to the change they're going through and talk about how they can use grit and how they can use gratitude to navigate through so the change doesn't just overwhelm them, shut them down.

At the same time, I, the coaching is on an individual level, yet we're doing the same process, taking their specific change that they're going through and saying, "Okay, how do they need to apply grit? How do they need to apply gratitude in their life?" So, and again, the whole passion was to be that support system to others as I had received.

[laughs]

"... to have this title." The reason I did is because, so I have had two black lab guide dogs.

And I know it gave the listeners a little bit about your background, but can you tell us a little more about your story and how it shaped the work you do today?

100% of the work I do is only because of my life experience.

I definitely would not be doing this work had it not been for the, just the way life happened and unfolded.

So as you shared in my bio, at the age of nine, I was diagnosed with an extremely rare eye disease called Yet the difficult part was there was no timeline.

There was no guidance of you will lose your sight at this point or in so many years, you will lose your sight.

So it was a complete unknown.

You've got this rare retinal disease, but you might be 40 when you go blind.

you said, look on the bright side, right? That

Thank you.

So it was a major part of my mindset healing from the anxiety, from the depression, and even now today, it is a major, major, major part of my mindset perspective.

And I would love to share how it all, how the gratitude started.

I did not just wake up one day and say, "Okay, I'm grateful to be blind.

This is wonderful.

I recommend it to everyone.

[laughs] Let's just be grateful." The way that the gratitude started was a mentor of mine in, late in those, in the high school years, came to me and said, "Laura, I want you to start writing down every day three things that you're grateful for." And again, in my Southernness, thankfully, I smiled and said, "Okay." In my head, I was thinking, "You are a horrible mentor.

So what advice would you give to someone who's currently experiencing a life-changing transition?

What was that whole process like from when you're in denial, recognizing this is a lifelong thing, to now where you are using it to help other people?

So it was 100% the support around me.

So the whole time that my mindset is I can't, I don't have the strength, I'm living in constant panic attacks.

And when I say that, I don't mean like a panic attack once a year.

I'm talking like several throughout the day, every

day.

So as I'm feeling this and experiencing this and thinking this, It was only the support around me that kept me going and allowed me to move forward to where I am today.

I think like, look at what's right in front of you and do what you can right now and do what you can.