- [Announcer] Welcome to TPGi's "Real People, Real Stories" podcast, where you'll find interesting and diverse stories from folks working to make the world a more inclusive place. - Hey, welcome to "Real People, Real Stories" podcast, brought to you by TPGi. I'm your host, Mark Miller, thanking you for helping us keep it accessible. Do us a favor. If you're enjoying the "Real People, Real Stories" podcast, share it, tell someone about it. Hey, even link to it from your accessible website. So thanks, everyone, for joining us. I wanna introduce to you sort of an old friend of mine, Dustin Giannelli. Dustin, you and I met a couple years ago when you were at CSUN working with 3Play. We had a great, great conversation, got to know each other a little bit there, and here we are. We're here again. And since then, you've made a lotta changes in your life. You're doing keynote speaking, and you also have a bunch of brand partnerships. So the first thing I wanna find out from you, I get keynote speaking. It makes sense. I've done some of it. Tell me about these brand partnerships. What is that for you? - Yeah, thank you so much for having me, and it is great to see you again, too, Mark. You know, as a keynote speaker, hearsdustin.com is my platform that I'm able to partner with different corporate brands and not only share my story but also help shine light on the efforts they're doing related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, belonging. And, you know, my story as somebody who is profoundly deaf and has worn hearing aids since I was five, is a vessel to the overall message. The message is the key to success in life is communication, and the key to communication is access. And so it's my passion to stand up in front of hundreds of people and share my story and learn about theirs. - So tell me a little bit about, like, when you go to one of your brand partners, right? When you go to one of these companies, and you start to share your story, and you start to talk to them about communication and access, which is always an interesting thing, right? Because I think people think they think they understand access until they hear a story like yours, and then they realize maybe it's a little bit more complicated than what they had originally thought. What's the reaction? How do people react to that, and how does it end up improving things for them in that corporate environment? - Just like life, accessibility is a journey, right? And everybody has a unique story, so whether they're hearing my story for the first time or your story or anybody else's story, they realize, oh, wow, I hadn't thought about that. You know, we're creating this new product or a new program. I hadn't thought about that approach, right? So it makes people realize that accessibility is a journey with no finish line. - Mm-hmm. - And, you know, it's so motivating to all of us to learn and utilize different stories, you know, experiences in my life from when I was a little kid to when I was 11 years old and went to Michael Jordan Basketball Camp, for example. And we can get into that later, but that's where I created my motto, be on offense, at 11 years old. I'll talk a little bit about that in a bit, but, you know, whether it was high school or my college experience, my professional career, you know, that life, those stories, that experience is a journey, and we can learn so much from each. - So, talk to me a little bit about what your story is. I mean, I think we get the basics, right? Like, obviously, you're deaf. It sounds like that was something that was progressive that started when you were a child. Tell me, Dustin, like, what's the story? What did you go through, and what did you learn going through? It sounds like you had some challenges, and you had some adventures. Like, what are the things that you learned along the way? - Even before I was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss, I was introduced to disability and handicap at a very young age. My grandfather was a double amputee, and so he had prosthetics. He had a wooden hook and a wooden leg. He got in a boating accident in his mid-20s, and helping somebody, he was the one that hit the propeller, and he survived it. - Ooh. - He survived it and thrived, and, you know, he was always upbeat, positive. You know, he taught me PMA, positive mental attitude, and what that meant. Never to take no for an answer. And so I was already introduced, right, at a very young age. And at the age of five, see, one year, I passed the school nurse's hearing exam. Who remembers that, right? - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - I passed it, no problem, but then the second year, I remember standing in line, and they had put a board up in between the nurse and all the students, and I remember looking at the board and watching the students realizing for the first time, this isn't gonna work for me. I read lips. - Right. - And I watched them. I remember watching them click the button to make the beeps go off, right? - Yeah. - Raise your hand when you hear the beeps. - [Mark Miller] Yep. - I remember seeing their arm move, and I was just adapting. I just did what I had to do to succeed, get an A on that test. - So you were faking your way based on observation, basically, through the hearing test. - Nobody in my family was deaf, so I didn't even know what it meant to be deaf. I just did what I had to do to succeed. - You just figured out, just figured out what was going on and handled it a different way. - I learned how to watch the mouth move and how words were formulated. - You were reading lips and thought that that's what everybody did, essentially. - [Dustin Giannelli] Yeah. - Like, you didn't realize that everybody else was hearing a voice that you weren't hearing or at least not hearing as well. That is fascinating, that's fascinating. So when did you figure all of that out? When did it dawn on you, hey, wait a minute, something's going on differently with me than my peers and my family? - They immediately called my mom and said, "I think your son is deaf," and my mom said, "What?" You know, pun intended. And no one in my family realized it because at a young age, you know, I read everybody's lips. I put myself in a position that I could hear them- - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - and understand. - And how old are, how old are you at this point? - I'm 30, well, I'm 34 now. - No, back then. Back then. - But at then, I was five years old. - Okay, wow. - Yeah, so very, very young age. And I had one older brother, and, you know, not a huge family, but one older brother. I knew a bunch of his friends. I just fit in. You know, played basketball my whole life, and, yeah, it was never something that held me back. - It's also a testament to just how clever kids are, right? - [Dustin Giannelli] Seriously. - Like, you can't take anything for granted because a five-year-old's gonna figure stuff out that you wouldn't imagine a five-year-old's gonna figure out. And I'll tell you before you go on that we were talking before the mics heated up, right, and we started the podcast here because I was asking you, you know, kinda how you communicate, and I brought up sign language, which you said you knew a little bit of. Well, I had a friend, so I used to publish a magazine, and one of my clients that I would walk into every day, their daughter worked in this bookstore, and I chatted with her, and she had a voice about like yours. It was good, but it wasn't, you know, it sounded like there was a little something different about it, we'll just say, but just a little bit, you know? - [Dustin Giannelli] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - And so, I'd thought, well, whatever. You know, there's this speech thing, where I didn't really think much about it. And I dealt with her for quite a while, only to find out later on, like you, that she was deaf, and this was before cochlear implants. She really didn't have hearing aids that she could use at all. She was deaf. But she grew up, and, you know, her parents, like many parents not knowing what to do, had put her through schooling to teach her how to read lips and to teach her how to speak, so she went through intense speech therapy. That's why her voice was so good. But it was amazing to me, to your point, to realize that she was deaf, and that this whole time she had been reading lips. And I think what happened is that she had turned around, and I had said some stuff to her, and when she turned back around, you know, she realized I was speaking, and I realized she didn't understand, and that's how I found out. But at that time, she was learning sign language, so just, Dustin, that's when I learned sign language I started, became really good friends with her and met the whole deaf community in our area and learned sign language. But very, very similar story. Like, you know, she was deaf from birth, but took a while for her parents to realize it, and these hearing parents, they didn't have a manual, you know what I mean? - Yeah. - They didn't, what to do, which put her in an odd predicament where she sort of had one foot in hearing culture and one foot in deaf culture, which is another whole story. But I guess that's my question for you, is that once your parents realized that you were deaf, like, how did they handle it? How did they react to it? And, well, just tell me that to start with. - Yeah, I mean, we immediately went to Boston Children's Hospital, the Waltham location, and got a, you know, proper hearing exam in the booth and everything, and sure enough, I was severely deaf at the time, severe profound. And over the next few years, it gradually decreased to the profound levels, and, you know, that's the most significant loss. And so, when we look back, our doctor at the time and my mom came to an agreement that it was from chicken pox. Now, chicken pox is a virus, right? - Really? - And I had a very severe case of chicken pox all on my face and my ears as a young, young boy, and it must have damaged my cochlear, which are hair cells that vibrate when you hear sound. Mine were broken, so they might be not moving the way yours or others with, quote, normal hearing move. And so it was a gradual decrease from about the age five to 12, and finally, I remember just, I mean, you gotta remember, this is constant visits to the audiologist every few weeks, month. My mom's driving me back and forth. It was kind of a pain, right? But I always, you know, kept my grandfather's voice in my head, "PMA, Dusty. You gotta do what you gotta do. You know, that's life." And, you know, I did what I had to do, but I finally said to myself, "I don't want to lose my hearing anymore." - Of course. - And from that point on, you know, that attitude, that be on offense mentality. So lemme talk about that for a second, right? - Yeah, go for it. - I was 11 years old, my brother was 14. My parents surprised us with tickets to Michael Jordan's Basketball Camp in Chicago. This was a week-long camp in Chicago with campers from all over the world. There was a wait list. My late father's aunt worked at the college and was able to get us on the wait list years prior, and we finally got called. And so we got to meet Michael Jordan every day, one way or another. And one night, he was giving an auditorium speech. It was middle of the week, and they actually just announced the all-star teams, and I made the all-star team for my age group. - [Mark Miller] Wow. - So I'm sitting with my new teammates from all over the world, and we're waiting for Michael Jordan to come out. I was about 50, 60 feet away from the stage, off on the left side, and as soon as he came out, and he started talking, everybody started laughing, and I very quickly realized I couldn't hear anything that he said. And being five, six years new into being deaf, in that moment, Mark, it was up to me to get the help I needed. There was a counselor walking up and down the aisle. All I had to do was ask, "Hey, you know, I'm deaf. I read lips. May I sit up front?" But I pretended to laugh and pretended to smile for the full hour. - [Mark Miller] Oh. - I was embarrassed, right? My new teammates, I didn't want that moment to be a barrier, especially having just made the all-star team. And that's what HearsDustin is all about. That's what my brand, what I am all about today, is I don't want any other 11-year-old or kids or parents, adults to pretend to laugh or pretend to smile. There's so much help out there. You know, companies like TPGi, Vispero, 3Play Media, you name it. There are so many companies out there with resources that help all people with disabilities and abilities. - So that sort of one moment that you look back on, and regret's probably not the right word, but wished you at that age could've handled differently, that really is the inspiration for everything that you do today, everything that you're talking about today. You bring up a good point when you talk about that story. I mean, we're all humans, right? And we all are social creatures, so I think, you know, it's really profound and understandable that what held you back is that you didn't wanna be embarrassed in front of your peers. When you were diagnosed, and, I guess, probably more when it was more obvious to the people around you that you were deaf, how did your peers, how did that affect things with your peers? How did they react to that, and how did you handle it? - I mean, I already had a great group of friends, you know, and support within my family, so when I got hearing aids, I already had glasses, and I saw them as just something that helps me hear, just like glasses help you see, and that's what I told my friends, you know? And, you know, all through elementary school, people knew my older brother already, so then they knew me, and the teachers acted like it was no big deal, and so I acted like it was no big deal. - That's great. - And then my peers acted like it was no big deal. And I did great in academics, and I did even better on the basketball court, and- - That's fantastic. - I let my actions speak for themselves. And, you know, I was just recently talking to another client about how when I was at recess, all I wanted to do was play basketball, and that's what we did, right? And different games and kickball and you name it. And I was the best one on the court. I picked the players that got picked last because I knew what the feeling of inclusion felt like. As somebody who has a disability, I know what feeling included and excluded feels like. - Sure, yeah. - So having picked the, quote, worst player on the team first made me work even harder- - [Mark Miller] Mm. - and smarter, right? And so, you know, yeah, I just found it so fun to see us all win no matter what the scoreboard said. - Wow, what a great attitude. Well, I think, you know, you were really lucky to have a supportive group of friends and a supportive family, right? And you're super lucky to have a grandfather with- - Yeah. - the experience he had, that had the attitude that he had, and that probably really helped set you up for success. So when you go out and talk to these organizations, and you tell them that story, what's the reaction? Like, what do people come up and sorta tug you on the shirt sleeve and say to you? - Well, you know, it's a fun story to tell, and I think, you know, you're enthusiastic in hearing about it, right? - Mm-hmm. - And there's a lotta ahs and oohs and wows from the crowd. And whether there's, you know, 50 people in front of me or 500, the story allows for this relationship to happen in that moment. I make eye contact with everybody because I have to read lips, but I have to read facial expressions. One engagement I did with a very large corporation outside of Boston, I noticed in this moment, I was building up the story to make a point, and as soon as I was about to make the point, I could see a woman behind another woman, trying to look around her head, which was kinda blocking her view to me. - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - I noticed that. And when I made the point, I stepped forward so she could see me, and that moment was an accessibility moment. I wanted her to see me just as the same way I had to see her. And I said right after that, "Did anybody notice that I stepped forward when I made that point?" No one really raised their hand, and I wasn't expecting them to 'cause that's just how I talk. I said, "Only one person might've noticed," and she kinda thought it was her but wasn't sure, and I said, "Was it you? Were you having a hard time seeing me, exactly, right?" - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - I want you guys to see me just as much as I need to see you. So in conversations at work, let's remember, open up our shoulders, to have a circle, right? - Yeah. - Your ERG, employee resource group, is called the Circle, the Disability Circle. - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - So let's open up, right? And so that's the action step that I encourage us all and just bring awareness to. - It's interesting that you say that. You know, through my life, I've attended a lot of like, social functions for work, and, you know, those areas where you have to meet a lotta new people, and one of the things that I've always done is exactly like you said, these circles form, and just having that awareness when other people are walking up or when other people wanna join the circle, that you've gotta open that circle a little bit and bring that person in. You know, I don't want to have somebody have to, like, look over my shoulder. - [Dustin Giannelli] Right. - It's always moving out. And I think that, you know, just as an overall analogy, that's kinda what you're talking about with communication is like, open up that circle and let's keep it a circle because when it's a circle, we're all equal in our ability to see and engage with each other. But as soon as somebody's behind or something like that, it's not that, you know? - And not only that, it's if somebody comes in, and you wanna welcome them, yes, open up, but also include them on where you're at in the conversation you're talking about. - Yep. - "Hey, we're just talking about X, Y, and Z. You wanna join us?" "Oh, oh my god, yeah," you know? - [Mark Miller] Yeah. - How good that feels to just be so welcomed into a conversation about anything, "Game of Thrones," you know, business talk, different events. - Whatever it is, yeah. - Anything, and speaking of "Game of Thrones," right? You need the closed caption for that show, right? - Yes. I need the closed captions because it's hard enough for me to follow. - 80% of people that use closed captions are not deaf or hard of hearing. - Oh, I believe it, yeah. - Imagine? - I mean, just situationally, just in bars and restaurants, and I'm learning a second language. I use closed captions to help me learn a second language, you know? - Absolutely. - And then a lotta people, my son and his girlfriend leave close captions on almost all the time. Just, I don't know why. - Yeah. - For some reason, don't even need to know why. For some reason, it's a better experience for them. Yeah, and that's a good example of just how, to your point, like to accommodating, and maybe you're accommodating for someone who has a disability and needs an accommodation, but anytime you make that accommodation available, you have no idea the number of people that may be using that accommodation for their own personal reasons or in specific circumstances or anything like that. So what have you found, like, what has helped you just in your career and getting through life? What are the things that you've needed to make sure are in place for yourself that have helped you accommodate kinda your, I guess, always being on offense, right? Like, what have you offensively made, offensively, that's not the way to say it. What have you made sure is in place so that you can do what you need to do? - Yeah, you know, it's a situational question, right? But there's a lot of different accommodations. Of course, my hearing aids. Having Bluetooth is amazing, as I mentioned to you earlier on, is I'm connected on Bluetooth, so I can hear your voice directly through my hearing aids. I've got the captions on, and I'm able to read your lips, so that's what makes this experience accessible. Now, remember, when the pandemic hit, I was actually working in a different industry. I was working in the commercial architecture and design industry. I was working for IdeaPaint, which is a dry erase whiteboard paint that turns- - Really? - your whole wall, right, into a whiteboard, and it's a fun product for kids, and your office, and you name it. Well, imagine me being in an office, a conference room, a boardroom. I'm trying to read lips on the right side, and then somebody talks over there, I'm trying to read lips over there, and then they crisscross, and it's difficult, it's fatiguing, but at least I can read what's on the wall, right? And so that's why I loved IdeaPaint. Now, when the pandemic hit and the offices closed, I realized I needed so much help, and, you know, the deaf community needed help, and so I jumped to learn all about closed captioning and video accessibility with 3Play Media, and spent 18 months there, built relationships with, you know, the team and the clients, the partners, and really understood what. You know, 3Play is such a thought leader in the space for accessibility and DEI- - Really are. - and so I looked up to them to be able to realize how important just sharing your story and your motto, be on offense, and the different accessibility and accommodation that I use, how important that is to everybody, right? There's 50 million Americans affected by hearing loss. - Wow. - 430 million affected by hearing loss in the world. Now, go back to America real quick for more numbers and stats. Of those 50 million, 28 million people say, "Yeah, hearing aids or other assistive technology would absolutely help me. I would benefit from that." - Right. - However, only 14% of that population, 4.5 million, actually get the help they need. - Wow. Is that a financial barrier, or is it apathy, or all of the above? What's that attributed to? - All of the above, whether it's financial, confidence. What about you have a job, and what if you disclose that you're deaf, and you're insecure about that? Or once upon a time, you didn't tell people that you had a disability or a difference. Now, today, it's about sharing your abilities. - Right. - Because our differences lead to innovation. - [Mark Miller] Yeah. - Right? - Yep, I was just gonna say that. I mean, I think that that's almost a strong second message in your story is that based on what you, based on how you had to innovate, like, that original story, right, of you figuring out how to pass the hearing test, even though you couldn't hear. I mean, that's incredible innovation. It's innovation that I didn't have to do. Like, somehow, your brain is rewired and has a new ability because you had to innovate at that level and continue to do that through your life, and what does that bring to an employer? What does that bring to your brand partners? What does that bring to anybody and everybody that you come in contact with? You know, that's of value. That's a ability that you've created that other people don't have. And I see that because I know that because I have ADD and dyslexia, and with my dyslexia, I've very similarly, you know, I had to cheat around spelling, you know? Like, and I was afraid to death of employers finding out how bad my spelling was. And, you know, thank goodness for Grammarly and, you know, spell check and all those kinda things today because it really covers that up for me. But I know exactly what you're talking about, and I had to find ways to hide that just like you were doing when you were five years old. But by the same token, you know, there's things that I know I'm good at because of all of that, you know? So I think that that's almost a side message, is like, why are we focused? Why would an employer focus on the fact that you're deaf when they should be focused on the fact that you have a unique brand of innovation- - Right. - because of, you know, how you had to go through life and innovate. - And speaking of focus, right? Part of the IEP meeting that my parents would go to, individualized education program meetings in school, right? - Yes. - I know you've gone to 'em, or you've had them. - [Mark Miller] Yep. - And, you know, part of the accommodations was a couple things, seating arrangements, sitting up front in front of the teacher, in front of the lecturer, professor, whoever it may be. - I had that one, too. - Yeah, and it's so helpful to stay focused and read lips and facial expressions and really tune in to really understand and build that relationship with whoever it is. The second thing was also, in school, I had what's called an FM system. That was a microphone that the teacher would wear that connected to my hearing aids. - Oh, brilliant. - And so it gave me- - [Siri] This on the web. - Oh, my watch just went off, and it was researching what an FM system was, my Apple Watch. - Nice. Good one. - Thank you. - Thank you, Apple. - Yeah, so, you know, there's a lot of different things, and now I have a Bluetooth microphone that I can bring around in different scenarios where I really wanna focus on one speaker in a loud audience or what have you, put it on a table in a restaurant or a boardroom, and it can detect voices 360 or only in front of you. - Wow. - It's very cool. It's called the Roger Pen, and it's compatible with other brand's hearing aids that have Bluetooth capabilities. - It's amazing what technology, like, how technology has leveled the playing field, you know, for everyone, and that's, you know, one of the things that's important to us is like those technologies are great and digital tech, as you know, as you know from your past employment, right? It's not enough just to have the technology there. We need to make sure that everybody's doing what they need to, you know, doing their part to make sure that technology can work on their content, you know? - [Dustin Giannelli] Right. - And that's a little different than what you're talking about. But I just think that the world needs to understand that the playing field is now leveled, you know? - And there are so many people that have helped us get there. - Yeah. - And so, you know, you think of people, of course, Mike Paciello, Matt Ater from Vispero. You think of so many champions in the space- - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - that just, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the years and years of commitment and dedication. - Absolutely. - And their understanding of disabilities and abilities and technology and innovation and everything else in between. You know, there was an amazing moment. I was just at CES technology conference in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, and Matt Ater was there. - [Mark Miller] Yep. - And we got to connect, and I went to one of his speaking engagements one morning, and then later on, I ended up bumping into him. So how I ended up bumping into him was, I was on the main floor of the convention, and when I'm in a loud environment like that, I usually shut one hearing aid off- - Okay. - because I'm able to feel the bass better, and then the volume better on the right side. - Okay. - So, otherwise, it's too much noise, and I can't really find the bass- - [Mark Miller] Mm-hmm. - and so I shut one off, keep one on. And in this moment, it was so loud, but I'm hearing and feeling this bass around the wall. I was almost expecting a performance, and so I follow it, and I round the corner, and all it was was a few people sitting around a table testing audio equipment, and I get closer, and it's Matt Ater. - Matt. - And I'm like, "Oh, Matt, cool." - Really? - And then I look to his right, my left, it was Stevie Wonder. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - And so, they're fooling around with this high-quality audio equipment by SVS. - [Mark Miller] Yeah. - And my God, it was just amazing to witness Stevie Wonder and Matt just play with this equipment and appreciate sound, music so much. As somebody who's profoundly deaf, to witness somebody who's blind appreciate that moment, that sound, because I appreciate music so much. I play an instrument myself, and, you know, it was just- - Oh, great. - an amazing moment and an awesome experience. - Yep, Stevie Wonder and Matt are often moving around together. - [Dustin Giannelli] I've heard. - Yeah, and, yeah, it's amazing. And I think that's something that Matt would say that about Stevie is that to this day, like just his appreciation for that sound. You know, that his music really is profound. Like, it's not, hey, this is cool. I made a career out of it. He absolutely knows and loves just music and sound and all that kinda stuff. That's a great story, great story. So did you get to talk to Stevie? - So in that moment, I didn't bother him. No one bothered him, right? - For you. - I ended up bumping into him 30 minutes later. People, fans were all around him when he was on a golf cart, and he was going right by me, so I was able to say at the end, "Stevie, I'm profoundly deaf. I've worn hearing aids since I was a little boy, and having watched you listen to the music, that was amazing. Thank you so much for everything you've done in the world." That's all I said. - Great. - And his smile grew and grew and grew, and he looked at me and said, "What's your name?" And I said, "Dustin Giannelli," and he said, "Thanks, man." Pound it, and that was it. - Boom. Yep, what a great guy. Lotta respect for both Stevie Wonder and Matt Ater, really do. Good, good people. Are you gonna be, so you and I met at CSUN, which both of those people are often there. Are you gonna go to CSUN again this year, do you think? - Not confirmed just yet. - Okay. - There's a lotta different travel plans and speaking engagements on my calendar, dating out to July for ADA Day on July 26th. - Busy, man, yeah. - Yeah, well, you know, it's a very cool. It's just been an amazing journey, and I'm grateful for everybody that helped me get to where I am today and all the different companies and champions that are bringing me on to speak and share my story. And, you know, sky's the limit at this point. - Mm, so we need to wrap things up, Dustin, but I'm wondering, like, you know, if there's like one message, and I know you've said a few of them through the podcast, but just one thing that you would like people to really walk away with, really understand, what would that be? - Such a profound question, right? It's, you know, how I got to where I am today as a speaker is admiring so many other speakers, right? And this goes back, when I heard people, like, if you know Erik Qualman, they call him the Equalman. - Okay. - And he has millions and millions of, I mean, he's reached about 40 million people globally. He has a podcast. He's interviewing the Rock and, you know, Kevin Hart and all sorts of figures, but he's called the Equalman, so he has a lot of, you know, great messages about equality and things of that nature. And, you know, people like him, different teachers and professors, they share stories. They slow life down. - Oh, yeah. - The way they talk, and then they speed it up, and they hit the point home, right? That passion, right? So to answer your question, it's share your story because you never know who you're inspiring, and everybody has a different story. I might have a similar degree of hearing loss as your friend that you mentioned earlier, but we have completely different stories- - Totally different. - and they're both valuable, right? - Yeah. - And so that's the point, is if we can all continue to share our story and what accommodations are out there that help us in different situations, that's what's gonna help us as people and us as the American people, for example. Go back to that stat. Like, there are so many Americans that aren't utilizing or benefiting from things like hearing aids, and we need to help them, and that's why as somebody who has worn them since I was five, I have a obligation, a sense of responsibility to encourage them to get what they need. - I think that's my big takeaway here, is that if you can make that decision to always be on offense, to appropriate your phrase, and advocate for yourself, what we heard today, the Dustin that we just heard today, that's who you get to be. Whereas, if you're not willing to do that for yourself, if you can't find a path to that, it's gonna be much, much more difficult. And so I love your goal of really making sure you get that message particularly to kids, right? Because that's when it starts. If you can help kids understand at a young age that they need to advocate for themself, and no matter what their situation is, it's okay, it's fine. You just need to advocate for yourself in a way that you can take the best advantage of that situation that you can, and you are living proof and your story is proof of that. - Absolutely, and just recently, I did a Q and A experience on Instagram, and my God, I mean, I was flooded with questions and curiosity, and it was fun. You know, I did it on a Sunday, so that was a fun way to spend my second half of the day and into Monday, and that opened the eyes and ears of a lot of people, and that's just one platform. And you can find me on Instagram or TikTok or LinkedIn where I do a ton of advocacy and posting weekly and my website, hearsdustin.com, so always updating, and, you know, a lot of videos to come- - Great. - and engagements to come. - Perfect, and we'll put all of that in the show notes, so if you're listening to this, and you're like, "Where do I find all that?" Just check out the show notes. We'll have that all on the website along with the transcript and all that. We'll make sure this is captioned, everything will be, we'll accommodate for everyone. Thank you so much, Dustin. I really appreciate it. I wish we had more time. I hope that we run into each other again soon at CSUN or at some other conference, but great catching back up with you. It was great talking to you years ago, and I'm hoping it's not too long before we connect again. - Well, I will be at University of New Hampshire where we both went, right? I will be speaking on the first as well as the ninth for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Conference at their new business school, so I'll be there. I'll send you the dates, and hopefully, if you're around, you can either join, or we can get coffee after. - Yeah, that's 20 minutes away from me, so- - Exactly. - please do that. Hey, I'm here with Dustin Giannelli. We are at the second annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Conference here at UNH, and we've seen a lotta great speakers. You were one of the great speakers. - Yeah, that's the thing is that you- - And I gotta tell you, my friend Dustin here called me out in the middle of his speech to talk to the group. - Invited him. - Invited, invited him. - Invited. - That was the word I was looking for. But how's the conference been for you so far? - It's been great. You know, it's all about bridging, building- - So, how are you- - bridges- - That's why I saw you? - and, you know, talking about the importance of inclusion and invisible versus visible disabilities and all- - The ball. - of the above- - Oh, I know. - and all everything in between. - Yeah, yeah, I mean. - So it's been very valuable, a lot of diversity here, and- - I don't, I'm not sure. - [Attendee 1] It's not it. - this is the second annual, so I'm already looking forward to the third one. - I'm looking forward to the third. Well, I appreciate you being on the podcast last week- - [Attendee 2] Someone sees this, and they're sure- - and it was great seeing you again here, and this is all- - It's general. - great work and keep speaking. - Thank you, thank you, Mark. - All right, you're welcome. - Or I can- - This is Mark Miller, thanking Dustin, and reminding you to keep it accessible. - [Announcer] This podcast has been brought to you by TPGi, the experts in digital accessibility. Stay tuned for more "Real People, Real Stories" podcasts coming soon.