S2E29: Laughs, Tears, and Love - Highlights from Our Stanley Cup Dinner Fundraiser

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of dyslexia and struggling to find effective support, then you are not alone!

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover engaging Dyslexia Awareness Month activities to support and uplift dyslexic individuals.
• Explore the impact of COVID on fundraising events and how it affects support for dyslexia initiatives.
• Learn effective strategies for planning successful charity events to benefit dyslexic individuals and their families.
• Understand the importance of self-love in dyslexia and how it can positively impact individuals with dyslexia.
• Gain insights into educating teachers about dyslexia and advocating for better support in educational settings.

Strategies for Successful Charity Events
The hosts discussed the strategic planning and execution of events like the Stanley Cup dinner, aiming to create intimate and love-filled experiences for guests. They emphasized the importance of personal touches, thoughtful selection of auction items, and involving dyslexic individuals in the events. These strategies were key in defying the corporate atmosphere often associated with charity events and garnering heartfelt support for dyslexia awareness.

Transcript:

00:00:05
Welcome back to Word Blindness, Dyslexia Exposed. I'm Juliet Hahn, here with my co host, Brent Sopel. How are you?

00:00:16
Another day. Another day. You know. Why? Well, yes.

00:00:22
Another day in your world. Well, we have a lot to catch up on. So this is the last week of October that this is going to go out. So we've had Dyslexia Awareness Month. We've done some different things this month for the podcast, and we have recapped already the golf event that happened in September, and we had the Stanley cup dinner just Friday.

00:00:47
Was it just. Yeah. Was it just a couple days ago? Oh, my God, yes. Okay.

00:00:54
That's crazy. I was going to say last week, but it's not. So we're recording. Recording on a Tuesday, which is off recording schedule because you had a meeting yesterday. Everyone's off schedule.

00:01:04
My poop schedule. I think everything's off schedule. Right, Exactly. Everything is off schedule. So we wanted to end this month, though, just with the recap of the Stanley cup dinner, which was, I mean, again, such the love, the energy, the.

00:01:25
The night, the weekend was so, just amazing. But I'm going to let you jump in so I don't continue to ramble. No, you. You keep rambling, because I don't even know where to. I know.

00:01:42
To begin. You know, there's, you know, a million people to thank, a million people to consider. Yeah, I don't even, you know, so I don't even know. So I'm gonna jump back in. Okay.

00:02:05
I'm gonna jump back in. Sorry, I just kind of threw under the bus there. My apologies. It was just. It was so spectacular from start to finish.

00:02:14
You know, obviously you. You know, You're. You're unicorn, as we all know. You're. You got your Curious George hat on, but you're.

00:02:25
You're a special human. You know, Elizabeth and I are grateful you're in our lives to come down, to help out, to take my 17,322 calls a day. So thank you. Of course. And as I said to you, thank you for letting this crazy lady in your life to be able to help more kids.

00:02:50
I mean, so I will take it back because let's kind of talk a little bit about how you've done the golf event. That was your third one. Right. And then how the Stanley cup dinner kind of came about. Let's kind of take people through the little bit of the history of it so they can follow along and feel like, all right, I'm in their heads.

00:03:10
I get it. Oh, no, no, no, no. So nobody wants to be in this head. Nobody. Right.

00:03:19
So buckle up. So that was the third golf event, correct? Correct. Yes. We did shut it down for a couple years, you know, with COVID Thank you.

00:03:33
And, you know, and then we'll take back to why you. Like, we've talked about this many times. There's so much embarrassment that goes along with this, and there's so much misunderstood information out there, and there's so much non understanding it. We're not like, you know, any other. We're not like als or Parkinson's or cancer.

00:04:02
Everybody's got some understanding. So to raise funds for. People never donate to something they don't understand. People never donate to things that they don't. They're not okay with.

00:04:21
No, you can get political. Like, nobody donates if a Democrat to a Republican. And, you know, if you're a Republican, Devin, same thing for us. They're. They.

00:04:30
They don't donate. So we're. I actually said yesterday, we're kind of like the Berlin Wall. We're trying to bring it down, you know, so that's why, you know, we had to take a couple years of off with COVID because it was hard enough before, during COVID and trying to get back on track, you know, so that's why there was a lapse. You know, I want to explain why there was a lapse, you know, and it wasn't a lap.

00:04:56
The foundation was still doing things, but we just, you know, weren't in a position. And then we didn't think the world was in a position to open up the SOAP foundation, open their arms, open the SOAP Foundation. Right. There's so many other things. So many people were going through other things, so many other organizations, and so many things need donations.

00:05:16
And just to kind of sum up what you said, it's like, wait, why are these dyslexic people needing money? They're not hurting. There's people dying over here, and there's. And there's this happening and there's this national disaster and so bringing it back. And you, the listeners have heard us talk about this in a couple different angles.

00:05:35
And I think this is going to kind of come together and tie it for maybe some that are like, I don't, I don't always understand when you're saying, like, people are not donating to things that, you know, they don't understand. So I want you to think you as a listener and what you donate to. Like, we've talked about this when we did the 777 campaign, remember, I Was like, wait a second. I have this idea because I know what my donations, my habits are, and I'm not someone that, like, is like, oh, Let me give 10,000 here. We don't have that kind of finances.

00:06:04
But, like, if there's a boxer dog that needs help.

00:06:10
Right, exactly. Right. But that's. And I said to you, I go the second that pops up, and I know that organization, I know the money goes there, so I trust them. But, like, if they're doing, like, a bigger campaign, that's.

00:06:23
Overall, I don't. But if it's like a boxer in need, I literally, that second, I jump on my Venmo and I send money. So when people hear, okay, this is what the Sopol foundation is about. This is what we're doing to help, it's sometimes a little too broad for them to get it, especially if they have no understanding about dyslexia and if they also know people that have dyslexia, that maybe they don't realize they struggled. Because the people, you know, as you guys have heard, you know, both of us have come out with some things that, like, you know, traumas that I'm like, oh, I don't realize I'm still trauma.

00:07:00
I thought I was over that. I thought I was good. Oh, okay. I'm not good. Hahnielle Fetty has talked about it.

00:07:05
Right. Like, so you see people after all of their traumas happened, and they're now adults, and they maybe are successful in business because we know the statistics. About 35% of entrepreneurs, billionaires, all 50%, you know, all of those different things that you guys have heard us talk about. And so for someone to say, oh, wait, the Sovol foundation needs this during COVID when people are dying, it was actually a really smart thing that you did, a really, really thoughtful and smart thing, because you knew it probably would hurt the foundation in the long run if you didn't stop and think about. Okay.

00:07:40
And that's what's so beautiful about you and your brain, is that you actually are so much more thoughtful and so much more strategic then people are aware of and realize. But you're always one step ahead of, like, putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Like, you are so good at doing that with the empathy and compassion. I think there's, like, two different definitions, and if you look that up online, there's, like, a lot of social media posts that go out. Like, you can be empathetic, which is different than compassionate.

00:08:09
I'm not going to get into the definitions. If you want to do. You can go look, but you are bothering. And the reason why I'm saying that is you are both like, you put yourself in other people's shoes because of experiences that you have gone through. But then you can also be empathetic but also compassionate.

00:08:25
So that was actually a really smart thing for you to do. Not only can you not do live events because of COVID and put people out where they're uncomfortable wearing a mask and all of that shit show, right? We've all were at an event where it's like, should we be at this event or are we going to get in trouble? Are you going to get Covid? Like, do I have to wear a mask?

00:08:41
I don't want to wear a mask. I'm wearing makeup. Like all of that. I was worried about my makeup all the time. Are you kidding?

00:08:47
I was like, I guess I don't need to wear lipstick. I went, wait. And then you take it off and you're like, you got the circle in your face. Shit show. Anyways.

00:08:54
Yeah, we don't need to go down there. I don't even know why I brought that up.

00:09:00
That was a little. But so now I'm going to let you finish that because that is so thoughtful and smart, really. So, you know, and then, yo. Yeah, you know, the Stanley cup, obviously, you know, you know, for us again, I. I always kind of compare us to, you know, cancer because we're the second most common thing next next to cancer.

00:09:25
You can always go to a, you know, black tie dinner and, you know, people are gonna donate because they know what that is. You know, celebrities, everybody knows, you know, that kind of stuff, but nobody knows what us is. So, you know, NHL at charity foundation was so grateful enough to allow us to have the Stanley Cup. Yo. So then my brain starts going, okay, how can I, you know, leverage that?

00:09:53
How can I bring that to the foundation and make. Make a special event?

00:10:02
And my goal was this year for both these events to ever, every single person to get in their car and feel special.

00:10:13
And that was, you know, so, you know, you can. People like, oh, you can have a. An event with 10,000 people stay next year. I don't want that. I wanted smaller.

00:10:24
I wanted intimate. I wanted to feel special. I wanted people to feel loved in a way that they hadn't been before because those things can get very corporate can. You know, you and I are a number. And I never want a kid to feel like they're a number.

00:10:47
So the people that were there, I wanted them not to feel like they're a number.

00:10:53
And that's kind of what the details, why I was going above and beyond with the gift, you know, the take home gifts or you know, swag bag or whatever you want, you want to call it the details of the golf vent, having somebody on, on different holes and the details of the, the cup dinner, of having this, the live auctions and having individuals there that could speak to it. Again, there's a million things going on in the world. There's a million places you can play, pay, you know, put your money.

00:11:30
So again, number one thing was making everybody feel special and feel loved by the end of the night. And I think we succeeded on that on, you know, both fronts. The golf event, the cup dinner. And I think we're, you know, if you go and calculate the amount of people that were in the golf event, the amount of people that was there for the cup dinner and then obviously the, you know, Saturday morning little event that we had, you know, we're probably around, you know, 500 people that I think we executed making them feel loved and special. And you did.

00:12:11
And you, you guys, I mean, so anyone that's been in the event planning space can appreciate what Brent pulled off in a month and a half, right? Like a month and a half. He had three basically events. That's a lot. I am not in the event panning space and I have been a part of many events that are planned and every time I'm always like, yeah, I don't like, I don't like those details.

00:12:40
I do, I am not good at those details. I can be there and support and be the cheerleader. You guys are doing a great job and I can think of details.

00:12:51
Exactly. I could do things like that. And there are little details of things that I know I can add, but that the event planning that went into it and the details of what you added because of the way you see things and why you wanted to make it special. I mean they are still coming in like, that was the best. People are still feeling so good about everything that you did with both events.

00:13:23
But I'm going to take as we've already talked about the golf event, but for the Stanley, you know, cup dinner, I mean, not only from how you had kids speak, the auction items that you picked, the videos that you added included the people that were part of the auction that you actually had there that were able to speak personally. And you did that all like, not like, oh, let's see if this happens. You did it like, no, this is how I envision this. This is how I want this to go. And that is, like, you're really good at it.

00:13:57
Whether you want to be or not, you are really good at it. You're really good at what? The whole execution and envisioning how you want to see an event go to make it special, to make every person feel like that they matter. Not only that, you also go up and talk to every single human and make it a point of connecting with them and making it a point of making them. And you don't do it because you're like, oh, I need to do this because I'm getting something out of it.

00:14:26
No, you truly do care about the people that are there and making the connection, making them feel loved, letting them know a little bit about you and why this is important to you. Like, you do such an incredible job, and I don't think you give yourself credit enough for it. You really don't. Like, that is a huge gift that you have, you know. You know, I appreciate it.

00:14:47
And yeah, I never connected the dots. So you just, you know. You know, till just a couple months ago is. I never felt loved in my life. So I'm not going to have people come to an event that I am putting on for kids and leave not feel loved.

00:15:08
And yo, not you on little preface. This is, you can't feel loved if you can't love yourself. You know, And I. Yeah, I think you might have heard, you know, I was just finished up a call when we jumped on here. Yo, if you don't understand yourself, how's anybody else gonna understand you?

00:15:28
Because I. I had mentioned to him that I've never connected with anybody till I connected, you know, obviously with you. He's like, really? Like, not your kids, nothing. I'm like, if I.

00:15:37
If you don't know yourself, how do you connect? He's like, you know, good point. You know, so you're. You're right. I cared about every person that was there.

00:15:44
They're there to support my vision of never having a kid feeling what I do. So why would I leave them hanging and, you know, those little details to me or what I missed in my life. So I never want that to be missed again. No. And if someone.

00:16:09
If you really think about this, because that is not. And people take that for granted or people don't. Sometimes people will be like, wow, that is a gift. But you take it for granted because you don't realize that you're doing that. And just watching you, you make a point.

00:16:27
And it's not just like one's like, oh, thanks for coming, and blah, blah, blah. You make the point, and it's effortless for you. I don't think that. That you actually sit there and like, okay, I need to go do this, which a lot of people would, because that's not their personality. Right?

00:16:39
Your personality is made for that. I mean, you definitely are. That. That is where you shine. That is.

00:16:46
That is a gift. Now, I don't want to take this for a second, because similarly to you, right. I found gifts along my way. Right. And as I'm now going into the next phase of my, like, I'm like, oh, wow, that's always been a gift.

00:17:00
I didn't realize how strong it was as a kid in school. These things are not gifts. As a hockey player, yes, they probably were gifts, which you didn't realize. But as you said, you maybe didn't utilize them because you weren't comfortable with your own self, right? So you didn't utilize how much you can connect with audiences and people and stuff like that.

00:17:21
And you probably did to some extent, right? So that. That, yes, that is like a good space for you. But then now what you're doing in with the Sopol foundation and how that is such a natural. Like, you're just getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

00:17:37
And so what you're doing to be able to help kids recognize early on, like, that's an. A traditional. I'm doing this a traditional gift because you don't. You. You can do it in school, but it's not like something that's.

00:17:50
That's applauded, right? Like, you're not supposed to be connecting with people in class, right? You're supposed to be networking in class. Right? You're not a.

00:17:59
Networking sometimes has like a. I don't know, it's like a bad word. Like, the networking. Connecting. It's the connecting thing.

00:18:06
And I really do believe that is a dyslexic, beautiful thing, because time and time again, we meet so many dyslexic people that are like, wait, I didn't realize that. That is my superpower as well. I mean, I can't even tell you some of the stuff at Wake Forest. And I think I shared with you yesterday, one of the guys on the call was like, oh, my God, I'm just. And all of like, it is.

00:18:31
It is a beautiful thing, but you can't utilize it until you're in the right spot. And you can't be in the right spot until you love yourself. And so what you're doing with the SOPO foundation is Giving the kids that fighting chance at a young age to be able to find their gifts early, to be able to make a change in the world sooner than 50 or 60 or 40, you know, whatever. How much, you know, how much we've talked. Yo, what, what's the kind of topic, one or two, three words that I use probably daily.

00:19:04
Yeah, you have to love yourself. You look in the mirror and say, I love it. You know, you have to connect. What about, you know, understanding? Understanding.

00:19:11
What was it, you know, when you were talking about that? I was the one, the one word that would jump to my head. Relatability. Relatability, yeah, billion percent. That's what I have, you know, and that's what it's trying to bring, that relatability.

00:19:28
And I think, you know, in the school setting, networking, you know, relatability, you know, kind of some of those things, but it's those teachers don't have relatability to most of those kids. You know, yesterday, speaking to, you know, Queen. No, what was her name? From 101 Dalmatians. Deville.

00:19:55
Oh, right, right. I was talking to Deville yesterday and she's like, I'm a teacher and I, I knew none of this. We're not a. Her words were, we are not equipped to teach kids in this world. And she's a teacher.

00:20:15
Those are the words she get. There's no, there's no relatability. You. More people have things going on than they don't. So I think, you know, stats with 20% of people don't have anything.

00:20:33
80% do. So they're teaching people to relate with 20% of the kids, not the 80, which is a teacher, you know, really, you know, so relatability to me is. It's a big word. You know, it. I didn't have that.

00:20:52
And you're, you know, you're a key point. And the reasoning why those gifts can be gifts to me now, because there's some understanding, there's some relatability that I've never had in my life. Well, I get you. I mean, when you said people don't understand me, I'm like, I don't understand. I don't understand that.

00:21:11
What do you mean people don't understand you? I like, I'm not a special person. I understand you. But what you're saying is so true. And, but it's because I see you, I see your strengths.

00:21:26
And that is one of my gifts in seeing that in people and then being like, you know, if we go back, I think I've said To you when I was doing some coaching, that was something that was like, do you know that you're really good at this? And then I look back and I'm like, I guess I always did have like, a friend that's like, oh, you saw this and I didn't realize. And then you pulled it out of me. And so what. I mean, jump off.

00:21:45
Cut you off that one. Because remember you said, you're not creative when we first started talking? Yeah. I mean, yeah. No, 100%.

00:21:56
I mean, I, like, that was what in third grade I said to myself, you're not creative. And I mean, I still go back and that's one thing. Like, you know when people say, if you could change one thing, I always say, I wouldn't change really anything. Like, I don't look back and say, I mean, yes, I definitely did not make some great choices in my life, but what did I learn from those choices? I mean, some.

00:22:17
Probably nothing other than don't do that again. However, one of the things is that I definitely. And I was very vocal about not being creative. Like, I would take myself out of situations. Why?

00:22:32
Like Pete, Because I was not confident. And even though I'm a confident person, the creative. Let me, you know. And I'm not trying to cut you off. I want you before you speak, before you speak those words.

00:22:41
Tell me why. Because there was a. There was something I was happened to get you to say that to yourself. So do you remember who said something to you? Right.

00:22:52
To put you that. No. And that's. I mean, I think we talked about this. No, I really think it's that third grade, when I went to special reading and everyone went to.

00:23:01
To gifted and talented. And I will never forget. I can still picture myself standing there and my friend came up and was like, where were you? And I was like, I had to go read the Blue Dolphin. I was like.

00:23:13
And she's like, oh, that's terrible. Or whatever. Like, oh, we did the most creative things. There we go. We.

00:23:20
We were. And it was a javelin. They had. They created a maze and they were able to draw the things and all of these different things. And I don't.

00:23:27
Again, don't know if it. When I went home and my mom said, oh, that was like a creative thing that you wouldn't have wanted to do. I don't think so. I think my mom. Oh, you had to miss things and you weren't around.

00:23:38
I think it was that. That conversation from that little girl. Her obviously not knowing it, but instead of me being like, oh, I struggled in reading, which would be the logical thing, because I was going to special reading, giving myself that narrative. I didn't. I gave myself the creative thing.

00:23:55
I do remember probably an art class, because there was a couple of times I did take art, because I really liked that, and it was. I wasn't great. I could. I was. I'm not a good drawer.

00:24:06
But I do remember, like, a couple things that I drew that I was like, oh, wow. Now, my older sister and my dad. So my dad was very gifted at stained glass. My dad had, like, a little thing. Yeah.

00:24:18
He made tons of stained glass. Really? Yeah. We had, like, a. This giant picture window in our kitchen.

00:24:24
You do it anymore? He doesn't. No. And I want to say, like, when my parents split up, he stopped. Like, it was.

00:24:30
It was definitely a really cool thing from when we were younger. Stained glass is really cool. Really cool. And he had, like, the whole tools and all of it in the garage. And I mean, when I say it was a huge window in our kitchen, and it was covered in these beautiful stained glass pieces that he would do, and it was like, flowers.

00:24:47
And it was obviously a creative outlet for him. He was. And I remember them talking about my dad being creative, and my older sister was a really good drawer, and those two obviously struggled in school. And so I don't know, but it was something I. I said to myself.

00:25:07
I was. And so I literally, even when my kids would come to me and ask me, hey, mommy, can you help us with this art? Like, I would be like, nope, you got to do. Do it yourself. And I mean, sometimes they're.

00:25:16
They're like, we had to do these pumpkins when I. When we were in Connecticut, and all the parents, you could tell, did the kids pumpkins, But I had my kids do the pumpkins. And, like, it was like, they were like, you didn't help your kid? And I was like, no, it was bad. This.

00:25:32
You know, now you got my brain going. You know, we love that. Ask your dad if he would do a stained glass something for me. Oh, I will. Let's see if we can.

00:25:47
Obviously, him. He does. If he says, no, no problem at all. But I'm not, you know, it's. Yeah.

00:25:53
I don't know if he has the equipment and stuff anymore. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe. But, you know, he was so good at it. Right.

00:25:59
You know, this is the first time that you've ever mentioned that, like, super cool. I would like a little, you know, a window where we could hang, you know, hang on the wall. Or, you know, something like that. Ask what you would ask. I will pay him to do us, you know, again, if he doesn't have the tools, no problem.

00:26:16
But, you know. Right. Let's see if he would do it. Something. Because obviously he's always, you know, with his wife and stuff, things going on there too.

00:26:24
Let's see if we can recreate some of that passion for it. And again. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't remember again when he stopped, but it was.

00:26:33
It was a big thing in my child, like, we loved. That's so cool. Yeah. Again tomorrow, tell them I'll pay him. The foundation will pay him to do a stained glass window that we will find time to auction off.

00:26:48
Right? I will. Yeah. And I can see the. I remember.

00:26:54
Yeah. No, it was definitely. And so again, I. Maybe I. Yeah.

00:26:58
I don't know what it was, but I really think it was that third grade. But it took me until I started doing the coaching and doing so much stuff on social media. And I would always come up with these creative ideas. And the team that I used to work with when I did the fitness stuff would always say, you're so creative. I'd be like, no, no, I'm like the least creative person.

00:27:17
It's just a different creativity. I'm not artsy. Even though I always loved art and stuff like that, I couldn't draw, so that's where I gave myself that narrative. But I would tell my kids all the time, mom's not creative. Go talk to dad.

00:27:30
And that wasn't like. That's one thing that I would love to change because I really. But it's kind of funny that I didn't talk about, like, me struggling in school. It was just like, I gave myself, well, you know, the key word, yo, yo, when you're reading the Blue Dolphin. She said, we did something creative.

00:27:45
So there's that. Right? It was that word right there, right? No, if she said we did something fun or we did something else and you wouldn't have. You wouldn't have.

00:27:55
I shouldn't say. Well, I couldn't say. You wouldn't. Yes, I know what you're saying. Yeah.

00:27:59
But you would not be fully in this against the word creative narrative in your life if she. If that, you know, little girl used different terminology. So you answer that question. Well done. It only took 20 minutes to get it out, but good job.

00:28:17
It was a long story. No. But I'm now so intrigued about your dad. Oh, I love that. And what did my dad say?

00:28:25
He was the one that said to Me, I think Brent's a realist, not negative. My dad. You and my dad would. Oh, my God, you guys would, like, talk for hours. My dad's a good dude, but.

00:28:37
Yeah, no, he had, like, a whole shop in the garage, and that was, like a big. And I could still picture, like, it was big. Well, yeah. Well, I wonder, is there, like, art studios you can rent that can where they have the equipment or something? Sure, sure.

00:28:54
Around in his area. Yeah. I mean, they're. I don't know. Again, this is.

00:28:58
I've always seen them. They're cool, you know, like, you know, farmhouses and stuff that I, you know, back in the farm and stuff. I think super cool. But, yeah. Be interesting to see if you say.

00:29:09
If he, you know, if he says back. Comes back with. Oh, I would love to. I just don't have tools. Okay, let's find them the tools.

00:29:15
Not buy it. Let's see if we rent. No, I know, like, you know, something for him. Yeah. But it's so interesting because he was also a good drawer, even though I'm sure he's going to say he wasn't.

00:29:24
So. There was something that I. Yeah, no, there was. There was something in there that. And I think it has to do with that.

00:29:31
That special reading thing. I know we just went off in a massive attention deficit thing, but that's what's so fun about this, is that we can. Because it's our podcast and it's part of the 5Ds, so. But that is one thing that you are so great at doing, is you really are in your element in those situations, and every single person was like, wow. There was tears, there was laughter, there was love.

00:30:02
I mean, love, love, love. Can we talk about the lesbian couple that was there? I knew. I knew you were.

00:30:14
Okay, I. So what? The reason why I'm laughing. Okay, so we do need to preface this, because as you said it, I was like, it is funny. However, we are not lesbians, so a lesbian actually might take offense to it.

00:30:30
We're not. Yeah, let's be preference. They're not. No. No offense.

00:30:34
No, there was no shot at it. It was what Juliet was wearing and Hahnny was wearing. Both look beautiful, but they. They called themselves. I think it came from Clay, her husband.

00:30:48
Yeah. She's like, wow, you guys look like a hot lesbian couple. And I was like, wait, what? Why? Because I'm wearing a suit.

00:30:54
I had a tux on. Yes, we did look very hot. 100%, we did.

00:31:03
And there's no offense. No, no, no. Please don't There was no offense taken because I know people can, you know, take things out of contest. PC you get canceled. It has nothing to do.

00:31:12
My sister's a lesbian. My best friend is a lesbian. Love the lesbians. I am not a lesbian, but I have no. But apparently I was dressed and some made reference to it a few times in the night with the microphone on.

00:31:27
The microphone. Hey, raise your hand. And I was like, oh, my God.

00:31:32
Okay. Yes. It was actually very funny. My boys thought it was hilarious. When I told they're like, you totally.

00:31:38
And I was like, no. And Hahn was like, she just. So it became. Your point is there was yo.

00:31:47
A lot of laughing. There was a lot of tears. Yeah. Oh, I. I snarfy tears.

00:31:53
My brother. My brother was in tears. Oh yeah. He's a sensitive guy though. You know, the kids speeches.

00:32:02
There was. There was a lot more tears. I, you know, anticipated there's always going to be last when I got a microphone. So. That is true.

00:32:12
You never know. It's. It's coming. You know, everybody. Everybody stood for Old Canada.

00:32:19
That. That was very nice for everybody. Yeah, that was good. I mean, I did it. You like how I got him to stand up?

00:32:26
I did. I do. Yeah. Again, everything. Even though you did not plan a lot of some of the stuff.

00:32:32
Me wearing a tux. So that was a part of your. A little comedy there. It was. It was though.

00:32:41
I mean, it was one of those things that you didn't want to end. And I also want to preference that if. If you remember, like, I don't drink anymore and like, I mean so many of us. But like going to an event when you like used to drink and you don't drink and sometimes it's like, oh, I just want to go to bed. Like, we did not want it to end.

00:32:58
Like it was. It just was so good to connect with the people. Such great individuals that were there that were supporting people did not want to go home because just was like a feel good. Like, let's talk about this. I didn't realize this.

00:33:14
Or oh my God. When someone, you know, Brent referenced this quote again. A lot of times people talk about that. 50% of prison inmates, you know, that hits people really hard because it is reality and it's awful and it shouldn't happen. Like there's that we can prevent that and that's the thing.

00:33:33
Like there's things in life that you can't prevent. Right. Because it's just. It's too big or it is not attainable. This is something very simple really.

00:33:47
That can be stopped if we address and you know, I mean, and that's the goal of the Sople foundation is to help with these things, to remediate them. You know, in my mind there is nothing and unattainable with the foundation billion. That's what we love about you too personally.

00:34:21
And this is the difference. Personally, I believe there's nothing attainable because I know the personal side of the self esteem, the foundation side. I believe there's nothing un attainable. Yeah, well, because you believe so deeply in what you're doing and you see the difference that you've made in so many people's. I mean people coming up, you know, at the event on Saturday, the, the brunch, just thanking for the podcast which was so nice.

00:34:57
I mean like I was like, oh my God, thank you. We listened to every single one. We learned so much. And you know, that was the point of doing the podcast. Right.

00:35:04
Like that is one of the reasons why we're not gonna say stock but I 100. I'm getting you. I'm getting you. I'm getting you a soap foundation hockey jersey and their back name bag is going stalker you. Anyways, I knew how important and how much we could make a difference small in.

00:35:30
In this by just talking about it. Because again, I knew having it kind of streamlined and doing that and then being able to do what we have all these epiphanies. I mean, how many? Just like now you're like, oh my God, I just connected this. Or I did.

00:35:44
You know, it's. It's been so great for us to be able to do that. But I think that's also some of the healing for both of us that can then get us to that kind of next where then it's helping broader people 100% y'all, if you can't understand, you can't heal. Right. You know, and that's why these conversations couldn't, you know, and I think, yo, my brain is, we got to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

00:36:13
Everybody wants to go to 110. You know, baseball terms. We all want to, you know, hit a home runner, grand slam. Hockey, I want a hat trick. You goes on and on.

00:36:21
Football, you want, you know, all these touchdowns, blah, blah, blah. But that's not reality, you know, so you can't heal if you don't understand. And that's why we have these conversations. That's why we, you know, end up going on sometimes a tangent the wrong way like we did for 15 minutes in this podcast. Yeah, I mean but that's a beautiful thing.

00:36:45
And so again, October, Dyslexic Awareness Month. I think we're gonna stay with us because I feel like we want to change that and make it a different month. But we'll see 100 million percent for a few reasons. You know, breast cancer. Right.

00:37:01
We're not going to win that one. Also, Halloween sucks. I hate Halloween. I can't wait till it goes away. Like, he's never going to go away.

00:37:12
You mean November 1st? Yes. I'm like, yes, it's like Christmas, November 1st. Like Christmas. Halloween's gone.

00:37:21
One of the episodes. I do want to dive into what your hatred about Halloween is. Well, there's not enough real people every day in life. Then you want to put a mask behind them again. So to me is adding another layer of that.

00:37:41
But okay, that's totally fair enough. And the other one is, it's. It's who's behind that mask. You know, I always tell yo, my life is hard enough. How am I going to have to fake get around this next conversation?

00:37:58
How am I going to have to fake around and get this next email? How am I going to have to do this? Yeah, now I've got a mask to go through too. It's almost like I got another wall to go through that to get to that. Right.

00:38:09
No, I get it. That actually makes a lot of sense. So it's, you know, just another layer of.

00:38:21
But that just shows again, the real person that you are. That has been misunderstood for so many years. But great candy, though. Well, that's why. Because, I mean, you love candy.

00:38:33
That's why I was like, how? Except for those candy corn. Paul and jail eating those violent. I still love candy corn. Do you love candy corn?

00:38:43
It's like chewing wax. And you think I've got bad taste buds. I. This is a good. I mean, we talked about the fun dipstick.

00:38:52
I mean, that's like. That was like my, like my favorite. Like a six pack yesterday at the grocery store. Oh, my God. I.

00:38:58
I think, I mean, funny things. During Halloween, I would always be the kid that would go and eat right away. Right. I would have siblings or friends that would save it. One account organize it when they got home.

00:39:11
No, I would eat it as I would go. So when my kids were little, I would. Of course they were like me. But I was like, no, we're going to save it. Organize.

00:39:19
I tried to have them do that. And I'd be like, you guys can. But then I one day I was like, you know what? No, I think it was like their maybe second year trick or treating. I was like, eat as much as you want because then you're going to basically get so sick that you're not going to want anymore.

00:39:33
And it's done in a day. I would have friends that would be like, oh my God, my kid still has it. And I'm like, why? They're like, why let them have one at a time? And I'm like, I think that's worse.

00:39:41
I just let mine literally eat everything. So they would be like coma as they got home and that was their sugar. And then it's like no sugar for, you know. Well, that was, you know, it was funny you said that when the kids on kids birthdays, we always let them have cake for breakfast. Oh.

00:39:56
Oh, I love that. Right. Well because then you, you'll, you'd rather have it for breakfast and work it off during the day than have it at night. Trying to go to, you know, trying to go to bed. So, so smart.

00:40:06
So smart. I get the preference. But give them as many candy, let them get sick of it and then I'd eat them all. Yeah, exactly. I don't know.

00:40:13
Well, we're gonna end on that. Not really though because I have like two more things to say as I said that. But so again, thank you guys for supporting joining. If you do want to donate to the foundation, we've talked about it. I mean that's how to keep things going.

00:40:28
We're going to be doing a lot of really fun things getting you guys involved in some of like these very specific campaigns. So stay tuned. You want to go follow the Sople foundation for Dyslexia on Instagram, also on LinkedIn. If you're on LinkedIn. We do also have a tick tock.

00:40:45
And then Brent on Instagram, Brent Sopal, also LinkedIn and then myself on Instagram, LinkedIn and then Word blindness. We also have a page for there. So to be up to date on all of the fun things, getting events. I mean we had so many people afterwards, we're like, wait, how, how can we get involved in the cup? As Brent said, that was a very specific special event that we kind of kept close to our hearts because we didn't want it to be this crazy thing.

00:41:17
This was the first time it, you know, we had it. Will there be other galas? Will there be other events? There's going to be other events you want to follow. Stay tuned, see how you can help, but then also how you can learn more, how you can learn more about dyslexia, how you can learn how to help someone in your life with dyslexia, how you can educate a teacher because they, they went into teaching so they can help.

00:41:38
I mean, that is one thing, is that they want to be able to help kids. Let's educate and help them with that. And then, and then all the fun things that we're doing. I mean, really. So follow us on all of those, like rate, review, and share, because you don't know who needs to hear this episode.

00:41:56
And thank you again for joining us for Word Blindness, Dyslexia Exposed Ending, Dyslexic Awareness Month, October, because this is the last one. Thank you, Brent. Mic drop. Here we go.