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Understanding neurodiversity in the corporate world with Kristen Light · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have conscious conversations
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
• 0:11
  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:38
  Everyone, it's Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:40
  Thanks, for tuning in again this week.
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  Today, I have a special colleague that We're newly acquainted.
• 0:46
  Her name is Kristen Light, and Kristen is a quite fascinating, I'm gonna say, young lady
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  that recently joined the Canadian Association professional speakers.
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  And she has, a background in Euro, diversity.
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  So, Kristin, I'll I'll tell you a little Kristen, you're gonna love her personality.
• 1:02
  She goes, she's gonna let you know who she who she is and, just to her by her mere presence.
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  She's a senior engagement strategist.
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  Vintage dancer, which I wanna know more about, an award winning speaker.
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  She's had careers that went from the boardroom to the ballroom.
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  And as a Vivacious circle, you'll see what I mean with the personality having had multiple
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  successful companies And she's, had a brush with some mental capacities where put her,
• 1:31
  unfortunately, into a psych, twice, which is where we're gonna talk a little bit more about
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  today.
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  Kristen, thanks so much for coming in and chatting with us today.
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  What an honor.
• 1:41
  It's my pleasure.
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  Thanks so much for the invite.
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  So ballroom, so tell me enough.
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  Tell me about that.
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  And because I I I find that fascinating.
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  This much, I did not know about Kristen.
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  You either know everything about it or or nothing.
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  I sort of trickle it out gradually with folks.
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  Yeah.
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  Dance since I was 4, I was a really uncoordinated kid I would fall downstairs on
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  the regular, and my mother didn't know what to do.
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  So she stuck me in ballet class.
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  Fast forward through, you know, 20 years of training in that eventually migrated into
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  vintage styles and ended up specializing in 19 twenties, thirties, and forties, in particular,
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  and North American style.
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  So we're talking Charleston, Liddy Hop, Balboa, slow blues, a little bit of rock and roll, but
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  it's not my specialty.
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  So mostly in the pre world war 1 or war time or world war 2 and wartime era, dance styles.
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  And I did that professionally for quite a while.
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  I actually co owned a dance studio, Toronto's largest student at studio for quite some time.
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  So that was my before life.
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  I like to call it my before life.
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  Yeah.
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  Let's just jump into neurodiversity.
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  And I think, you know, you know, I think a lot of people throw around the term and
• 3:01
  neurotypical and, you know, we're talking.
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  We'll hear flashes of we have to hire to create space and, you know, lots of lovely language, I
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  would say.
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  But I want you to explain to people just the basics about what we know as we kind of talk
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  about the realities of neurodiversity in I always like to say that the will is there.
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  The awareness is getting there, and folks generally want to be as inclusive as possible.
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  And the term neurodiversity actually refers to the natural variations in all of our brains.
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  So the
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  the mix of all of us together, and whether you are more of an introvert or an extrovert or
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  whether you have autistic tendencies or you voices even at any variation the way we see the
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  world, experience the world that that encompasses neurodiversity as a whole.
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  Now about 80% of the population are pretty similar.
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  And, therefore, we tend to classify folks as neurotypical, but it's not as simple as that.
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  It it's easy to think of it top is those that are typical and the 20% that are divergent, but
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  it always the lines are gonna blur a lot more when we dig further into it.
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  And, but, 15 to 20% of us that class 5s neurodivergence, the ones that get all the
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  attention in the media right now are autism, ADHD, d, dyslexia.
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  But it's really a much broader, definition than that.
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  So plurality, multiple personality, since we used to call it, to rats, epilepsy, mental
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  illness, even depression, anxiety, anything that would cause you to perceive the world
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  differently than the majority.
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  And you don't need to have a specific diagnosis to consider yourself in their own emergency.
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  You generally know if you approach them real differently than than most of your colleagues.
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  And getting a diagnosis is tricky.
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  I'm sure we'll into that a little further.
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  So sometimes all we can do is identify as neurodivergent.
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  We we don't necessarily have the laundry list of all the specific of our brain for all kinds
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  of barriers and reasons for stopping me, whatever you like, I can babble.
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  So, really, it's, you know, there's no particular way that someone may present And
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  obviously with my b macro psychologist, I've dealt with a lot of, you know, people with lots
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  of different presentations.
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  And I would think that you know, if you think about anxiety and depression, that's kind of,
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  you know, it's almost like now we're so open about talking.
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  About that.
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  But inherent in that could be so many variations within that, whether based on the
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  situation, whether it's biological, lots of variations, and I think in the corporate world,
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  Burke, well, I should be able being able to address if someone is depressed or anxious, but
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  that seems to be the one kind of conversation that's getting more open, if that makes sense,
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  Kristen, compared to seeing there.
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  Yeah.
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  If I'm on the spectrum and I say I've got, you know, potentially some issues with autism that
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  would put that would be something that most people would kind of shy away from and say, how
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  is it that I deal with someone if they Yeah.
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  Especially autism is a really interesting one because the it is a spec It is a one
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  presentation, and it is a wide spectrum.
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  And and I I like to say that it's not a linear one.
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  Not you know, you may hear people saying high functioning, low functioning.
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  We actually hate those terms.
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  We're all functioning.
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  Thank you very much.
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  But it we function in different ways, and sometimes the world is not built for the ways
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  that we function.
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  Some autistic folks are non speaking, for example.
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  It doesn't mean they're non thinking.
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  It doesn't mean they're non experiencing.
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  They just may not speak.
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  Others may present more strongly as anxious.
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  There there's a huge overlap with autism, especially 70 to 80% of autistic individuals
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  across all age groups report anxiety and depression.
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  That's a huge percentage.
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  So the lines again start to blur.
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  So I say it's not a linear spectrum.
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  It's really more like a wild mix of old timing knobs.
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  I'm I'm picturing one of these, almost like an airplane controller.
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  You know, you've got all the different knobs in files, and they're all tuned to something
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  different.
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  1 of them might be social skills, and one might be speaking, and one might be data processing.
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  And we're all tuned a little bit different.
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  Which does make it tricky for employers, especially because they I think that a human
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  natural human tendency to want to categorize people to want to understand there's this type
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  of person, and they need this accommodation.
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  And then this type of person over here needs this accommodation, but it's not it's not as
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  clean-cut as that.
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  I think that's why this topic is a little scary for people.
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  It is.
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  It is an, a scary topic, and, a lot of people want to know more I think helped in times
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  people don't know which where do they go to get more?
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  So let's go back and flip back to your story.
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  So when tell us a bit about your story and when you started to recognize that you had some
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  divergence.
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  What started to happen?
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  Did it start to show up at school?
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  Where you were you and start to kind of paint us the reality of your journey and kind of, you
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  know, maybe potentially up to what the experience it was at work.
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  Sure.
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  I was born in the late seventies, so you were very kind to say young.
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  Thank you.
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  But we didn't have no diverse me wasn't even coined until the late nineties really, and we
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  didn't have words like that.
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  Oh, when I was rolling out, I was simply weird.
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  And sometimes that worked.
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  You know, I eventually fell into the theater kids, and then that kinda worked perfectly
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  fine.
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  But it was a little rocky off the bat.
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  I'll be honest, I had a bit of a speech impediment for quite some time, so I had to go
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  I was pulled out a class to go into 2 special classes.
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  And then on the flip side, was labeled as gifted early on, which is a loaded term.
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  And again, pulled out of class and put into a special program as well, which is, you know,
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  murder on your social life when you're nine to be pulled out of class on the regular.
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  It it others do very quickly, and with all good intentions.
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  It was all good intentions in the eighties.
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  It.
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  It definitely others you.
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  And it was I always managed to find the 1 or 2 people I could kinda glum onto that had similar
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  brain function to me, but never understood by or in reverse.
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  I never understood the majority, was always on the fringe.
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  I found and and even dance, I'll be honest.
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  I did not enjoy dance class for a very long time, which is a really weird thing to say when
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  such a huge part of my life, but I was still the weird one.
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  It's not like that went away when I went to dance class.
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  I was the weird of the weird kid in the back.
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  I I I'm kept to myself a lot because it was safer than saying something wrong that could
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  get you into a lot of trouble.
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  With the wrong rep.
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  And it was mid teens that I found theater, and Eventually, my theater life and my dance life
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  merged, but, it took masking to the max, really.
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  I'm masking is the term we use in the neurodivergent community to mean perfecting a a
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  public face to appear more neurotypical.
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  And most of us do that by studying everyone around us and mirroring speech patterns,
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  behaviors, facial expressions, even that we see neurotypical folks doing, and we just learn to
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  put that on for survival.
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  And theatre gave me a chance to be all types of different people in an environment that was
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  encouraged.
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  And that got me through the other kids, the band kids.
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  That that was my survival for sure.
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  But getting into the working world, Yeah.
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  Man, it was Rocky.
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  My my resume looks more like a menu.
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  I would jump from career to career because things would eventually get weird.
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  They would get awkward, they would get difficult.
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  And it's not that I wasn't smart.
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  It's not that I wasn't fiercely determined to succeed no matter what I did, and I would reach
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  certain level of success, but it would take everything out of me to do it.
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  And I brought up, I get you know, 12, 18 months into a career and just burn out and not know
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  what else to do other than submit memories.
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  Was there anybody along the way in in the work environment, I shouldn't say anybody.
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  Were there a handful potentially that said there's a different need here?
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  Because if you didn't identify with whatever the issue was.
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  You'd be labeled as difficult and manageable.
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  It doesn't follow guidance.
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  It does not hit outcomes.
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  Miss all
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  of that in subordinate.
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  Was one that would come up a lot.
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  They would I was accused of wanting things my own way.
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  And I was big time people pleaser.
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  So my old way didn't even factor into it.
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  I was just so desperate to find a way to succeed and to do things well that I push of
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  things and proposals of things and knew I was struggling, but didn't have the vocabulary.
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  I didn't have the awareness to know why.
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  And that over the years, just compounded compounded.
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  I mean, they just my doctors never flagged it.
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  Mean, why would they receive you for 5 minutes out of the year?
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  But it was just never flagged until of all places and internet forum.
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  I would have been about 30, I guess, at this point, and was just drawing on about something
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  in this forum.
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  I don't even remember what, but I I guess I've been going back to the same topic again and
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  again, week after week and was spiraling, spiraling, finally somebody wrote to me on the
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  form, I developed some friends on there, and somebody wrote to me on there and said, Hey,
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  I'm gonna say this with all respect to economists, but I think it's time to consider
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  talking to a therapist.
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  I was horribly embarrassed, of course, and logged out of the forum, but I did, and that
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  started the 10 year journey of self discovery and diagnoses, full spiraling.
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  And it would have happened anyway, and at least the way it happened, I was already in a system,
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  so support was thankfully available.
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  Because if I hadn't been, I don't think we'd be having this conversation to me.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So somewhere along the line, somebody noticed something and was brave enough to say, hey,
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  Kristen, to give you a tap to say, and of all the places.
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  We never know when we're gonna support would be eaten.
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  And on an on on a forum, and then you started on your path of recovery.
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  And I I would say in my role in the past as a psychotherapist, people are afraid of people
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  like me.
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  And, you know, and I don't think I'm a pretty scary person Kristen, but and I would, you
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  know, I would joke when in practice, that's one thing.
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  Right?
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  Like, people come in and they are anxious, and they're beside themselves.
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  And I often say to them, that's normal.
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  If you weren't anxious, I would be worried.
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  And but in social settings, oftentimes people would be like claring, like, a little bit of a
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  radius around once they figured out what I did.
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  So I would actually say I was a therapist, and then they would say physiotherapist.
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  And I would say, oh, sure.
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  And then they would ask something about physiotherapy, and then I would get stuck.
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  And then I'm like, geez.
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  Now I gotta make something up because I don't owe anything.
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  Because so there there is still even now, you'll, you know, I I think we're very in a
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  good space in the world about therapy, but it's still people kind of go, oh, so, you know,
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  you're reading me.
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  And I'm like, no, I'm not.
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  Because people think that you're on in that spectrum when you're out in the world.
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  And in fact, I'm just being me.
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  There is that fear that people have, but the guidance clearly that you bought has brought
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  you you know, being able to speak on international stages, to share, to educate, to
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  give people things, through your adversity, which I'm sure at at times when you're going
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  through it, when you fast forward, did you think you would end up on a stage or no?
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  How does it ever the plan?
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  Oh my gosh, no.
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  No.
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  And even, you know, as things went along and I started to be able to open to the odd friend or
• 15:14
  family member a little bit, that was still enough of a challenge.
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  I was still very much trying to keep all the realities in I was my job.
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  I was a showgirl.
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  My job was to make people smile.
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  My job was to entertain.
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  So tell me about that reality.
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  Tell me about the, I mean, whether you wanna get what the diagnosis was or whatever, but
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  just give me that internal play of what would be happening as you're getting treatment.
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  As you meet with this therapist, as you develop us, we know it takes a long time
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  for you to have
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  that card.
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  And you're trying to get better, but you're you're working.
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  So what's happening through, when I go to, of course, what are we looking for at the theater?
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  We're looking for perfection and what high energy, and we want everything perfect.
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  So what's happening in your head at that point?
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  I used to say that I survived on a diet of guilt and obligation.
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  Wow.
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  Because I owed it to the audience, the the whether it was a theater audience or a
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  corporate one at a Gallo, wherever I was dancing that and performing.
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  They didn't come to see Kristen.
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  They came to see a show.
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  And the problem I could switch into go, well, no problem.
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  You put on a you know, makeup and curlers that, you know, no problem.
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  I'm playing a character out.
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  I go.
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  I'm a 1920 show girl.
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  Here we are.
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  The problem was that the lines blurred between that and actual me to the point where I was
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  just playing a character 24 And they were slightly different characters, but none of it
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  was authentically me.
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  And I don't even think I could have been.
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  Don't even think I knew how to be authentically me at the time because I've been in survival
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  mode for so long, and people love the showgirl personality Everyone smiled and cheered and
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  laughed, and it was great.
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  And then my dance classes were always full.
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  So it was a positive reinforcement loop.
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  You know?
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  And then every now and again, you'd let out a little bit of the real assault and people would
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  recoil, just like you talk about having the the sphere around you that nobody wanted to
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  approach once they knew you were a psychotherapist.
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  It it it's very much the same if they know you're different, whether that's depression or
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  autistic or whatever mix you happen to be.
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  If people know you're different and they don't understand, they step back.
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  And I can remember trying to let a guard down with someone I was dating around 2015 ish.
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  2014, somewhere around there.
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  And I've been trying to start letting my guard down and actually let him get to know who I
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  was.
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  And that crashing burns so horribly in my face.
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  He he said to me one night, you know, you're so much more fun with your friends.
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  I don't know why you deny that side of your me.
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  And that solidified in my mind at the time, wrong as I was.
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  It solidified in my mind that only one version of me was socially acceptable, was publicly
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  acceptable.
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  And that was the problem when you are playing a character 247, is it it is exhausting.
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  And eventually,
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  that catches
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  up with you.
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  So that space to just be you is
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  something that, you know, we don't think about.
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  Right?
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  I I think, you know, I am, you know, Roxanne, a little treaty girl from a Caribbean island and
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  grew up in a family of 6 and, you know, within perfect stuff happening and all those things.
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  But I am who I am in the world, not thinking, right, about it, really, but what you're saying
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  is, like, on any on every I'm gonna say on a visceral level.
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  Yeah.
• 18:52
  You were trying to pretend or you said you put on the mask to be able to be accepted.
• 18:59
  And at the end of the day, Chris, we all want stickiness and belonging somewhere.
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  Of course.
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  Thanks, human nature.
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  Absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  We all need to find that spot.
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  And you said you work, start to work through it.
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  Were you able to kind of find out, you know, who Christie was from the beginning and who she
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  could be and get comfortable with in the world.
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  And I'm sure that impacted the people around you.
• 19:23
  Yeah, that maybe got to know the certain versions that you put out there.
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  And the people that ended up staying were the people that really, I would say, and Utah,
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  correct me if I'm wrong, the were the people that really cared for who you really were as a
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  person?
• 19:38
  100%.
• 19:39
  And they'll tell me now.
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  They're very honest with me now.
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  That they like this version much better because people may not necessarily have the words to
• 19:48
  say, hey.
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  You appear to be masking right now.
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  This isn't actually you.
• 19:53
  That may not come across, but what they'll feel is uneasy.
• 19:56
  There's something arm's length about your interactions.
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  And they'll feel uneasy about it and maybe uneasy about themselves and the interaction,
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  and therefore, we'll be less inclined to get close you.
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  And a few folks have been very honest with me in recent years to say that I'm much more
• 20:13
  relatable now, and that's more comfortable.
• 20:15
  Reflection.
• 20:16
  Can I I'm gonna say I would say that right?
• 20:18
  I wouldn't have I wouldn't have.
• 20:19
  Yeah.
• 20:19
  You would have been like, what what are you talking about?
• 20:21
  But I I would go back to the concept of mirror neurons because if I trying to kind of read
• 20:26
  your internal world.
• 20:27
  And but you're flitty.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
• 20:29
  I'm gonna feel it, and it's gonna make me uncomfortable.
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  And then because I'm trying to calibrate to you if I'm in interaction with you.
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  And if if I feel like you're kind of moving around, I'm gonna always be on steady.
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  And then if I'm not feeling kind of safe in the space, and I'm not gonna come to words as much.
• 20:45
  So understandable that and and great that you have people in your world, I mean, a we all
• 20:51
  should have people in our world that are able to call us out, to say, hey.
• 20:55
  You're not, you know, good.
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  That way.
• 20:57
  Absolutely.
• 20:58
  The growth,
• 20:58
  the goodness, we're honest people.
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  Growth that happens in
• 21:01
  relationships.
• 21:02
  So
• 21:02
  let's flip
• 21:02
  back to the, you know, the workplace again.
• 21:05
  Yeah.
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  But is it, you know, Whether it's supervisors or managers or leaders that are watching us to
• 21:11
  have this chat, what is it that you wish that people would have noticed along the way that
• 21:16
  might have been able to help others that they may be dealing with now.
• 21:20
  What kinds of things would you want them to consider in their roles.
• 21:24
  The fallacy of the one right one.
• 21:26
  Yeah.
• 21:26
  I think for a long time, and even still today, in many situations, there's and a belief that
• 21:32
  there's only one correct way to do things, only one correct way to be professional, and that if
• 21:38
  you don't, naturally to fall into those particular tendencies that you are there for
• 21:44
  overall.
• 21:44
  And if I could make any wish, and I don't I don't fault my previous supervisors.
• 21:49
  I didn't have the vocabulary.
• 21:51
  How could I expect them to?
• 21:52
  But if I could redo everything, if I could go back in time, I wish that could have cultivated
• 21:58
  some sort of understanding that we can come to a successful outcome no matter which path we
• 22:04
  take and that there are completely different ways to go about solving the same problem in
• 22:09
  work in business and it still be correct.
• 22:12
  That could be 7 different corrects.
• 22:14
  At my current job, I I do a little activity with folks during onboarding to demonstrate
• 22:19
  this.
• 22:20
  Recently, I trained and became a facilitator in Allego, seriously, which is what it sounds
• 22:25
  like.
• 22:25
  It is you're playing with Legos, but you're doing it for business purposes.
• 22:28
  And we do something, a classic activity from Lego called what the And what it involves is
• 22:36
  everyone in the onboarding session on their first day are handed the same 6 Lego bricks,
• 22:42
  just six.
• 22:44
  Specific mix of 6, some of them are yellow, some of our red, one of them has a single
• 22:48
  eyeball, stuck to the side of it, and they are given one minute and one inch which is build a
• 22:53
  duck.
• 22:54
  Any duck.
• 22:54
  And inevitably, what happens every single time is you end up with, you know, 6, 7 different
• 22:59
  ducks.
• 23:00
  Because there are thousands of possibilities.
• 23:03
  Oh, wow.
• 23:04
  But the point is we're given the same instruction, the same materials, and the same
• 23:09
  time constraints.
• 23:10
  And yet still, you'll end up with an infinite amount of answers.
• 23:14
  And it just so perfectly demonstrates diversity of thought, diversity of approach diversity of
• 23:20
  minds and how we go about these things without having to explain it with graphs and charts six
• 23:26
  different ways.
• 23:27
  Simply building a doc on a limb, it'll makes it abundantly clear.
• 23:31
  How powerful, though?
• 23:32
  You know?
• 23:36
  Or or that's a really good duck.
• 23:38
  Oh, I didn't see that.
• 23:40
  Well, and the rule is
• 23:41
  they're all ducks.
• 23:42
  We, you know, you say it's not easy to do.
• 23:44
  Nobody criticize.
• 23:45
  Probably looking at someone's Lego and going, wow.
• 23:48
  That's amazing that they can see certain things.
• 23:51
  So what a powerful way to demonstrate to your point when we speak or train or have meetings
• 23:57
  and we're doing our pie charts for graphs and graphics and power points.
• 24:01
  It's a different thing, but this is reality right in front of you.
• 24:05
  Wow.
• 24:06
  This is powerful.
• 24:07
  Now you you speak and train and do consulting environments this.
• 24:12
  Again, tell me what the reality is in the workplaces out there now and so that I have a
• 24:21
  sense of what you're seeing out there and
• 24:25
  so much goodwill, so many good intentions, I think the message has gotten across in the
• 24:30
  last, especially the last 5 years with the pandemic with everything that we collectively
• 24:36
  went through there, that mental health is crucial.
• 24:42
  It's not a side project.
• 24:43
  It's not just your ERG.
• 24:44
  It it is crucial to the success of your organization and your people.
• 24:48
  And it's in the last year or 2, then I'm finally starting to see neurodiversity bundled
• 24:54
  in with that conversation.
• 24:56
  It's still being viewed very much as a separate issue, which I argue it isn't.
• 25:01
  I argue that you have to tackle both.
• 25:03
  There's just too many overlaps.
• 25:05
  If if 70 to 80% of neurodivergent folks are also experiencing depression or anxiety, it's a
• 25:11
  collective issue.
• 25:12
  And psychological safety affects every single one of your people, regardless of any diagnosis
• 25:16
  or any personal trauma that they may be experiencing.
• 25:19
  So These are no longer just side projects that you task a little, you know, employee resource
• 25:25
  work with.
• 25:26
  It is now essential to business
• 25:28
  has to be a strategy that's one of the main business objectives, period.
• 25:32
  And, yeah, you know, we talk about psychological safety.
• 25:35
  We talk about diversity in you know, gender identity.
• 25:39
  We're getting better.
• 25:40
  We're getting better.
• 25:41
  We're getting
• 25:41
  better.
• 25:42
  But at the end of the day, and, you know, when I talk about my content, to the the ROR and
• 25:46
  return our relationships.
• 25:47
  And I always go heart to heart.
• 25:49
  You know, if we can deconstruct all the stuff that gets between human beings and we tell them
• 25:55
  just to synchronize, to what is in front of them, how powerful that is.
• 26:02
  You know, because like you or myself, like we're women, and we have a cup a couple of
• 26:07
  things in common, but we are so different.
• 26:10
  When we get to that space of really just wanting to know the individual in front of you,
• 26:15
  how powerful that could be.
• 26:17
  You know?
• 26:17
  And but that taught that takes skill development in leaders and supervisors as
• 26:22
  managers and supported by accident.
• 26:26
  Yeah.
• 26:26
  It won't have it has to be definitely very strategic for the leaders or the CEOs out there
• 26:33
  that are listening to us.
• 26:35
  If you could give them a call to action or some things for them to to think about, in the
• 26:40
  neurodiversity realm.
• 26:42
  What what'd you impart onto them?
• 26:43
  I'm gonna get 2.
• 26:45
  Because the data are equally important.
• 26:47
  One is something to let go of and one is something to actively do.
• 26:51
  The one to let go of is any internal pressure you may feel to be an expert on ADHD, to be an
• 26:57
  expert on dyspraxia, to be an expert on any of these diagnoses, because truth is you may never
• 27:03
  know the specific that any of your people are dealing with, and neither was it technically
• 27:07
  any of your business.
• 27:09
  So we don't need to know a person's diagnosis to know how to support them.
• 27:13
  And we the way we do that, and this is number 2, is with this most simple of questions that
• 27:20
  if you can work this into every one on one that you have, just let it be there, let people
• 27:25
  trust that it'll always be there, end everyone on one with this how can I best support you?
• 27:31
  How can I support you to be at your at first, they may always answer with, oh, no?
• 27:35
  I'm fine.
• 27:36
  Everything's great.
• 27:36
  No problem.
• 27:37
  But eventually as trust builds, and the more you ask that question, the more trust will
• 27:42
  build, they may answer you.
• 27:44
  And it may be something simple, like, oh, I hard to focus in is where my desk is.
• 27:49
  Can I move to a different area of the office, or the 8 AM start is a bit of a trick?
• 27:54
  Can I switch to night by instead of 8 to 4 or vice versa?
• 27:59
  What works for your workplace is is going to be, you know, is different than this greens of
• 28:04
  sand.
• 28:05
  If you can just build that trust between, I say, direct managers and their teams is the
• 28:13
  best place to do that.
• 28:14
  Because as, a director with, you know, 50, 60, 700 people under you, it gets a little tricky.
• 28:20
  But if each direct manager can ask that question of their teammates on the regular that
• 28:26
  trust will build, psychological safety will build, and then your folks will feel empowered
• 28:33
  tell you when they need something.
• 28:35
  And it's that's when the magic happens.
• 28:37
  One of the little tip- I'll throw in.
• 28:38
  It it's just universal learning, right, your universal design, having things in place that
• 28:43
  allow folks to customize their work experience as they need today, because as you know, as a
• 28:51
  therapist, we're not always identical the day at each day, you know, Tuesday I might have
• 28:56
  absolutely no focus, but Wednesday, I'll be hyper focused and absolutely malaise with a lot
• 29:00
  of something.
• 29:01
  So having, different software in place, for example, that folks can tap in or tap out of as
• 29:08
  they need to having a certain degree of workplace flexibility, there's all kinds of
• 29:13
  things that can be done to build that trust and flexibility into your workplace without bottom
• 29:20
  line suffering without it costing a ton of money without losing focus of what your
• 29:24
  business actually is.
• 29:26
  Yeah.
• 29:26
  You know, the personal design team.
• 29:28
  Powerful stuff, Kristen, and I think we could have so much more of a conversation.
• 29:32
  So for people that are out there and they're thinking, how do I connect how do I get her to
• 29:37
  come in and speak or to talk strategy?
• 29:40
  Why don't you tell people a little bit about your business and where they can get ahold of
• 29:44
  you and some of the services that you offer.
• 29:46
  Sure.
• 29:46
  I'm pretty easy to find.
• 29:47
  There's just only one other Kristen Light that I've ever found on the internet.
• 29:51
  So christenlight.
• 29:52
  Ca is my website.
• 29:53
  You don't see all about me in the different types of Roxanne.
• 29:55
  Trip that I do there.
• 29:57
  And on LinkedIn, I am most active there, Kristen, ME Light, as well on LinkedIn.
• 30:03
  Mostly what I'm doing at the moment is, workshops, speaking, keynote addresses, things
• 30:10
  like that.
• 30:11
  I speak primarily on the psychological safety neurodiversity overlap as well as on suicide
• 30:19
  prevention and the aftermath of lived experience in that realm as well.
• 30:24
  I'm actually on a grant program right now, developing a neuro inclusion program for the
• 30:29
  Canadian construction industry.
• 30:31
  So if that is your field, we should definitely talk, drop me a line because I am working with
• 30:37
  the Canadian association of supported employment on that, and we've made huge strides
• 30:42
  at, the organization that I partnered with during the day.
• 30:47
  I'm really proud of that one.
• 30:48
  Actually, that's coming together really well.
• 30:49
  But, yeah, definitely get in touch.
• 30:51
  I, I am terrible at reaching
• 30:53
  out myself, so please initiate, and I'll be happy to respond.
• 30:58
  Awesome.
• 30:58
  Well, Kristen, again, thanks so much for coming on today.
• 31:01
  So I'm not what am I worth walking away with?
• 31:04
  I think that we all wanna fit.
• 31:07
  Yeah.
• 31:08
  So in our roles in in whatever realm you are going out there in the world, Whether you're
• 31:13
  the senior leader, the manager, the frontline peer, I think at that little girl, like you
• 31:18
  said, at school, that all of us were of them wanting to just have that couple of buddies to
• 31:24
  be able to, you know, hang out with.
• 31:26
  Think, yeah, in your world, who needs what and try to take one small act towards including
• 31:34
  that person today.
• 31:35
  Just one small thing.
• 31:37
  And for the senior leaders and CEOs, think of your strategy.
• 31:42
  How is it that you are thinking of that 20, percent is a 20% person that you're saying that
• 31:51
  might have a diagnosis.
• 31:53
  You're How are you preparing as you are looking at your strategic plans for the year?
• 31:59
  And where are you?
• 31:59
  What is your reality?
• 32:01
  And if your reality is I'm not so sure, that's something that's telling you.
• 32:05
  You really need to address these concerns.
• 32:08
  So for everyone, you know, whatever you're needing from me, you know, I've read my new
• 32:12
  book, ROR return on relationships.
• 32:14
  If you're curious about how authentically connected you are in your relationships.
• 32:18
  And you can just go to dot com forward slash quiz.
• 32:20
  There's a little mini quiz that you can take and we'll look either at your business
• 32:25
  relationships or your personal relationships.
• 32:27
  So send you a little assessment with some outcomes and some next steps.
• 32:32
  So, Kristen, again, thanks so much.
• 32:34
  And for everyone, thanks for hanging out with us again, and, we'll chat again with you next
• 32:39
  week.
• 32:39
  Take care.
• 32:40
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
• 32:46
  healthy change.
• 32:47
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker psychotherapist and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
• 32:53
  rocksandurhaj.com/blueprint.
• 32:57
  We'll see you next time.
• 32:59
  Unauthentic living with Roxanne.