Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Category: Deaf and Hard of Hearing People at Work

Financial Peace University with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Folks

Last night, Joe and I discovered something new about each other.

I’m the “Free Spirit.” He’s the “Nerd.”

I’m the “Spender.” He’s the “Saver.”

And it was time to learn some Financial Peace about it all. Six years ago, we had no debt other than our mortgage and a car payment. Then we moved two blocks down into a bigger house. Then we lost our entire investment in a flower shop. The property taxes nearly doubled and our savings account dwindled.Then one kid left home for college.

Sounds like a bad country song, doesn’t it?

Then… instead of taking up knitting or some sensible leisure activity, I rediscovered my passion for a very expensive sport and started flinging twenty-dollar bills at every driver who would pull me barefooting.

Uh oh.

We signed up for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at our church along with several other deaf and hard of hearing folks. Meghan Vozzolo generously provided the interpreting:

Over in Minnesota, Adan and Emily Burke are leading a Deaf Financial Peace University class:

And over in Minnesota, they’re starting them at a young age:

If you’re deaf/hard of hearing and interested in joining a Financial Peace University class:

Adan Burke (Minnesota): adan(at)burkeconnect.com

Karen Putz (Naperville, IL): karen(at)karenputz.com

It’s time to live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.

September 18, 2012
Mary Clark, Missing Her Smile

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The first thing I noticed when I met Mary Clark 23 years ago was her smile. We were in one of those dull, never-ending meetings which involved advocacy of some sort for our jobs, but after exchanging introductions, I knew there was something special about this gal. She was a quiet, gentle soul who had a way of speaking up which made everyone take notice.

We bonded over our journey of becoming deaf as adults and we got involved with many different organizations. Our paths often crossed at meetings. Mary helped birth the Association of Late-Deafened Adults (ALDA) and I lead the West Suburban Association of the Deaf.

We ended up pregnant at the same time. I gave birth to my first; she to her third daughter. As we watched our babies playing on the floor of her house and I sat there in exhaustion, asking her how she kept it all together when I was falling apart with just one kid. She threw her head back and laughed. “There are some days I just take it minute by minute.”

When her middle child became hard of hearing, we bonded yet again; this time, we worked together to start a parent organization, Illinois Hands & Voices. She wrote the first grant which gave us funds to run our first Mom’s Night Inn. She spoke at the event, sharing her journey with straightforward candor and openness.

I always looked forward to our lunches together. She was the kind of friend I could pour out my deepest thoughts and I’d get back a perspective I hadn’t considered previously or she’d dish out some practical advice.

Last October, we met for lunch and had one of our most profound conversations about life… and the shortness of it all. “I’ve been happy, I’ve been sad, I’m ok with it all,” she said.

Mary’s way-too-short life ended yesterday at 11:30 pm. I’m sad. Actually, I’m heartbroken. I know many others are too. She touched a lot of lives.

Her smile will remain forever in my mind.

There’s a tradition at the ALDA-Con where we stand in a circle, arm-in-arm during the last song of the night.

Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?
And everything I would like to be
I can fly higher than an eagle
Because you are the wind beneath my wings.

This year, there will be a gap in the circle. We will miss you, Mary. You’re the wind beneath our wings.

Wake:
Thursday Aug 30th from 4:00pm until 8:00pm
Service at 7:00pm
Dreschler, Brown and Williams Funeral Home
203 S. Marion
Oak Park, Il

August 25, 2012
Todd Hlavacek, Software Engineer

Tell me about your job, career, or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

I’m a software engineer. I knew back when I was a gangly teenager sitting in front of my Apple IIgs writing BASIC that I wanted to be in the computer field writing code. Ever since that epiphany, I worked my butt off to get in the field.

What is the best part of what you do?

Solving the world’s problems. 🙂 Seriously, an analogy comes to mind here. Think of Michelangelo working on the Statue of David. He had a vision of what he wanted the statue to become. The result of his hard labor was a beautiful statue. It’s the same way I feel with my work. The best part of what I do is I get something in the form of written requirements for a “problem,” and I work using some or all of the skills I have to get to the end result — a beautiful statue written in software code.

What are some of the challenges?

Admittedly, in a field like this, my deafness would be more of a hindrance, but fortunately, technology has progressed to the point where there are engineers, hearing, deaf and even blind, who do work remotely. In order for them to do their jobs effectively as remote engineers, tools have to be utilized over the internet that I as a deaf engineer have benefited from greatly —

1. Instant Messaging
2. Go-To Meeting (similar to Microsoft’s old NetMeeting)
3. Video Conferencing where other call in, and I can call in using Video Relay from home
4. Smartphones — believe it or not — because now with the capability to text, IM and all on a smartphone, deaf engineers now can be a part of the “on-call” rotation with other hearing colleagues.

One challenge still remains — face to face brainstorming and design meetings where my presence is needed. I use sign language interpreting services for that.

As I tell people when they encounter a deaf engineer — “Being Deaf only means that we use a different language than English to communicate orally and verbally, it does not of and by itself mean that we can’t do the job that any able-bodied engineer speaking a different language than English can do.”

What was it like growing up/becoming Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing?

Gosh, this is both an easy and difficult question to answer. You see, I grew up with a deaf brother in a hearing family using Total Communication. My mom never subscribed to the “oral only” or “Sign language only” methodologies. She wanted to give my brother and I all tools from which we could utilize to be successful later in life. Little did we both know growing up that we both would later use speech and sign language at one time or another throughout our lives wherever applicable — at home or at work. I fought against one methodology and embraced the other.

So, while growing up deaf was hard, I was fortunate in that I had a mother who fought for me. I had access to other deaf/hard of hearing friends along with a good education. So growing up was good, but not easy. Today’s deaf/hard of hearing children have it far much easier, I’d think, with a wide range of activities, organizations, and the like out there.

What advice would you give a D/deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

I would say this:

Number one, play around with the activities that will lead to your calling NOW instead of waiting until college. Don’t just say, “I want to work with aeronautics” and sit and play games on your X360. Find out all about aeronautics, do activities, etc.

For example, I played with BASIC programming, along with other computer related stuff, back when I was a teenager — way before high school and through high school. I knew right then it was for me. I never changed majors in college. The first major I went into was the one I graduated with.

So, having stated that, if you are not sure but want to wait, don’t. Find ways to do these activities, whether it be volunteering for a not for profit organization, or doing self-paced study online (there are plenty of them online these days), or taking community college classes.

Number two, remember the saying: “All work makes Jack/Jill a dull person” and conversely, “All play makes Jack/JIll an unhappy person.” Find a balance in life between your pursuit of the calling and some play time. Don’t sacrifice your social aspect in your relentless pursuit of your calling. Don’t sacrifice your hard work by doing too much play time. You’ll live for 80+ years, so be mindful of that. You’ll find that your social life does in fact help you with your professional life, and vice versa.

Number three, enjoy life. Enjoy doing the work you want to do. The day you stop enjoying it is the day you need to take a second look at whether the calling is for you or not. I’ve been in this field for over 15 years now and I still feel the same excitement that I did the first day on the job. I love what I do.

July 13, 2012
Top Ten Deaf Folks on Twitter

Of course Marlee Matlin is number one! What fun to be among this cool group of deaf folks:

To Ten Deaf Folks on Twitter

July 11, 2012
My Hands & Voices Family

I’m back home after five amazing days in Oregon for the 2012 Hands & Voices Leadership conference.

We started off with our board meeting:

Hands & Voices has grown from four chapters to chapters around the world.

We opened the evening with a team building exercise to see who could build the tallest tower out of noodles and tape, with a marshmallow on top. Hilarious fun!

The conference was located next to the beautiful Columbia River in Hood River, Oregon. Breathtaking!

There are times when my heart gets tired of “battles” among communication choices and the constant advocacy which comes from this field. But at the Hands & Voices conference, my eyes settled on a three-month old baby in the arms of her parents–one look, and passion and purpose comes flooding back. If we can support just one family on this journey, we have given back.

Today, I’m up at Christie Lake, surrounded by five teenage boys. Four of them in this picture are students from Rochester Institute of Technology. All four are from different educational backgrounds and experiences. They’re the results of the “choices” we make as families raising deaf and hard of hearing children. But as I watched the boys crack jokes, laugh and talk about everything under the sun, I realize the bottom line– as parents, professionals and deaf/hard of hearing adults in the Hands & Voices family, it comes down to the same thing: we all want happy, well-adjusted kids.

And it’s so much easier to navigate the journey with the support of one another.

June 27, 2012
Greg Pereira, Delivery Driver

Tell me about your job, career or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

First of all, I work two jobs. I serve both the hearing and deaf population. I am currently a full-time delivery driver for Markwell in Miami, Florida. I drive a van from the offices in Opa-Locka as far south as Homestead and as far north as West Palm Beach. This covers roughly around a 100 mile range. I deliver cases of staples, nails, stretch film, and other supplies to warehouses in the area that are involved in woodworking, upholstery, bedmaking, furniture, flower farming, and lobster trapping. Markwell is an industrial tool and packaging distribution company that is family-owned. Yes, my family owns the company. My brother is a part-owner as well as my father and I came aboard about three months after my brother bought the company. Think I got the job because my brother is the owner? Think again–I had to earn this opportunity. I come from a hardworking family of businessmen–my brother was a longtime Verizon executive who rose through the ranks from his outstanding sales work. He earned every bit of his promotions, so when I went to work for him I had to earn the job. After some time in a trial basis, I became an employee of the company (not an owner) and I earned it because I worked hard and did what I was asked to do. It took some time to find a role, but it has been solidified by the fact that I have a safe driving record and I love to drive, so deliveries have worked out for me. I also do projects on the side. Another reason that I earned this job is that sales have been in record numbers since I started delivering for the company, mainly because of my willingness to drive anywhere.

My second job is with ZVRS as a Z Associate. My job is very simple, I just install the wonderful Z phones we have and I do some sales work as well. I also enjoy working with customers and meeting with new people. I worked for 6-7 years in human services (working in group homes and private academies) and I decided I wanted to change my career and have always been interested in working in the videophone business. I work with great people and the job is a lot of fun!

What is the best part of your job, career calling?

The best part is I get to work the front lines with both jobs and talk directly to the customers. I get to listen to a lot of feedback and generally the customers are very nice and we exchange questions and answers, for the purpose of growing a good working relationship. Another great part is I get to explore parts of places I have never visited since I am on the road often. For instance, I did not know South Florida had a lot of farmland. Tourists don’t generally associate South Florida with farms, but there are a lot–and areas west of Homestead have flower farms where the supplies I deliver ensure the survival of the plants that are growing there. The best part is that the farms have been thriving since Hurricane Andrew hit back in 1992. Andrew destroyed Homestead with 200 mph wind gusts that took about several hours, but it left a lot of rain in the area which strengthened the soil and allowed the crops to flourish. One of those things in South Florida if you are a longtime resident like I am, to think about how something so powerful can eventually help in the long run. Another part of the job that stands out for me is my co-workers. In Miami, there are many people that are living there for a long time and do not speak English. The warehouse guys I work with do not speak English well but we work well together because we found ways to communicate through gestures and a lot of patience. I learned Spanish while living in Colombia back in the 1990s and I was able to communicate in Spanish with them even though I am not fluent.

What are some of the challenges?

To know me is to REALLY know me. I speak so well that hearing people assume I can hear out of the left ear which is completely deaf. I’ve had hearing people come to me and start whispering in my ear for no reason. I say, “This is my bad ear.” They go around to the other side and start whispering into my hearing aid. “Nope, this is also my bad ear.” They get puzzled then I tell them not to worry, I can lipread and I can read Spanish well. I do get feedback from other customers who compliment me on my ability to speak so well. I also am told they are surprised I can drive a van. I often say, “I don’t need my ears to drive..all I need are my eyes that tell me what my hands should do with the steering wheel.” Another challenge is the language barrier. In Miami, there is a large influx of immigrants that mainly speak Spanish but also speak French Creole (those from Haiti) and my hearing customers often do not speak English. However they understand the routine I do for deliveries but sometimes they do not have much patience trying to communicate with me. The best approach that works for me is to just be patient with them myself and show them what I am trying to say to them so this way communication is smooth. Patience is also a virtue when it comes to doing home visits with customers who have a hard time understanding instructions. I myself am not 100 percent ASL. I use a mix when signing to customers and generally they understand me well. The best way is to show customers what to do–I have found they learn much faster this way. On the other hand, I was the same way growing up, I learned better when people showed me what to do as opposed to receiving verbal instructions.

What was it like growing up Deaf/Hard of Hearing?

I am the oldest of all the Pereira cousins, brothers, sisters. Being deaf was a full time job and it still is. I lost my hearing at 4 years old. Why, I do not know. I do not remember myself hearing. But I wear a hearing aid on my right ear. Have been this way since I was a little boy. As was the case in the 1970s, 1980s growing up there was no captioning on TV but I liked sports, action movies, and cartoons. But when television wasn’t around, I turned to books. As I did not learn to sign until I was 12, I learned to speak first and I found I could not follow family conversations so I turned to books to keep myself occupied. My grandparents had a library row full of Dr. Seuss books and those were the first books I could read. Reading then became a passion that took up a lot of my time growing up. I also lived out of the country for a long period of time at different times. I lived in Mexico during the late 1970s and in 1988 I moved to Colombia. Colombia was where I had to learn on my own, to grow up quickly. I did not have a choice. In Colombia, the high school kids I went to school with were neat dressers and looked up to their parents as role models and were very mature and polite people. Down there it was also a wide gap between the rich and the poor, and Colombians took their studies seriously. Family values were the same generation after generation. The more things changed, the more things stayed the same. I picked up Spanish quickly simply by reading, however verbal communication was difficult. On the other hand, I went to the American school and all the friends I made treated me with a lot of respect and I wasn’t the “deaf guy” in school, I was one of the guys. There was no bullying. I wore uniforms every day. On the other hand, Colombia was going through the worst period of violence in their history and I had to be extremely careful about what to say to people there, this is still a trait I follow today when talking to people, I often think of what to say before I say it. I was an American living in Colombia and it was a dangerous time, but I enjoyed my experience growing up. I fell in love with soccer and I adapted living there. Going to school there was wonderful, but I did not have sign language interpreters. Believe it or not, I did not need interpreters as I chose to adapt to having notetakers and I studied every night.

What advice would you give a Deaf/Hard of Hearing person who is looking for a job, career, or calling like yours?

One of the things you must understand is that when you look for work, employers are looking for somebody who has the intangibles. Experience is one thing. The other thing is showing them you have those intangibles. What do I mean by intangibles? Intangibles are this: having a neat appearance, having a positive attitude, having a clean record (driving, criminal, etc). The other thing is you have some skills that make you talented–things that people just don’t teach. The other and most important thing is discipline. Discipline is taking the same approach to work every day with positive results. Do not be discouraged if you get turned down for a job, there are others that are waiting to be filled. I cringe sometimes when deaf/HH people think they have been turned down due to their deafness and sometimes dwell on this. People, regardless of who and what they are, get turned down at times. The best thing is to move on and keep looking and finding that job for you. Yes, a job is hard to find with the economy being in a slump, but the important thing is never to give up and keep on looking as hard as you can. Even if you find something that pays less than your previous job, take it! You will always find that you can work your way up and be back to the level you were before, even if it takes some time to get there. The job you have may not be the calling you expect it to be, but sometimes the calling comes in unexpected places. Since I work as a driver, I had to have a clean driving record. Driving takes an enormous amount of discipline. It’s not as easy as it looks. I have been doing this since I got my license at 21. Miami is known for having lots of careless and aggressive drivers, so I have to be able to concentrate 100 percent of the time I am on the road. Trust is also very, very important. Be honest. This is a virtue you MUST have. Employers can turn down anyone they feel they are not going to trust. It used to be they could hire anyone and train them on the spot but this is not happening anymore. Times have changed where there are more stringent requirements a job seeker has to go through. The most important thing is to be patient and have a positive attitude, and be honest with yourself.

February 29, 2012
Tina Childress, Educational Audiologist

Tell me about your job/career/calling. How did you get into this line of work?

I am an audiologist with my specialty being educational audiology. I work in the mainstream and residential school settings supporting students, their families and staff. This involves duties such as diagnostic hearing evaluations, working with hearing aids/cochlear implants/assistive technology, participating in IEP meetings, providing informational workshops on how to work with students with hearing loss and being a resource to families.

I got into this field by accident…I actually first went to college to become a computer engineer (hence, my love for all things gadgety) but didn’t feel it would be a good fit. I decided to take an elective that had nothing to do with engineering and it ended up being Sign Language. That class got me into the Speech and Hearing Science Building and introduced me to the world of Audiology. I loved the incorporation of my sign language skills, my passion for helping others, the science of hearing and use of technology into one career. Little did I know how ironic it would be that I would become an audiologist…

What is the best part of your job, career, calling?

Paying it forward! With my personal experiences as an audiologist who was late-deafened and is now a bilateral cochlear implant recipient, I have gone through various degrees of hearing loss, used hearing aids then cochlear implants, and have gone through the stages of grieving my hearing self. I feel like I can reach out to students and families and give them a glimpse of what’s POSSIBLE, not impossible. I have a passion for teaching, too, and am addicted to providing perhaps complex and technical information in an easy-to-understand and practical format whether that be in the form of a workshop, blog post or sharing my favorite links on the Internet.

What are some of the challenges?

Meetings with lots of people and listening in noisy situations are always hard situations. I compensate by either using effective communication strategies (e.g., going to a quiet place), using assistive technology or using sign language.

I also get frustrated with lack of appropriate access to such places as a classroom, the workplace, captioning on the Internet, live theater or movies. It also peeves me when people think that one cookie-cutter solution is the right thing for ALL people with hearing loss.

What was it like becoming deaf?

Becoming deaf was like being on a roller coaster. Because my loss was rapidly progressive (I lost all of my hearing over a course of nine months), I never knew if I would wake up to a “good” hearing day or a “bad” one. After a while, they were all “bad”. Along the way, I have been surrounded by amazing people, like my co-workers and my family, who have taken my communication needs into account and make sure that I have access. My then-boyfriend-now-hubby took that first sign language class with me and we’ve been signing ever since! He was, and continues to be, my ears in a variety of situations.

When I reached completely profound hearing loss, I realized that all of my communication depended on visual information – lipreading, sign language, text, etc. It was at that point that I decided to get my first cochlear implant…I didn’t want to miss anything! I decided to become a bilateral recipient five years later. I do very well with my cochlear implants and it’s always a testimony to the technology when someone sees me talking on my cellphone and then comes up to me later and says, “What?!? You’re DEAF?!? I never would have known!” Granted, I still have days when I need to get my CI program tweaked or I struggle in very noisy environments, but for the most part, I appreciate being able to navigate between the deaf/Deaf and hearing worlds. My motto is “It doesn’t matter HOW you communicate, just THAT you communicate!”

I’ve also come to the realization that my identity is not merely dictated by my audiogram – it’s situational. When I am sitting at a restaurant with my Deaf friends, signing in ASL with voice off…I am Deaf. In the mornings as I’m blow drying my hair and my five-year old is trying to tell me something and my cochlear implants aren’t on yet…I am deaf. When I’m at a meeting and three people are talking at the same time and I’m trying to follow the conversation…I am hard of hearing. As I talk with my mom on my cellphone about my upcoming visit…I am hearing. I am not one of these identities (Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, hearing). I am all of them.

What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

Being an audiologist with hearing loss means that you will have a unique empathy for working with your patients. You have walked in their shoes! Be careful though as you talk to patients that it remains about THEM and not about YOU. You can definitely use your experiences in counseling but remember that each person has their own unique needs and abilities and what may have worked for you, may not work for someone else. They will appreciate your insight and goes a long way for establishing rapport.

Technology is your friend! Take advantage of things like FM systems in the booth or using interpreters or CART, as needed. Depending on your hearing ability, there may be some tasks that are difficult for you, like speech perception testing, but don’t be afraid to exhaust all possible ways of getting access.

Be a good example as an advocate! This may mean making sure your professors understand your listening needs or handing an FM transmitter to a presenter at a professional conference or asking someone to repeat something that you did not hear.

Explore the many facets to audiology. It’s not just about being in a booth all day – perhaps you want to do research, or focus on hearing conservation, or do aural rehabilitation.

There are others that have already paved the way! There are facebook groups for the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Loss (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/amphl/) and the Association of Audiologists with Hearing Loss (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/114874958541349/). Feel free to ask questions about things like choosing a program, getting through school and what accommodations are successful in various settings.

February 21, 2012
Mom’s Night Inn, A Weekend of Connecting

When Andrea Marwah asked me to speak at the Illinois Hands & Voices Mom’s Night Inn this year, I happily agreed. The Mom’s Night Inn weekend was like coming home all over again. When I founded the non-profit organization back in 2003, we launched the annual Mom’s Night Inn, modeled after a similar retreat at Colorado Hands & Voices. Every year, the retreat continues to be a weekend of connection among the moms of deaf and hard of hearing children. Andrea Marwah, the current president, has expanded the Mom’s Night Inn in central Illinois as well. There is still time to register for that: Mom’s Night Inn Central.

This year’s theme was “Celebrating Their Gifts, Unleashing Your Child’s Potential” and the title of my presentation. I shared my own journey of growing up hard of hearing, becoming deaf, and discovering the gifts that resulted from a paradigm shift in my perceptions. I read an excerpt from Lee Woodruff’s book, “Perfectly Imperfect,” where she describes her deaf daughter as one with a different ability. If you have not read her book, grab it. Lee is an amazing writer and her book will grip your heart. She has a new one coming out in September, 2012.

Massages, crafts, discussions and chocolate, those are some of things the moms get to experience during the retreat. Woven into those moments are the connections– the experience of sharing your personal journey with another mom. It doesn’t matter where you are on the journey, or the choices you’ve made or the choices you are exploring– there’s the common bond of raising deaf and hard of hearing kids. It’s a wonderful feeling to share the journey together.

On Sunday, we had a panel of deaf and hard of hearing kids, from elementary to college age. Ben Lachman also sat on the panel and shared his experience as a young adult and businessman. Their experiences were as unique as their fingerprints. As I sat there and watched each person share a glimpse of their journey, I’m reminded once again why so many of us across the Hands & Voices world volunteer our time with families: because every kid counts.

February 20, 2012
RaVen Sequoia, ASL Tutor

Tell me about your job. How did you get into this line of work?

I am an American Sign Language Master Tutor/Mentor and Evaluator for ASL VRS interpreters. I’m currently studying Language Hunter’s Techniques as we invent a lot of helpful techniques that enables learning any foreign languages quickly.

By fate, I got into ASL Tutoring through a Deaf ASL teacher who noticed my potentials to teach. He made a huge impression in my life, planting a seed which paved my way to where I am today. After he died of aids, I vowed to become the best ASL teacher for individuals struggling to learn ASL – as with learning challenges I have, I truly understand what it’s like to be ignored in an overcrowded classroom. So, for years I’ve mentored numerous ASL teachers and attended many ASLTA workshops which gave me some clues to better my career. The rest I invented methods to jump start students to quickly grasp what was needed to learn.

What is the best part of your job?

I love seeing students who have failed in their ASL course and in one term, come back with a grade A average and seeing their faces lit up with joy. The same goes for any students who were shunned by other ASL teachers swearing they had no hope and I was able to help them understand ASL and become fluent over time.

What are some of the challenges of your job?

I guess the most challenging aspect of my tutoring job is technical issues. I’m still learning how to problem solve technical issues such as faulty connections with Skype, web-cam or a videophone, things along that nature. My second challenge is finding more ASL students to teach one on one.

What was it like growing up deaf/hard of hearing?

It was a very difficult childhood dealing with constant audism– oppression from hearing family, hearing teachers, hearing friends, hearing doctors, the entire hearing non-community. The older I got, the higher hearing people’s unrealistic expectations became increasingly burdensome. Thankfully one of my favorite teacher who truly understood my issue persuaded my family to let me go to Model Secondary School

for the Deaf. It was then I learned to accept my Deafness with pride and embraced ASL Culture.

What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a career like yours?

My advice is to learn all you can learn about American Sign Language – literally taking all of the ASL classes, ASL linguistics and workshops – even if you’re fluent already to understand how students learn. Always be brave to experiment with various methods that is not traditional – we’re here to serve hard working students who wish to master ASL. Accept the fact that there’s always room for improvement with your teaching ability. Learn from a master ASL tutor/mentor who has a high success rate of fluent ASLstudents to save you time, energy, and errors. Be patient and polite with your ASL students and have fun in your sessions.

WWW.ASLmasterTutor.com

Email: ASLmasterTutor@gmail.com

January 11, 2012
Corey Axelrod, Marketing Communications

Tell me about your job/business.

Synergetic Business Solutions is a marketing communications firm that offers cutting-edge, goal oriented business operations and marketing tools for small and mid-size businesses. Services include website design and development, Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Marketing, graphic design, and social media design and development. As the owner of Synergetic Business Solutions, my responsibilities are all-encompassing as I provide assistance to businesses and individuals all across the board. From website design to social media design/development, my goal is to help clients create synergy through all aspects of their business, hence the name Synergetic Business Solutions. While we are not equipped to handle aspects other than marketing, our focus is to integrate each component of our clients’ business by aligning business/marketing strategies, messages, and design.

For the past two and a half years, I’ve also worked at Hager Productions, a video production company specializing in the production of promotional and marketing videos. I originally started out as the Director of Marketing and Sales and was promoted to the Director of Strategy and Business Development. There, my responsibilities revolve around overseeing the marketing and sales arms of the company.

How did you get into this line of work?

When I decided to go to business school for my undergraduate degree, my plans were to get my Bachelors in Business Management and then go to law school. Things changed when I was selected to participate in a competition for a ‘dream co-op’ position at ESPN. Even though I was not selected for the dream co-op, I was selected as a semi-finalist and was charged with presenting in front of ESPN executives and executives from other organizations. The task revolved around marketing strategies for ESPN with several local Rochester organizations. This experience was my first true experience with marketing and truly opened my eyes to what marketing really was all about. I fell in love and decided that instead of going to law school, I would get my MBA (graduated in 2010 with a concentration in Marketing and Sales Management).

What is the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is taking a problem and solving it and then seeing the gratitude from my customers. Marketing is so complex and it is not like mathematics in which you can take a simple algorithm and solve the problem. There are unique situations and factors that need to be considered when deciphering the issue at hand. The best compliment I’ve received is a referral.

What are some of the challenges of your job?

There are a number of challenges with my field – first and foremost, as I mentioned previously, marketing is not simple as you can’t take 1 + 1 and get the results you need. It takes time to figure out strategy and implementation plans, and this is not an overnight process. Patience is often a virtue when it comes to marketing. Another challenge that compounds this issue is that technology is always improving/changing. It can become difficult to keep up with the changes and advancements – clients depend on me for answers and if I don’t know them, I need to find them rather quickly.

What was it like growing up deaf/hard of hearing?

Growing up hard of hearing really wasn’t much of a big deal to me – I had deaf parents and deaf grandparents (on my mother’s side). Being a part of the ‘deaf world’ was natural to me. Being a part of the ‘hearing world’ wasn’t as easy, though. There were the usual pickings in which I was picked on for having a hearing loss (most often evident while playing sports). But intellectually, I always knew that I was equal to my hearing peers – this was a byproduct of family always urging me on to succeed and providing the necessary support system for me at home.

What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a career like yours?

The best advice I can give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a career like mine is to reach out to someone who has ‘been there, done that.’ I wish I did this because I would have learned more about marketing before getting into the space. I feel as if I went into my MBA without much experience and really could have used a true mentor in the space. While I am happy where I am today, I believe I may have done things differently that could have advanced me further in my career.

September 19, 2011