An Inspired Chat with Gayle Fisher

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Gayle Fisher. Check out our conversation below.

Gayle, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Would YOU hire you? Why or why not?
I do think I would hire myself. As our teams focus on work skills, the more important question is, “Would employers hire young adults with Developmental Delay into Starter Jobs?” What makes a “Yes, we want you” in those seeking beginner positions?

How do we help teach hustle and discernment when fear and processing speed are likely challenges?

I look back on my early jobs on the farm and in the construction office of a local business. What do I remember that I can help generalize for our young apprentices — that they care about to create initiative?

I practice at home with my 18-year old (he’s almost 19 now), getting him to lay down his devices, check digital addiction out of his head, and then check back into the present here-and-now. He’s not me and I am wrong to think he will care like I care.

I am open to your suggestions on how to help young people care about starter jobs when they personally are tentative and worried about failing.

I do find humor is a secret weapon. What do you think? My email is [email protected]. Thank you.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
As a mom, doing mom things for my kids, I have chosen to be very curious. I am a teacher, I help others, I love people, and I am handy with digital tools. I have been taking photos and video since grade school. As the years have gone by, I keep finding important projects, and I have jumped in. I was living in London when I chose the URL Getting Sorted in those early days. (British people say “sorted” a lot, and I love British stuff.) It has always been fun for me to make my own files, graphics, learning tools and text. Eventually, the pieces all started looking more professional, and I made sure I documented them all in the websites and social media. As Getting Sorted grew into more of an umbrella, my team helped create some more sophisticated marketing tools I loved, and we have kept going forward. Mental Health, Learning Differences, Neurodiversity, Ally issues, Developmental Interventions, Immune Systems, Diet and Inflammation tools got added to enterprise experiences, and here we are today. You will see influences of Universal Design, Humor, Laughter, Story Brand (R) and Visual Clarity. As an extrovert, I am really lucky that I am hardly ever fearful or anxious. I am blessed I can enter a room of people and not sweat inside. And, I will want to make them laugh.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
As a farm kid, and the oldest of five siblings, I got to drive the 3-speed on the column and the tractors first. I loved that feeling of freedom and power, radio blasting while I ran farming equipment over many acres. It was also such a feeling of independence, and some risk blended in. These are joyful memories, all still strong after decades. Lots of decades.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
My younger son almost died as a very young toddler during an unexpected anaphylactic reaction to fire ants when he was 20 months old. I remember holding John in the ER, him puking into my purse, my wordless terror that he would die in my arms. This over-the-top allergic reaction blew out his immune system and caused his developmental delay. “ASD” entered my day-to-day, and I remember hardly breathing, my hair on fire, as I played detective on what was happening and what I should do.

There was a time I was very angry with God. And yet, I remember praying during my pregnancies to be relevant. So, be careful for what you ask. I had barely gotten John’s interventions sorted out, when my older son had a few crises of his own. For all my big words of extroversion, I don’t think I have ever gotten out of always-vigilant, red-alert mode. I almost never forget my mom duties. (When I do, it’s because I am watching Masterpiece Theater, with someone dying in old England. Agatha Christie kind of fun.)

I am blessed that I savor each learning adventure. I do not know who I would be today if everything had been easy. I am blessed that every day I wake up, there is zero doubt of what my purpose is.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes, I think so. I am quick to make peace, to apologize. I am prone to guilt, and get no pleasure from hurting people. The older I get, the better I am getting about “knowing when to hold, knowing when to fold, knowing when to walk away and knowing when to run.”

I used to be highly co-dependent. It was a miserable second marriage, all my fault for staying far too long.

I used to be a talker (some will say I still am), and yet I would now describe myself as a do-er. I do talk too fast (apology), and yet I believe you can listen faster than you think. There is a growing list of things that no longer impress me. I am quicker at just pulling my plug and walking away. I don’t like fighting but I am totally OK with being quite direct. Even if it displeases the hearer. Back to the Brit-lover stuff, it is true that the British seem quite direct, “let the chips fall where they may” when they need to face truth and it’s consequences. I am ashamed of what a wuss I used to be. Maybe I have self-corrected too far the other way? It might be…..

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I understand this clearly most days, only rarely do I screw up: This isn’t about me. Nothing is about me.

It is about you. It is about helping my sons toward their best lives. It is about me doing every clever thing I can to let you own your own decisions and your own trajectory. (I mean the editorial “you”.) If I can in all cases not care about getting credit for whatever I do or influence or even don’t do, if I can let you think it is all your idea, then we all win and we get stuff done. I so very often use “we”, as in “team”. It is very important to your success that you own what you do and decide.

So we are back to nothing is about me. I have to sometimes sit on my id, my ego. And then I laugh at myself.

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