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Mandy Ralston: Innovating Autism Care with Tech and Big Data | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

• Black Bridge Mindset • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Mandy Ralston: Innovating Autism Care with Tech and Big Data | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast 

Welcome to another engaging episode of the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast, where we explore the powerful intersection of culture, entrepreneurship, and business. In this episode, hosts Mike, Ken, and CJ are joined by an extraordinary guest, Mandy Ralston. Mandy is a queer neurodivergent serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in behavior analysis. As a certified behavior analyst, Mandy has founded and scaled multiple clinics focused on applied behavior analysis (ABA) for autism and other developmental disabilities. Dive deep into Mandy's journey of entrepreneurship, her cutting-edge tech startup Non-Binary Solutions, and the role of big data and AI in transforming autism care. Learn about the importance of diverse perspectives, personalized medicine, and get valuable insights into how to start and scale a business in the healthcare field. If you're looking for serious inspiration and actionable advice, this episode is a must-watch!

 

00:00 Welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

00:38 Saturday Morning Catch-Up

03:33 Introducing Our Special Guest: Amanda Mandy Ralston

06:41 Mandy's Journey into Behavior Analysis

11:46 Building and Scaling Clinics

15:54 Starting Non-Binary Solutions

20:09 Navigating the Startup World

30:38 The Importance of Social Media and Networking

31:47 Why a Tech Company?

33:03 The Surge in Autism Providers

33:59 The Role of Technology in Autism Diagnosis

35:17 Big Data and Personalized Medicine

36:04 Understanding Autism Spectrum

37:44 Intensity of Applied Behavior Analysis

40:30 Managing Bias in Professional Settings

45:19 Entrepreneurial Influences and Journey

49:55 Introducing Noetic AI

52:56 Advice for Parents and Clinicians

55:32 Lightning Round and Closing Remarks

Guest’s Socials:

Website: Nonbinary Solutions , Amanda Ralston

Facebook: Nonbinary Solutions

Instagram: nonbinary_solutions

Thank you for listening!

Follow our socials!

Contact us:

Hosts:

CJ:

Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast where culture, entrepreneurship, and business intersect to fuel inspiration. This podcast celebrates the power of diverse voices shaping the future of business. So whether you're building a business, breaking barriers, or just looking for some serious inspiration, you're in the right place. The Black Bridge Mindset. Podcast is hosted by your three favorite best friends, Mike, Ken, and CJ. So now sit back, relax, and absorb the gems being dropped on you by today's special guest.

Mike:

Another Saturday morning eight. It is 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning. is, for some reason it's, we're supposed to be having summer weather, but here it is still cold. volleyball on the beach last night and took off my hoodie and sweatpants to play, as soon as we stopped, I had to throw them right back on.

CJ:

I was gonna say, you should have left the sweatpants on if nothing else.

Mike:

No. Yeah. No, no, no. But it, it's freezing here and it's just crazy. I was, I was thinking the other day, like it's pride month and typically like, you know, at New Year's, seems so far away. I. For some reason this year, I don't know if it's because of everything that's been going on, but it seems like it was New Year's. blinked

CJ:

Mm-hmm.

Mike:

June, like this year has gone by so fast. It's crazy.

CJ:

Well,

Mike:

you guys that, but I, I just feel like it's,

CJ:

you have to look at it too. We spend so much time getting prepared and doing stuff for this show and then, you know, recording and regular jobs. The weeks go by quickly,

Mike:

Mm-hmm. They do. They do. And I feel like typically by now, I would've seen you two in person multiple times, but I think I've only seen you two like once or twice this year, which is crazy. So, in any case. I feel like people already know like what we do and our daily schedule, but anything out of the ordinary for you?

Ken:

Nah, I'm excited to see you all next, next weekend. I think that was two years ago whenever we were, wait, I don't think so.

CJ:

The girls came. I can't remember if you game or not.

Ken:

Yeah. No, I don't think so. But it's, it's been at least, I think two years since we've all been together,

CJ:

Yeah,

Ken:

forward to,

Mike:

big

Ken:

everybody.

Mike:

It's

Ken:

Right.

Mike:

gonna be a

Ken:

I will be

Mike:

for it.

CJ:

look, I guess I'm gonna have to break out the grill and sit up and clean. Pick and clean some greens, huh?

Ken:

For what? Like I think

CJ:

Family reunion.

Ken:

I know, but you guys have set up a pretty good itinerary, right? for

CJ:

Yeah.

Ken:

and Sunday. So

Mike:

Yeah, it's gonna be a good time.

Ken:

it'd be fun. I'm looking forward

Mike:

so I'll, I'll bring the champagne and vodka and a couple of

CJ:

Oh my God.

Mike:

be my contribution.

CJ:

Well, look, this would be the perfect time for us to sit you in the kitchen with, a apron and an open notebook and teach you how to cook.

Mike:

Okay. And look, you are gonna turn around a week later and find that notebook still sitting in the guest bedroom,

Ken:

with nothing in it.

Mike:

right? With nothing but my name and the date at the top of the page,

CJ:

Well, we'll start off slow. We'll teach you how to cook grits or something. Then

Mike:

Okay. Okay. I'm okay with it. But anyway, like I said, we'll keep it short'cause I'm pretty excited about, our guest today. I was looking through, all of her socials and everything, and I'll be honest, CJ you mentioned this before we started recording, we were like, please explain this to us. But she, she is, a small business owner, so that's why we have her on here. But, I'm gonna hand it over to, cj. You go ahead and, the introduction.

CJ:

I will have to start and say, small business is exaggerated. This is big, big business. Like I mentioned to her and mentioned to you all, I did not realize, I mean, I've known this guest for a long time and I knew that she was, a beast in her field, but I didn't know just how beastly she gets. So, the person that we are speaking of is Amanda. Mandy Ralston is a queer neurodivergent, serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in behavior analysis certified as a behavior analyst. Since 2002, Mandy has founded and scaled two clinics that delivered life-changing applied behavior analysis or a BA services to hundreds of families, schools, and individuals with autism and other developmental or intellectual disabilities. Her successful exit in 2019 to the fourth largest a BA provided in the US marked a significant milestone in her career. Mandy has recognized internationally, get that now internationally. As a thought leader in behavior analysis, ethics, outcomes, and practice. She has served as a subject matter expert on global panels, sharing her expertise to shape the future of the field as a dynamic and sought after speaker. She addresses audiences worldwide on topics including autism spectrum issues and her acclaimed talk, it's not binary, avoiding binary thinking in work life and social media. Her accolades include being a two-time nominee for small business person of the year, and she's the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Autism Innovation Award at the Autism Investor Sub Summit, Mandy's latest venture, non-binary solutions pioneers cutting edge data, analytics and technology, developing clinical decision support systems to empower A, B, a providers and stakeholders within the neurodiversity ecosystem. Mandy is deeply committed to resha reshaping how the world perceives autism and advancing the field of behavior analysis. Her work centers on fostering a more inclusive and equitable society, driven by the belief that diverse perspectives are essential to meaningful change. And with those astounding credits and mouthful of acronyms, I bring to you, to the table, Ms. Amanda, Mandy, Ralston.

Ken:

Welcome to the.

Mike:

Welcome, welcome.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Thank you guys. I really need to find a sorted bio. That's too much.

CJ:

Well

Mike:

great.

CJ:

listen, the, the acronyms and, and the words are one thing, but I need you to first, before we even get to any, into any of this. Can you please give the audience a, a more down to earth, description of exactly what it is you focus on, what you do.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Sure, I'll try. So Applied behavior analysis is a offshoot of psychology. And so is specifically interested in, measurable behavior, right? So this comes from, the science from BF Skinner, who was the, father of behaviorism and Skinner did all of the experiments, in the fifties, about, rats in a box, pigeons in the cage, right? You guys can imagine this and. what those experiments did was to help understand the concepts of reinforcement and punishment. Like how do organisms behave under certain schedules of reinforcement and punishment, right? of us sitting here care about how rats in a box or pigeons in a cage behave, right? But what we learned from those experiments, we now have applied to things that have social significance. So taking those same concepts using them to teach somebody to tie their shoes or to, get somebody to quit smoking or to improve your athletic performance, or to get organizations to run more efficiently. so all of that science later in the seventies started to be applied towards individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities. And the science was used to help those individuals learn how to communicate to reduce problem behavior, and to overall try to live more independently and happily. So that's the shortest version I think I can get with,

CJ:

Okay.

Mike:

I got it. I love it. Well, to get us started, take us back. How did you get into this field?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

yeah. I had a textbook in 1999 at my undergrad college center, college here in Danville, Kentucky that told me two paragraphs about autism. And, one, it was one in every 10,000 individuals at the time were diagnosed with autism. And two, that the gold standard, quote unquote, for treatment was something called Applied behavior Analysis. so I decided to write a research paper about it. And I met seven families here in Lexington that were flying a consultant out from California once a quarter in order to cobble together these a, BA programs to teach their children how to talk and how to function more, fluently in their environment. And I became one of the, technicians that work with those seven families and those seven kids. And so that's how I started learning about this. I just got hooked very early. I love kids. I'm very interested in science, obviously, and I got hooked on the reinforcer for me was getting kids to talk, right?

Mike:

Hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

kids that had language delays that weren't able to ask for things that they want or weren't able to say hello to people they wanted to talk to. And so I got hooked very early on the power of the science.

CJ:

Wow.

Ken:

Can you tell us about how, you work with families to determine if their kids are autistic or on the spectrum? Like how, how does that work? I can imagine the story that you have, but if you could just kind of give us a little background great.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, again, I have grown with the rate of the diagnosis of autism. Back in 1999 it was one in every 1000 individuals were diagnosed with autism. Today it's, I think one in every 31 or something like that. And, if anybody wants the longer version of the story, I've written a white paper about it. It's on my website for non-binary solutions.com. Yeah, of things have been happening in the last 25 years that are making people more aware of autism, that is making the diagnosis more accessible, that people are, you basically can't talk to anybody that doesn't know somebody that's affected by autism at this point,

Mike:

Mean.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

It's oh, I have a friend or a coworker that has a child, so on and so forth. Then, so the greater awareness is part of the contributing factor to the rate of diagnosis increasing, right? And the fact that there's less stigma around having a diagnosis of autism at this point. So doctors are more willing to give that diagnosis. And so I think families are finding each other thanks to the information era and the internet, and they're able to say, Hey, your son sounds like my son. What is your son going through? What kind of things are you doing for him? What is his diagnosis? And so I think, yeah, the families are able to find that information more freely. Now, the, there's still a bottleneck in actually getting diagnoses at this point. There are waiting lists everywhere for families to get into multidisciplinary evaluations in order to actually get a diagnosis of autism, and then even after they get a diagnosis of autism. If that's the case, then there's a bottleneck again and actually getting services. So the proliferation of the diagnosis is caused multiple, bottlenecks at this point for people to access services.

CJ:

Wow. So you, you know, you gained all of this knowledge from, serving as a tech in the field. You've worked with families, you've had the experience in college. At what point did you decide, okay, I. I'm gonna take this knowledge and apply this to the general public and make this my career. What, at what point did you have that aha moment, and what steps did you take to, to bring yourself to market to offer these support systems?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, so we had this, those seven families, and there was myself and three other women here in

CJ:

I.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

that were working with those seven families. And we realized that there was a demand, right? There were all kinds of families here just in Lexington that wanted these types of services that weren't getting them. so started to learn about, a consultant named, Dr. Vincent Carbon, who is a sound or a sort of forerunner for, particular. Off of applied behavior analysis called Verbal Behavior who was going across the country and doing workshops about how to improve teaching procedures within these a BA programs and so on and so forth. So started following him. I always say I was like lightly stalking him for the first couple years of my career, trying to pick his brain as much as possible. And he taught us about, the certification process that was just getting started. And so we went to Jacksonville, Florida. I got 90 hours a week, or 90 hours in two weeks of a boot ca bootcamp type of training. then spent the next year having a supervision relationship with him where I was sending VHS tapes back and forth in the mail, to demonstrate my competencies, and talking on a landline phone in order to, get my mentorship with him, and was able to sit for my exam in 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee with a Scantron machine and a number two pencil. So that, that's how old I am in this field, right? We got CER or I got my certification and we just, we figured it out. We figured out there was a, list of people that needed the, these services. We figured out a training system to bring in more technicians, hire people, train them. We found, obscure funding source that was gonna be able to cover some of these services. And this is way back in 2000, 2001 before there was any insurance coverage anywhere in the United States. none of us were, none of us were business majors. And so we made a lot of mistakes. But those mistakes informed my next venture the next time, right? So it's like you learned a lot of things the hard way. But that's part of entrepreneurship, right? Like you're gonna have to figure it out bit by bit. When you're building something nobody else has done before, you're gonna make mistakes, right? And we had to wrap that company up in 2003. And then I spent the next four years driving all over Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky to anybody that could pay out of pocket for my services as a consultant. And again, helping families cobble together these programs by using family members, high school and college students as technicians and 30 to 40 hours a week of intensive one-on-one teaching with these kids. And so I, after the first clinic, that first clinic we scaled to 125 clients and 85 employees in three years. so again. Really fast growth, which was part of the mistakes that I learned from Right. And I spore that I would never do it again. I was just gonna go off and be a consultant and not do all this. And then I got tired of the lack of quality control. And so I begrudgingly another clinic in 2007 and grew that much, much more slowly over time. So that was part of my learnings from the first clinic to the second.

Mike:

Nice. So from a high level in the beginning, once you realized that you had a passion for this, did you go about planning and starting your business? Like, did you do like a business plan? Did you have like a big whiteboard? Did you consult a bunch of people? if someone else is listening and they're like, I'm, I want to get into healthcare and science, but I have no idea what my first step should be, what would your advice be to someone like that?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Hard for me to remember the beginnings of the first and second clinic. So I'll try to tie what I've learned with this newest venture with non-binary solutions, my tech startup and what I pieced together. So when I, after I got my clinic acquired in 2019, I spent three years inside the larger organization and just learning about the problems that I'm solving for right now with this, with tech solution. And so when I left that organization and I started non-binary solutions, one of the first things that I did is I got involved with, an accelerator program here in Kentucky called Launch Blue. the accelerator is designed to help you learn about startup culture. Like everything from the. Languages to the investor process, to the fundraising, what the different levels of fundraising look like. Use something called a, a Lean Startup Canvas as a business plan. So for my second clinic, I had a very detailed and long business plan, with a startup. The idea of moving into a lean, startup canvas is that you're gonna be moving so quickly that it doesn't make sense necessarily to have a 30 page business plan, right? But you do have to have sort of your major bullets outlined to understand what your goals are, how you're gonna talk to your investors about what you're doing, so on and so forth. One of the other things that I did right off the bat, my, my first. Co-founder that I brought on board was a chief financial officer, and he's fractional, meaning that, he's not full-time. He works with multiple different businesses in his capacity as a financial, expert. but I knew that was one of my weaker areas in my entrepreneurial journey based on my first two areas or adventures. And so I wanted somebody else to handle all that. You take care of the spreadsheets, you take care of the accounting, and all the different compliance aspects of what we're gonna be doing over here. And that way I can focus my vision on the big picture. I'm the visionary. I'm the one that's got the big picture thinking. I don't want to be dragged down with the details. That's where I get bored. That's where I get distracted. So that, that was one of the first things that I brought in. And my second co-founder, which is essential to what I'm doing, was a technical co-founder. So again, I'm a clinician. I don't write code, but I do have the architecture of what I'm building in mind. And so Robert Beer, who is my, CTO, is the translator of my tech or my clinical brain into technical code. So he is the intermediary between how I think and how to translate that to our team of developers who are actually in, Ukraine. So that's, does that answer your question? I feel like

Mike:

No, it, it, it does. And, and I was, I was taking notes and I, and I think, I think what you just did was great because on a lot of our other podcasts, people have said the exact same thing in the outline. And I, I just put it in bullet points. First you went and you worked somewhere, or you, you know, you, you got some experience first, right? That's what a lot of people say. Go get experience, work in the field, make sure you really like it. Second you start, you went to a startup program to get educated on how to build a business, and, and that's what a lot of other people said. You know, I went to. X, y, z startup program. They showed me how to write a business plan, how to do financials and everything else. third step was to put it down on paper. You said, you didn't necessarily create a huge business plan, but you outlined what your thoughts were. Put it down on paper so that you had, a, a north star and you knew where you were going. And then fourth, you started to create a support team because you, you can't do everything yourself. You don't know everything. So you started to bring in the people who are smarter than you. And that's what most CEOs do, right? They, they're not the smartest person in the room, but they have a team of people who are smarter than them and help them on. So you, you actually went through the same process that I've heard over and over again. So, I, I think that's pretty powerful for people to understand that, you know, you can't just sit there and just randomly do things. There, there is a process that actually works and people are doing it all the time. And you see people become successful when they go through that process. So yes, you did answer my question.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

And and part of, the startup process is, is pitching, right? You have to pitch to investors, so in contrast to the clinics that I built those clinics very organically over time. I use the profits from the businesses itself to grow and scale. with a tech startup, it's the opposite is the process. You have to go raise money first so you can build a product, right? And so I. Part of that process with pitching is having a pitch deck, right? So a PowerPoint deck that explains what is the problem that you're solving, what is the solution? What is your moat? I don't know if you guys have heard this term yet, but the moat is like, what, is between you and your competition, right? What is the differentiator about how you're operating that somebody wouldn't be able to come in and swoop in and steal your shit and go on and do their own thing, right? and so this pitch process is, exhilarating and exhausting. Let's put it that way, because I have gotten so much effing feedback. I, have iterated this deck no less than 150 times,

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

just in a year and a half process. So yeah, you, the concept of being lean and being coachable and being open to feedback and to constantly be shifting and changing and moving so that you're, the North star's there, but

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

the place,

Mike:

Right.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

it's,

Mike:

And let, lemme guess, everyone you pitch this to is saying yes.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

oh God, yeah. No, I've got boatloads of money over here. Things are going swell. Oh, no. And it's super fun being me, as a queer female founder, with a company named Non-Binary Solutions because I bet you can imagine the overall demographic of the folks that I'm pitching to. Yeah, there are a lot of older white men, right? And so they have oodle of feedback for me about the name of my company and how I talk about things. Noise. And so here's a fun fact for you guys. 2% of all venture capital, I'm sorry, 3% of all venture capital have gone to female founders in the last three years. And that's, an improvement,

CJ:

Not surprised.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

that's if you're white, right?

Mike:

And there's so much money out there,

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Oh my God. And do you think it's statistically probable that only 3% of good ideas came from female founders, or do you think that's bias?

Mike:

right?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. Yeah.

Ken:

Do, do you specifically look, do you look for specific investors or you kind of just, you kind of open that up to anybody who is kind of interested in the work that you do?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

It's a stage that I am at right now, which is still pre-seed, meaning that, we've got a MVB product, but we're not at the growth stage yet. We're not ready to scale yet. a lot of that money is fairly agnostic, in terms of their investment thesis. It's so early, like most of what you're coming up with is conjecture at this point. when we get to the stage of seed investments, that's where you're really gonna have a, a group of investors are going to potentially want a seat on your board. They're gonna want to have more influence on your decision making, et cetera. So at that point, it really becomes more important. Have a values alignment with who you're taking money from, Because they're gonna be in your business, right? And you're gonna really want to be careful about you, what energy you're bringing in, right? And yeah, at that point, I think you get a little more choosy, but this early on, people understand within the investment world that it's a bet, right? You're

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

founder, you're eval evaluating the team, you're evaluating an idea because again, you don't have product market fit yet at this stage in pre-seed. And so people are using their own analysis to determine whether or not they feel like this is a good bet. But they're also doing it because is how innovation is done, right? You have to bet early in order to get some new ideas into the world and see what actually sticks.

CJ:

I.

Mike:

you touched on the name a little bit. Can you explain to people exactly what the name entails? Like what, what does it mean?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

So there's lots of different reasons. I named the company non-Binary Solutions. One, first and foremost, it's a tongue in cheek play on the fact that I'm building a technological solution that is quote unquote non-binary when in fact code is binary. So a little double entendre there, but also. Three main reasons, and I named the company Non-binary solutions. One, people are not and white, right? They're not ones and zeros. They are not the sum of just one category or the other. They are intersectional. And so in order to appropriately treat people or support people, you have to see the full amplitude of their humanity, right? They're not just their race. They're not just their sex, their gender, their religion, their socioeconomic background. They are not just their diagnosis, right? So that's, it's not binary, right? It's all the things all at once. two, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple, purportedly got into an argument at some point in their history. And Wozniak said, jobs, it's not binary. You can be both decent and brilliant at the same time.'cause apparently jobs was a little persnickety to work for, here and there. And third, and most importantly, I get to speak internationally. I get to be on all kinds of platforms and doing these pitch competitions. And so I get to educate people by saying, did you know that people on the spectrum are six times more likely to not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth? So now, if you care about individuals on the spectrum, you also now have to care about non-binary and trans people, right? Because there's a vent overlap there. So I create empathy through education. Hopefully,

CJ:

Very thoughtful. So you were speaking about your, your team that, that, that is behind the scenes, you know, helping you with your, your vision. What criteria, do you have in place when you just, you know, you pick these individuals that you want to bring aboard? Like, is is there some formula? Is there some, I don't know, something about the background. Is there something about the thought process? Like what, what draws you to them?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Honestly, the process for me in this venture is chemistry. Tim, my CFO, I've just known here locally and I've known people that know him, I know him in the community. And we just had very good discussions with each other and said, Hey, maybe we should be able to work with each other. Robert, I was introduced to, from somebody else within the social network here of the entrepreneur community. And he was a project manager for another tech startup called Smart Farm, which was designing, remote irrigation software for farmers. And so one of the people that I talked to, said, Hey, you should meet Robert. He might be somebody worth talking to. And Robert and I just hit it off, right? Got excited about what we were doing. He started to understand the problem. He saw the scalability of it. He's got an entrepreneurial background and he's just, he's so smart. He's transparent. He communicates really well. And yeah, we just have great chemistry. Then the development team that I met, I always say that this whole entrepreneurial process, I say it's like jumping from lily pad to lily pad until you hit or land, right? Like you're just hopping nonstop and you don't know when the next lily pad's gonna come up. But you gotta keep moving the whole time, right? So the development team I met from a founder get this Chris that moved from Seattle, Washington to Paducah, Kentucky because he got his first$50,000 check on the fact that he moved to Paducah. And so when I met Dr. Stevens Baum, that's his name, asked him if he had any recommendations for developers he introduced me to the team of Ukrainian code developers, that he was using and he'd been using for a couple of years already. So I figured if the smart guy from Microsoft had been using this team for two years already, that's probably a pretty good indication that he's vetted them and they've got some experience, et cetera. So then I introduced that team to Robert. And Robert has his background in technology. He's able to bring in some of his old K developers to due diligence with these guys and find out if they really know what they're doing. It is literally like piecing together a quilt and lightning speed, right? You're just constantly saying, this piece ties to this piece, and how can I get this piece over to that piece? And you literally are just figuring it out in real time all the time.

Mike:

I would venture to say, just, just for people who are listening from a high level, I think in the beginning you probably put yourself out there and was telling people like what you're doing, what, what your plans are, what your business is. then from there you started to get, know, the universe was like, oh, this is what you wanna do, this is what you're focused on. So we're gonna start bringing in those people who can help you out. And then you are able to realize, and people were able to reach out to you to say, oh, you're doing this well, I know someone who can help you out with this. And you put yourself out there, so then the community was able to come and provide you with, with some, resources, and from there you were able to network with people.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Oh my God. Yeah. Again, the fundraising process is exhausting. I've got a spreadsheet of over 150 people that I've met with. And I think my capitalization table, the number of people that have actually invested in the company is probably less than 15, 12 people. So I'd say, the, number of times that I've no, but let me introduce you to somebody else.

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

That's how this all happens, right? It's I. You're never gonna get it unless you ask for it, but you're gonna be hearing no much more than you're hearing. Yes. So it's just, is the Winston Churchill quote? Success is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. what this process is like. You

Mike:

Yeah,

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

are dusting yourself off 151 times the time.

Mike:

exactly.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah.

Mike:

And I see that, I'm sorry, one second kid. I see that you're, you have a strong social media presence as well, so that's another way that you're letting people know, like, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing. And I'm sure from that as well. Like some people you've probably met, some people, have some connections, gotten some leads, in order to help you out with your business. So I say all of that because a lot of people are trying to start their business, but no one knows. No one knows. No one knows about it. And the easiest way in the freeway to let everybody know what you're doing is through social media. if you're not using social media people. Get on there, use it, let people know what you're doing, and you'll be surprised at the number of people who will, reach out to you and offer advice and help.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, I, every time I do a talk, I end the talk with telling people that I'm very easy to find on the internet. I like to say that I am vaguely professional on LinkedIn. I'm mostly authentic on Instagram, and I am completely unhinged on Facebook. So buyer beware,

CJ:

I can attest to that.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

right? Whatever version of me you want, you could follow me on any of those channels.

Ken:

So, us. Why you started a tech company. and then if you can transition into, because I, I was looking at the website and you used some very relevant terms, big data, ai, and if you can talk about how those are not just impacting your company, but impacting, the, the people that you serve.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. So I, I started this tech company because I found that this was the way that I was gonna be able to help the most people, as a single individual. So rather than building another clinic and only being able to touch as many people as I, I could, with the number of employees that I might have, or the number of slots I might have with a technology like this, I'm building a solution that can scale across thousands of people. The software is a way that I can translate my 25 years of practitioner experience into what I like to think of as digital bumper rails for other practitioners, right? I've built out how I think about bringing somebody into care and. Developing a treatment plan and a treatment pathway for them so that the user is basically sitting inside of my brain. So we've had a 500% increase in providers like me in the last 10 years in my field, and over half of the field has less than three years of experience that's startling. Can you imagine if half of the oncologists in the United States had less than three years of experience? And part of the problem. Is also that I can get a hundred of these providers into a room together and say, how are you? And put one kid with autism in front of them and say, how are you going to approach care for this person? And they will all have completely different approaches. And most of the reason they do it that way is because that's how they've always done it. It's not necessarily based on data, it's not necessarily based on the most up-to-date literature. It's just that's how they learn to do it. And so that's how they continue to do it. so the software is a way of, getting them digital bumper rails so that they can reduce the amount of information that they need to think about. But it's still based on data. And so what we're seeing now, I like to tell this story in 1999 when the rate of diagnosis for autism was one, 1000 individuals, 3% of Americans had just logged onto something called the worldwide web. Okay. And five years later, in 2000, the rate of diagnosis with historical data looking back was then one in every 150 individuals. And also in 2000, 80% of Americans had now downloaded music live, Limewire, Napster, right? So look at the rate of adoption of that technology in that five-year period and how it changed awareness and the rate of diagnosis of autism. We are at that similar inflection point right now in technology, again with ai, right? we basically operate in the world will look completely different in five years from now based on this new technology and the rate of adoption of that technology and how it's happening right now. And so we're seeing all kinds of new innovation, not just in healthcare, but in data and information in general, I like to tell this story as well to, to of extrapolate this idea. I met a founder in New York who has developed a solution that is able to, identify individuals that will be diagnosed with Parkinson's disorder six years ahead of time on claims data alone, right? That's the power of big data

Mike:

That's crazy.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

intelligence is being able to munge incredible amounts of data sets be able to make predictions that human brains can't do quickly, With that amount of information. And so that's what I'm hoping to also be able to do with this solution, with this care navigation module through Noetic. And bringing people, bringing all these kids, all these patients into a dataset in a very structured fashion. ultimately what I want to understand is who are all these very different types of people with autism? I don't know how much you guys know about this, but autism is a spectrum and it can go anywhere from profoundly affected individuals that will need 24 7 care for the rest of their lives, that may, engage in all kinds of aggression or self-injurious behavior, and may not be able to communicate their wants needs. the way to the other end of the spectrum where you've got people that used to be diagnosed with quote unquote Asperger's Syndrome, who are now just lumped under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder. And these are folks that have jobs, have spouses, they just might get called into HR on a regular basis'cause they're perceived as being rude. And so what I'm really hoping to understand with a big data set of individuals with autism, A DHD and these other neurodivergent conditions, are types of individuals do well with what types of supports and what types of environments with what types of providers and what types of outcomes can we reasonably expect to get with those individuals, given those variables, right? that, that's the power of big data and artificial intelligence and technology, is that we're gonna be able to better understand personalized medicine.

Ken:

Is there a thought that this. Level of data is going to lend itself to, research. So will, there'll be like, will, you'll be sharing this data with, researchers, with insurance companies, you know, with medical providers, to, you know, I think assist in the, early diagnosis, right? Is that kind of the thought in your head right now? I.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. One of the big topics within applied behavior analysis, is this notion of intensity. and I mentioned this earlier on, the early intensive. A BA programs for young children with, moderate to profound autism has been predicated on 30 to 40 hours a week of one-on-one teaching therapy, with these kids from ages two to six years old. Not every kid with autism, even in ages two to six years old, may need 30 or 40 hours a week of therapy, right? There are some kids that might do well with 10 hours a week of therapy. There are some kids that might do well with a consultative model of therapy. Sorry, I've got two kittens in the background that are absolutely demolishing everything in this room right now, including they just took my light out. So hold on one second son fact, the kitten's names are, Schrodinger and Thorndyke. Thorndyke was the behavioral psychologist that did experiments with cats. And Schrodinger is Schrodinger's cat. Is he in the boxing? Not in the box as he et her alive son with my name. So they're nicknames are Dinger and Dyke. So just appreciate that while you're at it. Okay. What the hell was I talking about? Somebody

Ken:

You're gonna utilize the, the big data for research and, you know, utilization with, providers and insurance companies.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. Yeah. So the intensity, this is what we were talking about. So number of hours per week, that's a big question. Insurance companies have lots of questions for provider groups about how did you come up with the number hours per week that you're going to serve this kid? There are agencies out there that just blanketly say, every two to 6-year-old, will automatically get 40 hours a week. And that's not a clinical decision, that's an operational decision. And. Insurance companies wanna know what they're paying for and rightfully right? and so I always like to say that, it is supposed to be, if you think of a three-legged stool, it's supposed to be in the best interest of all three parties, the payer, the provider, and the patient. have the best possible outcomes clinically for the shortest amount of time in treatment, at the best reimbursement rate, right? That's a concept called value-based care, right? Like value being the amount of money that we're spending for the outcomes that we should predict. And you can't get there unless you have a transparent process about how you're arriving at your clinical decisions, right? And so I'm hoping that the software is also a way to get all three of those parties at the table together to understand that it's on all three parties, best interest to have those outcomes in that fashion, right?

Mike:

So I have a question. Going back to, how you were mentioning like everyone has a different background, so there's not just two sides to every story. You also have to look layer as to like what's, influenced, influencing their behavior. Can you speak on how, if, if I'm starting a business and I'm managing people and a situation comes up, how should I, what should I do? Should I take a step back and ask certain questions like, how do I use this type of approach to better manage my team not just, you know, make haste decisions?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. Again, I, we all walk around with bias, right? And so it's important to understand that we are all operating through our own lived experience. My data set is completely different than your data set and the next person. And the next person and the next person, right? So you do have to take a step back and say, what are my assumptions that I'm operating from here? And are they true? Is that true? And so yeah, thinking of people as intersectional human beings, again, you are not just your race, you're not just your gender, your sex, your religion, your socioeconomic background. You are not, your education level. It's your intersectional, you're all of those things. It's not binary. And so you've gotta find a way have a conversation with the person so that you can match your data sets enough that you would reasonably arrive at the same conclusions together, right? I think it's just, it's unpacking your assumptions and your bias and saying, what is the actual truth in this situation here? Feelings aren't facts,

Mike:

yeah, exactly. And, and you could correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like a lot of times it's more of a cultural thing that people are just not used to. I had a coworker, she's from Ukraine. I. And she is very, like with her accent and everything, she is very direct when she answers a question. a lot of, my coworkers would just be like, oh, she's so, she's so mean, she's so aggressive, she's so whatever. But I loved her. I freaking loved her. Like she would talk to some, she would talk to the utility provider on the phone and be like, and I'm not gonna try to do her accent, but she'd be like, I need to have this document by tomorrow at 2:00 PM Can you do that? And of course the provider's like, sure, sure, I'll try. And I'm over here giggling'cause I, I know she's the nicest person in the world, but just to hear how she delivers it from her background, that's just how our families spoke to each other. That's how our friends speak to each other. They don't mean it in a mean way when, you know, she's like, up your shirt, you're missing a button. She, in her mind she's just saying like, oh, I don't know if you noticed, but you're a shirt's unbuttoned. But somebody else interpreting that, it's like, who are you to talk to me like that? So I, I think just understanding that, you know, not everyone's, not everyone is binary if I'm saying it right, but there's different levels and you just have to like sometimes take a step back and be like, what are you really saying? What are you really trying to say and not jump to a conclusion?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. The folks on the spectrum, they are extremely direct in a lot of cases, right? God bless'em. They just, they, the filters we all operate under of trying not to offend people and trying to navigate a social situation. Some of the folks in the spectrum don't have it. And it's interesting. It's just interesting. It's they'll say something like, I love your haircut. Did you do it yourself? Just something like that. Yeah. It's like people would go, wait a minute. And, but they really meant it as a compliment, it's

Mike:

Right.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

You gotta, yeah. Different data set, different lived experience, different neurology. All of our brains are a little bit different, I like to remind people too, it's like there is no such thing as normal. There's only common and rare.

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Rare is getting less rare because again, with the age of, social media and internet and everybody's sharing their stories all the time, you're finding more and more that people say, oh, I do that too. Oh, I think that too. And so we're finding more and more commonality and I think this notion of. What it is to be in a workplace culture, quote unquote professional. I like to say that it's a Trojan horse for all kinds of gatekeeping and bigotry, right? It's based off of white supremacist, patriarchal systems, right? The notion that your tattoos, your piercings, the way that you talk, the way you dress might be unprofessional, is bullshit. the professionalism is the behavior of the professional. So if the

Mike:

Yep.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

in the room is doing something, then it's probably fucking professional. Sorry about all my cussing by the

CJ:

I love you.

Mike:

No, I agree

CJ:

love you.

Mike:

Yeah, I, I, I'm on board with that a hundred percent.

CJ:

So, I know we're, learn starting to come up on time here shortly, but I wanted to get this out there and I, I wanna switch gears just a minute. You know, considering you are definitely an entrepreneur in the field and, and you are, beating to the beat of your own drum and, and you're, you creating the path for future, entrepreneurs, because you were one of the first in your field to be certified and, and you're kind of leading the path for others, who were some of your, influencers and what role did, your family play in influencing you?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

It's funny. I think it's somewhere in my DDNA to be a entrepreneur. So my was the fourth generation owner operator of Ralston's Drugstore in West and West Virginia, which started in 1856 before West Virginia was even a state. Yeah. And I grew up literally going to the drugstore after school, and he would give me a dollar and I would go next door to the Five and Dime store and get a Mountain Dew and a candy bar and go sit in his office and play on his computer, which was dos at the time, right? Like black screen, green text, Oregon Trail,

Mike:

Right

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

that's where I got

Mike:

run.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

computer stuff. Yeah. my dad was the first pharmacy in West Virginia to computerize, his business. He was also the first pharmacy to had a delivery vehicle. It was called the medicine dropper. I think I just, I didn't realize the influence that probably had on me, but, yeah, the idea that you work for yourself was just ingrained in, in, in my operating system, and I also say this a lot. I think because I. Was different growing up, and am different in the world. It didn't necessarily always feel comfortable to go into our organizations. Somebody else was the boss because I didn't understand the way people were arriving at decisions or making decisions. And so I think you'll find that there are a lot of queer and neurodivergent founders because they want to go make a culture that makes sense to them, right? They're rather sitting at somebody else's table. They're gonna make their own table, right? So influencers, clinically, Vincent Carbon, my original mentor was definitely my biggest influencer. I used to go up to his clinic in, in Nyack, New York, just sit there for days at a time and just. anything I possibly could, copy as much as I could about what he was doing, then put my own spin on it too. I think that's part of the entrepreneurial process as well, is saying, Hey, I see a better way to do this. I don't have to reinvent the wheel, I just have to make the wheel a little bit better. And again, those are, there are just processes about what your intellectual process or property can bring to a better solution. Yeah, of course I've got the Steve Jobs fantasy, right? The, you just go out there and build it and try to figure it out and everything turns out shiny and great. But of course now everybody knows too that Steve Jobs had all kinds of issues, that didn't, weren't so apparent, from the outside for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just a lot of different factors about how I got here.

Mike:

Yeah, I hear that your, your mom was one of your major influencers as well. I'm a little birdie.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Oh, how chris? What,

Mike:

Oh, is that,

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

What

Mike:

It says one of the topics, it's, it's on the sheet.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

really

CJ:

Yeah, you had that listed. That's kind what I was getting at.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

I say? Shit, what did I say about it?

Mike:

Yeah, we had two things. One of them was, about your newest innovation. Is it? No noic, am I?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Noetic.

Mike:

sorry. Noetic ai. So we were gonna, CJ I think was gonna ask about that, but the other one where I think he was hinting at, was that one of your influences with your mother how she inspired you.

CJ:

Well, no. On the, on the, the form it said, you had mentioned ask about my mom.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Oh boy. I think I was being tongue in cheek with one of the questions.

Mike:

Oh.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

think I said your, I think I said your mom, not my mom. That's what it was. I was like, what? My mom didn't influence me other than, you know me constantly trying to outdo the critic in my head. Yeah. No,

Mike:

over here trying to like give hints, decipher the notes. Like your influencer, who was your, your mom.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

your mom. I was your mom. I was being a total smart ass.

Mike:

Got it. Got it. Well, let's go back to the other one then. Tell us about Noetic ai.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. So NOIC is the product, of non-binary solutions. So that is the software that we have built. And so it's got three major modules right now. The first one is that care navigation module. It's, clinical decision support system that allows you to bring all of your patients into your care in a very structured, manner. And then it writes, a report for you based on how you answer all the questions within that. So it builds out a profile of the patient that then goes into that patient data set. That's the second module is called a gold development module. And what that is, again, is an interview based process. Me as the clinician user is typing as I'm asking the family or the patient questions, and I'm tying, quality of life outcomes to medical necessity. So is to solve for something that frequently happens within our field right now, which is, families will come into a provider's office and they'll say, look, my 8-year-old son still isn't toilet trained and he only eats five things and we can't go to church anymore because he runs out in the parking lot. then the provider says, okay, great, we'll come, we'll go do this assessment and here's your treatment plan. And lo and behold, the assessments that they do and the treatment plan that they come up with does not directly assess those three things that the family just told you are affecting their quality of life. I. And so the goal development module is designed to reverse that situation such that you actually are making a treatment plan that's gonna address the things that actually would be a socially valid, meaningful quality of life outcome for the families. And then the third module is, an intensity forecast. So an algorithm that I built based off of my experience and treatment guidelines that predicts, we think that this is about how many hours this person might need in order to meet those outcomes based on everything you told us. To say that, the noetic.ai software is like a clinical Rubik's cube that I built for other people so that they can get to those, decision making skills faster and within clinical guidelines. Fact, again, first time somebody gets a Rubik's cube, and tries to solve it, it takes them an average of four hours. With time and practice and learning algorithms, speed, cubers can do it in less than five seconds, right? And so that's the notion of this software as an, as a Rubik's cube, is that it helps the users get there much faster than what they might be able to do as novel, clinicians.

CJ:

Now is this software, only available to clinicians or is this available to the public? Is this like And operating now or your in testing phase? Okay.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, currently it's available to clinician users. We are also starting a parent pilot, so I'm providing some free, web-based consultation, and designed to use that care navigation module to get some feedback from parents directly. But yeah, we're a pretty small organization still, so we're not at scale for the masses just yet. But, definitely follow along and keep up with what we're doing.

CJ:

And I mean, this is, this is off the base of, of, the rest of our talk with entrepreneurship. But being that you are a leader in the field, a parent that you know is noticing issues with a child, what would you, suggest be one of the, I guess one of a few of the first steps that they take in getting the diagnosis and, and, you know, helping a child.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, again, there's waiting lists

CJ:

Right.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

To get diagnoses at this point. And so you might start the conversation with your primary care physician. If the child is in school, you might talk to them about doing an assessment, an educational assessment for a 5 0 4 plan. That's not a medical diagnosis, but it might get some supports in place, with your primary care physician or a psychologist, licensed clinical social worker. They could potentially use something called an mcha, which, is a assessment tool that might, help make an evaluation as the likelihood that the person might achieve a diagnosis of autism or an A DDoS, a DOS assessment. Same thing. yeah, I think I. Those are the starting points. Depending on your geographic location, your ability to access care is going to be quite different. People in Appalachia here and Kentucky have very different, waiting lists, access to care problem than folks here in Lexington, Louisville, and the larger cities. I, my heart goes out to families that are trying to navigate all of this because there's just not enough providers.

Mike:

Okay. I've appreciated this talk and conversation. I've learned a lot, I don't know how to easily transition to the next section, but, I mean, I'm sorry, Ken or C do you guys have any more questions before we go onto the, there a little speed round that we always do.

CJ:

Yeah. The only question I have is, and I think you touched on it a little bit already, can you give our, our viewers and our listeners, you know, again, information on how to, to get in touch with you and how to, view your AI app?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah. Again, folks can follow me on the internet. I'm very easy to find. There's amanda ralston.com. There's non-binary solutions.com, and the product itself is noetic.ai. So that's K-N-O-W-E-T iic.ai. Yeah, find me on social media. Very easy to find me there. And yeah, the software's available for clinicians at this time, but there will be a patient or parent pilot program that we're gonna be opening up at some point in the near future.

Mike:

Okay. Well we've, we've come to that point where, we do this at the end of every show. We have what we call a little lightning round. Don't think we have the sound effects yet, but in season two we're gonna have, we're gonna have a little horn that goes

CJ:

Lord, people have been hearing about this sound effect for, what, 12 episodes now?

Mike:

Well, one, one of these days we're gonna, we're gonna have it, ready to go. So,

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

an app that you can use on your phone to do it. Just FYI,

Mike:

is, we just haven't figured out how to like, tie it into the, to the, the show yet, but

CJ:

Yeah. We,

Mike:

it out until the,

CJ:

we may need your tech guy to give us some,

Mike:

What,

CJ:

heads up information.

Mike:

what'd you say?

CJ:

I said we may need her tech guy to give us some, some, some pointers.

Mike:

yeah, we mean we need something. That's not the only thing we need help with, but, in any case, CJ's gonna ask you, I think five questions or so. I'm gonna start a timer. You have one minute to answer all five questions and then, yeah, we'll, we'll go into the last thing before we end the show. All good?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

All right.

Mike:

All

CJ:

All right. And,

Mike:

start the timer after, after the first

CJ:

well before we begin, there is a bonus question also, and you'll understand why when I get to it,

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Okay.

CJ:

and I guess you'll start the clock after I ask the first question. All right. First question, track or basketball?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Basketball,

CJ:

Chicago slash Detroit House or EDM

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Chicago house.

CJ:

favorite UK basketball legend.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Oof. I need Skywalker.

CJ:

And I know you do a lot of, of, speaking, do you prefer West Coast or East Coast trips? Which do you enjoy more being in the boardroom or public speaking?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Public speaking, no question.

CJ:

And the last question I have is UK or U of L.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

UK.

CJ:

Good answer.

Mike:

Nice and great job. And I'm gonna add in there like after I, and it's not a question, I don't know why I said add in there. After I looked at your, social media, you are a little fashionista. Like she, I don't know if y'all know this, but she, she's a model up, up there showing off everything

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah,

Mike:

great.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

fun. Yeah. Speaking of uk, my, the photographer that does all my photo shoots, is a buddy of mine. His name is Chet White, and he is the director of photography for the University of Kentucky Athletic Department. So he gets to photograph

CJ:

Ah, that explains it.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

stars and

Mike:

Hmm.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

He gets to travel with all the, he does amazing work. And yeah, for the last couple of years he and I have gotten together basically like once a quarter or once every four or five months and done a different photo shoot. And, it's, it, we have a very good synergy. Like I can pull lots of different faces of pretty animated. I've got lots of ideas about how I wanna look and what I wanna portray. I think one of the last shoots we did, I did every single one of the emoji faces myself, and we took all the shots that way. And so now I've got like a full set of stickers in my phone that is literally

Mike:

Hilarious.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

out all the emojis.

CJ:

Nice.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah, it's a jungle in here. Like I clearly, I'm a creative output person, right?

CJ:

Yeah, I,

Mike:

I love it.

CJ:

I think a lot of your photos I've noticed you have like, you know, a very standout blazer or you play with colors in your glasses.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

yeah. Yeah. The, I, when I went to the Autism Investor Summit, in 2023, when I got that award, like day one, I walked into the conference area and some guy walks up to me and goes, you are the most recognizable person from LinkedIn in this room. I was like, good. It's working right. I got a brand.

Mike:

Perfect. Going back to the, being on social media, letting people know what you do.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Or at least get curious, right? I,

Mike:

Exactly.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Yeah.

Mike:

Nice. All right, well the last thing we're gonna do is, we're gonna do Wakanda peace, pause. It's a little thing I made up. My head also, there's also weird things that go on in there, but, what we're gonna do is that, we're just gonna do a little pose at the end. Hold it for a few seconds, and then I'm just gonna use that to clip out a picture, later down the road at some point. I have nine episodes worth and I still haven't posted one, but one of these days they're gonna get up there. But any, in any case, I'm gonna count to three and we're just gonna go like this, smile at the camera and just hold it for a few seconds. Cool. All right. two, and three. And good. Cool. Well, that's it. Well, I appreciate you. This has been great. Very informative fun.

Ken:

Great job.

CJ:

Thank you for spending your Saturday morning with us.

Mike:

Yeah.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

Hey, I've had worse. I.

Mike:

I love it.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

been super fun. You guys are awesome and all of you have great voices by the way, too,

Mike:

Yeah. Well,

CJ:

Thanks.

Mike:

Thank you.

Ken:

Thank you.

Mike:

that. Because CJ's always the one getting on his

Ken:

Yeah,

Mike:

ever says like, Mike, you sound great, Ken. You sound great. They're always like, CJ has such a great DJ voice. You sound so good on the microphone. like, okay, okay, okay.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

he does sound good. But yeah, you

Ken:

it is true.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston:

voices,

Ken:

it is

CJ:

Well look, you all be my agent and get me out there then

Mike:

Listen, I already told you how to get out there. You, you

CJ:

You did.

Mike:

you start, you start posting online, doing some, some vocal things. Let people know what you're doing and somebody will pick you up. You, you got the voice for it.

CJ:

Yep.

Mike:

have to show your face. Just read something.

CJ:

I'm fine with that.

Mike:

Read the back of a cereal box and get a

CJ:

Look, as soon as Sesame Street calls, I'm there.

Mike:

Okay. I mean, I wouldn't be mad at that actually. I'd go on Sesame Street. I'm sure they pay real good. I think Netflix just picked them

CJ:

They did

Mike:

be fine.

CJ:

see the Netflix or Hulu. I.

Mike:

Just, I think it's Netflix. It's Netflix,

CJ:

Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share, drop a comment, and leave a review. We're building bridges, one story, one mindset, one move at a time. Show our guest some love by checking out their socials too. Until next time, keep pushing, keep growing and keep walking in your purpose.

People on this episode

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Mike Lovett

Host
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Chris Johnson

Co-host
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Ken Peak

Co-host