Speech Therapy Disability Advocacy with Hard of Hearing Brand Photographer Taylor A Thomas

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:03

So today on the See Life Different podcast, I have the honor of interviewing Taylor Thomas. She is a disability advocate self love and self care enthusiast, based in Dallas, Texas. She is also a marketing specialist so she helped brands to strategically capture stories with curated content that attract to net and grow their brand. So she works as the marketing professional during the day and looks forward to the day that she can go full time in her photography and graphic business. She's also been hard of hearing since birth and has a speech impairment, and today we're going to talk about that we actually met virtually at a conference called Impact weekend. And we have a lot in common, not only are we both hearing impaired, I know we both photography, but we both just love God, so we're going to talk about that today, welcome to the podcast Taylor.

Taylor Thomas 1:00

Hey, Girl. Glad to be here and it's so fun to have the opportunity to meet you at the Impact weekend so

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:08

it's been amazing. It was so amazing of so many amazing beautiful women that we met.

Taylor Thomas 1:14

Absolutely, absolutely. It was very overwhelming for sure and the fact that they made it, both in person and virtual as it was, it was nice. It was really cool.

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:26

Yeah, I'm glad that I could attend and it's actually going to be even my first actual time attending but it's not going to be my last.

Taylor Thomas 1:34

Amen time here, it was definitely my first time attending our glad I was able to do it virtually my first time but I got my ticket for next year so I'll be going in live I wanted to do VIP, But not, I will have to take the regular ticket for now,

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:51

I know yeah let's just wait and see what what happened. Because, you know, always, always something will show up because you know get to keep on believing because I know like for last, just this past summer they were they're amazing Facebook group with everyone ready to connect before. And so one of them was like She. She. Well, what happened was before the pandemic, everything was interesting anyway. And so, toward the end of 2020 she opened it up for virtual it's always someone got a virtual ticket at the last minute when they really, really wanted VIP in person. And nothing burger but she made it in that room. So you never know, costs. Yeah, so, um, I guess we'll talk about that like talk more about like what you do, let's learn more about that and what you do good technically you've been a creative and a marketer, almost all of your life, so.

Taylor Thomas 2:50

Yeah, so right now I am a marketing strategist for a nonprofit, a global nonprofit here in Dallas, and I just going back I basically went to college and got my Bachelor's in marketing, and then a minor degree in visual arts so I was always heavily into the arts and heavily. Well it was funny because I actually wanted to go to college for graphic design but the school I got accepted in was a private school and my parents, they didn't want to pay private school money so I had to find a public school and unfortunately I was only able to go in. At first, as an actuarial science, because I do love math, but things got really tricky, and I decided to switch over to marketing and I'm glad I did. But I am also very heavily into art because ever since I was little, I danced for a very long time and then I was. I'm also an artist I love to draw, do graphic design, and then my dad, he's actually was a photographer, and he gifted me my first camera and ever since then I love typography So, cuz I forgot that I am hard of hearing and do have bilateral hearing loss ever since I was little when I wasn't very comfortable. I found ways to express with my body and my skill set, though with dancing, you don't necessarily need to speak, thank goodness, So you just watch the movie and you did mimic it and just, you know, just have fun expressing your body that way and you know the art you just use your hands and your mind and bring everything into fruition, though I did use my ability. And, you know, in the best way of expressing me and who I am and found that that's just how I wanted to live creative way so marketing with a great way to be creative, and I decided to to try to keep the creative net going throughout, you know, wherever I go, business wise or personally that's just how I express myself. Ultimately,

Zaakirah Muhammad 5:09

I love that though I love, I love that you mentioned how photography does not necessarily require too much talking. For me it's interesting that you mentioned that because I had to have my ladder here a lot and it would give to the camera I paid you by my mom, we're kind of the photographer, because, um, there's a whole backstory for those who are new to listening to this or watching it, I am a cancer survivor and there was a photograph that my mother took of me that detected my cancer, and so my mom was a photographer and so when she gave me a camera at age of five, like that's it. That was my voice I was a pretty quiet and shy girl for the region of Maine, I hear you I may not understand you. I may not I may get more tired, trying to listen to you so yeah photography with that a marketing became now a way to kind of help others, because we're on the computer all the time we learned about Facebook and MySpace and all these other pages before everybody else so that's definitely super important now here we are on with essential workers. Yeah, about that. So, tell me more about what life was like growing up with the hearing impairment,

Taylor Thomas 6:30

um, At first, it was very frustrating. It was confusing, because, not realizing that I am different, but because it wasn't until I was five when no it was, yeah, four or five but my parents realized that, you know, okay, maybe she needs to go in for a hearing doctor because when I wasn't. When it comes to my speech, I wasn't at the speaking level for my age, and then also, um, they noticed that I don't respond when they reach out to me as you know as a normal kid with so they took me to a hearing doctor and then that's how they found out that I do have pretty severe hearing loss, though I get it, hearing aids and and you know back then we're hearing a there was super big and bulky so it was really hard to ignore. You know, and it was very awkward and plus me I have a birthmark on the left side of my face, and have a birthmark on my left eye. So, being the girl with the blue greenish birthmark, and then happy Bego hearing a diver, it was, I was definitely pointed out a lot as a kid and then not really being able to express my straighting and confusing. And, but thankfully, the school district that I was at they did offer speech therapy. And because my mom being the researcher the hardcore just parent any parent word as far as making sure that their child gets the best of anything that they can excel, he found a school district that help kids of any disability and they have like extra schooling, along with the Asheville spooling make it feels like I get pulled out of class relearning everything that we learned in class, making sure that I understand what's going on and you know they will take their time with me, so I can learn. And the cool part was I did go on to a cool filter but other deaf and hard of hearing kids that I didn't really feel necessarily completely excluded. So it was pretty interesting to really get to meet other kids that are kind of like me, have similar disabilities, but then being put back into the real world and trying to interact with them, so it took a lot of adjusting a lot of meeting different people and a lot of understanding how to build a relationship with everybody. Growing up, it's still a discovery now but it's been an interesting journey, to say the least, asked for sure. Absolutely. Especially

Zaakirah Muhammad 9:23

the part about building relationships and it's so interesting because, you know, my, my listen to them. My watch is made like see this confident exuberant and happy go lucky girl but it took 30 years to build that because, one, like you said we have to overcome the bullying, we have to overcome insecurity or overcome fear like we're not good enough. And, yeah, of course, those little filler chips were amazing. The time, like I've only had a great speech therapy phone, but I think for me, my speech therapist was because of the kind of like that. Even if a connection between the ears and the brain I think I'm making anything, if I'm making 100% Yeah, so that's why we have speech therapy because if we can, when we can hear you, it doesn't rely immediately but then sometimes we don't relate to our mouth and so that's why we have speech therapy, but if we're waiting for a treat therapy I would not have been a almost a public speaker in high school and I would not have definitely been comfortable enough with it. My first Arab country trip was to Costa Rica with a group of students who were deaf, out of him or wanted to learn Thai language. Oh cool. That was an amazing experience. So, what would you say though, I guess I was just talking about hearing impairments speech impairments and speech therapy, what would you say to those who are not sure if their child or family member need to get tested and not sure if their child or family member needs speech therapy.

Taylor Thomas 11:07

I will say, you know, just like with any other doctor appointment, you know, we got to see your primary care physician and you got to see, you know, as we get older our you know, women exam that we do that, you know I just fell in love getting violated every year for that particular reason, but I feel that it's also important to take advantage of going to see an audiologist or to take in some sort of hearing test, because something as simple as doing a hearing test and recognizing that they may not raise their hand for a certain sound I may not be able to repeat that. Know what you're saying, or however that hearing test may go for certain people. You could that detect something almost immediately, and be able to figure out what the issues are, it could be something as simple as having one too many wax in your ear, people wash it out and then you're fine, but then it could be something more severe but the beautiful thing about technology, there's several ways of, you know, improving your hearing with a q&a Is there a tiny in the ear ones I used to have and then I went back to the one that's behind the ears because of even more technology and what they have. Oh, I should say just take advantage of all the doctor's appointment you can. There are even free facility that you can go to in your state, just to see where you stand, whether you're a child or an adult, and just take over precautionary measures you need to take so that you can perform and be at your best and not ever have to feel like something is wrong with you when there's not anything necessarily wrong with you, it just, you could possibly need a solution to something that you just aren't aware of what's

Zaakirah Muhammad 12:51

going on, deathlike you also said we also agreed on, on upgrade we have different abilities, not disabilities.

Taylor Thomas 12:59

Yes, different ability different blessing. And God made it this way, as far as for each of us who have different abilities for a reason, so why not be accepting of that and capitalized on it.

Zaakirah Muhammad 13:13

Absolutely. Now speaking of different abilities, how do you you have different abilities to help other grantees to grow

Taylor Thomas 13:22

well. And the thing is, even though I am hard of hearing, I am probably the best listener, you can ever come across. Because I have to utilize every other senses to pay attention to us but I have to meet your lips I have, I mean, I don't necessarily have to smell you or anything like that but you have any in other senses to make sure that I'm giving you all at my attention because I really hate when I'm not giving you everything, though I can come by, I don't like missing what people are saying and the half day I'm sorry to say that I guess I do try to give you literally all of my attention, so I can capture what you're saying. And the funny thing is, because I do that, people tend to get naturally vulnerable with me and tend to overshare which is not a problem, but I just find that very unique that people to think, feel like they can come to me for anything. And for that, that's where I get the special moments of hearing these beautiful stories of my friends or whomever they speak with who I speak with, and they share like pieces of them that, for whatever reason they may be ashamed of or for whatever reason may not think that is worthy or they just think is stupid, but I'm like no, no, this is amazing. Um, why don't you use this for you know, whenever you're wherever you're applying for your business or for whatever the case may be and then it gets them to think because I tend to take what they share with me and flip it back so that they can tend to add value into the world with the story that I'm being moved by and being compelled by So, because of the fact that people tend to become vulnerable with me, and I just feel like I can help people who feel unseen or don't feel like, oh, yeah, don't feel heard, and just being able to take my different abilities and paint okay well. For instance, with my photography business I absolutely love to take you know my photography and capture them in their action and capture them when they're within their light and capture them as who they are, you know, I'll just talk with them, you know, just, just tell me about that event and why well you know why did they laugh and then when I capture that moment and I show it to them like, oh my gosh I love it. Um, you know, how did you, how were you able to capture that or this isn't what exactly what I was thinking how were you able to do that because you were just being yourself. And it's amazing how much more relatable you are when you are completely yourself. And just to, that's just a simple example of how I use my different ability to help others with their brands essentially.

Zaakirah Muhammad 16:25

And I love the fact that you mentioned that this but we are, however, we are better listeners. That's absolutely true and that actually may or may not also will add in one of my superpowers is intuition like it's not a five, you know senses, but it's a it's a underlying sense that actually pretty high end as well. So even though no we don't smell it but I feel you. I can definitely feel you

Taylor Thomas 16:56

write that and I agree, because that's, I think that was a much better way of saying it, but I do have a sense of, like you say intuition or feeling your vibe like I can feel your energy, and which is very weird but you can just come in my room, comment in my area, and then you can smile on my face. But something feels off I'm like, Okay, what's going on. No, I Well, what do you mean, you know what I mean and then they start breaking down and telling me everything. I just know immediately. Though you're right is definitely intuition, for sure.

Zaakirah Muhammad 17:30

I love that. Now, let's talk about self care. What do you do with that of course you know, we do all this listening all day long. Always talking all day long. Not many people understand just how tiring it is because once again we're using four of us and two because one of them we don't have as strong as the other. And for me, I'm gonna throw away that I get more tired easily. Because limited vision and limited hearing. So what about you, what do you do for self care on the day that you are just tired.

Taylor Thomas 18:07

That, I mean, I'm still, I'm still trying to build self care, to be honest, it's a struggle but I do find that whenever I get back to the root of what I love, which are basically dance, painting, drawing, writing just brain dumping releasing and moving my body and just allowing me to remind myself of what I do, why I love what I do and where it all came from where asked him from when I was a child, I feel like that helps with me mentally, and then also physically because you know we got to keep moving and being in quarantine is hard, you know, I just like to sit on my butt for eight hours and then want to go back to my bed and just, you know, chill and call it a night when we can't keep. That's how we gain all these lovely weight so, but for the most part I feel like that is what I do. Plus, I've definitely gotten more in touch with devotionals. Right now I'm reading the 100 days I believe in bigger by Marshawn Evans. I am not the greatest at praying every single day and I'm not a biblical scholar to where I can just recite Grifters and just be able to pray that perfect prayer so having 100 Day devotional help me understand certain parts of the Bible really understand how to pray certain type of prayer, and really just getting used to knowing what to pray for it because know I can do the Lord, please help me with this. And, you know, and this keep it very general and it's like okay well you can do a lot better if you ask or pray for the right thing so praying the rational actually helped me tremendously. My my perfect with it but I have been pretty consistent and I've noticed a huge change of my mindset with my spirit and just feeling more fulfilled and I absolutely love that, for some reason it even helped me sleep easier, because I would do it right before I go to sleep. I'm going to do it because where, for lack of a better coming up, my dad is actually Catholic so I also like to partake in what his traditions are two, um, and for Atlanta coming up I'm actually doing another devotional and it's like 15 Morning devotional so I'll do your morning devotional and then the evening there was no just so I can really to get in the habit of doing it on the regular so that's kind of what I'm doing so far I know I can do a lot better but that's just where I'm at right now.

Zaakirah Muhammad 21:04

I love it. It is definitely a great start in the right direction. I definitely second that now for me. Basically, they quote it obviously and I think that's also the good thing about honing down and focusing on just you and God we go. I was thought to see the labor quote on Instagram like most people get distracted on internet on third and again, though the mind is on Instagram, so they would one quote that showed up so bad this phase of your life acquired isolation, a phase of your life requires you to literally only you and God know what that vision is, and that's the only way to really execute it and so that actually would have been to me so of course to me growing up, it would literally get my mom, me, my mom and my dad that grew up in the faith of Islam as Muslim and so it's everybody in my family that if you have a religion so of course I bother with that, like, Okay, how do I really still be myself and still say okay, I'm going to pray my way, you know, and so I get that a lot of to berani that I personally loved the affirmation I'm kind of glad you mentioned Marshawn because going back to impact weekend a little bit since that was our coaching coach impact weekend. The first day was all about affirmation, guided meditation and affirmations, and in our little virtual goodie box, we got 30 days of affirmations. I love those. I've been using those, those have been helping me a lot, but I think what's important about affirmations, is kind of similar what you said of like be more specific about what you're playing for, so you can say, I'm gonna try to do this, I hope to do this, I want to do this. It's more like, it's already happening this vision came to you because it got it to happen already,

Taylor Thomas 22:53

so I invest now yeah just speaking as if it already existed. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I

Zaakirah Muhammad 23:01

love that. Okay, this has been an amazing, Amazing compensation. Now if is anything that no one knows got from this conversation. What did one thing you want our listeners, our ladies to take away from

Taylor Thomas 23:18

as far as what they may not know about just me in general, or just

Zaakirah Muhammad 23:25

fit what they don't know about what they don't know.

Taylor Thomas 23:28

Okay, got you. Well, at the end of the day. And I think, where I struggled. I dragged away a bit in the beginning if you don't, you won't know until you start. So, I feel at the end of the day if you have this vision that has been put into your heart by God or you just felt compelled for some idea that you just have, and you don't know where to start, don't know what to do. The beautiful thing is you're not meant to do this alone. There are several of other people who have skills and expertise in every area that you may not know how to run a business or whatever the case may be. It's a matter of connection. Connect with the right people to help propel you to where you're meant to be. Ask the right questions, even a long question to could then that can help you get to the right questions and just go do it. Because when you don't want me to basically won't know until you start and just keep trying, keep failing keep going and I found that ever since the pandemic, that's what helped propel me to keep starting my photography business for real, but 2019 I started it 2020 I basically am growing it and learning, and connecting with my mentor connecting with like minded people from impact weekend and I'm finding that that's basically what I need to continue to grow. So until you start you won't know. And that's basically how when

Zaakirah Muhammad 25:12

I love and I kind of want to add in to keep the momentum going, right. Once we start once you at least started executing our vision, keep it going to be gotta be completed.

Taylor Thomas 25:24

Yes, right. It has to be completed and involved as well, because you know it's not going to ever be done is always going to be evolving, ever, ever evolving so don't think just because you started at one point, it's going to stay at that point, it's going to evolve into something bigger and more amazing, that's for sure.

Zaakirah Muhammad 25:43

And speaking of evolving I love and I'm so excited to be able to almost have a very see first, you know, upload personnel VIP seat and the revolving door I'm so excited for you. So where can people witness, your evolution, where can people find you Where can people work with you and do you have a little offer for our listeners. Yes, so

Taylor Thomas 26:08

of course if you want to follow up, find me on social media you can find I have two social media pages definitely my business is Taylor, a Thomas studio and or love always Taylor, underscore, told on social media, you can always check out my website at Taylor, a Thomas, calm, and if you join my email list you will get a lovely freebie if you want to learn how to successfully have a, you know, successful photo shoot a brand photo shoot, so you know just if you're ever worried about how to go about planning or even what to do when it comes to having a brand photo shoot. Check out that freebie it will literally lay out how to go about and what to do in what you need for a successful brand photo shoot, and would love to connect with you there. Or just check me out and reach out to me on social media, and then we'll definitely take it from there.

Zaakirah Muhammad 27:16

Love it, love it. I know that your bedtime will be like okay let's do it. Listen, I'm here to find me I'm there, love it love it love it so and we'll be intimating that you're located in Dallas, Texas, surrounded by lots of other creators, so any of my listeners who are in the Dallas, Texas, definitely check out Taylor, but of course you'd also virtual as well and we will definitely include all of the links in our show notes, so be sure to check it out on C live definitely calm, and thank you a tailor for being a guest on the podcast.

Taylor Thomas 27:57

Thank you, Zack yours wonderful being here and I really appreciate you having me.