Text us. Share your thoughts. Ask Questions. We would love to hear from you.
Have you ever wondered how it feels to fight for your child, to navigate a system that doesn't understand their needs, and to create a solution when none exist? That's exactly what our guest, Pamela Furr, founder and CEO of Puzzle Box Academy and Kaleidoscope Interventions, did when her son was diagnosed with autism. She embarked on a mission that transformed her son's life and countless other neurodiverse children through her specialized school and innovative curriculum.
We get an authentic look at Pamela's journey, from the moment of her son's diagnosis through the highs and lows of his educational journey to his eventual graduation from Liberty University. We also discuss her inspiring leadership principles, including the importance of full disclosure, transparency, and taking care of her employees. How Pamela leads her team through meditation and finding joy in everyday moments provides a unique perspective on leading with empathy and compassion.
Pamela has also written a book, "Can You Hear Me Now?", a heartfelt account of her experiences as a mother of a neurodiverse child. The story details her struggles, triumphs, and the personal growth that came with them. Pamela's journey of discovery, inspiration, and relentless dedication is a testament to the power of a mother's love and her unyielding belief in her child's potential.
Text us. Share your thoughts. Ask Questions. We would love to hear from you.
Have you ever wondered how it feels to fight for your child, to navigate a system that doesn't understand their needs, and to create a solution when none exist? That's exactly what our guest, Pamela Furr, founder and CEO of Puzzle Box Academy and Kaleidoscope Interventions, did when her son was diagnosed with autism. She embarked on a mission that transformed her son's life and countless other neurodiverse children through her specialized school and innovative curriculum.
We get an authentic look at Pamela's journey, from the moment of her son's diagnosis through the highs and lows of his educational journey to his eventual graduation from Liberty University. We also discuss her inspiring leadership principles, including the importance of full disclosure, transparency, and taking care of her employees. How Pamela leads her team through meditation and finding joy in everyday moments provides a unique perspective on leading with empathy and compassion.
Pamela has also written a book, "Can You Hear Me Now?", a heartfelt account of her experiences as a mother of a neurodiverse child. The story details her struggles, triumphs, and the personal growth that came with them. Pamela's journey of discovery, inspiration, and relentless dedication is a testament to the power of a mother's love and her unyielding belief in her child's potential.
My son was born in August of 2005, a fully functioning, amazing little boy, completely healthy, had no problems, no issues that were apparent at that time, until he turned about one year of age, and that's when I lost my little boy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to First Lead you, a podcast dedicated to building leaders, expanding their capacity, improving their self-awareness through emotional intelligence and developing deeper understanding of selfless leadership.
Speaker 3:Hello American, welcome to First Lead you where we believe selfless leadership is essential. America is suffering a leadership crisis. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the key to developing selfless leaders. Now here is personal growth coach John Ballinger. Mr Ford, Mr Ballinger, how are you, sir?
Speaker 4:I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good, good, Thank you. I never say thank you for asking. Thank you for asking. We could do well with some better manners in America.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:So well, we have a unique topic today, number 24. Number 24. Yep, ali, I can't. It's hard for me to say this. I almost said you should have said it. Who number 24 is?
Speaker 4:I know, but I'm sure it's your favorite driver.
Speaker 3:It's absolutely not my favorite driver, he's my anti-favorite driver. I'll say it's Jeff Gordon. I'll say that real quick, come on with it. Yeah, he was. If you're an Earnhardt fan and you understood how Earnhardt's persona was, persona what? And then Jeff Gordon enters the sport with this you know, wavy brown hair and cools, cucumber kind of GQ look and all that they're like that dude's never pulled a motor out of a car in his life and busted his knuckles on a cold winter day.
Speaker 3:And. But you know that was beginning of the transition of NASCAR from moonshine drivers and guys that worked on their cars all week to be able to race on the weekends and things like that, to computers and engineers and just all kind of things that happened. That evolved NASCAR into where it's at today. So Jeff Gordon ushered in a new NASCAR for the NASCAR fans.
Speaker 4:Number 24, which is good because we're about to this is 24. Obviously, next one will be 25, which is another milestone in kind of podcast producing. So we're we're hitting some different milestones as well as we hit these different milestones in the NASCAR world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's we talked about today. You hate it when I get on my tractor.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's over the weekend when you're out riding the tractor.
Speaker 3:Cause I started thinking about topics and things like that. So we've got, I believe, some good content coming up in the next, next 25 podcasts that we'll be doing. We'll make 25 special. May go a little bit long, but I think it's important, but it's been. It's been quick to get to 25.
Speaker 4:And long, quick and long. It seems like it's taken us a lot of effort to get here.
Speaker 3:It is, and you get a pattern or rhythm and you know things like that. But we've been blessed at this point to be closing in on number 25. So tell us who our guest is today.
Speaker 4:Today we're going to be talking to the founder and CEO of Puzzle Box Academy, which is a school located in Florida. The CEO's name is Pamela Furr and she started Puzzle Box Academy because she has a son that has autism and at the time that he was diagnosed there wasn't really a lot of resources available that really understood how to deal with those issues, and so she put her job, started the school. I mean, it's a very inspirational story. She is a go getter, I mean, obviously, and very inspirational story, so I think the listeners will enjoy hearing her story. It's not our typical leadership story, but actually she was part of our broadcast, part of our podcast, because we met her operations director at the Hill conference. So we've a lot of connections, are still helping us reach and connect with people from there, but she has a very inspirational story and I think people really enjoy listening to her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember the interview and she seems like a don't tell me, I can't do something type person.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, she says that early in the podcast, I mean in the interview. You'll hear that she's definitely a go getter.
Speaker 3:So we hope the audience enjoys listening to Pamela Furr and I want to leave the audience with this going into it and this is a. I tell people they need to do two things every year if at all possible. And they need to go into school and just sit in the front lobby of a school and just watch what happens in the school. You can sit there for two hours, do an elementary school, one year a middle school and a high school, but it puts a lot in perspective about what teachers have to go through in the state of kids today and what they're dealing with. And the other is to do a court call on a Tuesday morning in your county just to find out what happens in the court systems. And what you start seeing is the quicker we can get to those kids and teach them and mold them into what we need to be, the less we're going to have to deal with that court those years later.
Speaker 3:And I just I like going in now because it keeps me perspective of the importance of education, what teachers have to do and if they do it well and we set the system up for those children, they're less likely to get inside the system and not see them in the courtroom. So I want, I want to leave them with this, with a. An educator told me this it's not if you're smart, it's how you're smart. And I think Pamela is going to take down a journey of her son who I guess, for all intents and purposes, they just like he's autistic and so tough luck for him and she's going to take you on a journey that tell you something amazing about what the school and the curriculum and the process they've been in place and what it's able to do for not just him but the other kids in that school.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. Here's Pamela Furr with the Puzzle Box Academy. Well, today we're pleased to have Pamela Furr with us. She's also known as Puzzlebox Pam because she's the founder, CEO and CFO of Puzzlebox Academy and Kaleidoscope Interventions, and they are known in the world for specialized education programs integrating science-based approaches to support neurodiverse children from ages three to seventeen. Pamela, welcome to First Lead you.
Speaker 1:Oh well, thank you so much. I'm honored to be able to speak to your audience and to both of you this afternoon, especially on something that's so dear to my heart.
Speaker 4:What inspired you to start Puzzlebox Academy and Kaleidoscope Interventions.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny, this past weekend, on the 13th of August, my inspiration turned eighteen years old. So my North Star, the guiding light of everything that I have been doing with Puzzlebox and the neurodiverse community, all goes back to my own son. My son was born in August of 2005, a fully functioning, amazing little boy, completely healthy, had no problems, no issues that were apparent at that time until he turned about one year of age. And that's when I lost my little boy. I lost eye contact, I lost speech. It was like having a night and day. It was almost some of those grim fairy tales that you read and talking about the changelings, like somebody has switched my kid. What's going on, what's happened? And that was my introduction to the world of autism. Since then I have been almost as crazy as Jenny McCarthy has been banging the drum and letting people know that there's nothing wrong with these children. They are vibrating at a different frequency, they are learning at a different way, and we just need to learn how to pinpoint their learning methodologies and how to get into that window so that they look at us as the person that's bringing them information. A lot of these children are just in their own little secluded world and it's our job as the adults to figure out how do I get down to them so that they can help me get into their world. So my son is my inspiration, he's my guiding light. I'm an alpha female. I don't take no for an answer.
Speaker 1:And when my son was diagnosed and I was told there was no cure and there's no causality, well, I couldn't accept that. So I started on my mission to find out OK, well, what do I do as a mama? He didn't ask for this. What do I need to do? How do I fix this? How do I make this better? And consequently, after about a three hour IEP meeting, which is an individualized education plan that the public school puts all of our parents through and our children through when there's a child that has learning differences, I sat in my car and I cried because I felt like I'd left my son down. I had let all of the therapies that we'd been putting into place down and I had the public school and this wonderful board of directors tell me what they thought was best for my child. Well, that just gave me enough gasoline on the fire to tell all the parents, and especially parents listening today trust your mama, your daddy gut. Go with that, because you know your child better than anyone else.
Speaker 1:Well, after sitting there in my car crying, that's where Puzzle Box Academy, the vision, the mission, started, because I wasn't going to allow that to happen to any other parent. And now, 10 years later, we have three campuses all up and down the east coast of Florida. We're doing a learning lab where we're going into public school systems and helping teachers learn what classroom management is and how to truly have an inclusion classroom where our neurodiverse learners are right there with the neurotypical learners fighting the fight side by side. So I hate to give you 1200 words for a little. What's your inspiration? My kid, my kid, my kid, and making sure that every family out there knows their rights and that they have a voice. And if their child doesn't have a voice, well, let me show you how to speak up for them.
Speaker 4:Well, that's awesome. So you said your son just turned 18. So I'm going to just guess that he was a student, obviously at Puzzle Box Academy. So what did that journey look like for him?
Speaker 1:It was funny. My son and we're in a divorced family. Like 82% of all parents of special needs children, it hits the family the hardest because of the stressors not only the financial but the mental stress of having a child, the thinking of what did I do wrong? What could I have done, all learning that there's nothing that's wrong. Your child is just learning a little bit different. These are the things that we have to look at as parents. These are the things that ground us, that pull us back into it. Is that okay, all right? How do I keep pushing? How do I do this for my child?
Speaker 1:Well, my son, because being in a split family, was not permitted to even attend my school until sixth grade. He was in the public school system. It took an actual physical bullying situation that happened for my son's biological father to say okay, I see it, enough is enough, because he, like many dads, didn't want to label on his child. So that's something that we see a lot, especially in our school. By the time the parents actually get to us, they've been so beat up by the public school system or should I say disappointed in the system, let down because, as parents and I'm a public school education mama. Even that I had faith.
Speaker 1:I believed in the public school system, and that's what happens with a lot of our families even today. They're believing in the system, but the systems broke. It's letting down our children. Consequently, it's letting down our families. So that issue happened with my son. We moved him directly into Puzzlebox. He stayed with Puzzlebox from sixth grade all the way until graduation, which just happened this past May. But he is also dual enrolled in our affiliate program with Liberty University out of Blacksburg, virginia. So not only did my son, who didn't speak until he was almost six years old, graduate with a typical diploma, he's also graduating next May from Liberty University with his associates in psychology.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, it's a lot of hard work but, man, it pays off, and that's what I need these parents to know. What you are going through right now is only a storm. Just get through the storm, because there's a rainbow on that other side. Sometimes the storm lasts five hours, sometimes it's an hour. You're here in wonderful Florida, we rain every day, but it's only a moment and you're only caught in that moment. And what you're going to see today in your child, a year from now, two years from now, is not even going to be the same kid. So my goal again just give people faith and hope to have the strength to get through the storm.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's important. I mean, knowing that there is some light right at the end of the storm is key to keep you persevering through it.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely Absolutely, and a lot of times we trust the providers, the doctors or gods in the world of parents of newborns. Whatever that physician tells you to do, as parents we're like, okay, what else do we need to do, doc? Yes, sir, yes, sir. Well, I'm in a different generation. We didn't have Dr Google easily accessible. Now parents have the plethora of information and sometimes it's misleading.
Speaker 1:It's scary out there because, just like we've seen in election times, there's new sources you never know. Well, this is our children we're talking about. So how do we get to the source of information? Why it's important? Because every child is different. So every story you're going to read is going to be a little different. So I'm honing in on all of our parents out there to let them all know that our children are just learning in a different manner. So we've got to learn how to get to them.
Speaker 1:One thing at Puzzle Box even when we're hiring teachers if you can't talk Pokemon or Super Mario Kart, you can't be hired in my schools, because you've got to be able to relate to our children. Some kids are going to learn how to take and do math by playing music, and that's okay. Some kids are going to learn how to do a signature or sign their name by starting with art so that we can build up the muscles in their hand. But it's finding what that niche is for that child and then expanding on it, and that's what we've done at Puzzle Box. We're also a year-round school so we don't have the summer back lag. We also have our parents that don't have to worry about oh my gosh, where's little Johnny and Sally going to go during the summer?
Speaker 1:We've taken those things that parents are concerned and worried about off of their plates, because my biggest goal was, if you have ever heard, like the Cancer Centers of America. They saw the distress that cancer patients were going through and they tried to put all of the specialists under one roof. You've got your oncologist there, you've got your dietitians there, your radiologist there, you've got your regular homeopath doctors along with your regular doctors. That is the part of what Puzzle Box was founded with. We wanted a one-stop shop that our parents could go and understand that their children were going to be safe, even though Johnny couldn't tell you what he did that day. You could watch the cameras, you could watch the video and know that your child was in a safe, loving environment and protect it, but at the same time with a custom built curriculum just for that child.
Speaker 4:That's great. I was. When we talked earlier to Dr Rodriguez. I told him I just finished reading a book called the end of average and it talked about this idea of the public school system and traditional school system moving kind of incrementally toward this individualized educational programs and planning. And I told him you guys are way ahead of the curve on that with what you're doing, so congratulations on that. I think you're certainly leading the way when it comes to figuring out how to teach students on an individual basis.
Speaker 1:Well, we need to. I just did a conference in Las Vegas about two months ago and the entire MyKeno presentation was talking about rebooting the public education system. We're still teaching our children in an anodated system from the early 1900s. We don't need robots, we don't need manufacturer workers, we need free thinkers, and right now, our public school system is teaching children memorization rather than fluency. We need to teach our children how to learn, not how to memorize, and that is the biggest problem with the public school system we are teaching children to memorize and not how to function.
Speaker 4:No, you're, I would agree with that. Having two children, one that just finished the public school system and another that's in the public school system, some of the teaching methods that they use creates a lot of anxiety in the on the learning process. So I appreciate your, your approach on that and stance on that, for sure.
Speaker 1:No problem, I appreciate the feedback. Like I said, you know, we we've seen a. I've helped now over 1500 families in Brevard County and through North America. We have families that have flown in from South Africa, from Puerto Rico. I have got families from China that we are really trying to make a difference in its just by giving knowledge. You know it shouldn't be. You got to know the secret sauce. These children didn't ask for this coming into this wonderful world, though, that we have right now. So there shouldn't be only the few who know about these therapeutic services or these learning methodologies. Our job is to make sure that all parents, all educators, have the tools and resources to give the best advantage to our kids coming up because, like we always hear, there are future.
Speaker 1:Absolutely my concern right now is when I talk to some of the junior high, senior high kids and I'm like hey, guys, so do you know where bread comes from? Oh, yes, it's Publix. I'm like, no, no, no, well, where's a Publix truck getting it from? Oh, yeah, you know from the warehouse. Okay, so what happens if there's no Publix? And then we get the look like oh, I don't know. It's like, well, do you really know how bread is made through the wheat process, could you make homemade bread?
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things we go through and we do hands on learning. We watch the yeast rise, we understand the chemical compounds within the yeast and that's a science lesson, all at the same time by teaching them true living skills. Same thing with changing attire. You know these are things that the public school system used to enhance, called the enrichment programs, but with budget cuts that's all gone to the side, not a puzzle box, and it shouldn't be in our public school system either. So I'm just very advocate on it because the federal dollars that our students get in their scholarship program is less than the average federal income that's given to every student in the public school system that I am paying my teachers and staff better than the public school system. My student to classroom ratio with our teachers is a seven to one. Our junior senior high is 10 to one and our early intervention is one to one to three to one.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing so how is it that a private school can do this? We can afford to do it, but yet our federal dollars? They're just being misused because our public school system has the economics in order to support the same type of methodology. We just need to have the right people in charge of our federal dollars in the school system.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, absolutely Well. You've created, painted, I think, a really good picture for our audience and as I'm sitting here listening, it's like this is quite the vision that you had when you started this. And so I mean I'm guessing you probably have some educational background and just wondering like well, how did you actually get all this started?
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. My first career in life prior to being blessed with my son is I was a corporate negotiator for at the healthcare. For many years I worked for a small company that had actually they were the first company to design a proprietary, usual and customary fee cut for hospital bills. So I'm a licensed agent and adjuster. I have been since I was 19 and I'm 47 wonderful years old this year, so I've been doing the insurance bit for a very long time.
Speaker 1:When my son got sick, I ended up taking him going into the mortgage field so that I could have the flexibility of working from home. So the insurance background, backed on top of that, is the finance. And then when we started it was going to be I was going to open up an early intervention center. Well, I was like, okay, so what do I need in order to homeschool my child? Because if the public school system is going to let him down, what do I need to do? Talk to me about this homeschool product. So I went back to school and got my degree in elementary education on top, and then I started banging the doors. That was like, okay, now I understand the educational side point. I understand this component of it. How do I open up an early intervention center like the ones that I have gone through with my son and that ended up knocking on every fundraiser that you could do, every angel investor, and they all told me the same thing Well, once you get this project going, come back to us and talk to us. Once you get it started, come back.
Speaker 1:So I mortgaged my house, I maxed my credit cards and I was on a mission. I was going to get this thing happening and we did a business plan. The business plan was amazing. So my partner at the time talked to a developer and a developer gave me the information on the United States EB-5 project. So, consequently, when the private equity gatekeepers around me wanted me to first prove this project was not just a concept, that it could actually happen, the international community came in and partnered with me. So our Puzzle Box project is an $8.5 million EB-5 project.
Speaker 1:So I have got 11 international investors that have helped me opening up what is now my three campuses here in Brevard County. So I am blessed to have some amazing investors supporting me in the mission of giving all of our kids that learn differently ahead up. You know what can we do to give these kids the best opportunity and they saw the mission and they jumped on it. So we are now we've got some property here in the era of Florida that we're about to build our boarding day school that will allow us to actually board family members from age 3 to 13 to come over, spend a year here with us on site and learn how to effectively communicate and teach your child once they're diagnosed. Then we also are having a program that for ages 13 up to 23, where the child can actually have a full boarding living school, transitional Academy experience here as well. So it took some work. Not going to lie to you, man, it took some work, it took a lot of credit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm sure it did, but it sounds like, I mean, and it's very interesting how this works but life was preparing you for some of these things even before you knew that you were going to need them, and then you supplemented. Once you understood your mission and where you were going, you supplemented with some things. But that's an incredible journey and I'm sure that there's a book in there somewhere.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. It just got released on July 9.
Speaker 4:Well, we'll talk about that after the break.
Speaker 1:Sounds fabulous.
Speaker 4:Welcome back. We're here today with Pamela Furr, who is the CEO and CFO of Puzzle Box Academy and the Kaleidoscope Intervention Center, and if you've been listening, you've certainly heard a lot of passion so far from Pamela and her mission that she's on to help families who are dealing with life situations that they didn't expect, they didn't ask for, but they have children that are learning differently than other kids, and so she wants to make sure that they know that they have a place to go and can find the resources they need to help them and their children to be successful in what they're doing. And before the break we mentioned that the story about how Pamela created Puzzle Box Academy and the journey she went on and I said there must be a book in there somewhere, and there is. It's called. Can you Hear Me Now? Can you tell us a little bit about that, pamela, and what some of the reasons that you wrote the book and where do you think listeners could best benefit from reading it?
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. The book has been about five years in the making, over my now 18-year journey, and it was funny. It was my executive team that pushed me and prompted me, after talking to parents and the inspiration I tried to give to them by sharing my own story. My son and I both are very open in this book. He's well aware of his autism. He talks to parents, he talks to kids about it. His mission and goal is to help mama retire so that he can then take over the legacy of letting all of these families know that there is hope out there. The book Can you Hear Me Now? Which is available on Amazon, it is a story of hope.
Speaker 1:I walk through the diagnosing. I walk through supplementation, because we used biomedical treatment on my son. I walk through the IEPs, the steps we went through the public school system, my divorce, the pain, the suffering that happens when you have a child that doesn't learn or function in the typical behavior of a toddler, the isolation of losing friends because they were afraid that it was contagious. I know we sit and we laugh now about autism being contagious, but the shame that comes to families when they have a child that is neurodiverse is still present Even in today's day and age. Here we are in 2023, and there is still a stigma that comes with our families when they do not have a child that just learns the same way as others. So we want it to be open, we want it to be honest and, for me especially, I've told my staff, when the time came, that I was going to open up and write a book. It had to be with full honesty. As a mama, I know what it's like when you're sitting at home and, like I say in my book, crying in the bathroom because you don't want your child to see you upset, but you don't know where to turn to. You don't know what to do, and I want it to make sure that other parents, other grandmothers that are raising their grandchildren, grandfathers, dads, more so. There's so many mom groups. I want it, dads, to understand. It's okay, johnny may not throw that baseball right now, but I'll tell you something if you learn to speak like Donald Duck, you may be able to open the door and start throwing the ball to him. Then you know it's different ways and different avenues, that we can all still get to the same place, but sometimes we got to take little detours.
Speaker 1:The book that I wrote was to make sure, in all honesty the good, the bad, the ugly, you know, this isn't a book where parents are like, oh, the world is great and happy. No, there are going to be times you don't like your kid. There are going to be times you don't want to be a parent and parents, it's okay. That's what this book tells you. The book tells you it's okay not to have all the answers. It's okay to screw up. It's okay when your kid is screaming and you don't know what to do, or he's not sleeping and you're like, oh my goodness, he's been up now for 18 hours. I have to get to work in the morning. I'm losing my mind. You know people don't realize that parents of neurodiverse children go through this on the daily. This is letting them know they're not alone. This book is letting them know that tomorrow is a brand new day. The book is letting them know it's okay to yell, it's okay to scream and sometimes it's just okay to cry.
Speaker 1:I wanted a book to go out to parents and to family members that are going through this, that know that, no, not everything is sunshine and rainbows and sometimes there's not a fix. But you've got to accept every moment that comes with it, with the hope and the generosity and the gratitude that, okay, there's a learning, there's something here that I'm supposed to be learning. What am I supposed to take away from this? And then tomorrow will be the better day. So, can you hear me now? I got it because I kept thinking about my kid that used to put his hands over top of his ears because all the sounds were over strong for him. He was hypersensitive to sound. So we could walk into Walmart and he would scream, high-pitched scream. We take him over to Target, he wouldn't hear the fluorescent lights that were humming, and so then he wouldn't scream.
Speaker 1:But these little things that parents and loved ones of neurotypical children take for granted, I wanted our parents to be able to have something to bond on, to know hey, you know what, I'm not alone. Hey, that little girl from West Virginia yeah, she got an autistic son that was in her roulette die. But guess what? She opened up three school campuses all up and down the space force of Florida. We're ready now. I've got some place I can go and get answers. I don't have to go search, I don't have to go to Dr Google. You know, this is what I wanted our families to have an easy resource and I don't mean to get on my soapbox here but there's not enough resources, let alone in the world today, in the United States. So we do free parent training too. The book will give you links to go to Puzzle Box and it shows that every month we give free parent training. Because, again, this shouldn't be something that only the elite have access to.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. So can you hear me now? It's the title of the book, and people can find it on Amazon and, I'm sure, other places where books are sold.
Speaker 1:Yep, good reads, amazon. Yep, just look up Pamela Fur, you'll see me and my son. That's us on the cover.
Speaker 4:Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, john's joined us, and so he's. He's made his way into the studio and we welcome him to the conversation. And, john, we're talking with Pamela Fur with Puzzle Box Academy. You know we talked to Dr Manny a little bit earlier today as well, and welcome to the conversation.
Speaker 3:Pamela, good to meet you over the airwaves. Apologize for my tardiness on this, but people ask me all the time. So, john, what do you do for a living? I'm an emergency room physician for doctors, and so I was having to step out and stop some bleeding on a business issue, so my apologies.
Speaker 1:No, I feel you, as I was just talking to Doug when we got ready to start and I said you know, as a business owner I work harder on the weekends than I do Monday through Friday.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, part of the thing when I'm working with families is unlike other business owners, because I'm a mama. First I give out my cell phone number and you know my COO cringes. She's like, oh my gosh, did you just give that mom your number? I'm like absolutely. And she's like what are you going to do? She calls you at three o'clock in the morning. I said I'm going to answer the phone because anybody that calls anyone at three o'clock in the morning is in crisis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are, that's true.
Speaker 1:It's just one of the things that sets me a little different is not just a business owner, I'm a mama first. I'm a mama of an amazing North Star that got my schools opened. It's why I'm banging my drum and it's why I'm speaking with you all today, so that we can make sure other parents have some hope.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and part of that, working with business owners like we do, and teaching business owners how to lead themselves so they can lead others. Well, you have to be motivated, like you have to be self motivated right to be able to do some of the things that business owners do, and some of that means that you have to have your own leadership principles. Do you care to share with the audience your leadership principles that you adhere to?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's so funny when you were saying that I watched a podcast, a video podcast, with Elon Musk, probably about a month ago, and they were asking him you know, you must love your job as the CEO. He's like it's the worst job in the company and it's funny. As you started this conversation, I'm like, yeah, business owners everyone thinks that it's bells and whistles, but I'm like, no, no, we are the Band-Aid, we're the ones that come in where there's problems, when there's issues, and are like, okay, how do we fix this? You know, it's like triage, and so it's funny. When you said that that's what I referenced too was thinking about Mr Musk running the business. And it's the same way here. You know it's. We're here to look at every aspect, not just the student, the parent and my employees. So, as a CEO, my leadership number one you have to stay on the mission. My principles as a leader is number. I'm not CEO, not CFO. I'm the janitor, I'm the housewife, I'm the cleaner, I'm the teacher. There is no job within the entire company I wouldn't do upon myself, and that mentality has to be across the company. We're dealing with children. You know. There may be one moment that Mr Carlos, our facilities director may have to sit down on the floor because little Johnny wants to know all about Mr Carlos's belt.
Speaker 1:So everyone that works for me and our organization understands that this is all a team. So I lead by example by doing any position that's within the company that I would ask of anyone else. We have to stick with our vision and purpose, so you've got to make sure that you've got team members that stick with that vision and purpose and communication. I believe in full disclosure so, unlike other companies and even other schools, everything is fully open to every employee. It's not. Oh well, we had an executive team meeting and this is where our budget is and this is where we're doing it. But you have to just know, because I'm the boss. There's no boss here.
Speaker 1:We are all family at Puzzle Box. That's the way that it has started, back in 2014 when we were developing and we've kept with it. We spend more than eight hours a day with our team members, you know, and sometimes that's more than you spend with family members. I'll tell you, I've got cousins. I haven't seen them 15 years, but I've got my wonderful GM over here and I see her face every single day and I'm okay with that. So again, just like breeds like and it's the same way Negativity. Check it out the door. I tell everyone, the biggest part is we make sure that we pay our employees a living wage so they're not sitting with the children worried about their shopping bill or worried about their electric bill. Take care of your employees. Your employees will take care of you, as long as you're all on the same mission.
Speaker 3:You know it's some of the things you're saying. I was a 21 year Army guy and when I was going into leadership, the leadership told me feed them, clothe them, house them, pay them. And when you feed them, clothe them, house them, pay them, your soldiers, they will follow you and you have to continuously think about those principles as you're leading people, because if you don't do those things, they're not going to be able to do the things you need them to do for you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I am. I'm a big Jordan Peterson fan. So it's make your bed every day. Before you get what I'm saying, make that bed every day, do you know why? Because you've already completed a task, the day is going to be perfect, you know, and every day is a brand new day. Drama, anything. Check it out the door. Whatever happened yesterday, today is a brand new day, and that would. You've got to. You've got to instill that in your team.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm a very spiritually led woman. I'm not a religious woman, I'm a very spiritually led woman and we all we do a meditation time here, especially on Mondays. We're like okay, guys, let's think about everything that brings us joy. What is it that brings you joy? And we do? It's like a five minute meditation. Why?
Speaker 1:Because when, soon as your personality and your body shifts into that moment of oh, thinking about a joke, thinking about something that you saw in a reel, you know anything that makes you giggle. I always tell and I've got friends that I talk to you know, once or twice a month, and the first thing I ask them is did you giggle today? Did something make you giggle? You know, hey, john Doug, what made you giggle today? I'm not talking about laughing. I'm talking about that kind of like your own was to shame, oh my gosh. They just say that, or did I just giggle? You know I'm a snorter, so they all hear me in my office If I'm really laughing. I snort just like a little piggy, you know, and they're like oh there goes, pam, she's snorting. I was like, yep, that means my day is good, you know that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So if I can help other business leaders, you know, just by telling them do that morning meditation, find your joy and make sure you're giggling. Well, I hope that spreads, because that emotion is contagious and no matter how bad of a day is, if you can find someone and make them smile, they'll make your customer smile. So that's your job as the boss.
Speaker 3:Right. So this goes into kind of a second part of that question, from leadership principles to what inspires you as a leader.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that's a good one. My inspiration is rooting the underdog. I am again, and I think it's the way I was raised. My West Virginia background is I understand cultural diversity probably better than most, and I sit back and I find inspiration on the underdog, on the ones that took life by the purse straps and said, okay, you know what, I got this bucket but I'm going to turn it into a gold bar. Those stories, those are the things that I get inspiration from. I get inspiration when I see one of my kids that they basically said go put in a home and two years later he's reading me what he's going to talk about in the science report.
Speaker 1:My children, my children, are my biggest inspiration because my life at 47 years is nothing but information that I can share so that the people coming up behind me don't make the same mistakes, so that they can learn from what I've learned from Now. You know it's that whole thing. Take a horse to water. If they drink, they drink, if not, that's up to them. You know I'm a West Virginia girl. Again, I've seen horses that didn't make it, drinking out of the river because the electricity came down and got. You know, these things happen, but the inspiration that you get is watching a child who had everything turned against them turn around and say you know what? I kicked butt, and I'm doing it because it's your podcast.
Speaker 1:I would have said the other word just for the impression there. That's right, listeners, giggle, I would have said it. I would have, but then John and Doug might have come after me, you know. But that's what we want, that inspiration to fight, to not give up and to just not accept the normal. And that's what my kids do every day. So I guess if I was to sit back I could tell you all embrace diversity, you know. Commit to learning all of these wonderful key synergistic words. No, come visit my campus. My inspiration is every morning when I walk in the door with one of my little guys that tells me what chapter of his book he's already written, you know. It's going down to my Palm Bay campus seeing my elementary kids that are doing algebra. When they first came to me they couldn't even write, you know. Or going to early intervention where a kid now knows how to say Pam, you know that can make eye contact with me and is learning to feed themselves or speak. That's the inspiration is watching these amazing little wonders prove the system wrong.
Speaker 3:Right, I've got, I've got that.
Speaker 1:Sorry.
Speaker 3:I just got to ask her one more question. Douglas, Pam, are you passionate about what you do?
Speaker 1:You know, just to scoot to that. I think that's why I was like, because we know, you know, this is going to be. There's a very famous accounting software system program out there that most business owners are either familiar with or use. I just won't use their name, but they have the most horrible customer service in the world. Well, I have mastered their program. Okay, I have mastered it.
Speaker 1:And the other day they just happened to be posting a job. You know how in deep send you those wonderful, you know auto. Hey, so and so is looking at resumes, so and so so. And I laughed so hard because I told him I said, my goodness, I could make more money going to work for him than doing what I'm doing. But I don't do it for that. I do it why? Because I love what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:I see changes every day and somebody has got to tell the superintendent of schools they're screwing up and there's nobody out there doing it. I had the gentleman come up to me the other week and he was like you know, you're going up against, you know, the Department of Education, you're making big bubbles and changes. I said, yes, I am, I'm a redhead, and so, podcast listeners, I am a true die hard, natural redhead. What does that mean? Yep, you can call me ginger, you can call me carrot top and that rolls right off my back. I'm going to tell the superintendent to sit down and let's talk about why you're disservicing my children. So passion, I got passion beyond belief. I've got energy, that spirits given me so that I can bang the drum and I can let everyone know that our kids need a chance and they're not going to be given a chance if we don't change the school system.
Speaker 3:That is a great way to end this podcast, isn't it, Mr Ford?
Speaker 4:It is. We really appreciate you sharing with us today do.
Speaker 3:Pam, thank you so much for your passion, your energy, a huge, huge word that I use with business owners that do what you perseverance. If you don't have that, it's hard to do what you do. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and thank you guys for your time today. I just appreciate the platform. I hope that you know one or two are our moms and dads and families out there smiled, giggled, laughed and know that there's hope.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you very much, Pam.
Speaker 1:Alrighty. Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 3:We hope you enjoyed Pam LaFerre and her taking on just a little of her journey, of how she came to create Puzzle Box Academy and all the things that they've done. Now three schools in that, Mr Ford.
Speaker 4:Three campuses.
Speaker 3:Three campuses. You know it's unique. We won't give this away. But we've got another organization is doing some great things with challenges that people have and you see, people just pick that up on their shoulders and run with it. And I've got a note here. It says struggles can become victories. Absolutely, and her and another guest that we're going to have on and really I give you think about some of the guests that we've had on at this point they had their own struggles that they had to face in order to not just develop themselves to be able to take on that struggle. But the struggle was so big it was sometimes caused by family member, in her case her son and she said her whole life changed when he was turned one and her whole life changed when his life changed and she picked it up and ran with. So struggles can become victories. A life event usually takes you two places forward or backward.
Speaker 3:And the more that you develop yourself, the more that you first learn to lead you, the more opportunity you're going to have to move forward when that opportunity hits you, instead of regressing, go backwards. So we want the audience to know that the leadership the first lead you. Once you learn how to lead yourself well, it helps you take on that life event that not just impacts you but, looks, she's going to impact hundreds and hundreds of kids, all because of that life event that happened in her life and she said, no, not my son.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, absolutely. And don't forget the book that she wrote. Can you hear me now? That's available for everyone, so a great story. I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but I'm based on just the interview. I'm sure it's a great read. She said she was very open and honest. I'm sure it'd be a great resource for any parents or people that are struggling with that to just kind of know that there are other resources out there. There are other people out there that have gone through the struggle and she's just trying to provide a little bit of light for those families and give them a little bit of hope as they move through these struggles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we hope that the audience enjoyed that and we look forward to number 25.
Speaker 4:Next episode, number 25. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for coming, thank you.