MEET THE BLIND BOSS

Beyond Limits. Beyond Expectations. Unapologetically Me.

If you ask me who I am, I am probably not going to start with blindness.

I am going to tell you I am a mom.

I have one son, and being his mother is one of the greatest honors of my life. I became a mom in my early twenties, which will make you grow up quickly whether you are ready or not. Through every flare, surgery, disappointment, business problem, and hard mental-health day, motherhood has reminded me that giving up is not really an option.

There are days when I have been depressed, frustrated, angry, or just plain tired of dealing with my vision. There are days when I would have loved to stay in bed, feel sorry for myself, and shut the world out.

But when you are a mom, somebody still needs breakfast. Somebody still needs guidance. Somebody is still watching how you respond when life does not go according to plan.

I want my son to see that anything is possible. Not because life is fair. Not because everything comes easily. But because we can learn, adapt, ask for help, build systems, and keep moving toward the life we want.

I am also a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a cousin, a friend, a speaker, an author, and a business owner. I come from what I call a village. We show up for one another. When one person is down, somebody else steps in. We have carried one another through appointments, illnesses, children, work, celebrations, and the regular messiness of life.

And then there is the business side of me.

I am the founder and CEO of IROC Marketable Business Solutions. I help people define what success looks like for them and build the systems, teams, strategies, and support they need to reach it. I love business because the impact does not stop with one client. When a business owner grows, that growth can affect employees, families, customers, and entire communities. It creates a ripple effect.

That ripple effect is a big part of why I do what I do.

But Blind Boss is not just another business newsletter.

It is also not a place where I am going to pretend blindness turned me into a perfectly inspirational person who wakes up every morning grateful for the struggle. Let us be real. Some of this sucks.

I have lived with idiopathic panuveitis since high school. For years, the condition moved through flares and remissions. I lost all vision in my left eye during my first year of college, but I still had 20/20 vision in my other eye. I kept living my life. I did not strongly identify with being disabled because, honestly, my daily life had not changed very much.

Then, over the last year, my remaining vision declined rapidly.

That changed everything.

I had to learn new ways to work, travel, parent, shop, get dressed, move through public spaces, and ask for what I need. I had to begin cane training. I had to rely more heavily on family and my team. I had to learn tools that I never thought I would need. I had to grieve things most people do not even think about—like being able to look in the mirror and clearly see my own face.

I am a makeup girl. I like my hair done. I like cute clothes. I like to show up looking like I came to do what I came to do. When my vision changed, I could no longer see colors or small details the same way. My eyes changed after surgeries and treatments. Steroids changed my face. For a while, I did not feel like myself on camera.

There were moments when I felt as though I had lost my old face.

That grief was real.

So were the depression and anxiety that followed. I found an amazing therapist. I accepted medication when I needed it. I learned coping skills, including box breathing, that helped me create enough calm to think again. I leaned on a small group of accountability partners who let me be honest when everything felt terrible.

I am not ashamed of any of that.

Therapy did not make me weak. Medication did not erase who I was. Support gave me enough room to begin finding solutions.

And that is where this story gets interesting.

Because I did not stop being confident, loud, driven, funny, or ambitious. Those parts of me were tested, but they were not taken away.

I am still the woman who walks into a room ready to show up and show out. I am still the person who gives business advice during a networking session and has someone book a call afterward because my work speaks for itself. I am still the CEO who expects excellence. I am still the mom who wants her son to understand accountability and initiative. I am still the woman who will hype herself up when nobody else is available to do it.

While I am different, I am not less than.

That sentence sits at the heart of Blind Boss.

This series will include business, but it will not only be about business. I will talk about being a legally blind CEO, but I will also talk about motherhood, marriage, family, mental health, friendship, travel, food, fashion, technology, independence, and trying to have fun again.

• Some stories will be heavy.

• Some will be practical.

• Some will be ridiculous.

At some point, I am going to tell you about walking directly into a white airport pillar while trying to be grown and independent. I am going to tell you about falling in the grass in front of my house after laughing at everybody else in my family for falling. And yes, I am eventually going to explain why “Crapping Around the World” became a tradition in both my family and my business accountability group.

Sometimes you have to give people permission to laugh.

Blindness is part of my life, but it does not remove the humor, joy, awkwardness, ambition, or regular human mess from it.

I also want this to be useful.

Inspiration is fine, but at some point, we have to answer the question: How?

• How do you keep running a business when your capacity changes?

• How do you travel when airport assistance is unreliable?

• How do you order food when you cannot read the menu and people are rushing you?

• How do you build independence when everything in your life has started revolving around someone else’s schedule?

• How do you lead a team when you can no longer do every task yourself?

• How do you keep living when the method has changed?

Those are the conversations I want to have here.

I do not believe every limitation is imaginary. Disabilities create real barriers. Inaccessible systems create real problems. Sometimes the answer is not “try harder.” Sometimes the answer is better technology, clearer communication, a trained employee, a reliable person, an accommodation, an SOP, an automation, a screen reader, a white cane, or a completely different plan.

I am not interested in pretending differences do not exist.

I am interested in figuring out how to succeed within the life we actually have.

That is also why I am creating a three-day virtual event centered on entrepreneurs with seen and unseen disabilities, and why I am writing my second book, Doing Business Differently. I want people with disabilities to have more than motivational speeches. I want us to have honest conversations, practical tools, resources, strategies, and community.

I want Blind Boss to become a place where we can laugh, cry, ask questions, exchange ideas, and build our boss businesses and our best lives—whatever that means for each of us.

I do not have every answer.

I am still learning how to navigate outside more independently. I am still figuring out how to confidently organize my clothes. I am still trying new restaurants and new hobbies. I am still finding the balance between receiving support and controlling my own time. I am still having days when I think, “This really sucks.”

But I am also walking around the block.

I am taking accessible transportation to appointments by myself.

I am going to the movies with my son.

I am building my team.

I am using AI and accessibility tools to stay connected to my work.

I am planning events, writing books, serving clients, and creating something new.

My life looks different than it did before.

It is not over.

That is what I hope you take from this series. Not that you should define success the way I do. Not that you should handle disability, business, parenting, grief, or change exactly the way I have.

I want you to feel empowered to decide what a meaningful, successful, joyful life looks like for you—and then believe you are allowed to build it.

Welcome to Blind Boss.

For life. For business. For impact.

I may have lost my sight, but I never lost my vision.

REFLECTION QUESTION

What part of your life has changed—and what are you learning to do differently instead of giving up on it?

Follow or subscribe to Blind Boss and join the conversation. Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing the honest stories, practical strategies, funny moments, and behind-the-scenes lessons that come with building a full life and a successful business with a disability.