Building Bridges: Starr Clinton's Mission to Empower the Deaf Community

In this episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, Kenny Groom sits down with Starr Clinton, founder of Nita’s Hands and Signing Starr, to discuss her journey from school interpreter to community changemaker. Starr shares how she turned advocacy into action—launching a nonprofit and consulting business to close the communication gap between the deaf and hearing worlds.

Learn how Starr is helping businesses become deaf-friendly, creating inclusive environments, and producing innovative content like The Deaf Culture Experience. From accessibility audits to sign language education and community outreach, Starr is redefining what it means to build impact-driven solutions.

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Transcript

Kenny: 0:38

Hey, What's going on? Good people. This is your host of the Beyond Normal podcast, Kenny Groom. I have a very special guest with us today. incredible founder. as many of you have been following my journey, I recently moved, to Gastonia, North Carolina. And so the, the startup, founder community here has really been embracing, me here as the, as one of the. The, the lone podcasters that, that's quickly changing, in the, the coworking space that we're in. but I met this incredible founder by the name of Starr Clinton. She is the founder of Nita's Hands. I'm gonna give you all just a quick breakdown because, she does a lot with this incredible organization, but she's committed to, transforming our world by mending the gap between the hearing and deaf community. And so this is often a overlooked, segment of the population. So I'm, I'm. Pleased to have somebody such as Starr, putting the time and, energy and the effort into building out this org for that, for that, that community specifically. How are you doing today, Starr?

Starr: 1:44

I'm good. Busy head spinning, but I'm here.

Kenny: 1:49

Mm-hmm. And.

Starr: 1:51

Keep going. Yep. Yeah. So

Kenny: 1:52

all you can do as a founder, I, I wanna dig right into things, and let folks know just a little bit about your story. Tell us a little bit about what you were doing start before starting Nita's Hands, because you were doing some incredible work. Yeah.

Starr: 2:05

So I started into the school system. School system, had me in as technically a teacher assistant, but hired me to be the interpreter for deaf students. And so. In that I found myself advocating for the students. and the reason why I ended up having to advocate for the students'cause they wanted me to do other things that technically my role said I should be doing. But I was hired for this particular

Kenny: 2:36

assignment,

Starr: 2:37

and that was talked about, you know, this is what you should be doing. This comes first before anything else. And so in that, once my boss kind of left the scene and I'm under somebody else's supervision, you know they tried. Mm-hmm. And I was like, no, we have to. I have to be here with the student. I cannot just leave the student in the classroom by themselves and they don't have anyone in here. You're interpreting for them, you know? So. You go against the grain, they start treating you different. You know how that goes in that world. But I really didn't care mm-hmm. At that point. but that led me to having this vision of starting a class, a solid witch class, and actually stepping out on faith. And what I end up doing is like asking individuals like how they felt about me doing this and seeking that validation. I really wanted someone to talk me out of it. That didn't happen.

Kenny: 3:37

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 3:39

That didn't happen, so I had no excuse. I had to just do it because I had already been talking about it and I'm like, oh my, what did I do? And I ended up quitting my job,

Kenny: 3:49

cold Turkey all the way off the cliff,

Starr: 3:51

cold Turkey. I do not recommend that you just do that. But that was my story. That's what I needed to do. and I end up having a packed out class. The first class that I end up offering, it was about 40 or 50 people there, and I ran with it, you know, great feedback. And not long after doing my classes though, COVID hit. So it made me really have to think about how I was gonna pivot this thing. But that's really when the idea started to come about, like. It's more than just teaching sign language. The deaf community needs resources as well. Mm-hmm. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna make an impact? What can you do in honor of your mom? Mm-hmm. And yeah, bunch of thoughts and ideas started happening. I'm like, okay, I'm getting overwhelmed. I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I don't know how this little timid. Little girl is gonna make this big impact. That's how I felt. but the, all I did was continue to talk to people every day, asking questions. And the idea of starting a nonprofit came about and I was like, I think I can do that. But I, I tell people now, if you can start a nonprofit, you can start a business.'cause the Lord knows

Kenny: 5:13

mm-hmm.

Starr: 5:15

A nonprofit world. And just a regular business. Yeah. Yeah, I think I got your beat.

Kenny: 5:23

Definitely a, definitely a jungle. I can imagine. I got, I can imagine, I'm sorry. Survival of the fittest, survival of the fit

Starr: 5:28

line. It's

Kenny: 5:29

true. It's

Starr: 5:29

non-profit world is not for the week.

Kenny: 5:33

Mm-hmm. It's not. So let's, let's dive, let's dive a little bit. I appreciate you kicking things off there. You said a lot in those in, in, you know, describing your story. First of all, you had people who were like pushing you off the cliff. I think there's, that's, that's not the story we hear about all the time, whereas people are like, you know, like, Hey, you need to have a nine to five. Like, that's the language that we usually hear about from, from founders. And so I'm curious, like when these people were like kind of pushing you off that cliff, like. Is there something they were seeing? Like how passionate were you talking about this? Because I have to imagine you must have been to the point where you were talking about it so much they were like, you need to do this.

Starr: 6:22

I don't even know if it was really me talking about it, to be honest with you. I really think it was just my actions. Mm-hmm. because I didn't say much. I really didn't. I just spoke up. For them. Okay. And I really believe that my advocacy and me just doing what I have always done my whole, entire life. Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 6:42

Even

Starr: 6:42

with my mom, like as I reflect, I realized that I was advocating for my mom, even as a child going in and out, you know, like my cousin and everybody playing outside. But I get called in and I need to interpret for my mom at family gatherings and things like that. So I was already an advocate and didn't even realize that's what I was doing. I was bridging that world at a young age.

Kenny: 7:05

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 7:06

So I've been doing it all my life. It just became second nature. And so I believe that the work that I was putting in and I showed up daily, I didn't just kind of show up and just do. What you would say a half ass job.

Kenny: 7:20

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 7:20

I didn't just not what I did. You put

Kenny: 7:23

your all into it.

Starr: 7:23

So I really believe just the work and the work ethic that I had, and they saw that, you know, I truly cared for my students. I think that that spoke voles versus me really just saying a lot. Mm-hmm. and I, I mean, honestly, just to randomly come out and just say, I think I wanna start teaching, I think it was just like. Think you should. Mm-hmm. Or it was just me saying it just clicked for someone. It was just like, no, I think that's, that's a true calling for real.

Kenny: 7:57

Mm-hmm. So

Starr: 7:58

it one or two, something happened. Got

Kenny: 8:00

it. Yeah. Something happened there.

Starr: 8:02

Something happened there.

Kenny: 8:03

Got it. And so you, you said, I'm going back to what you said earlier as well, where you said you had. You had some people that told you yes, you did it. And then you had that early validation, right? Where 50 people signed up for that first class.

Starr: 8:16

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 8:17

Now, COVID hits, like what type of, traction are we talking about when Covid

Starr: 8:24

hits? when Covid hit, it was a complete halt. Complete. Like, I was like, why did I do this? Mm-hmm. Why did I even think that this was even possible? Like, I started doubting myself. I literally had to stop everything and I had just like when I say just received my nonprofit status and everything in the mail, like right in January, I'm planning out like we're about to do book bag drive, we're about to do all this other type of stuff. Mm-hmm. Get all that stopped immediately. So that was a pivoting moment for me. But I will say that there was a. A small fire in me that understood like, wait, you can't quit like you started this. You can't just quit on it just because, you know, life happens. You know?'cause that's gonna happen throughout life anyway. It is gonna happen throughout my business life. Things are gonna happen and you're gonna have to pivot no matter what.

Kenny: 9:25

Mm-hmm. So,

Starr: 9:28

as I think about this, and I, I wanna really kind of put emphasis on like, I'm starting to create a. Write a book is talking about walk in fear, because it's literally my ha. That has been my life. I've been fearful to do things, but I didn't let it stop me. Mm-hmm. So that's kind of how I felt Covid did for me. I was fearful of what was about to happen, but I had to have faith that I was gonna be all right. So it was a mindset thing. Got it. Strong mindset

Kenny: 10:00

thing. Yeah. Strong. So with that, right, you have this pause during the pandemic, I would asse that during the pandemic there would be a, a need for these types of services, even more so. So I'm, I'm curious like. What was the cause of that? Because we all moved to a digital first experience and so I would asse there needs to be some, like, there needs to be even more focus on making sure everybody can communicate in these settings.

Starr: 10:34

I'm gonna tell you the thing that we came up against that really bugged me is we all had to wear masks.

Kenny: 10:39

Oh,

Starr: 10:41

we all had to wear mask around that time. And I don't know if you noticed there was. The clear mask started to come out because there was a big talk about like, the deaf community needs to see your lips to move got, so how are you going to communicate effectively to them if you can't, even if they can't even see your lips moving?

Kenny: 11:01

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 11:02

And so that was something that needed to be advocated for. So I started, you know, really talking about that. I started reaching out to certain companies like, Hey, have you thought about having. Clear mask. You know, we end up getting, a sponsorship from a company that gave us clear mask and we just started distributor'em out. Mm. Just because it was like, you need to at least have your staff doing these and having these on.

Kenny: 11:27

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 11:29

On, you know, at least on hand. You can wear your regular mask if you're dealing with a deaf person, at least have a clear mask on so they can see your face. So, I mean, there was little things that we were able to do and contribute and to be able to. Partner and backup up other initiatives out there, which gave me hope because I found another avenue that I could help at

Kenny: 11:50

least. Yeah, exactly. And that's, that's still like, that's going towards your target audience, making sure that these businesses understand like you have people within this community. Yep. and I think people. Like, you even schooled me. Like when we were just initially talking, we initially met about just how vast this, this population hit is even like here in the States, right? Yeah. Like you're talking about millions and millions of people. I'm curious, like now we're at a point now where I see, like, I go, you know, we turn on the, the Grammys, or we turn, we go like, I think the, the popular video is like Waka Flocka. Yes. You seen that, right? Yes. Where it's like even the artists now understand, like there's people who wanna like, you know, engage, entertain, spend dollars in the community. Right. Let me go ahead and like make sure like, you know, they can, they can follow along. Yeah. Which I think is cool. I'm curious like what your thoughts are around the progress that's been made since that, that shutdown in the pandemic where we're at and then like, you know, where, where you see there's still being some opportunities.

Starr: 13:03

There's a lot of opportunities out here. there's been progress made. I just don't think that there's been big progress. Being married right now. and I can only speak when I, I can look at things at a bigger picture like what our president or what our government is doing, right? They're, they always have the interpreters up there on the screen. Mm-hmm. You know, and I'm grateful for that. But then when you look at what, we just had the Super Bowl, you get a ten second clip of an interpreter and then it goes away. They have to tune into a whole nother station just to even. Have an interpreter present. And that's not even necessarily what they're offering, it's somebody else is offering it. Okay. Right. So I think about those things and just not to shun like the NFL or anything like that, but it's just like, I know other countries and languages do have an interpreter on most of their TV series.

Kenny: 14:04

Mm. You

Starr: 14:04

know, so we can adopt that same thing. We just not taking the time to do it. Gotcha. We're not being proactive.

Kenny: 14:11

We're

Starr: 14:11

kind of being reactive, which is not the way to be inclusive,

Kenny: 14:14

right? Mm-hmm.

Starr: 14:16

but if we wanna talk about, like locally, let's think about we have what? Concerts? We have government meetings

Kenny: 14:26

mm-hmm.

Starr: 14:28

That are televise.

Kenny: 14:31

Yeah, for sure.

Starr: 14:32

Where's the interpreter?

Kenny: 14:33

Yeah. Where's the interpreter at? Wow.

Starr: 14:36

You, you want, you want them to be a part, but you're not advertising that. You're gonna allow it to be accessible for them. You are waiting for them to just show up and say, I need an interpreter. That's not how it should be. You want everybody to feel included. You got to be proactive. Hey, we want you out here. We're gonna have an interpreter. I'll give you a prime example. I'm in, shout out to the color purple. I am in the color purple. That's coming up.

Kenny: 15:04

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 15:05

And all I did was just say, Hey, can we have a day that the deaf community come out and see the show? Lemme get some interpreters lined up for you. They interpret the whole entire show. Oh, that's all it takes. Mm. Now you can advertise, Hey, we're gonna have interpreters on this day. We would love to have our deaf community come out and be a part.

Kenny: 15:25

Okay.

Starr: 15:26

That's all it takes. That's all it takes. Small changes. Yeah. It doesn't, and I understand, you know, a lot of times people look at it like, oh my gosh, the interpreter's gonna cost so much, and we gotta add that into our budget. Okay. But if they're coming and buying tickets,

Kenny: 15:43

yeah.

Starr: 15:44

What does that matter?

Kenny: 15:45

Mm-hmm. Hey, you're getting your money back.

Starr: 15:47

Like, what does that matter? And it's not even, I don't wanna look at it as like a money thing, but I mean, when you're talking about business and corporations, you gotta. Think that way. Mm-hmm. Even though I hate that, but the ROI of capitalism. Yeah. It is stupid, but yeah. Understood. Understood. I hate to say that, but it's so stupid. You should, you should want to just do it outta your heart. I wanna be inclusive, right? Mm-hmm. So,

Kenny: 16:12

yeah. So, all right. So say for.'cause again, you're schooling me on these topics for like prerecorded medis like movie theaters. Mm-hmm. Prerecorded, you know, shows, podcasts, for example. I don't know exactly how Apple or Spotify are supporting this community. Right. I do. All right. So that's where my thinking is, where it's like, now that we have this, and my question I guess is now we have the technology and the technology companies putting like layers on this stuff. Does the, do you feel like they're able to close the gap a little bit or they're still, they should, the owners be on me as the creator,

Starr: 17:02

so I most definitely think it should be on the creator still because I mean these, these larger companies, they have the ability to do it, but as. As I look at smaller business, I, I most definitely have to put the responsibility on the creator to make, to make it more accessible. I'm gonna give you an example of something that I just discovered that I'm super excited to see because now as I am coaching others or consulting others, I'm able to show them like, this is what this company is doing. And you can do the same exact thing in your business. So Apple, you know, they have. Fitness Plus. Mm-hmm. I think is what it's called. All of their, fitness instructors no sign language.

Kenny: 17:51

Mm. They have

Starr: 17:52

taken the time for them to study sound language, and at the beginning of each segment they're signing.

Kenny: 17:59

Mm.

Starr: 18:01

And it is so powerful. When I saw that, I was like, shut up. If they're doing it, everybody else needs to be doing this. Come on. Like that was a movement for me when I saw that immediately. I was like, I would never leave Apple. I would never leave Apple. I'm a Apple user, but I would never leave them now because I know that they support inclusion.

Kenny: 18:26

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 18:27

I know their support and we're

Kenny: 18:29

seeing some of their actions. Right. And the, the meeting where they are standing on business a little bit.

Starr: 18:34

Right. And so my thing is we have smaller businesses that can do the same

Kenny: 18:38

thing. Mm.

Starr: 18:39

You're a yoga instructor. Okay, fine. You may not be able to sign, but just put in a clip of someone signing for you. Right.

Kenny: 18:49

Okay. Yeah.

Starr: 18:50

You can outsource an interpreter to interpret your stuff.

Kenny: 18:54

Got it.

Starr: 18:55

And just incorporate them into your videos.

Kenny: 18:57

Got it. Okay.

Starr: 18:58

Or you do a side by side shot. Whatever works for your branding. Mm-hmm. It is easy for you to do. The resources out there, or you can just call me and I help you.

Kenny: 19:07

The way that you're explaining it too, it like the asshole example is a really good one because it almost comes across like if you do this, it feels a little bit more like a, like whatever you're offering is like a premi product.'cause you're doing that extra,

Starr: 19:24

you stand out, you stand out from the rest. And that's my, that's what I like to show people. I'm like. If you can just stand out in just this one little aspect, do you know the amount of people that you're gonna reach that are untapped

Kenny: 19:39

a ton?

Starr: 19:40

You know what I mean? Like you're reaching a whole untapped market and I hate to like make it like it's just a money game, but you are truly making an impact in that community by what you're doing. So if you're a wellness coach

Kenny: 19:54

mm-hmm.

Starr: 19:55

You're making an impact in wellness. If you are a business consultant. You are making an impact in somebody else's life that needs to start their business that maybe is deaf. Mm-hmm. You're making an impact, but you are gonna have to do what you have to do to stand out for that community. Yeah. You can't just expect them to come and you're not doing anything to show that you're at least trying to include them. Right. Your marketing has to reflect that.

Kenny: 20:21

Yeah. It's gotta cross the board.

Starr: 20:23

Yeah.

Kenny: 20:25

So. In this business model that you're in, even though, like you said, you started it from a nonprofit perspective, there's a really big focus on like B2B, right? Yeah. Like corporations, companies, small business owners, these type of of businesses excite me, right? I know we've talked about it a little bit. Yeah. because there's just, there's tons of value to unlock, right? Like if you think about, like you mentioned, the Apple, or even like a small local business here in Gastonia. You know, a lot of times they're gonna have, you know, a hundred, 200, 300 plus cu, they're gonna have a lot of customers. And, and so it's easier, not easier, but I think they understand that you have to spend money to make money a lot of times in the, in the, in the B2B space. and so when you come with that value, that aligns with unlocking. You know, spend from their customers. Like you said, it is just such a, it is like a, it is a marriage where everybody feels good. Yeah. Even though it's like, Hey, there's money involved. It could, it may feel sleazy to some people, right. Doing stuff for money, but I just think there's so much power in, in like B2B and then like you're, you're drilling down. So like this is something where I've gotta imagine like. You're the first person I ever met who was focusing on this. Like there's probably few and far between the people that have businesses that do what you do.

Starr: 21:52

Yeah, it is. There's not a lot. I've done my research and studies on who my competitors are and it doesn't worry me. Mm-hmm. Because we're, even if there is a competitor out there, kudos to you. Let me pound you up. Let's go out here and make this impact together.

Kenny: 22:08

Got it.

Starr: 22:09

Because that's how I feel about it.

Kenny: 22:11

So when a business comes to you or they have an inquiry, or they listen to some of your content and then they start going through the process, like what does it look like for them to come in from day one and then they, you know, the final day where they, they have that product that they can add into what they're already doing that serves this community?

Starr: 22:33

So typically I do a one, I do a discovery call. It is, it's important for me to do a discovery call because I'm very picky on who I take on.

Kenny: 22:44

Mm.

Starr: 22:45

Very picky on who I take on. Just because don't see the deaf community as a nber. Sorry, but not, sorry. I don't want the deaf community to feel like a check box. Everyone knows that we have this whole DEI issue going on. Good. Good, because it shouldn't be a checkbox. It should be what's in here.

Kenny: 23:11

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 23:12

You should want to be a leader that wants to be inclusive. Right. So I want leaders who want to be inclusive and who wants to go get this community inside. Either the workplace or have them as a customer is gonna treat them like they're just like anybody else. That's what I want. So if you don't fit that criteria, I really don't wanna work with you. Mm-hmm. It's not about the money for me, it's about the impact that you're gonna make. Hands down. I, I just, I can't, but knowing that my mother is out there, I just can't have a company seeing her as a nber. Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 23:51

Or as a

Starr: 23:51

checkbox. I'm sorry, I just can't. So I have a discovery call. I see if you are a great fit for me, for the company, for us to go through. And we take you step by step. We analyze, so we do what we call a audit. We audit your either your building, because first things first. If you have employees, I need to make sure that your building is safe for them to work in. If a fire was to break out, do you have places that they can. Not because you can't necessarily hear it unless they're hard of hearing, but is there lights flashing that they understand, oh, it's an emergency going on. Have you trained up your staff to know how to deal with a deaf person, an emergency situation, or just communication? what type of policies do you have in place? Like I go through all of that. Once I assess that, once I see what you're missing, I give you that game plan. These are the things that you need to implement training wise. I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna train your staff. You let me know how many staff you have. I tell you how many workshops we can do to break it up where it's fitting for you right from there, after everything has been implemented, after everybody has been trained, after you have went through our entire process, we then present you with your officially death friendly business, and we're gonna make it a big deal, right? Then from there you get the plaque. The plaque lasts for about three years just because they're, we gotta reevaluate to make sure, like new policies don't need to be implemented.

Kenny: 25:28

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 25:29

Everybody has new staff that comes on. We need to train up your new staff. Right. So it's just a rolling cycle of us just coming in just to make sure that you check the boxes in your business to make sure that you're death friendly. We have to make sure that you are a good fit to work with us.

Kenny: 25:46

Hmm. That's powerful. Yeah. Being able to like, make sure, like I, I, I, I, I see the value in. Like, it's almost like when people say, like, you go to a job interview. Yeah. And it's like, well, both sides are technically being interviewed. Right. And it's like, people forget that sometimes. Yeah. It's like, all right, I, I get it. Like, I'm here'cause I need a check maybe or whatever. Like, I need a job. But then on the flip side of that, there's like, all right, is this a place where I can. I feel like I can add value and it checks it. It does what I needed to do as well. Like right, we, we often forget about that.

Starr: 26:22

And I do wanna clear something up too, because I wanna make sure that my messaging is clear on this. So even though I have needed silent hands, that is technically my give back. My baby. The consultant side of me is totally different from the nonprofit.

Kenny: 26:38

Mm.

Starr: 26:39

Totally different from the nonprofit, my nonprofit. Allows me to give back, do awareness events like the golf tournament that we have coming up. Mm-hmm. Like that allows me to do those type of events that allows me to really bring people in and just really educate them about the deaf community. But my consulting piece, that's a whole different ball game and that's a whole nother side of the, a whole nother side of me that I'm ready to really go into and really go to that B2B.

Kenny: 27:08

All makes sense

Starr: 27:09

area. And I think it's a,

Kenny: 27:11

it's a natural progression.

Starr: 27:12

Yeah.

Kenny: 27:13

Like from what you were doing. Like needless hands is like something that's near and dear to you. And then you say, oh, there's a need for this for like businesses. Why don't I do the consulting piece as well? And then that feeds what you, what you, exactly what you were wanting to do anyway. Exactly. Rather would need his hand. So like that. That makes perfect sense to me. And I appreciate you kind of specifying that as well because. It's not often that we hear about somebody focusing in our community specifically, focusing on a non, like a, a nonprofit. And then there's like, people are like, well, why do you just have like a nonprofit? Like, what are you doing? It's like, no. Like there's ways you can give back and I feel like you. You've leveraged this nonprofit to give back in the way that you want, but you still have valuable skills that businesses are out here wanting to tap into.

Starr: 28:06

Right.

Kenny: 28:07

It makes sense to me. I love, I love hearing that. Yeah. I love hearing that.

Starr: 28:11

Appreciate it. And

Kenny: 28:11

we don't, we don't often hear like both sides of that. We just hear somebody as soon as in, in certain environments. I know you can speak to this. When somebody says nonprofit, people immediately like, turn off.'cause they're like, oh, that's something else.

Starr: 28:24

Yeah.

Kenny: 28:25

In itself. And it's like, no, not really. Yeah. Like there's a way you incorporate it into who you are,

Starr: 28:30

right.

Kenny: 28:30

And all the other things you do.

Starr: 28:32

Right.

Kenny: 28:32

And that's where it becomes cool. Like that's what people need to hear a little bit more about that. Yeah. So I, I like that distinction. So what are, like you mentioned the golf tournament. I was gonna say like, what's next and, and where do you plan on building? You wanna talk a little bit about. Coming up. Yeah. So I'm excited to be a part of that.

Starr: 28:50

Yes, shout out to you. Shout out to you. Now, the golf tournament, this is near and dear to me because it's going to really help us with the next project that Nida, Allen hence has coming up. So we're doing a golf tournament to raise funds for what we call the deaf culture experience. The deaf culture experience is gonna allow me to get five families that are either deaf or hard of hearing. Their families around them and friends that are surrounded by them. We are actually gonna do a docentary on each family. Mm-hmm. To share their story. For me, I can tell someone's story all day long. I'm only one person. Also, I can't tell someone else's story. Like they can tell that story,

Kenny: 29:35

not at all.

Starr: 29:36

And so for you to feel it and see it. Not only hear it, and we're also trying, we're trying to make it like a simulation thing too, because everyone has different levels of hearing loss. So each episode is gonna be totally different in what you hear and see. Right. so we're gonna do that and we're gonna take it and our first platform is actually gonna put it up on scribe tv. Oh, that's dope. Once we get it on scribe tv, we're gonna take it to the next level and see how far we can get it with Netflix. So it's a big project. Never thought in a million years that I'll be putting on a TV series, but. That's the impact that Nita Silent Hands is looking to make.

Kenny: 30:19

Right. That's awesome. I think about like, as you were explaining it, I was like, oh, like four D, like four D movies. Mm-hmm. But then that's taking it to a level where like, imagine if you could just have a glimpse into what somebody's life is like. Like, right. You can, like, you can not breathe the, but you can have all the senses kind of like in that, in that mode. Like that would be,

Starr: 30:41

yep. That would be insane. We are striving to make this the biggest production that we, that you would probably ever see when it comes to the deaf community. But the other aspect to it that I'm proud of is we're not just putting on this TV series just to have a TV series. We're also wanting to inspire deaf students. That if you are wanting to go in this realm or wanting to become a filmmaker or a producer or whatever the case may be, you can do it. Mm-hmm. And so we're creating a program that they're gonna go through at the end of their project. They're gonna be able to take, their skills and what they learned and actually, produce one episode per season. So they'll be responsible for at least one of those episodes that they will actually produce.

Kenny: 31:33

Mm.

Starr: 31:33

They will do the interviewing. They will work on scouting and doing all the shots and stuff that I know nothing about, but I. We have a production company that will work closely Exactly. To make sure that they get everything done. So I'm excited about that. We are partnering with, Noah and Noel Productions to do the workshop side for the students. And then we're also product, partnering with round seven production as well.

Kenny: 32:01

Yeah, I like it. And those are, for those that are listening in, those are incredible. Local companies, right. That are doing some incredible work, work, really just nationally, right? Not just in the local, the, the local sphere. But it's exciting to see that type of partnership. And I know it'll, it'll be amazing. Like, just the way you're explaining it is like, I got my popcorn ready, Netflix. Shout out to Netflix. Let's get the deal done.

Starr: 32:29

Yes. say it again so they can get

Kenny: 32:31

Netflix. Let's get the deal done. I got that. Please get, get that deal done. I like saying I'm okay with saying those types of things. this is, I mean, you shared quite a bit, on your story, what you're building now. you're a real advocate for your this community. And it's gonna be exciting to see, like you said, there's some opportunities, in the space of like DEI that is such a hot topic right now. It will probably be a hot topic for the next, I don't know how many years or so, or it's gonna be,

Starr: 33:06

it's gonna be

Kenny: 33:07

a while. Oh, wow. So I'm excited to have somebody like you on the case and, and like representing and, and doing some amazing work there. how do we want to close this? Let's let, how can folks tap into what's the best way for our listeners to tap into what you're doing?

Starr: 33:29

Yeah, so one way that you can do it is you can always follow a me on my social media page. Every page and platform is always gonna be at signing Starr. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Threads, whatever is all out there. LinkedIn.

Kenny: 33:45

Mm-hmm.

Starr: 33:45

Signing Starr. If you just look that up, you're always gonna find me. But you're gonna always find me at my website as well. www.signingstar.com. I promise you. Just search signing Starr. You're gonna find me somewhere.

Kenny: 33:57

Right? Okay.

Starr: 33:58

That is the name that I go by. That's an

Kenny: 34:00

incredible name. Nobody's. Gonna not be able to find you.

Starr: 34:04

Yeah, you can find me by that name. and just get connected. It is gonna lead you to the nonprofit, it's gonna lead you to, you know, the consulting side of things that I do. Even if they're wanting to book me as a speaker, I'm going into the speaking realm as well. So it's so many things that you can see on that page and what I'm doing, and just kind of stay tuned.

Kenny: 34:26

Love, I love, there's many things. I lastly, I'll pass it to you. I want, we always have our guests, close us out. Like, what's that last thought you want our viewers to take away from this conversation?

Starr: 34:39

I want the viewers to take away this. Don't let fear stop you because Fear One faith enables actionable resilience. I go by that, I stand on that. So don't let fear stop you. Walk in it. It's okay to be scared. It's okay to feel like you're not ready, but that's the moment that you should be doing what you're doing. So just go for it. Just go for it. I didn't trust me. If I can do it, you can do it. So

Kenny: 35:10

just go for it. Appreciate it. Way to close it out. for our listeners, thanks for tuning into another great episode of The Beyond Normal Podcast. Peace.