#378: How Mike Calvo Went From Miami Drug Hustler to Visionary Tech CEO Without Sight

Kevin Lowe: A guy who adversity, you could say, has been his middle name.

Kevin Lowe: From being the child of immigrants from Cuba to being a kid who was born blind.

Kevin Lowe: The guy has an incredible story of overcoming the odds.

Kevin Lowe: But more than any of that, it's the insights that Mike has to share today that I hope, that I pray, are going to mean something to you.

Kevin Lowe: That are going to transform your life from this day forward.

Kevin Lowe: Because my friend, I want you to understand that you are more amazing, more spectacular than you could ever believe.

Kevin Lowe: And I believe that if you have it in your heart, a dream, an idea.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, it's meant to come true.

Kevin Lowe: And it's your turn to put in the work, to do the effort, to not be held back anymore by fears or lies that you've been told.

Kevin Lowe: But no, it's time for you to chase your dreams with everything you've got.

Kevin Lowe: And today, with the help of Mike Calvo, I hope we're going to get you fired up to do just that.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, if you're ready for it, well, it's all inside of today's 378th episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: What's going on and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, in the studio today with none other than the main man, Mike Calvejo.

Kevin Lowe: Mike, dude, a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

Mike Calvo: What's up? How are you, buddy?

Kevin Lowe: I am doing amazing, man. I am doing amazing and even better now that you're here.

Mike Calvo: So thanks, man. Thank God for small miracles or technical miracles. Finally got in here.

Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. Well, Mike, I'm excited to get to dive into your story, getting to explore kind of all kind of facets of your story from childhood up through adulthood and career and all of that.

Kevin Lowe: And what I would love to kind of start off, though, is.

Kevin Lowe: When you were a kid growing up, did you ever think in a million years that you would be, where you are in life right now, doing what you do, whether professionally, personally, or maybe did everything follow through with maybe what you thought?

Mike Calvo: Oh, no. Well, let's begin by saying I'm an old guy. So I'll be like, I remember back in the day when I was playing with cassette players and reel-to-reel tape recorders.

Mike Calvo: I mean, every blind kid I think wants to grow up to be a DJ. Hey, how you doing?

Mike Calvo: And I did that. But no, I didn't think I would end up here.

Mike Calvo: Actually, I wanted to be a lawyer when I was a kid. I always admired lawyers.

Mike Calvo: And I always admired the law because the law has nothing to do with what's right and wrong morally.

Mike Calvo: It has to do with what's legal and illegal, you know, which is a pet peeve of mine. and we try and legislate morality sometimes, and it just doesn't work.

Mike Calvo: Yes. I always found the law interesting. Unfortunately, as we'll get to in a few, my life took a number of different turns based on circumstances and decisions, rather immature decisions in my life at the time.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. Now, where did you grow up at?

Mike Calvo: Well, I grew up in the sunshine state of Florida in Miami. Damn me, I'm a good Cuban kid.

Mike Calvo: I don't sound like, and I tell people, I sound like a white guy from the Midwest. But I'm not.

Kevin Lowe: No.

Mike Calvo: I promise. I speak perfect Spanish, very well.

Mike Calvo: And I learned while I was doing broadcasting stuff, because I used to do voiceovers, and I don't know why, but I have something caught in my throat today that has me a little raspy, so forgive me.

Mike Calvo: I started, and at that time, it was like, you need to not sound regional, which meant sounding like a white guy from the Midwest. So I was like, okay.

Mike Calvo: So that's what I, because in Miami, we're all like, hey, dude, what's up?

Mike Calvo: You know, how you doing? Chillin', you know, this and that. And that's not the way you, you know, you can't walk into a corporate meeting and say, yo, what's up?

Kevin Lowe: Exactly. Oh, wow.

Mike Calvo: Although I've tried.

Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes. Now, so did your parents come to America from Cuba?

Mike Calvo: They did. My parents came here in the 60s after the revolution in Cuba, after the regime change in 1958.

Mike Calvo: My parents came to Florida and they met in Miami.

Mike Calvo: And I was born in 1967 in Atlanta.

Mike Calvo: They left Miami, went to Atlanta to go discover more riches, this and that and the other. And I was born in Atlanta.

Mike Calvo: I have a brother and a sister. I'm the middle child. And I have all the middle child trauma or psychological trauma, which no one except my therapist, which I don't have, gives a damn about.

Mike Calvo: When my parents realized I was blind, as you can imagine, culturally, blindness is at very best, I think blindness is one of those things where you accept it as a parent, then you figure out, you don't know what you're going to do.

Mike Calvo: And I'll tell you, I have five kids. I've been busy. I don't like television.

Mike Calvo: And my kids all came before descriptive video.

Mike Calvo: But, you know, I don't know what I would have done if one of my kids would have been born blind because as a blind adult, I realized that there is so much more to blindness than just my eyes don't work, you know?

Mike Calvo: There's a lot of social impact. I mean, I was told literally from a very young age that you will never accomplish anything, you know? Don't be a burden.

Mike Calvo: And my favorite one was to, quote, act normal, end quote, to which my question always was, well, what the hell is normal?

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, I've yet to find the definition of normal. If you do, send me an email, please. My parents went on that quest.

Mike Calvo: And unfortunately, because of cultural ignorance, they didn't know what to do with this blind kid.

Mike Calvo: So they said, go to Michigan. In Michigan, there's the Michigan School for the Blind. It's the best.

Mike Calvo: And I don't know if that was true, but they believed it was.

Mike Calvo: So I went to Michigan School for the Blind, which is no longer.

Mike Calvo: And I got trained there to do all my stuff. I could make my bed and I could, you know, do all kinds of stuff that they teach us to do, read braille and stuff all by the time I was in kindergarten.

Mike Calvo: And then, uh, you know, ultimately the snow got to us, it got cold, man, in Michigan.

Mike Calvo: And, uh, we came back to Cuba, I mean, Miami and, uh, and, uh, enjoyed, uh, grew up, grew up there and in the crazy eighties and we'll get there.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Now, so you were born blind.

Mike Calvo: Yes, sir. Born with detached retinas in both eyes. and then they were the founder of Baskin Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

Mike Calvo: It was actually my doctor, Dr. Norton, may he rest in peace.

Mike Calvo: And he did a lot of operations on my eyes.

Mike Calvo: So many that my left eye got blown out and just never worked again.

Mike Calvo: And my right eye. And people are like, don't you get mad about that?

Mike Calvo: I was like, no, the eyes didn't work to begin with. All they were trying to do was fix them. So, you know, I mean, as a computer guy today, I get it.

Mike Calvo: Sometimes, you know, when you're trying to recover stuff from your hard drive, If it's blown, it's blown, man. You know, you may be able to recover some information, but it's all gone. And it's not the technician's fault.

Kevin Lowe: Exactly.

Mike Calvo: You know, so I think I have a very positive view on my blindness.

Mike Calvo: If they gave me the opportunity to get my eyes, my eyesight tomorrow, I wouldn't take it.

Mike Calvo: Now, that being said, being blind is a pain in the neck, you know, and as I'm fond to say, and a little lower.

Mike Calvo: But being blind is not the end of the world. Being blind is a major, massive freaking inconvenience, you know, but hey, you know, there are many other inconveniences in this world. It could be worse.

Mike Calvo: I am floored when I hear people say they'd rather have cancer than be blind.

Mike Calvo: That is such a minimization of cancer, first of all, and such a maximizing thing of blindness, which, you know, if you've got stage four cancer, your chances of surviving that are slim to none.

Mike Calvo: If you've got blindness, your chances of surviving that are pretty good.

Mike Calvo: So I don't get it. So I think that our biggest challenge as blind folks is the social stigmas.

Mike Calvo: And the things aren't made for us and blah, blah, blah. But it isn't my attitude. But I digress.

Mike Calvo: My parents moved back to Miami. I went to school in Miami. I got mainstreamed in the first grade, second grade, somewhere in there and move forward.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Now, talking about kind of this idea of blindness is, you know, I always say sometimes, you know, as people who were blind, we don't even think half the time that we're different than anybody else until somebody else reminds us.

Kevin Lowe: That, that we are blind because they have to bring it to your attention.

Kevin Lowe: And I can't help, but wonder as a kid back in that day and age, you've now gone from the Michigan school for the blind where you're around everybody who either is blind knows how to treat blind to then go to quote unquote, this real world.

Kevin Lowe: What was school like for you?

Mike Calvo: You know, it's interesting. I was always told when I was, Oh, everybody knows you're blind, but you, I was like, no, I know.

Mike Calvo: Oh, I'm blind, but that's not like saying everybody knows you have black hair or blonde hair, but you. No, I mean, that is part of who I am.

Mike Calvo: It's not, I don't wake up, oh my God, I'm blind.

Mike Calvo: You know, I don't care. This is the way that my creator created me, you know, and for people who listen to that and don't like that in the book of Exodus, in the Bible, in chapter four, verse 11, I call it the 411 on blindness.

Mike Calvo: God actually takes credit for people's blindness.

Mike Calvo: It is not I that make the blind not see and the deaf not hear.

Mike Calvo: It is I the Lord that does these things.

Mike Calvo: And if you go back and you put that together with all things work for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, then he did this. Yes. You know what I'm saying?

Mike Calvo: So in other words, you know, whatever you believe my quote unquote affliction is, no, you know, unfortunately human beings, we become complacent and we, we like to gripe and complain about a whole lot of stuff, you know, so, but that doesn't, we're not going to blame it on a deity, you know, because we're unhappy with our lot in life.

Mike Calvo: You know, be satisfied where you are. Be content in all things and move forward because...

Mike Calvo: I may lack my sight, but I do not lack innovation.

Mike Calvo: I don't lack creativity. I don't lack intelligence.

Mike Calvo: Well, it depends on who you ask. I have so much to be thankful for that I don't, you know, the ignorance of the world around me is a bigger challenge than my own personal view of blindness.

Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Out of my own kind of curiosity is for somebody who was born blind in the fact that this is this is the world that you've always known, as opposed to somebody like me who went blind later in life.

Kevin Lowe: Did you still have to grieve the loss of of your sight? If you know what I mean?

Mike Calvo: Dude, you just nailed something that I love to talk about. It's what I call the blind crash.

Kevin Lowe: Okay, let's hear it.

Mike Calvo: And it happens to every freaking one of us.

Mike Calvo: Every single one. I've never talked to a blind person that I'm like, listen, come here, come here, come here. Let's talk.

Mike Calvo: Let's talk. I won't tell anybody, I promise. Except for on Kevin's radio show.

Mike Calvo: Have you ever really come to terms? Have you woken up one day and said, and you're probably going to bleep this, and said, oh, shit, I'm blind. Oh.

Mike Calvo: And I'm going to be this way for the rest of my freaking life. My God, you know.

Mike Calvo: So first of all, full disclosure, detached retinas entitled me to some site for a while.

Kevin Lowe: Okay.

Mike Calvo: But never enough. I mean, thank God.

Mike Calvo: And thank God I had an honest doctor who always told my parents, you know, you need to raise him as a blind child.

Mike Calvo: And my parents, so I learned braille. I learned mobility. I learned all my stuff.

Mike Calvo: So I was raised as a blind kid. But I had light perception, color perception, all that stuff until I was about 18.

Mike Calvo: So it's funny. I tell people, yeah, I got to see a naked girl, you know, which was really important to me.

Mike Calvo: You know, in full living color. So that's cool. I don't remember what it looks like anymore.

Mike Calvo: But I went through the blind crash later in life. And I wish we could schedule the blind crash.

Mike Calvo: We just don't know what the hell's going to set us off.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: I don't know what that triggering thing is. I have a great deal of admiration for people like yourself that deal with sight loss.

Mike Calvo: You know, I hate that our brothers and sisters in other countries in Europe especially cover everybody with sight loss because, you know, people that I know that have been total since birth didn't lose their sight.

Mike Calvo: They never had it to begin with.

Mike Calvo: So they're not dealing with sight loss. But a guy like you, you're dealing with sight loss.

Mike Calvo: And thumbs up to you, dude, because you guys are the ones that you have to reinvent your life, which is exactly why my lazy butt wouldn't want my vision tomorrow if I got it, my sight tomorrow if I got it. Because, dude, I'm perfectly happy where I'm at.

Mike Calvo: You know, people around me, oh, yeah, you need it. Yeah, so you don't have to leave me around or whatever anymore, huh?

Kevin Lowe: Exactly.

Mike Calvo: But I'm perfectly happy where I'm at and, you know, regaining my sight.

Mike Calvo: Again, full disclosure, blindness is a pain in the neck.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, but I wouldn't do it any other way right now. You know, I'm very content where I'm at and I'm happy here.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. And, you know, I can't help but think to myself listening to you is that do you feel like having that faith aspect helps with that mindset?

Kevin Lowe: Because I know for myself, I have been able to find great peace in the fact knowing that what happened to me, I believe, was all part of the plan and God's plan for my life.

Kevin Lowe: And for myself, I find peace in knowing that.

Mike Calvo: It's interesting. I didn't become a believer until later in life.

Mike Calvo: I grew up in Miami in the 80s.

Mike Calvo: Like I said, I was told to be normal.

Mike Calvo: I was told from the age of 12 that I, you know, didn't, you know, I needed to work three times as hard as everybody else.

Mike Calvo: And even then, chances are I wasn't going to make it very well.

Mike Calvo: I had sleep issues because of non-24 and stuff. So I would fall asleep in class sometimes.

Mike Calvo: I had teachers that would call me a loafer and stuff. Now, that was, I'm trying to, you know, I'm making them all sound bad.

Mike Calvo: But at the same time, you know, I grew up, you know, selling drugs. I grew up in gangs.

Mike Calvo: I grew up working in nightclubs, you know, which I was exposed to very early.

Mike Calvo: You know, my parents didn't want to be helicopter parents.

Mike Calvo: So in their own ignorance, instead of keeping me home, they did nothing.

Mike Calvo: So I ran crazy on the streets and look for leadership where I could find it.

Mike Calvo: And in the 80s, you know, the place where you found it was in the music industry and in the drug culture, which I embraced fully at the time and got heavily involved in that and ended up dropping out of high school and all of that, you know.

Mike Calvo: But I became a believer in 1995.

Mike Calvo: I no longer classify myself as a Christian. Kevin, I think I've more leaned into deism Because I'm just not happy with where the Christian community has gone of late.

Mike Calvo: And that doesn't, and there are, you know, believers in Jesus and all that, that are DS.

Mike Calvo: I just, I refuse to be a part of today's religious system and its involvement with the political system.

Mike Calvo: That aside, I have a different view than you do on destiny and God's plan for us.

Mike Calvo: I think that God uses availability and then he gives availability.

Mike Calvo: Or if we're going to be 21st century about it, they, you know, because, you know, God has no gender, but, um, but you know, so they give us ability and, you know, I don't buy into the world.

Mike Calvo: God's got a plan for my life. No, no, no, no, no.

Mike Calvo: God's got a plan. And when you make yourself available and say, here I am, use me as you see fit or show me where I can plug in, but it isn't about you, dude. It's not about me.

Mike Calvo: It's all about them, him, her, it, whatever you want to call God, you know?

Mike Calvo: And I think that doesn't bother me.

Mike Calvo: It doesn't make me feel like I got a raw deal.

Mike Calvo: Blindness just is.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, blindness just is, you know, listen, you know, before you this day, I lay blessings and curses.

Mike Calvo: Which one will you choose?

Mike Calvo: You know, you never knew what good was until you saw evil. You never knew what evil was until you knew and understood what good was. Same thing.

Mike Calvo: You know, the only reason that blindness is a problem to you or me is because we're the minority.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: You know, it's funny. Jonathan Mosen does another podcast, and he actually wrote a story about a blind leading world, you know, just a whole blind world that was dominated by blind people and sighted people were the minority. And it was a very interesting turnabout.

Mike Calvo: So, you know, our issues are social. Our issues are not personal, you know, I mean, everybody wants to fit in. That's the nature of the human.

Mike Calvo: We want to fit in. We want to be a part of society. We want to be accepted.

Mike Calvo: And when somebody says you're different than me or you're less than me or you're incapable, you know, than me, it doesn't feel good.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: And people are shocked when I say this. So I'm going to shock you.

Mike Calvo: Ready? Blind people don't need your empathy or your sympathy.

Mike Calvo: What we need is your understanding and your inquisitiveness.

Mike Calvo: This. What can I do, if anything, to help?

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: Yes. You know, I have sat in front of many a sighted person and they've said, well, you can't do that or you can't do this. And I'm like, but why?

Mike Calvo: Well, if I were a stopper right there, I'm like, well, but see, that's the problem, dude. You're not me and I'm not you.

Mike Calvo: You know, I can go to the gym and I can bench 150 pounds.

Mike Calvo: You know, I know people that are my same stature that can't do it.

Mike Calvo: You understand? So it has nothing to do, with your abilities.

Mike Calvo: You know, empathy is, we're taught socially to empathize, but the reality is that a blind person needs comprehension. We're all different.

Mike Calvo: We need conversation, open communication, open dialogue. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: You know, because the reality is that, you know, and when I was younger, I'm an old guy now, I'm 57, but I call myself an old guy and I'm not angry anymore.

Mike Calvo: I used to be a really pissed off person and I'm not angry anymore because I realized that anger gets you nowhere.

Mike Calvo: You know, that doesn't mean I don't bring passion. I mean, I'm Cuban, man. I'm, you know, we're passionate people, man.

Mike Calvo: You know, but, but besides that, you know, I'm here to differentiate between the ignorant and the stupid, you know, and ignorance is you truly don't know.

Mike Calvo: Stupid is you suspect you don't know, you know where you can go get the information, but you're too damn lazy or don't care enough to go figure it out.

Mike Calvo: And I got a cure for ignorance. And that's what I'm doing here today.

Mike Calvo: It's what I do when I speak publicly. It's what I do when I write articles.

Mike Calvo: That's a cure for ignorance. My cure for stupidity will lend me in jail for the rest of my life and get my concealed weapons license taken away.

Mike Calvo: So, and yes, in Florida, they let blind people carry guns and we do.

Mike Calvo: So don't mess with me. No, I'm kidding.

Mike Calvo: But you know, it really is one of these things where, you know, blindness is really up to interpretation and the way that you handle it.

Mike Calvo: And I am so sorry. I have probably derailed every question you have for me.

Mike Calvo: So I would be a good guest to get back in my place.

Kevin Lowe: No, I mean, but what I love about this, and I think this is kind of the direction moving forward in our conversation, at least for the next little bit, is this understanding that.

Kevin Lowe: So blindness, it's a part of you. It's a part of me, but it does not define any of us.

Kevin Lowe: It's just like the fact of you have black hair. I have brown hair. It's a part of us.

Kevin Lowe: And so with that understanding that you being blind doesn't make you some type of crazy individual.

Kevin Lowe: Well, I mean, you're already kind of crazy, but I think that was from other reasons. I was about to say.

Mike Calvo: You're taking away one of my good points here. And by the way, I'll tell you a secret. See, I could lie to you, but I'm bald.

Kevin Lowe: You're bald. Yes. Okay. There you go.

Mike Calvo: And calvo in Spanish means bald. I tell people it's not just a last name. It is a prophecy.

Kevin Lowe: Fascinating. I love it. I love it. Well, I want to get back to one aspect of your story, because despite the fact of even being a blind teenager, you mentioned as a teenager, when most teenagers we think of are maybe doing schoolwork, maybe hanging out with friends, you were DJing and selling drugs in Miami.

Mike Calvo: Yes, sir.

Kevin Lowe: Talk to me a little bit more about that aspect of the story before we learn about how in the world maybe you got out of that world into a more professional role.

Mike Calvo: So rewind, I was 12 years old And I, like I said, every blind kid wants to be a DJ So I, you know, I put together a little demo tape And I went to WDNA Which was a radio station A public access radio station in Miami And wanted to do a radio show there And they were cool enough to let this 12-year-old blind kid Go on the radio My voice hadn't even changed And I was doing radio So I used to love to go to the skating rink and I was enamored with disco and with mixing and all that stuff.

Mike Calvo: And there was a guy named Leo Vela who may rest in peace, passed away a few years ago, a close and dear friend.

Mike Calvo: He wasn't a close and dear friend then. He was just the guy that this pain in the ass teenager would call or, and how do you do this? And how do you backspin?

Mike Calvo: And how do you mix? And how do you beat match? And how do you get your levels right?

Mike Calvo: And you know, what kind of cartridge are you using on your turntable?

Mike Calvo: And, you know, how do you put your records in order?

Mike Calvo: And, you know, and Leo was so patient.

Mike Calvo: You know, I learned how to mix, DJ mix, beat match and that kind of thing that way.

Mike Calvo: And I went to my local skating rink and I went on and I said, hey, can I, you know, and they were like, here's this little blind kid. Can I do a set?

Mike Calvo: And what the hell, why not? Let the kid do it. And I impressed them.

Mike Calvo: You know, they had a little teen disco.

Mike Calvo: And, you know, being Hispanic, we have a pretty strong work ethic.

Mike Calvo: So I come home and they said, hey, if you want to work, you know, we'll give you Fridays and Saturdays. You can work Friday nights and Saturday during the day.

Mike Calvo: And then Saturday nights, you know, Saturday during the day, I actually worked the skating rink side. And then Saturday nights, I would go and work the disco again.

Mike Calvo: And I went to my dad and I'm like, hey, dad, I want to get a job.

Mike Calvo: And he says, are you going to keep going to school?

Mike Calvo: I'm like, yeah, of course. And he said, okay. He said, well, man that works is a man that pays rent. And I said, okay.

Mike Calvo: And so from the time I was 13, my dad was charging me 50 bucks a week for rent.

Mike Calvo: You know, and I was making like 60 or $70 at the time. Oh, wow.

Mike Calvo: And I was like, dad, I'm making $70. He said, work harder.

Mike Calvo: He said, work harder. He said, that's the rent. He said, I'm not gonna, he said, what? I'm gonna lower it for you? No.

Mike Calvo: He said, that's the rent here. Figure it out.

Mike Calvo: Which is true, bro. That's life.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: That's life, you know? And so I, you know, I started working.

Mike Calvo: And then the guy, Leo, that was my mentor, he actually got me into a club, a real adult club, under something called the Performers Act, which was basically, I didn't go in there as a 13-year-old DJ.

Mike Calvo: I went in there as an act.

Mike Calvo: Okay. Kind of like a circus. Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, watch the blind guy spin records, you know, I mean, and, and, and yes, it was that patronizing, but what the hell, you know, I went in, I, I started spinning records.

Mike Calvo: I started going to clubs. I started working in clubs from the time I was 13 and I would do guest appearances. And of course it was 1980.

Mike Calvo: So, you know, cocaine and, you know, weed and all that stuff were in abundance in Miami at the time.

Mike Calvo: So, you know, I took the liberties of participating and indulging in all of the above. Never got hooked. Thank you, God.

Mike Calvo: You know, knock on the wood. I don't have an addictive personality.

Mike Calvo: I tell people, the only thing I'm addicted to is my, you know, my female partner.

Mike Calvo: You know, it's the only addiction I kind of foster. But everything else, you know, I don't have an addictive personality.

Mike Calvo: So I did that. And then in, you know, like I said, I started, I got involved with some people of questionable background from Vegas, and you can read between the lines, and they taught me how to hustle.

Mike Calvo: And I became one hell of a hustler at 13, 14 years old, started selling quaaludes, which were a drug back in the day, and just got really involved in that culture.

Mike Calvo: I was making a truckload of money at that time. My dad said I need to make more money, right?

Mike Calvo: I don't think it meant for me to make it that way.

Mike Calvo: But I made more money. I mean, you know, I was making more money and I would always laugh because getting my books in school was a pain in the neck.

Mike Calvo: Getting anything done in school was always this uphill battle.

Mike Calvo: And there was always for this carrot on a stick of you need to go to school and get your diploma so you can get a high paying job.

Mike Calvo: And my principal would be very patronizing at school. I'd be like, bitch, I make more money than you do in a month, in a week, you know?

Mike Calvo: And so it was just, you know, very, very rebellious teenager type of thing and got involved in, you know, if you're involved in drugs and stuff, if you're involved with hoodlums and that kind of thing. And I had enough sight.

Mike Calvo: Back then, it wasn't big fights, we called it rumbles.

Mike Calvo: And people would fight or whatever, and somebody would bring a chain, or somebody would bring some nunchucks or whatever. Nobody would bring guns or anything. It wasn't like it is today.

Mike Calvo: At least in Miami at that time. I mean, Miami got ugly later with all the cocaine cowboy fights and all that stuff.

Mike Calvo: But it was just, you know, it was the way I grew up, man.

Mike Calvo: I, you know, I naturally moved into from DJing, moved into music, started a mobile DJ business, grew that business.

Mike Calvo: By the time I was 16, we had eight or 10 mobiles.

Mike Calvo: I've always been a leader. I think that leaders are born.

Mike Calvo: That doesn't mean that leaders are born knowing how to lead.

Mike Calvo: I think that leaders are born and then we get taught how to lead.

Mike Calvo: And as a great man once said, the master is no greater than his servant.

Mike Calvo: And I believe that strongly.

Mike Calvo: If you're going to lead, then you need to learn how to follow first.

Mike Calvo: And I have had on both sides of the law, some amazing mentors in my life.

Mike Calvo: My father couldn't handle my blindness for a long time.

Mike Calvo: I lacked a good, deep relationship with my father because, you know, and we'll rewind for a second. In 1953, my father went to his mom's house.

Mike Calvo: His parents were divorced and they were in Cuba. And he ran to his mom's house in 1953 to go see her.

Mike Calvo: And she had a blind guy sitting there playing guitar.

Mike Calvo: And like I said, in Cuba, there was a great deal of ignorance pre-revolution.

Mike Calvo: Post-revolution, believe it or not, the main people that gained from the Cuban revolution were people with disabilities.

Mike Calvo: Because for whatever reason, Castro had it, you know, he believed that, you know, if you made a way, everybody could work, you know, so you've got blind people in Cuba, you know, that, that, that have college degrees.

Mike Calvo: I met a blind MD in Cuba. Wow.

Mike Calvo: They wouldn't let you or me near a freaking stethoscope, you know, but I met a blind MD in Cuba and his explanation, Hey, all I lack are the eyes.

Mike Calvo: He said, I got the education. I just tell somebody with eyes, look in there.

Mike Calvo: If you've got a throat ache, what you hear, does that hurt? Yeah.

Mike Calvo: Look in their mouth. Is it red here? Is it red there? Yes. Okay.

Mike Calvo: Well, then you're sick, you know?

Mike Calvo: But when in 1953, my dad ran to his mom's house and there's a blind guy there.

Mike Calvo: And she's like, oh, Carlos, come and listen to the blind guy play the guitar.

Mike Calvo: He's like, what? What are you doing with this piece of crap in your house?

Mike Calvo: If I ever had a blind child, I'd drown it like a cat.

Mike Calvo: You know, and this poor man in that was in 53.

Mike Calvo: I was born in 67. And my father for years just thought he was being punished by God for saying that.

Mike Calvo: Oh, wow. And my father's not a religious man. You know, so I can't even imagine, bro, the burden of that.

Mike Calvo: You know what I'm saying? I mean, and, you know, my heart goes out to him, you know, because that was, I'm a dad and I can't even imagine living with that level of guilt.

Mike Calvo: You know, if I get into an argument with one of my kids and I'm wrong, I'm guilty for, you know, freaking 10 years.

Mike Calvo: So it's, you know, it was pretty intense, but I digress. I did the DJing thing, Eventually built up a mobile business.

Mike Calvo: I've always been a leader. The way I built the mobile business was I didn't buy a bunch of DJ equipment.

Mike Calvo: I built my name and I ended up doing mixes on the radio and all this stuff.

Mike Calvo: I built my name up and said to other kids who had DJ equipment, listen, I've got more parties than I can handle.

Mike Calvo: So I'll take 20% and you'll get 80% and you will work under my label.

Mike Calvo: And that's exactly what they did.

Mike Calvo: And by the time I was 16, I was doing that.

Mike Calvo: Ended up selling that to my business partner at the time because I wanted to go into producing music and did that.

Mike Calvo: And I was DJing at clubs and stuff. So I was making enough money.

Mike Calvo: Didn't want to do the mobile DJ thing anymore.

Mike Calvo: So went forward and then ultimately ended up with a recording studio by the time I was 18.

Mike Calvo: A little recording studio, not a big deal, you know, midi thing.

Mike Calvo: But as you see, school was just never, it was just never important to me and listen it was never important to me because I wasn't important to it You know, I met one or two teachers that ever had the nerve to tell me, you know, Calvo, I believe in you.

Mike Calvo: You know, I met more teachers that were intent on telling me the realities of life.

Mike Calvo: That's bullshit. You don't tell people the reality. You don't tell a 13-year-old kid, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do it.

Mike Calvo: If a 12-year-old or a 13-year-old kid, I don't care if he's blind or if he's in a wheelchair or if he don't have any arms and legs, I don't give a damn.

Mike Calvo: You know, if he says, I want to be an astronaut and a police chief and a mail carrier all at the same time, damn it, you tell them you can do anything you freaking please to do.

Mike Calvo: Anything your mind says you can do, you do it. Because if God gave you the ability to conceive it, God will figure out a way for you to achieve it.

Kevin Lowe: Amen.

Mike Calvo: Amen. You know, no, I feel that very strongly.

Mike Calvo: We have an amazing creator that gave us the ability to dream.

Mike Calvo: And man, what a piece of crap that creator would be if it did not give us the ability to achieve what we conceive.

Mike Calvo: And I bring to you the picture of Abraham. Abraham never saw what God gave him the ability to conceive, but it did achieve. It did happen.

Mike Calvo: You know, write the vision for it will surely come to pass.

Mike Calvo: You know, and I believe very strongly in the power of self-motivation.

Mike Calvo: I believe very strongly in the power of faith.

Mike Calvo: I don't mean faith in a being, I mean faith in one's self.

Mike Calvo: Faith in what you do, faith in what that creator has given you the ability to do.

Mike Calvo: Like I said, I don't think God is up there like a big puppet master moving the strings.

Mike Calvo: God gives us the ability. He gives us, you know, the framework and he gives us the opportunities. You know, what you do with them is your business.

Mike Calvo: If you make crap out of it, well, it's your thing. Don't worry.

Mike Calvo: Creator's vision will be done in spite of you.

Mike Calvo: Yeah. I'm not naive enough to believe, oh, you know, I'm God's little messenger.

Mike Calvo: And, you know, it's not going to happen if I don't do it.

Mike Calvo: Hey, if I don't do it, if God needs to make a donkey do it, and he's done it before, God needs to get his message across to humans through a donkey, he will.

Mike Calvo: You know what I'm saying? And this donkey right here has actually spread some messages for God.

Mike Calvo: So, you know, to me, you know, I have so much to say, dude, and I don't know how to fit it into this, into what we're doing, because normally when I do podcasts, it's kind of just a Q&A.

Mike Calvo: So how did you make it where you are? How did you do this? And what technologies do you have?

Mike Calvo: But this is like, you're opening me up and asking me to share my soul.

Mike Calvo: And I love doing that because I believe, I believe that I have something to say. Yes.

Mike Calvo: You know, there's a little narcissist in all of us.

Mike Calvo: And I believe I have something to contribute. Yeah. You know, and some people may think I'm full of crap and that's fine. You have the right to do that.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: I'm tired of being angry. I'm tired of being upset.

Mike Calvo: You know, I really want to share my life experiences.

Mike Calvo: I want to share the wisdom I think that I've earned throughout the years because I don't ever want a child to go through what I've gone through because of the world's ignorance.

Mike Calvo: And I have really dedicated my life to doing that, to helping our community grow and believe in itself.

Mike Calvo: The power of us, man, power of us. That's the internet gave us a huge amount of power.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: And I leverage it every day of my life. I'm not gonna lie. There's a number of social challenges.

Mike Calvo: There's still an 85% unemployment rate in our community.

Kevin Lowe: Yep.

Mike Calvo: And which is why I decided to build my own.

Mike Calvo: If there's a 90% failure rate, in first-time business.

Mike Calvo: There's an 85% unemployment rate in the blindness community.

Mike Calvo: Well, then hell, it's about a 50-50 shot if I'm going to make it or not.

Kevin Lowe: Exactly.

Mike Calvo: So I might as well do it my way and not have a stop on the gas pedal.

Mike Calvo: Have I become a millionaire? No.

Mike Calvo: But riches are measured much more than the zeros in your bank account.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, I am a motivational speaker, you know, but I'm not going to tell you how much money I'm going to make you. I will tell you that I'm going to change your life.

Mike Calvo: I'm going to change your life because mine was changed.

Mike Calvo: You know, and the defining point, ironically enough, in 1995, I found myself with a broken marriage.

Mike Calvo: I found myself with looking at the possibility of having to murder someone who did a great wrong to me.

Mike Calvo: And I, you know, as crazy as things got for me, you know, back in the day, I never had to pop anybody.

Mike Calvo: Beat a few people up, maybe, have somebody beat somebody up for me, you know, or whatever, sure. but never pop anybody, never kill anybody.

Mike Calvo: I draw the line at that. I don't have the right to take anyone's life unless they intend to take mine.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: You know, however, besides that, I had this experience that to this day, I can't explain.

Mike Calvo: It was to the Christian people, it would be a Damascus Road experience, but I knew nothing of the Damascus Road at the time, and I knew nothing about any of that.

Mike Calvo: And I had an encounter with this thing that said to me, look at what you've done with the life I've given you.

Mike Calvo: Look at what a message you've made of it. And I gave you so much talent, the ability to lead people and look what you've done.

Mike Calvo: And all my life I'd been, you know, leading people into debauchery, you know, leading people, selling weed in school and doing things for it.

Mike Calvo: Like I said, I've always been a leader.

Mike Calvo: You know, my father used to tell me, oh, you know, I feel bad, you know, people have taken, I'm like, no dad, I was the one selling everybody the drugs. Nobody sold me the drugs except for my bosses.

Mike Calvo: You know, so, you know, So it was, you know, I take full responsibility for my behavior.

Mike Calvo: And in 1995, although, like I said before, I do not classify myself as a Christian today in the conventional religious sense of the word, Jesus changed my life.

Mike Calvo: That's it. There's no other way to put it. No religious BS.

Mike Calvo: No, that's just, that is the line, dude. And I've never sold another drug.

Mike Calvo: Never, you know, I'm not gonna lie. By full disclosure, I use cannabis medically, frequently, but that's about it.

Mike Calvo: Don't do drugs, have a drink from time to time.

Mike Calvo: But my life was changed, and from that time to now, I've had the honor and the privilege of leading two companies that have changed the world for hundreds of thousands of blind people.

Mike Calvo: From an uneducated, drugged out, gang banging, nobody's ever going to look at you.

Mike Calvo: You need to be normal bullshit kid from Miami.

Mike Calvo: God is freaking amazing. God is amazing.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: And I'm honored to be a disciple.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely, man. Well, Mike, what I'm curious about is how does that transition happen in your life to go from the kid we're hearing about to this entrepreneur in the tech space?

Kevin Lowe: And how do you even get involved in technology aspects and make this transition into creating the life that you have today?

Mike Calvo: So in 1989 in 1989 i found i had a studio a recording studio and i got my girlfriend pregnant and uh we we were engaged we had gotten engaged we decided to you know to uh to speed it up so that she wouldn't be walking down the the aisle with the bed yes you know so you know so all this time i'm like thinking oh my goodness i gotta i gotta change my life man i gotta do something different.

Mike Calvo: I can't imagine my kid being in kindergarten going, you know, what's your daddy? My daddy, a drug dealer.

Mike Calvo: So that's bullshit. No, I'm not going to do that.

Mike Calvo: So I went and, and, and you got to picture this, Kevin, I'm, you know, wearing a pinky ring.

Mike Calvo: I'm in a suit with hair past my shoulders in a perm. This is 1989.

Mike Calvo: I go to a bank to get a job doing collections.

Mike Calvo: And I got a job working at a bank and realized that after a few months, one of my beautiful mentors, a guy named Greg Luther in the state of Florida, he took me under his wing and he was the one who set up my computer originally.

Mike Calvo: I've been using computers because back early on, I worked with a group of hackers that we were breaking into long distance services and selling codes to like MCI and Sprint and all that stuff.

Mike Calvo: So started doing music, using Voyatra and all that stuff. So I had gotten exposed to computers from a very young age, but hadn't started using them until I was like 21.

Mike Calvo: I got training on how to use Vert Plus at the time, which was a tele-sensory thing in DOS.

Mike Calvo: Went to go work at this bank. And Greg, Greg was just like, you know, once you learn this, you're going to take to it like a duck to water. He was from Iowa.

Mike Calvo: Funny sayings. And he was right. And I, you know, I brought productivity at that time. This is pre ADA.

Mike Calvo: We had a blind employee productivity rate and a normal employee productivity rate, cringeworthy in today's world.

Mike Calvo: And I said, well, if I'm going to be abnormal, then I'm going to be abnormal for a purpose.

Mike Calvo: And, and we, you know, started using an auto dialer and stuff like that.

Mike Calvo: I brought my, my calls per hour from 16 to 37.

Mike Calvo: And they were like, oh man, we want another blind guy, you know, because you're doing such a good job.

Mike Calvo: And by the way, you get to train him. I'm like, oh shit, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do that.

Mike Calvo: I'm freaking dropping out of high school. Do you give me this freaking blind guy to train?

Mike Calvo: I didn't train one. I trained two. Oh, wow. Ironically enough, I remember I used to lug this IBM PS2 model 3286 with monitor home every day after 12 hours of work and put it in the back of my car and learn and learn and learn because behind that computer, I was a freaking equal, dude.

Mike Calvo: And that was, that's all I ever wanted. I mean, I worked, you know, you say, how did I get there?

Mike Calvo: If I had to write a book tomorrow about how to make it in life and how to do, there would be two words, trust God, because that's all I had.

Mike Calvo: That's it. And that was it. Even before I knew God, God knew me.

Mike Calvo: And it was just trust God.

Mike Calvo: Because to this day, I don't know where my paycheck is coming from next month. I truly don't.

Mike Calvo: And with the current political situation, with the DEIA crap that they're doing now, and both administrations are guilty of that, the previous administration for including accessibility as part of DEI and the current administration for keeping it that way and throwing us out with the rest of that whole situation.

Kevin Lowe: Yep.

Mike Calvo: Our community has taken a 30-year step backwards because of stupid ideologies that have their place, but they don't have a place to blindness.

Mike Calvo: And to me, so I don't know where my paycheck is coming from, but I do know one thing, that I am not my provider.

Mike Calvo: So, you know, one way or the other, I'll survive, but I digress.

Mike Calvo: So back to the bank, after a few months, one day Greg says to me, hey, I can't go.

Mike Calvo: We got a presentation at Rider Trucks that we need somebody to do.

Mike Calvo: Would you go over there and connect to their mainframe?

Mike Calvo: And this is how advanced I got. And I went from like knowing nothing.

Mike Calvo: He's like, could you go there and connect to their mainframe and demonstrate to them how a screen reader works and answer some questions for, and I'm still like long hair, dude.

Mike Calvo: And I went, I'll never forget the first day I walked into Ryder Trucks and I'm sitting there with all these suits and I say to them, you know, we're here to talk about hiring a blind person.

Mike Calvo: I said, but the first thing that I'm going to answer is what everybody here is wondering is, who dressed him this morning?

Mike Calvo: And everybody started laughing. And I said, you want to know the truth?

Mike Calvo: I said, any guy who denies in this room that his wife helps him get stressed is a liar.

Mike Calvo: And that's how I got dressed this morning as well. So blindness has nothing to do with me being able to get dressed or not.

Mike Calvo: And I realized that I love talking to people because I'm the kind of speaker that goes into an organization and says, let's take away the political correctness.

Mike Calvo: Political correctness has been the enemy of our community because we don't need I saw the movie on television damn it you don't need to worry about if you ask me if I heard it that's bs that's stupid no Kevin did you hear that movie the other day You know so it's stupid yeah you know but four-sided people they're trying to empathize again don't empathize and I've gone into a number of organizations to just do talking to their executives, their leadership.

Mike Calvo: And if a blind person's late all the time, fire their ass. They're not worth it. But they're blind.

Mike Calvo: So they can read a clock, dude. If not, they got a talking clock.

Mike Calvo: You know, if they take special, you know, if you got a job, protect it.

Mike Calvo: God knows you're part of the specialized 15%. You know, if you don't appreciate what you got, then you don't deserve it.

Mike Calvo: So to me, I went in and I realized that I loved talking to leadership and companies and stuff, and I like that environment.

Mike Calvo: So this guy, I can't say his name because of HIPAA, but he went and he got a job at Rider, and Greg says, I can't go down there and program that thing.

Mike Calvo: I'm sure he could. He said, you're gonna need to do it.

Mike Calvo: I'm like, Greg, I can't do that. He said, yes, you can. I said, Greg, are you kidding?

Mike Calvo: And he's like, I'll pay you 75 bucks a day, which is crap money, but okay.

Mike Calvo: I said, okay, considering I was making $13,500 at the bank.

Mike Calvo: I got to remember, dude, I come from drugs and all that crap.

Mike Calvo: So I'm making tons of money when I was a kid. Yes.

Mike Calvo: And went down to $13,500 a year at the bank.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: With, you know, and the reason I left was because they literally told me, I said, so when am I going to be the president of this bitch? You know?

Mike Calvo: And they were like, they were like, hey, you know, we don't know what to do with you people.

Mike Calvo: Like you people, really? Yeah. Some guy came in, he set up the, he set up your computer and said you could do this and then the other.

Mike Calvo: And I said, so then what you're telling me is that I'll never grow in the rank.

Mike Calvo: So after 20 years here, if I do really good, I get a 5% annual raise.

Mike Calvo: So I'll be from 13, five, I'll be at about $40,000.

Mike Calvo: I'll get a roadmap sandwich and maybe a watch that I can never read.

Mike Calvo: And thanks for 30 years of service, Calvo. Hell no, that's not what I'm going to aspire to.

Mike Calvo: So I'm going to give you the first time, I'm going to give you a statistic.

Mike Calvo: It's called blind fucking turnover.

Mike Calvo: And I walked out. I had left them with two other blind people that were doing really well.

Mike Calvo: And ironically enough, which both are dead, which is so sad that they were older than me.

Mike Calvo: I went and I did this stuff for Ryder. Ryder ended up being one my customers for 15 years while this guy worked there.

Mike Calvo: And I opened up a consulting company and started working with the state of Florida and grew from there.

Mike Calvo: And what I did was I would go into an organization with the division of blind services at first and with other vocational rehabilitative services later.

Mike Calvo: And I would define a career path for a blind person from entry level all the way up as high as they would let me go to executive or managerial or middle management or whatever.

Mike Calvo: And with that, we put together Pizza Hut, which is still in work today, Sun Bank, Sun Trust, Southeast Bank, American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Marriott, American Express, Federal Express.

Mike Calvo: I've worked at all these companies setting up their systems when I was younger.

Mike Calvo: And over a four-year period, we placed over 500 blind people to work.

Mike Calvo: I'm honored and humbled to say that my God gave me the ability to do that in spite of my background.

Mike Calvo: And understand, if I've done anything, it's all in spite of me. It's not because of me.

Mike Calvo: If left to my own devices, all I know how to do is, you know, write a good dance track and sell you some good weed You know, and that's it. But when I'm being directed by my greater purpose, I've changed the world, man.

Mike Calvo: And I'm humbled and honored, you know, because the world changing isn't done.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. Well, you know, what I love about you is, is the passion and heart that comes through in everything that you say.

Mike Calvo: I'm Cuban.

Kevin Lowe: You are human, but it's truly humbling to just listen to you speak about a passion, honestly, when I listen to you, of just helping someone else in whatever way that looks like, whether they needed a drug, they needed some music, or they needed a helping hand. I listen to you, man.

Kevin Lowe: And, you know, dude, we a lot of times can talk about success.

Kevin Lowe: What does success look like in life? Is if it's money in the bank, is it awards, you know, in the office?

Kevin Lowe: To me, success, in my opinion, is looking at the person that you can become in life.

Kevin Lowe: A person like I look at you here today and you talk with such passion and conviction of just wanting to make a difference.

Kevin Lowe: And I think, man, that to me is success.

Mike Calvo: I appreciate that. And thank you. I'll tell you the why.

Mike Calvo: I've always been a believer in working the system.

Mike Calvo: You know what I'm saying? I mean, a great mentor once said, Mikey, if you're going to break the law, you better learn it first.

Mike Calvo: And that has served me well, not for breaking laws, but for understanding that we need to work within the confines of the system.

Mike Calvo: So as much as I love to help people, I'm a self-centered son of a bitch when it comes to certain things.

Mike Calvo: And that is, I want my life to be better and you're going to benefit from it.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: You know what I'm saying? Yes, I have, I mean, I love people.

Mike Calvo: Sure, but there's a lot of things I don't like about people too.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Mike Calvo: You know, me included. You know, I understand my own humanity.

Mike Calvo: I understand my own frailty and my own fickleness.

Mike Calvo: You know, my own pig-headedness. You know, and the thing is that I've had to work it out and I don't think that's fair because I've seen other people that have had to work it out and have worked, I know Harvard freaking graduates, okay, that have done it all right and still can't buy and find a flipping job.

Mike Calvo: That's just dead ass wrong, bro. That's dead ass wrong.

Mike Calvo: You know, and to me, the only way to cure that is to cure the ignorance, is to help corporate America, Europe, corporate world, corporate anybody, educators, people in leadership to understand that, damn it, we're people and we've got abilities.

Mike Calvo: And if you simply learn to think outside of your own little dumb ass box, you might learn something.

Mike Calvo: You know what I mean? And that's the way I am.

Mike Calvo: If I died tomorrow, and I hope I don't, but if I died tomorrow, the one thing that I will not do is die with regrets.

Mike Calvo: I refuse to die with a regret. Have I done some crappy things in my life?

Mike Calvo: You betcha. Am I guilty? Absolutely not.

Mike Calvo: No, I'm not guilty. I don't feel guilty. I don't feel bad, I've done what I had to do and I will continue to do what I have to do to make my world a better place.

Mike Calvo: And I will not apologize for doing what I have to do.

Mike Calvo: Obviously, if I chose to do something against the law, if I know the law, I better learn the law before I break it.

Mike Calvo: And I have no intention of, you know, I got too much to lose now.

Mike Calvo: Understand that most people who break the law is because they got nothing to lose. It's because what the hell, why not?

Mike Calvo: And for many years, I go to jail for a couple million bucks.

Mike Calvo: I wouldn't do that today because I got five beautiful children and my wife's got two.

Mike Calvo: So I got seven beautiful children, you know, five of which are girls.

Mike Calvo: You want to talk about karma?

Mike Calvo: So I appreciate, you know, your words, but to me, I'd be a liar if I told you, yeah, I just have this love for humanity.

Mike Calvo: No, man, no, I'm just a survivor. I'm a survivor and I don't ever want it.

Mike Calvo: And I've been given a purpose, a guy named Jim Stovall who founded the American narrative, the narrative television network, which was the first, the predecessor to DVS said something one time at a university and it stuck with me for life.

Mike Calvo: He says, if you wake up one day and said somebody should do something about this and you know exactly what to do about it, name your problem, and you don't, you've probably missed a calling in your life.

Mike Calvo: Very profound statement.

Mike Calvo: You know, and that's, I live my life that way. If I've got a dream, then somebody gave it to me.

Mike Calvo: And if it's to better the world, well, if Christianity's right and we've got an enemy. Well, that ain't that dude.

Kevin Lowe: Yep.

Mike Calvo: So I'm going to do my best to follow the lead and say, I want to make the world a better place.

Mike Calvo: For me first, then for you.

Mike Calvo: No, not necessarily for me first, but I really, I mean, I love our community. Yeah.

Mike Calvo: I love the passion in our community and it breaks my heart to see that our community is suffering unnecessarily.

Mike Calvo: You know, being blind is a pain in the neck and we suffer from that. That's enough.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Mike Calvo: But without having to feel, you know, I mean, just even if the world were perfectly brailed than everything else, we still do everything slower than everybody else, you know?

Kevin Lowe: Exactly.

Mike Calvo: But when you add the social stigmas, when you add the work stigmas, when you add the financial challenges, when you add all of these things that we as blind people deal with every day, it's not fair.

Mike Calvo: I mean, it's life, and I'm certainly not gonna sit here and throw a temper tantrum.

Mike Calvo: It's not fair, but it's not.

Mike Calvo: So if we can help, if we can change the world, if we can make the world just a little bit better, and better than that, if we can die and leave it that way, my goodness, what a great legacy, dude. What an amazing thing.

Mike Calvo: And that's what I'm here to do. I don't know how well I'm gonna do it, And as as Kenny Rogers said, there'll be said one time in a great song, there'll be time enough for counting when the dealing is done and the dealing ain't done.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Such an absolute joy to get to sit down with you today, to get to hear your story, but more so than just your story, just your insights that you have to share about nothing more than life.

Kevin Lowe: For somebody who would love to stay connected with you, whether through service you offer, business, social media, anywhere, is there any way that we can send them?

Mike Calvo: Yep, I am Mike Calvo everywhere. On Facebook, on Twitter, or X, which I don't deal with anymore.

Mike Calvo: On LinkedIn, of course, Mike Calvo. MikeCalvo.com is my personal website.

Mike Calvo: Website, Pneumasolutions, P-N-E-U-M-A, solutions.com.

Mike Calvo: We put the P in there to frustrate blind people.

Mike Calvo: That's really the way Pneumas is spelled. It's my assistive technology company, and we produce accessible cloud solutions for the visually impaired product that you may or may not have used called Remote Incident Manager RIM and other products, document remediation products and that kind of thing.

Mike Calvo: That's a whole different hat I wear. The Accessibility is a right foundation, the AIR Foundation.

Mike Calvo: We've done work in Colombia, changing the world there for blind children, worked in Cuba with their blind, worked in Africa, in Kazakhstan, changing the world for blind people.

Mike Calvo: You know, any of those places. Or just write me, Mike, at MikeAlvo.com.

Mike Calvo: I'd be honored to hear from anybody.

Kevin Lowe: Well, fantastic. Well, I will be positive that all of that is in the show notes for anybody interested for easy access.

Kevin Lowe: Mike, dude, you're absolutely freaking awesome, man. And I truly, you.

Mike Calvo: Don't know me.

Kevin Lowe: I truly, I truly can't say what a pleasure it's been.

Kevin Lowe: Even if you basically kind of described yourself as a really awesome, selfish asshole, you know?

Mike Calvo: Hey, I'm going to get a t-shirt with that.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, man. Yes, man. Well, thank you so much for you listening today.

Kevin Lowe: I hope you have enjoyed today's conversation as much as I have.

Kevin Lowe: Hopefully you're smiling as big as I am.

Kevin Lowe: And hey, if there's anybody in your life that you think of that you think, you know what?

Kevin Lowe: There was at least something said today that they need to hear.

Kevin Lowe: Well, hey, be an awesome friend and share today's episode with them.

Kevin Lowe: And hey, until next time, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. And this, of course, was great grace and inspiration.

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