Podcast audio page
Podcast Summary:
Founded by Gary Horton and joined by technical specialist Bahz, Vanward Consulting offers immersive, skill-building programs like *Lean In* and *Lean In Prep*. These initiatives go beyond job training—empowering students through entrepreneurship, real-world work experience, mentorship, and confidence-building “life work” that lasts well beyond the classroom. With a focus on virtual accessibility, teamwork, and practical tech fluency, Vanward Consulting helps students discover their strengths, build professional networks, and shape their futures with purpose and resilience. It’s a hands-on launchpad to independence, inclusion, and impact.
Here are the links we mentioned during the show:
Information about the Lean In! program:
Lean In! Prep program details:
To learn more about the services available through State Services for the Blind and how they can support your independence, contact Shane DeSantis at Shane.DeSantis@state.mn.us or call 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
Gary: Life work is work that you will carry for the rest of your life, and at the end of that commitment is the opportunity to do the thing that you want to do. But no one gets anything in this life without hard work.
Bahz: We have a chat with them about their skills, about their level of experience. And yes, we do have an assessment that encompasses Microsoft programs, their skills on a smartphone. Really, all of the things that are necessary in order to be successful in the business world.
Gary: Vanward Consulting.com. All of our programs, including Lean in, Lean in, Prep, College tour, Slimed, another program, Cyber Detectives. These are all offerings from Vanward Consulting Services.
Jeff: Welcome to blind abilities I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio we have from Michigan. Gary E Horton. And he is the founder of Vanguard Consulting. Gary, welcome to Blind Abilities.
Gary: Thank you very much for having me. I’m glad to be here.
Jeff: And we have Bahz, who’s a technical specialist. Bahz, welcome to Blind Abilities.
Bahz: Thank you. And thank you for inviting us.
Jeff: So, Gary, why don’t you kick it off and let’s find out about Vanward Consulting?
Gary: Well, thank you. Vanward Consulting is a company I started back in 2017 after losing my vision completely. I’ve always been low vision, right? So by the time I got to the 2017, I completely lost my vision right in the middle of a project, you might say. And I started Vanward Consulting, ostensibly as a vehicle to remain employed. Fast forward to 2019. After finishing my voc rehab experience in Michigan, I then converted Vanward Consulting Services with a focus on the public sector, specifically around getting better employment outcomes for individuals of all ages that are blind and visually impaired. That is the elevator speech of my company and our mission.
Jeff: Bahz, and what brought you to Van Ward?
Bahz: Well, I joined Vanward in 2021 after a good friend of mine told me that there was a really cool opportunity that I might be interested in, and subsequent to that, I spoke to a woman who used to be our rehabilitation liaison. We had a conversation. I then spoke to Gary about it, and to say that he was passionate would be an understatement. He showed passion, dedication, commitment, telling me all about the program that he had in mind. And I was just I was hooked, and I’ve been here ever since.
Jeff: Yeah, I went to the website and I started reading about the Lean In program, and I was hooked myself. I dug in and I read all about Gary, read all about the program and stuff. So, Gary, the Lean In program is geared toward pre-ETS students. Why don’t you tell us what you offer to students, I believe age 14, from high school all the way to 26?
Gary: Yes. Thank you. That’s a great, great question. What we do is we’ve broken Lean In, you might say, into two Distinct programs. There’s one program that is geared towards the high school students, and there’s another program that’s geared towards the college students. We do this deliberately because when you’re talking to high school students and college students in one room, you’re not effectively speaking to either of them. So Lean In Prep for the high school students. We focus on job exploration. There is a work based learning experience. There’s also a technology training piece that Bahz is responsible for. We match the young people with mentors or job coaches, you might say, and the focus is exploration. We let the young people try out different types of roles within, let’s say, a business. In fact, we launch a business, a digital marketing business where the students design the website, they work on the website, they do the work. They also are the salespeople. They’re the accountants. They run operations in logistics, and they also execute the marketing plan as well. Here is where the students get an opportunity to try different things, different roles, and most importantly, build a team, a team that works together. We approach the program that all students have agency. All students have skills that they are good at. We try to put these students in positions where they are doing the best they can with the skills that they have. This program is open to any blind or low vision student or any student that even has multiple disabilities.
We find a role for all students that’s Lean In Prep. We’re very proud of that program. We also sell merchandise, and I’m hoping that we can put a code or a link in this podcast. So those that want to support our mission can support it. Moving on to Lean In, Lean In is a program for college students, and as a business person, I saw a gap and I’m trying to fill the gap. The Lean In program is designed to address all the concerns or issues that students in college face how to take most advantage of their post-secondary career self-assessing themselves. Understanding advocacy, understanding am I in the right program? Will I achieve success after college? Am I in a program that’s just a hobby, or am I in a program that’s going to make me independent? How do I find that first job or internship? How do I promote myself online? How do I promote myself face to face? Have I ever created a resume? Do I have a LinkedIn profile? Have I built a professional network? These are the topics that we cover in eight months from usually the fall into the spring right around this time, and then in the summer. We then match those students with our corporate partners where it makes sense. So if a student is interested in information technology, for instance, we put them in an information technology setting. If a person is interested in psychology or sociology, we may give them another option to say, you know what, there’s a lot of college and sociology majors that do human resources in the private sector.
I think it’s important to note here that, as I say in Lean In the program for the college students, we want students to be engaged in the private sector. We do this for two reasons. One, we want to introduce students to all the options that are before them, and we want to show our corporate partners what these young people can do. We have placed students at international firms like Pfizer, DTE energy here in Michigan, and we’ve also done a lot of hybrid positions outside of the state of Michigan all over the country, because we believe with hybrid work, the neighborhood is the entire United States. It’s not just the neighborhood. It’s not just where you can walk or take a bus. Hybrid work environment for blind and low vision people, individuals. The key is remote work, and we help these students use and master these remote tools to best prepare them for after they graduate from college, they then can get that first job. That was a lot. But the Lean In program is all encompassing. We try to solve all of the concerns, the math issue that comes up with a lot of college students, the self-advocacy that comes up with the college students, building a network of friends, colleagues, fellow travelers. You might say these are the things that we focus on, because these are the elements that are required for any college student, any student, to be effective and to be successful.
Jeff: I really like reading your website. It’s well written and the drive that you have on there that you expect from the students. You offer the opportunities, but they must do the work. I like that message that you’re sending.
Gary: Absolutely. It’s such a critical component of our program. These young people have agency. They have to work hard in the workshops. They do have actual assignments. We call them life work assignments. Bahz, can you tell them a little bit about the life work assignment and our concept about life work?
Bahz: Absolutely. Life work assignments are those assignments that the students can take with them and continually modify. We have them write cover letters. We have them work on their resumes. We have them practice interviewing. They do budgeting all of those things. But the life work is generally assignments they can take with them. They can continually change. And that’s why we have the name.
Gary: What we like to say is homework is ephemeral. Right,
Bahz: Exactly.
Gary: You turn it into your teacher, they give you an, A, B, C, D or E, and you say, okay, it’s over. I’m over it. Life work is work that you will carry for the rest of your life. That’s the importance of these deliverables. It’s not just a homework assignment. It requires a commitment. And at the end of that commitment is the opportunity to do the thing that you want to do. But no one gets anything in this life, not one person without hard work. It doesn’t matter whether you have a so-called disability or not. If you want to be successful in life, it requires commitment, focus, planning and hard work. That’s what we believe.
Jeff: And that transfers right into life. You’re absolutely right.
Gary: Well, that’s what school’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to prepare you for life as an adult. And I believe and we have seen it. We’ve been running both these programs since 2021, and we’ve had probably, I would say, 60 or 70 students that have passed through the two programs. And we have been very pleased with the attendance, even though it’s largely a virtual program, because, listen, I believe in virtual work. I work virtually even to this day, mostly from my room. I get out, but virtual work is the answer. And teaching these young people virtual skills how to be on camera, right? How to center your camera if you’re completely blind, how to communicate, what are the tools of teams or zoom? How do you prepare for an interview and not be nervous about it? How do you stand up and say, listen, I deserve this job because I’ve worked hard for it. I have the skill sets to do this job. Don’t give me a charity case. Let me earn it. Because when a student earns something, when they earn something, they never forget that. They never forget it for their entire lives. And I believe that’s the work we’re doing here. I know we evangelize about it, but we believe in it.
Jeff: You’re building and selling your brand.
Gary: Absolutely.
Jeff: As an individual.
Gary: You must also, right. Here’s another thing I would add. This is a testament to the program. We started this program in 21. As I said before. Students have come back to work within the program as guest speakers, as mentors. It’s fantastic. They’re building a network that you can depend upon that have gone through the same crucible. You might say, I’m pretty hard on the students, as are my employment partners. We’re not trying to break anyone’s spirit, but we are trying to inculcate them with the concept that when you graduate, when you get out of this college, right, you have to now be independent. How are you going to do that? What is your plan? What is your commitment? And being a person with a so-called disability, You have to be the captain of your own ship for sure. And we reinforce these concepts in all of our workshops, and that’s for both the high school students and the college students. Candidly similar messages, different focus. As I say, with the high school students, it’s like, let’s give you opportunities to try many things because you may not have tried anything. And we have found that students in Lean In Prep and Bahz can attest to this. They may start out thinking they want to be one thing, but after going through the months of the program and the workshops and the actual work experience, and let’s remember, these young people are making money in the work experience.
The way that I do this program is I invest the money, I give them investment capital. They then come up with a marketing plan. We execute that marketing plan in sales, and if we beat our numbers, all of the profits, all of them are then split between all of the members. Vanward doesn’t keep any money. This is their project. So they get all of the funds that shows them the power of work. And if you work hard, you can get more money. These are powerful concepts for students, many of whom have never had a real job. Right? So I think by requiring these young people to say, you must stand up, even though there’s lots of people that will give you a hand up, no question about it. It’s always better to stand up. It’s always better to use all your powers, not be afraid to ask for help, but use all your powers to get things done because that’s what life is. And they need to learn.
Jeff: I like that it’s teamwork because sometimes there’s frustration with teamwork, but there’s also successes, and they get to reap those rewards and those skills, those transferable skills, they get to bring them with them for sure.
Gary: Me and Bahz talk about this all the time. We always in our Lean In Prep program, we always, always, always have one student that says in our first cohort, I was so amazed by this, the student said, Mr. Horton, I know that over the course of this program, I could have done more and I could have carried more weight, and I want to apologize to my team members. That is amazing. That is amazing.
Bahz: And they did that in front of the team as well.
Gary: I mean, he apologized to the team because he felt that he could have done more and didn’t. That’s amazing for a young person to say that. That’s a high school student. We had a young lady this year or the cohort that we have, from the state of Minnesota, our young man. That is the program that you saw in the commercial earlier when we were speaking, that young man, you know, he’s monosyllabic, didn’t really communicate very much, loved to be in front of his PC. But by the time we got to the commercial, he delivered it flawlessly. He jokes around with Bahz in their technology sessions. He’s coming out of the shell because these other students are seeing other students that are like them. And just like any other club that any of us have ever been in, right? I mean, I started in computer club in high school. We’re all geeks, but we had each other and this encourages that as well as the training. We’re very high on the program.
Jeff: Well, it’s really important when you’re developing and aiming and shooting for a goal to bring the people along with you that are supportive. Yes, you can go to training and stuff. Go back home and they’ll bring you down to the low expectations and it’ll surround you. It’ll suck you in. But if you surround yourself with people that are positive thinking that have drive, you don’t get to sit still.
Gary: That’s exactly right. Like I said, we say this a lot and Bahz will agree with me on this. We believe failure is a steppingstone to success. So even in the context of our programs, we do allow there to be failure. Because failure is real. Failure is not the problem. What you do in the recovery from it is what builds confidence right when you fail, and then you overcome it. That builds confidence. The most important element of an interview is confidence in the ability and the desire and the thirst to learn new things. If you are able to express those two things in a working environment, you’re going to win. You are going to win. People respond to confidence, real confidence can only be developed, in my view, from failure and overcoming it from challenges and meeting them. These are the things that allow you to be successful over the course of your life. And with all the technology that exists today, there’s no reason that any blind or low vision person or any person with a disability cannot be successful. And lastly, we introduce with these high school students the concept of entrepreneurism. If they won’t hire you, hire yourself. It’s all over the world right now. How many people do you have to sell to? If you’re one individual person to be independent, right? These are the eye opening lessons that we like to introduce to our students. Bahz, would you have anything to add to that?
Bahz: No. What amazes me, just to compliment what you said, is the unequivocal growth that each and every student experiences as someone who works with them on a weekly basis, whether it’s from a technological front or from a mentorship standpoint, giving guidance on all things, from the cover letter to the resume, the growth just widens my smile each and every time. And it’s a comment that I gave to our students just during the last workshop. I love when it happens.
Jeff: Well Bahz, what’s it like for a student when they first come in? Is there an assessment? Do you? I used to teach woodworking. I still do, and I get to know them when we’re sitting down, just chatting for the first week or two. You get to know the person and stuff. So now I kind of got an angle on how to teach. In a sense, I get to know the person.
Bahz: Yeah.
Jeff: How is it at Vanward?
Bahz: No, absolutely. We interview them to just get to know who they are. We have a chat with them about their skills, about their level of experience. And from a technical standpoint, yes, we do have an assessment that encompasses Microsoft programs. We talk about their skills on a smartphone. Really, all of the things that are necessary in order to be successful in the business world, right? Because that is what we aim and strive to do all of the time. That’s our focal point. So the assessment covers all of that, and then the lessons are tailored for each student to accommodate their technological needs.
Jeff: That’s awesome.
Gary: We definitely believe in the customer centered approach. All students come with different skills. But what we do, we focus on them all being better at those skills that they have. As they leave. We do creative things. We also work with graphs and Lean In prep using technology and teaching these young people technology that they’re not familiar with. Sas has a wonderful program that plays an audio for a graph. So let’s say you have a simple graph. What it will do is play musical notes, so you can get a feel for whether sales are going up. Sales are going down in a musical. Note that the young people find that amazing and we like to use tools of the blind in our courses. These are the tools that will help you. Shoot, the tools that help me, whether I’m engaging with the state or I’m engaging with the private sector consumer. So we go deep on Excel. They learn a lot more about Excel than they probably knew. More advanced calculations. We do a lot of forms in Excel to make it easier for students that are blind. We believe that this program definitely prepares young people internally and externally, internally, from a perspective of having confidence, learning the soft skills to build a team, not being afraid to engage. And we work on some of the outside skills, how you brand yourself, how you communicate with your words, how you communicate on paper, and the technology skills that you have to demonstrate for people to see you as a potential employee within their organization.
Jeff: I think that’s really important. Soft skills, that the way you interact with the community, all that. You can have all the other stuff. But if you can’t do that, it might go to waste.
Gary: That is so true. And very true. The Lean In Prep program, just FYI, as I say, we do two cohorts of that program in a year. We are just going to be finishing up our, what you might call our winter cohort, but we do a summer cohort that we’re offering in Minnesota that will be starting in the mid-June timeframe. And we also have an information site available for people that express an interest in the program. And then we take it from there.
Jeff: The Lean In programs are open to multiple states. I mean, Vanward is growing.
Gary: Yes, we are right now active in three states, and we are potentially going to be active in another three states that we’re in negotiations with as we speak.
Jeff: Oh that’s awesome.
Gary: But it is my vision. It is absolutely my vision for this program to be as far nationwide as possible.
Bahz: Yes.
Gary: The more students that are involved from different parts of the country, even as another layer to the program, that is fantastic.
Jeff: I’m so glad that we’re able to help promote this out to people because the internet has no boundaries.
Gary: : exactly.
Bahz: That’s right.
Jeff: People are going to be listening to this, and I think it’s a great program. I’ve gone through the system myself. I’m visually impaired, low vision. I think the more comprehensive you can be, especially like with social media, how do you put yourself out there? How do you present yourself? Like you said, your LinkedIn presence, your brand and all that? I think you guys are doing a great job, and I think more and more people should learn more about this, and counselors should learn about this too, and bring it to the attention of their vocational rehab system as an offering.
Gary: All are welcome. The more the merrier. All are welcome, right.
Jeff: There you go. Do you have the website?
Gary: The website is www.VanwardConsulting.com. All one word Vanward is spelled v a n w a r d combination of Vanguard and forward. That’s the way we think. That’s where Vanward comes from. It’s a combination of vanguard and forward, being in in the forefront and motion. Keep the motion going. On Vanward Consulting.com, You will find a menu and if you go to the public sector, you will see there all of our programs, including Lean In, Lean In Prep, College Tour, which I don’t think we spoke about, slimed! Another program, Cyber Detectives. These are all offerings from Vanward Consulting Services. You can find all of those there.
Jeff: Yeah, I saw you had individualized stuff. I just kept going down the list and I said, wow, this is really impressive.
Gary: We’re trying to solve a lot of problems.
Jeff: There you go. I like solution Based enterprises.
Gary: Absolutely. Thank you. This has been fantastic.
Jeff: Well thank you Gary. Thank you both for coming on and telling us about what Vanward Consulting has to offer and the Lean In programs. This is really awesome.
Bahz: Happy to have done it. Thank you.
Gary: Thank you for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity and we look forward to meeting you again.
{Music}
Jeff: Such a passion, such commitment and what an Opportunity. Be sure to check the show notes for all the links to Vanward Consulting, and you can email the Vanward Consulting team at info@VanwardConsulting.com.
To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact shane.desantis at state.mn.us that’s s-h-a-n-e.d-e-s-a-n-t-i-s at state.mn.us.
Jeff:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities