We were lucky to catch up with Debi Fideli-Robinson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Debi, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Ever been caught up in a storm? The wind is blowing so hard the tree limbs are bending. The rain is coming down so hard and fast the wipers don’t give any relief to see the road. You slow down to try to see where you’re going but can’t see. That’s the type of life storm I was in. It was like I was planning a trip to Italy when I was pregnant. I studied the language, the culture and planned my daily routines. However, when the baby was born, I landed in an unknown place. Like my plane took a very wrong turn when I learned my first child was born without part of her brain and would possibly never walk, talk or do anything for herself. For many years I was trying to get out of this unknown place. A dear friend of mine finally got me to understand that my baby and I weren’t broken. That we were exactly who we were designed to be. Then I started looking at my special needs daughter to teach me. Wow did she ever. All those lessons led me to share her story via our book, Stripped Stretched and Strengthened. In hopes to help others find the sunshine in life storms. All the proceeds we’re set up to raise money for the Sami Sunshine Scholarship. A scholarship that would help bridge the gap between leaving the school system and getting state waivers. It’s for adults with special needs. That led us to start doing fundraising to support the scholarship. The results were mind blowing. So many people joined forces with us to support the mission. So we now have a 501c3 The Sami Sunshine Foundation. We also have opened an adult day program, The Sami Sunshine Center where we focus on spreading sunshine through gratitude and love. The original idea when I felt so broken to look for the sunshine continues to inspire us. We thrive daily to look for the sunshine moments and give rays of hope.

Debi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Debi Fideli-Robinson. The mother of an adult with special needs, known as Sami Sunshine. To me, nothing motivates a parent more than their children. Throughout Sami’s 27 years of life I’ve adjusted my life to her needs. I’ve changed careers and learned new skills to allow the time needed to get her to therapies. I’ve moved our home to get her into the school that provided the most opportunities and now I’m doing whatever it takes to set up an adult care system for her and others in our community to live their best life. We have a 501c3 non profit, The Sami Sunshine Foundation that helps adults with special needs bridge the gap from school services to state waivers. We also have the Sami Sunshine Center, an adult day support program where adults with special needs spread sunshine to the community via soulshine boxes. These boxes are a way to give twice to a friend or family member you want to cheer up, send well wishes or celebrate. Give once to the recipient that gives twice to the fund for adults with special needs The boxes were designed for the adults to grow the produce to harvest and make our families Italian pasta sauce, a pepper jelly, sunshine sugar cookies, sunshine soap and sunshine tea. I am most proud of seeing the joy these adults display as they get to help create and feel included in making a difference.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have found that being transparent with real life struggles, asking questions that a lot of us deal with then answering them with honesty helps connect us with our audience. Videos, mixed with pictures and real stories help us all relate which connects.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My advice for managing a team is to huddle up every week to celebrate wins, plan the next weeks goals and truly allow all the team members to be included in the planning. We can never pay people what they are worth but we can listen, hear them and rise them up to inspire their creativity to win and live their best life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://samisunshine.org

Image Credits
Haley Powers