Aime Hutton - Miracle Survivor- Bully Fighter - Writer - educator- an Inspiration

introduction : 0:02

You're listening to fascinating women with Mark Laurie. And now, Mark Laurie.

Mark Laurie : 0:09

Well, hello, and welcome back everyone. This is really cool. I've got a lady that I've known for quite some time actually photographed her at the Women's Network, the right title, they've changed. You can talk It's okay.

Aimee Hutton : 0:27

A few different places so,

Mark Laurie : 0:28

so the most pronounced one is she had just won this major award. And it was it was sort of she really rose we've been talking and so on, but she became like, wow, a person of substance to me at that point. And then I've been kind of following ever since I thought, you know, this is the person that we should be talking to because she has a growing interesting story. This is Mark Laurie from in Spirit Photography doing the the Fascinating Women podcast series, where we talk to women who I have found are fascinating and get more of their background and what has brought them to this stage of their lives with what they've accomplished what they what sort of skill sets they've acquired to do that. And Amy's acquired a lot of skill sets. This is Amy Hutton. She has has an interesting birth story that we're going to get into a little bit. It's even that started off rocky. She's a youth diversity advisor with educating educators, helps educators facilitate safe spaces for female students so they can still connect to inclusion encouraged themselves. She is a five time international best selling author. And so she has got the written word behind her. And it's pretty inspirational thinking she's it's not just run of the mill kind of stuff. She's got a finalist for the International Femtor Awards. The e-woman network category of business Matchmaker, the only one Canadian in being number one north of six North America. And she was awarded the peace and friendship award by Diversity Magazine in Alberta. So she is going to be cool Thank you for joining us.

Aimee Hutton : 2:02

Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a ride and yeah, we've met a few different times. And I, I've been following your work. And it's remarkable what you do. Actually, the work you do in your photography is is quite stunning. So, kudos to you as well.

Mark Laurie : 2:20

Appreciate that. So first, let's start with the very beginning with your with your rocky birth story.

Aimee Hutton : 2:26

For sure. No, um, I saw a poster A while ago, and it said one in 10 babies are born premature across Canada. Okay. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. So how would this relates to me is that when I was born in 1976, my mom found out the hard way that she couldn't carry to term and I was born at 26 weeks gestation. Normal. Yeah, a normal pregnancy is 40 weeks. So I was born at 26 weeks, and my birth weight was one pound. 12 ounces.

Mark Laurie : 3:05

Wow.

Aimee Hutton : 3:07

Yeah. And I was given 24 hours to live to the point where the, the nurses and the staff were like we have to baptize her like do you have a name picked out and my name is Aime and the spelling of it is a Ei m e, which is French for love. So we think because I was born in Ottawa, that may be the French influence from Quebec. From the nurses were like, that's name nickname her Aime and spell it this way to mean love. So that's kind of how my life started, like my birth weight even dropped to 1.6 pounds. And they were really worried I had blood infections, stomach infections, they had to remind me to breathe. And I finally got to go home just before Christmas like maybe the 20 Third of December, I got to go home. And a funny little side story is that for babies even now today for babies, premature babies to go home from the neonatal intensive care unit, they need to be five pounds or more and breathing on their own. So pretty stable. And it was right around Christmas as I said, and the doctor came in and saw my parents and dad said, Hey, can we take me home we noticed that the nurses are going on holiday and so you know Christmas and we want to bring Aime home. Dr. Brock MacMurray said, Well, have you weighed Aime today? No. So apparently they put me on the scale the baby scale and my dad took his thumb, put it on the scale and said look, Dr. Aime is now five pounds she can come home. I don't think I must have been really close to five pounds like that. Yeah. So um, yeah, that's my birth story. And that's how I came into the world.

Mark Laurie : 5:01

So, so he started off with fighter. Pretty much.

Aimee Hutton : 5:04

Yeah. Yeah. My dad kept a journal of the time of in the Ottawa, Rob Jones Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa. And there was actually an entry in there about that. I was the nurses and the staff had to actually take my teeny teeny hands up with some tape and some gauze because I was trying to pull out my IVs that were in my head, right. So I had boxing gloves on

Mark Laurie : 5:30

A baby with boxing gloves that would have been a photograph.

Aimee Hutton : 5:36

Yeah.

Mark Laurie : 5:38

"I am ready to take on the world." Before you leave the world bruised what am plan what accolmishment oh you hear you are love it, which is once you emanate that this is what you're giving the world of all sorts of the things that you work with. And the same token you got this fighter that will take no prisoners if someone gets in the way of the people You're looking after I like that.

Aimee Hutton : 6:01

Yeah,

Mark Laurie : 6:02

it's good. So when you earlier is anything remarkable that sort of shaped you for this path you're on?

Mark Laurie : 6:07

Ah, yeah. So another statistic that when I read it, it boggled my mind and that is every seven minutes in every school across Canada, a child is being bullied.

Mark Laurie : 6:22

Okay?

Aimee Hutton : 6:23

So think about that for a second. How many schools even just here in Calgary? And then how many hours a day are we are the children in school? bring that down into how many seven minute chunks is in that time period. And it's every seven minutes a child in every school across Canada is being bullied.

Mark Laurie : 6:43

So what what constitutes bullying? Like Like what does it, .. . harsh words physical stuff, both of them.

Aimee Hutton : 6:50

it's it's a it's all about power and control. And it is about Yes, the verbal or the emotional and And it can also be physical which I'll share my story in a brief second that it's the emotional and the mental that plays on the person's internal feelings and their self confidence, their self belief. And then if you add almost like add insult to injury, if you're actually physically attacked, physically assaulted, while you're is this time of bullying, and it's like not to say next level yet it's another degree of okay. Yeah, so my story is that in grade three, the teachers realized that I was having some struggles with my my learning and wanted to put me into special education. A separate like, segregate me totally.

Mark Laurie : 7:47

Right.

Aimee Hutton : 7:47

And my parents were like, Well, no, let's do something different. Can we just hold her back a year, like have a redo grade three, not fail it but just repeat it. And we'll take it from there. But that's when the bullying started. Mark. That's when, because I was the new kid in the class and, of according to all the kids. So like, Hey, who are you? Yeah, everything so relentlessly for days, every day of the school year, I was called names like stupid and ugly, and, and retarded, and a loser. And I began to feel and think that that's who I was, because it was constant. So not every seven minutes but it felt like it was like every minute,

Mark Laurie : 8:33

right

Aimee Hutton : 8:33

something I was being called or being laughed at, or, you know, and do my best to answer a question like putting my hand up to try and engage and I've just laughed at for opening my mouth and trying to say something in class. And then the grade seven year I was in a great seven, eight split, and it was gym time, and I was in the girls locker room getting ready for gym, and someone came up behind me and pretty It was a girl in grade eight. But she came up behind me and grabbed me by my bra strap and flung me around in circles in the gym locker room.

Mark Laurie : 9:08

Wow.

Aimee Hutton : 9:09

Yeah. And then I went flying into the lockers. And I was battered and bruised, and all I could hear was the laughter and the cackles. And I didn't know who did it. So I was scared. The teacher finally came in, and this is where, what sparked me to do what I'm doing today, like the leadership of the school failed me, right, because the teachers didn't step in even well, way back in like grade three, grade four, when the names were being called, they didn't step in to say, hey, let's you know, curve this or Let's stop this or that's like, you know, do some teaching points, name calling. And in grade seven, the teacher finally came in but looked at me and I couldn't say anything. So I was reading the face in tears. And I was from that moment on, I was afraid Go to school, I was afraid to go into gym class. So I changed in the locker room. And then in grade eight, I was still changing in the bathroom inside the locker room. And I had a dream and I had a goal when I was 14. You'd be a lifeguard in work for my town pool.

Mark Laurie : 10:20

Okay.

Aimee Hutton : 10:21

And I said it out loud one day, I'm like, Oh, I'm so excited. I'm going to go to like my swim class tonight. One of my bullies was like, Oh, I bet you're in tadpoles, or minnows. And I stood up as straight as I couldn't. I said, Actually, no, I'm in my bronze cross at that point, and I'm going to be a lifeguard. They're like, No, you're not. We'll just come bug you. And there was other times too when I was in, I was very proud to be in Pathfinders or in Girl Guides, right? And I wear my uniform one day to school because it's a worldwide organization. And there is a day where Girl Scouts Girl Guides across the country and across the world. are encouraged to wear some sort of memorabilia of their uniform to school. So I did, and I was laughed at like crazy crazy laughed at and I remember coming out of the washroom and being laughed at and I just like lost my crap. And I was like, at least I have places to go and people to see after school, I just don't go hang around at the mall. And silence, right. And then laughter because the kids didn't know what to do. And the teacher, one of the teachers came out of the classroom just kind of looked at me again. I'm like, really? In my grade eight brain light. Hmm. So that's, that's what happened. That's what I lived through. And that's also what helps me drive to what I do now, which I know we'll talk about later.

Mark Laurie : 11:46

Yep. Oh, that's impressive. I had a friend of mine had a daughter. She was nine years old and she she sees herself as a defender of the world. And so there's a kid was being bullied, younger child and by an older one, and she went to the teachers. And that you should do something the teacher says all this good and part of the playground that should stop it. And she thought that's not a solution. She says, Can I hit him? teacher says no, you don't do that. Well kind of fend myself. Well, yes, you can defend yourself. So that's the setup. So she she walks and the kid starts being picked on again. She walks in from the child and says, Don't do this and very defiant fashion, right in the kid. The older kid looks at her lunges at her. She whips a pencil and drives into his thigh.

Aimee Hutton : 12:27

Oh,

Mark Laurie : 12:30

they get in there and you're supposed to do this as a principal. You're supposed to talk to him. I did. It didn't work. I handled it was that was the whole thing. And her mom's like, it's not a good thing. Good job.

Aimee Hutton : 12:44

Yeah.

Mark Laurie : 12:45

You know, and it was the kid. Yeah, that was the end of that boys, Bullock's after that. Everybody to the saws potential target, either could fight back or had a potential defender. Yeah. And so that was the end of that child's bullying day. So Yeah so I was Yeah, that is kind of cool. So you so you discovered goal setting pretty early then

Aimee Hutton : 13:06

I did

Mark Laurie : 13:07

this now when you're doing that did you like was it that's kind of the great ages you said great eight brain going this way I'm going to do and you fix on Did you get like how'd you approach that was a visionary type of thing that you got or what was your

Aimee Hutton : 13:21

I I love the water even now today I don't I wish I could be in the pools. They reopen now hearing it I'm very hesitant still of going back in the water. Yet I love the water I swam like that was one of my strengths. Like there was places outside the school that I found as a safe space. Right? This swimming pool was one of my swim classes. finders was another and also actually being advanced was the third. So I excelled like when I was like they used to do the Red Cross used to do like teaching with different colors and the white level was the highest level you would do before you went into doing the lifeguard type training. And that started at age 13. I completed my white level swimming badge thing when I was 10 or 11. So I knew I was something I wanted to do, I excelled at it. And I wanted to be a lifeguard. I just had this. That's what I want to do. I and I continued on the path and I did become a lifeguard when I was 16 and a swim instructor and, you know, was working out my summer camp and for Girl Guides and the whole nine yards. So

Mark Laurie : 14:36

I relate to it. I was I was a fish and I got my, the the highest level, which I think was the was the lifeguard, lifesaving one. And I got that one, actually two years before they allowed me to have it. So I actually earned it. And I just kept on retaking it until I was amazed. I just liked it so much. Yeah. So it was Yeah, to understand the efficient water. Catholic board. Do you have any slogans that you live by in Any phrases that you that just resonate all the time with you?

Aimee Hutton : 15:05

Oh, I have a bunch of quotes Yeah. Like I'm surrounded by them right now.

Mark Laurie : 15:11

Oh beard to top ones at the top. It shows people that if you see someone in pain you say here's their needs need help you give them guidance. Yeah,

Aimee Hutton : 15:21

it's um they're both by Dr. Zeus okay? And the first one by Dr. Zeus is why fit in when you're born to stand out

Mark Laurie : 15:29

like that one.

Aimee Hutton : 15:31

And then the second one by Dr. Zeus is newer to me that I've learned yet it fits so well with who I am. And it is today you are you who is truer than true. There is no one alive who is your than you.

Mark Laurie : 15:47

I like that one. Two pieces of trivia for Dr. Zeus you may enjoy. One is do you know how he got the rhythm for his his timing.

Aimee Hutton : 15:55

I don't remember no.

Mark Laurie : 15:57

He he was a work on a ship and nobody He could write was down in the boiler room. And it's driving something the engines that he would do his meter to to the. And the second one is, did you know he wrote a nude book? No, he's got a book of nudes. They're drawn very similar it's like without, like their look like humans. But there's a whole bunch of nude women's for the whole book and storyboard of nudes. And it's quite a it's quite valuable. As you can imagine.

Aimee Hutton : 16:23

I would bet so with Dr. Zeus Yeah, you would, you would know because of the type of work and amazing images you do.,

Mark Laurie : 16:30

I just kind of stumble across in the course. It's got a purity to it. It's a It's a neat kind of thing. But it's really it's really kind of wild that way.

Mark Laurie : 16:38

What do you because you've got such a pure path right now? Do you feel that that's something that's been nurtured with your parents in your environment? Or something that as you deep in your personality that no matter what, what happened in your life, you would have wound up on this path?

Aimee Hutton : 16:54

Um, good question. I believe it's a mix of both, family growing up. It was a loving family. And I love my parents very much. And yet they were they were worried because I was too worried I was a fragile baby. So they were very concerned about my well being and my, my physical abilities as well. That's actually why I was put into swimming lessons so early and actually also dance helped with my coordination and muscle strength and run growth. And so, they've been encouraging. And then it's just some it's hard to answer this question to be quite honest, because it's just something I, I can do and i and i don't give up and I keep going and, and I have the like, you know, from day one, our minute one of being born that I know I'm on this earth I know God's Spirit. Buddha, whoever people believe in that I am here because I have a bigger purpose. And I survived that premature birth of mine to do good in the world to spread my message to help a wider range than just little here in Calgary to spread my message and go go global with it, which is what I want to do.

Mark Laurie : 18:22

So let's talk about we have, covering my ground and in this period of time amazed how fast it goes by, but you've accomplished a lot. And it's been so recently you've had some big changes as well. You've gotten bolder than, than you've been in the past. You want to tell us about that?

Aimee Hutton : 18:39

For sure. I two things are coming up right now for me to answer that with. And in 2014 I realized that I needed help of getting out of debt, and I was in debt at $30,000 in credit card debt.

Mark Laurie : 18:54

Okay,

Aimee Hutton : 18:55

and I phoned home and I said, actually no mom and dad, phone me Said grandma's house has sold. Have you gone to see a mortgage broker or the bank or something about getting a pre approved mortgage? And I said, No. I lied. Because I actually hadn't been. And dad's like, Well, why what's going on? And I thought to myself, I'm like, do I tell another lie? Or do I bite my tongue and tell the truth? So I told the truth in my Dad, I'm in trouble. I'm $30,000 in debt. And he said, with love, he's like yourself into this mess, get yourself out. So the credit counseling Society of Alberta. I went to them, a friend recommended it and took four and a half years and a plan and a lot of sacrifice on my part. And even being very humble and receiving help and asking for help. I actually had to go to the food bank, because I didn't have food one, one month in my house. And with that plan, though, and putting myself first and sacrificing and asking for help, I was able to pay off the $30,000 January 2000. 19 was my, like, my, my, yeah, I was finished. So that was really cool. And then fast forward a little bit, actually 2018 it was. So within that time frame, I was doing some soul searching some very interesting work. I had been working with a friend of mine, at that time who is a shaman and specializes in dream work and Shadow Work. And I was explaining this dream to her just lots of different colors and symbols and just couldn't really make sense of it. And she stopped me. She's like, Amy, do you ever think you might be and she said that with much gentleness and much love. She's like, do you think you might be attracted to women? And I was like, No, full stop. No, no, no.

Aimee Hutton : 20:48

I can't be.

Aimee Hutton : 20:51

Okay, I'm gonna leave that with you. So a few weeks later, I went to the river, one of my favorite spots here and I sat and I had a journal open and I said, Okay, You know, goddess who was I attracted to growing up? And all these girls names came in with the paper, right? And I dropped the pen and I cried. I'm like, okay, maybe I am. Maybe I'm attracted to both men and women. And, but I couldn't. I couldn't say anything. I was so stuck in fear that I couldn't tell anybody. I told maybe a small small handful of like five or six really good friends. And that was it. Fast forward to 2019 in March, April, and I was in a course I should say, I'm in it right now. I'm doing it again. overcoming fear. And my coach, I we were in a group call and I blurted this out, I'm like, I'm attracted to women and men. She's like, okay, we love you. You got we got you. You're safe. When are you going to tell your parents because I hadn't yet. And she's like me, you help girls to live their real brave self and be that confident young woman that you know, they're born to be You're not living that there's a disconnect. So with her help, she helped me write a letter to my parents. And on August Nope, April 9, I sent it away. And I cried and almost puked. And you know, the whole nine yards, and I went to sleep. And then I woke up the next morning, and there was because of the time difference there in Ontario. The letter had already come back, like the response had come back. And I'm very grateful and very happy to say that it was a positive response, that they still love me that, you know, they'll support me as they can. And the funny part too, Mark, was like, Mom and Dad wrote, well, mom wrote, she's like, we thought something was going on. You would tell us when you're ready, and I guess you're ready. So that's that story. And since then, I've been more more vocal. I was actually last year in the summer, I was at the Airdrie pride festival and had a table and just Being more vocal and, you know, and I do it with all the work I do, but it's like standing up for the underdog and speaking about inclusion and diversity and kindness really, and how all those things are important.

Mark Laurie : 23:15

That's cool. That's and to see the love of your family. But one thing I have always been prideful of my studio is that we, well friends say, you're kind of colorblind, so many different ways because we don't care who comes in the door will make you look good, make you feel good. And so we often get in gay guys, and they're arrived because they, they've just, they've they've once they decide this the safe place, once they've kind of crossed that bridge, then everything goes like they're they know that there's nothing strange going to happen and that they're completely safe they can just play so that's that's an area that has been a point of pride my studio is it doesn't matter what your background is. We'll serve your needs and make you look good make you feel good which is kind of a neat space to have like I'm very proud of the safe summer studio.

Aimee Hutton : 24:02

Yeah. And your studio like I know you're working on a project right now that I'm very grateful and honored that I got to be. And you know, I had, like, my anxiety was up here.

Aimee Hutton : 24:15

Like it was big.

Mark Laurie : 24:16

She's talking about this fellow's haven't figured it out. She's talking about her body speaks with women come in, they're new, they get words painted the body, that means something to them. So it's very, very revealing. They step onto a white background, nothing to hide behind it, and I make them feel comfortable, and I photograph them in their power words. So there you go.

Aimee Hutton : 24:32

Yeah, so that was a really powerful experience. And it was really cool too, because I realized mark, we did that right in the weekend of International Women's Day.

Mark Laurie : 24:40

I didn't realize that, cool, got any more attention what's going on in the world,

Aimee Hutton : 24:43

which is really cool.

Mark Laurie : 24:44

Yeah.

Aimee Hutton : 24:45

The five words that I chose, it was a really for me, it was very healing because of words I used to be called those five words, your kids called me. So to have the words on my body now that we know work. powerful for me and my healing and my rise into who I am, was quite, quite powerful. So thank you.

Mark Laurie : 25:09

You're welcome., it was a delight to photograph you in. It. It's fun to watch because it's two hours, I can see women change in that as the words come on. And I believe that your body is so much liquid waterbased it's I've done studies on the on how words written on liquid, how it changes them. There's a whole Japanese study with that I've actually met the man that did that. And so you have these positive words in your body and that body just takes it embraces it. It's really it's really kind of wild. What's your big goal? What do you want to accomplish?

Mark Laurie : 25:42

What do I want to accomplish? I would love to see and that's how to word this. So when I went to university in Thunder Bay, Ontario, we had a women's center in campus and I know the University of Calgary has won, yet not what I would love to see Global is to have women's centers but brought down a notch to the high school junior high areas linked in with the library or the guidance counselor's office somewhere in there, to have a safe space for girls to come and say, I was just attacked in a locker room. Or I'm struggling with my sexuality and who I am at my core, or, you know, I haven't eaten in four days and I'm starving myself or I'm harming I'm like, self harming like I'm cutting myself have a space for girls to come and just get support and get resources and connection with other young girls their age, plus, peer support leaders who are in like that upper grade level that have training from me and the teachers on how to guide and support And just be there. I got training them how to be counselors. I'm not training the teachers how to be counselors. What I'm training is how that teachers and these upper level year students can be that safe year can be that empathetic, that kind, that even that brave and bold self, to show the girl who's come in who is fragile, and possibly, and have that safe area where they can be supported and you know, fall down even and get back out. And, you know, big picture with that, too is, you know, speaking to ministers of education or heads of education in different countries and provinces or states. And I coined a little phrase and it's in my head when I use it. It's that I'm an education disrupter. Yes, it's disrupting the way the teachers and the administration do. With social and emotional well being of students, because of the social emotional well being being of students is up, then your marks, your marks are going to come up. Yep. So if you're a social engagement, your social emotional well being is down, you're going to see the dropouts, you're going to see the really low test scores. And it's having that culture environment of a school, to create and encourage and empower the students to live their best self to be their brave, bold, beautiful selves.

Mark Laurie : 28:33

I came across this as a bit of bearing on what you're trying to transform how schools came into being, and it was the one they're talking about was in England, and they explained that, but what it was was the big businesses at the time, were running short of people who knew how to do things. So they created and funded schools and the requirement was we want people who can be trained to do something. We want them loyal. We don't want them And have any ambition because that makes them good workers. No, they're not trying to they weren't trying to educate the kids for the world trying to educate kids to work in their factories, right? And so they want them loyals, they wouldn't go in other factories. They want them smart enough to be able to understand things. So as they as jobs come along, they can easy to train. But they want to have any ambition. They want them to grow up by themselves. And then there's a few other things along the same kind of lines. And you look at the school system, you can see there are some incredible teachers out there and I've met many of them. But there's a core almost like a note because it's changing now there's almost an old school core that because that kinds of school they attract was to put this agenda forward. And it hasn't changed much over the years. And there's I mean, there's a massive force now that that's that we want to be almost like a Star Wars Star Trek kind of world. Yeah, I agree.

Aimee Hutton : 29:55

Yeah, and I agree totally that there are amazing like I had for the most part. I have amazing teachers in my, my high school and my elementary just they didn't know me like they knew probably elementary school, um, speaking of they probably knew what was going on yet didn't know what to do or how to do right. And then fast forward into high school. I thought the bullying was done and I was playing a new leaf I was meeting new friends and getting involved in the swim team in the band. Yeah. And, and my confidence has really started to come back and you commented about, you know, there's one or two like, you know, the term bad apples. So, and and relearning and the old boys club or the old school boys club. Yeah. So in my grade 13 year I took, you know, my grade 12 year I took a grade 13 senior level biology credit. And I was struggling a little bit at the first day or two. So I went to the teacher for help. And I was writing down stuff and you know, whatever he was helping me with, but then he stops. He's like, Amy, you're left handed. Like, yeah, you'll never pass my class. Okay. I was like, Oh, so what about, I was just gobsmacked, like what we do.

Aimee Hutton : 31:14

Um, uh, and I said, Well, okay, well what about a tutor? Or you know, someone else who can help me? And because he was also the head of the science department, he's like, no, there's no one else. So I sat quiet in this class for almost the whole semester, right? until the final end, where the unit we were doing was about anatomy and physiology of the human body. Okay. No, because I was a lifeguard by that point, and my first aid and all that sort of stuff. It was something I wanted to learn and was excelling, actually quite well at. So he was asking us questions and I was answering and raising my hand and, you know, answering the questions correctly. And again, he stopped and he looked at me in front of everybody now. Like class of 30 students looked at me and he's like, Where did you come from? I was like thinking in my head, I'm like, Sir, I've been here this entire time. You just haven't seen me. Yeah. So to come into schools and gently remind them that saying things like that is abuse of power, and authority and it is bullying, from teacher. So, you know, my guidance counselor's in my high school were amazing. Two of them. Were actually two of them. Yes. Two of them. Were my swim coaches, actually. So we got along great. And we had lots of resources, yet there was nothing resource available to say, Well, what if you're being bullied by a teacher? Right, right. So that's where this idea two has come in with resources for girls in schools that might not be too popular with teachers.

Mark Laurie : 32:56

I do. I do love that. I'm force of change like a cross with what I've been doing if I when I started this 40 years ago there was there was nobody doing this that that I actually helped create the what's now called the butterfly industry. But back then it was just the name of rival the time I started in 1980. So awesome. So I appreciate being a disrupter. It's really kind of cool. And I can't believe our reserve wrapping on time, but any final things you'd like to comment on?

Aimee Hutton : 33:24

Hmm. There's lots. However, if someone's listening and they're a mother or a caring adults, have a young person and young girl who is being bullied, remind them that they're not alone. And also, I know technology is really big right now because of COVID. Right? Yeah, please put the cell phone the tablet down and talk with your kids and engage with them and You know, that speaks volumes because I heard a quote many years ago. I think Oprah interviewed this lady it might have been a lady named Tony was her is an author. And Tony said, you know, do your eyes light up when the child enters the room. The child does not care. If you say to them, you know, we hair's not combed, or your shirts not talked in, they want to feel seen and loved and heard. So, that's what I want to leave your listeners with. And that's goes to like teachers and educators that do your eyes light up when you're 30 students enter your room of your classroom. And how are you going to help them today to rise, rise?

Mark Laurie : 34:47

A friend of mine off I got a handy here. He wrote a book called relationships at the speed of dogs, something like that. Got the title. I'll put the title in the notes there. And he just said look, watchdogs, I quit and I've been doing that Like so you, someone comes to the front door, he says you should be greeting people come to your front door like you're the dog. Like you run up with your your tails wagging, your eyes are sparkling. You just can't. And so the whole book is like, this is how the dog is Boston, how it works. It's the same kind of thing. People respond to that, like there's value. When they see a smile, and they get this warmth and they, they feel notice and it's kind of important.

Aimee Hutton : 35:24

Yeah, totally. Can I share how people can contact me?

Mark Laurie : 35:29

Yes, I'll have that written down in the bio. Okay, on the other page thing there, they'll they'll be there. So if you want to speak itself feel feel free. So we just list it.

Aimee Hutton : 35:37

Oh,yeah. So you can contact me through many different ways, but I play a lot on Facebook. I actually have a Facebook page, a group page, or mums and teenage daughters who have been bullied or are being bullied currently, is a space where mums and daughters can come to and meet others who get you know Who can share a story of bullying and it's called inch by inch empowerment leaders. And then my fan page is the same inch by inch empowerment. And to learn more about how I do what I do the best way would be the website which again is www dot inch by inch empowerment calm so as long as you remember inch by inch empowerment and my name be Hutton I am IE

Mark Laurie : 36:25

Yep. And it will be in our notes to the bottom there so you can it'll be an active link to kind of thing for it. So thank you so much for today. It's been it's been wild strim we didn't cover nearly You are a very deep woman that can change the world which I think is exciting. So you do fall in my Fastlane women quite well. This has been Mark Laurie with Amy Hutton. You can find this on your spirit photography as well. I specialize in photographing women make them look amazing. And going deeper than that helping transform them to realize how their own beauty and strength is. Thank you for listening.

Aimee Hutton : 36:57

Thank you.

Exit speaker : 36:58

This has been fascinating women With Mark Laurie, join us on our website and subscribe at fascinating. Fascinating women has been sponsored by inner spirit photography of Calgary, Alberta and is produced in Calgary by Lee Ellis and myofficemedia.