How an Educator Built a School for Every Child

Summary

Podcast Summary: Living Your Legacy

Episode: How an Educator Built a School for Every Child
Host: Jason Tyler
Guest: Flor Bria (Founder, Lucas Rainbow Bilingual Preschool)
Date: July 9, 2026

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Overview

This episode highlights the inspiring journey of Flor Bria, an educator and entrepreneur who built a network of inclusive bilingual preschools. Flor shares her personal motivations, challenges as a neurodivergent individual, and her approach to early childhood education that supports all children, especially those with diverse learning needs. The conversation delves into the evolution of educational models, how to foster better outcomes for neurodivergent children, and core principles for entrepreneurial success.

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Main Themes and Discussion Points

Flor Bria’s Personal & Professional Journey

• Started in childcare at age 15: Flor’s passion for working with children began early, babysitting relatives and friends’ kids.
  • "I just love kids, you know, and at 18 years, I jump into the world of daycare centers and that's when everything started." (02:17, Flor Bria)
• Now runs four preschool centers in Virginia:
  • "We have four centers right now in Virginia… rocking and rolling." (03:01, Flor Bria)

Creating an Inclusive, Blended Curriculum

• Flor designed her own blended curriculum built on Montessori and traditional models:
  • "I created my own curriculum, a blended curriculum, because I understood that children need different options of learning." (03:01 & 00:33, Flor Bria)
  • "Montessori is all about independence… They learn at their pace. We also have to include the traditional way, like you sit down with the teacher. That way we have two combinations to help them and not make the pressure of learning just one way." (06:20, Flor Bria)

Focus on Neurodiversity and Inclusion

• Programs crafted for both neurotypical and neurodivergent children:
  • "We're not only teaching neurotypical children, but… also implement in our lesson plan things to help… neurodiversity children as well." (03:48, Flor Bria)
• Flor’s personal experience with delayed ADHD diagnosis:
  • "I also have ADHD and I was never being diagnosed and I'm 42 now." (08:31, Flor Bria)
  • "Everything makes sense why I struggle so much when I was little in school… I had to learn on my own because I'm from Dominican Republic and forget about it, this system is not even close." (08:31, Flor Bria)
• Critical importance of connection between educators, parents, and the broader system:
  • "It has to be a connection between schools, parents, and the system. So if we're not all together, things cannot work. Children cannot progress." (04:45, Flor Bria)
• Future-focused on neurodivergent children's potential:
  • "Neurodiversity children are the future… They are the ones that are going to be creating all this amazing programs and system out there." (05:15, Flor Bria)

Critique of Traditional Schooling

• Both Jason and Flor share experiences of going undiagnosed and struggling in traditional classroom settings:
  • "You need to give [children] strategies. You need to give them options." (09:40, Flor Bria)
  • "The system wasn't built with the consideration of the way that I learned." (10:30, Jason Tyler)
• Empowerment through understanding neurodivergence:
  • "When you discover, like you've been struggling with something for so long… you feel kind of like released." (11:12, Flor Bria)

Entrepreneurial Insights & Advice

• Starting and growing a mission-driven business:
  • "It took me a lot of work and a lot of planning… I'm very pleased of how successful my business are, the way the programs I design." (12:06, Flor Bria)
  • "We help inclusive children's, we help everybody… all mix that actually help everybody." (12:32, Flor Bria)
• Key advice for entrepreneurs:
  • "Preparation to me is the most important thing. If you want to be successful in something, you cannot open a daycare or school… you have to know what do you want to create? Be consistency. Consistency is the key in life to be successful." (13:19, Flor Bria)
  • Jason reinforces: "It's the consistency, but it's also the discipline to stay consistent." (13:49, Jason Tyler)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Neurodiversity children are the future. I don't know codings, I don't know anything about AI. They are the ones that are going to be creating all this amazing programs and system out there." — Flor Bria, 05:15
• "You need to give him strategies. You need to give them options of learning. That way they know like, wow, I can get this. It's not that I can't. It's just like, I don't have the—they didn't provide me the right tools to be successful and move forward in my grades." — Flor Bria, 09:40
• "Consistency, it's the key in life to be successful." — Flor Bria, 13:38
• "It's the discipline to say, hey, I'm the type of person that gets up and does this every day." — Jason Tyler, 13:49
• "Just don't give up. As a business, it's a lot of work. But just don't give up." — Flor Bria, 15:09

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Important Timestamps

• 02:17: Flor shares her start in childcare and passion for children
• 03:01: Blended curriculum explanation and current business operations
• 03:48 - 05:20: Inclusion of neurodivergent children and reforming educational approaches
• 06:20: Specifics of blended Montessori/traditional curriculum
• 08:31: Flor and Jason discuss late ADHD diagnosis and its impact
• 12:06: Flor reflects on the work that went into launching and scaling her business
• 13:19 - 13:49: Practical advice on preparation, consistency, and discipline in business
• 15:09: Final encouragement for listeners

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Connect with Flor Bria

• Websites: lucasrainbow.com | matteosplays.com
• Social: Facebook & Instagram (@lucasrainbow)

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Closing Words

Flor Bria’s journey captures the power of education tailored for every child, the importance of inclusion and neurodiversity, and the necessity of grit and consistency in entrepreneurship. Listeners are left empowered to reimagine both education and their own ventures with empathy, adaptability, and persistence.

Transcript

[Flor Bria]

I also have adhd and I was never being diagnosed. I was like, now everything makes sense why I struggle so much when I was little. It's very hard for people that have ADHD to, like, focus. We need to understand we had to come up with tools that help children learn differently.

[Jason Tyler]

Flor Bria is an educator, entrepreneur, and the founder of Lucas Rainbow Bilingual Preschool. She helps children thrive through inclusive early education while empowering families, educators, and women to build brighter futures through compassion, learning and leadership.

[Flor Bria]

I created my own curriculum, a blended curriculum, because I understood that children need different options of learning.

[Jason Tyler]

Anybody out there that has a business that's just getting started, what's one piece of advice that you would have for them?

[Flor Bria]

Preparation, to me is the most important thing. If you want to be successful in something, you have to know it spans the globe like a super high cold Internet Elvis. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

[Jason Tyler]

It's not over until I win the Living your Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary.

[Flor Bria]

The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan, Open Chicago with the league. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.

[Jason Tyler]

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the youg Legacy podcast. I'm your host, Jason Tyler, and today I am joined by Flor Bria. How are you?

[Flor Bria]

I'm very good, thank you. Thank you for the mind. It's a pleasure to be here.

[Jason Tyler]

Welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you. So you are going to be filming your episode today? We're kind of just going into it, just getting started. First of all, how are you feeling so far about the process?

[Flor Bria]

I'm very excited. It's like Wonderland in here. I love it.

[Jason Tyler]

It's the, it's, it's Willy Wonka. It's very, it's very, you know, Fantasy Factory esque.

[Flor Bria]

Yes. Love it.

[Jason Tyler]

So talk to me, Flor, a little bit about just how you got started. I know you and I spoke a little bit off camera. You're in education. How did that journey get started for you?

[Flor Bria]

Wow. I started super young. I was like 18 years old when I decide. Actually, I started when I was 15 babysitting all my cousins and everybody's kids. I just love kids, you know, and at 18 years, I jump into the world of daycare centers and that's when everything started. I just love being around children and be around the kids. That's just been my passion since I was born, that this is all I want.

[Jason Tyler]

So at 18, you got kind of your foot in the door with the daycare centers. Talk to me a little bit about, like, how your business is currently running.

[Flor Bria]

Yes. Right now I was. We have four centers right now in Virginia. Located in Virginia. And we just rocking and rolling. You know, because I created my own curriculum, like a blended curriculum, because I understood that children need different options of learning.

[Jason Tyler]

We talked a little bit about this off camera. But, you know, I feel. I feel like autism and, you know, learning disabilities or even, you know, being neurodivergent, that's kind of something that society is like, really focused on right now with our youth. You know, kids are being exposed to a ton more information than they ever have been in human history. What's sort of your take on that?

[Flor Bria]

Yes, that's one of the things that make our program so unique, because we're not only teaching neurotypical children, but we also implement in our lesson plan things to help them also for their neurodiversity children as well. So that's one of the things that parents love and they trust because they see the progress. It's time for everybody to start including the children with different type of needs.

[Jason Tyler]

And so for those kids with different needs, how important is that sort of developmental stage? Because in my family, I have a ton of educators in the family, and the developmental stage, especially for neurodivergent kids, is super, super important. How important is that?

[Flor Bria]

Yeah, it's extremely important because it has to be a connection between schools, parents, and the system. So if we're not all together, things cannot work. Children cannot progress, and you cannot be able to make those children successful because they are the future. At the end of the day, we had to consider that they are the future. And we have to learn and we have to have the people who ready and prepared to learn different ways. They. They learn differently. And that's the first thing, like, we need to understand. We had to come up with tools that help children learn differently, they think differently, they're smarter than all of us. That according to the world where they're neurotypical right now. But at the end of the day, neurodiversity children are the future. I don't know codings, I don't know anything about AI. They are the ones that are going to be creating all this amazing programs and system out there. So it's time for the system. It's time for everybody to be on the same page and make work. They need to make it work.

[Jason Tyler]

So I want to talk specifics here for a second. Talk to me a little Bit about what are some of the specific parts of your curriculum that you're implementing to help some of these neurodivergent kids that are going through your program?

[Flor Bria]

Yes, I created a blended curriculum. I implemented the Montessori and the typical traditional curriculum. So we implemented all that we. Because Montessori is all about independence. They work on their own. They don't have the pressure of the teacher. It's just like they learn on their pace. And then we also have to include the traditional way that we learn. Like, you know, like you sit down with the teacher. One plus one is two certain things. You know, that way we have two combination to help them and not make the pressure of learning just one way.

[Jason Tyler]

You know, I, I went through gifted programs my entire life growing up, only to then later on find out that like, oh, I just had adhd. Like I was just hyper focused on certain things and then that my creativity in getting into film and getting into this production industry, my ADHD thrived on that. The ability to just kind of hyper focus on one task and this is the only thing I'm focused on and nothing else really matters. But that's where you kind of have to play a balancing act. Talk to me, what's your take on like the traditional. Learn the traditional schooling system as we've built it out, Right. You have your traditions. You, you're going to go into a classroom, there's going to be about maybe 20 kids, 25, and one teacher is going to teach 25 kids the same curriculum and it's going to just be this sort of flat, flat line of how we teach things. How can we change that to make it better for the future?

[Flor Bria]

Yeah. And that's why I created the system that I created because I understood as a teacher as well, because I used to work at the public schools and I noticed that children's doesn't succeed, they lock. Just because like you said, a lot of children are being diagnosed adhd, but sometimes they don't know that they have adhd. As a matter of fact, I didn't

[Jason Tyler]

know until I was like 28.

[Flor Bria]

Well, don't give me, I was about to tell you this. Get this. I find out during my career that I also have ADHD and I was never being diagnosed and I'm 42 now. So I discovered this like two years ago because I was like, wait a minute, while I was going through school, I was like, wait a minute, why all these signs? I feel like I have this whole thing. So after I discovered that, I was like, oh my God. And I was officially, I was notified I was the ADHD person. I was like, now everything makes sense why I struggle so much. When I was little in school, why do I have to, like, I had to learn on my own because I'm from Dominican Republic and forget about it. This system is not even close, you know, So I was never been diagnosed. They never tell me that I have anything wrong with me. And I was like, I had to discover that what I was doing my undergrad here in the United States, I was like, I have everything the person with ADHD has. This is crazy. I need to get this official because I feel like I have adhd, you know, because it's very hard for people that have ADHD to like, focus and it's a process. So I had to learn all this by myself without no medications, without anything. And that's what I noticed when I used to be in the classroom, in the public school system that I see children struggle because children doesn't learn only one way. You need to give him strategies. You need to give them options of learning. That way they know like, wow, I can get this. It's not that I can't. It's just like, I don't have the. They didn't provide me the right tools to be successful and move forward in my grades.

[Jason Tyler]

It's like looking at, you know, looking at the system and being like, hey, this system wasn't built with the consideration of the way that I learned. You know what I mean? Like, as more and more information comes out about these different, you know, neurodivergent pathways that the brain can go down, like adhd, autism, all of these different things. As more information comes out, you know, you start researching. I started researching adhd and I'm like, that checks out. That checks out. I do that. Yeah, I do that. Oh, maybe I do have adhd. That was, what, five years ago that I. That I kind of went down that checklist and looked and said, oh, okay, I guess I have that.

[Flor Bria]

Yeah. And it's amazing when you discover, like you've been struggling with something for so long and then you be like, you feel like, kind of like released, because after 40 years, I was like, I feel released because I'm actually know what did I used to have when I was little? When I was a teenager, when I was kids, I was struggling in school and I can actually benefit more people or how to do things differently and giving a strategies of how to learn differently, not just one way.

[Jason Tyler]

So I want to take a second here to just Kind of talk about the business aspect of things. You know, our viewers, a lot of them are very entrepreneurial minded. They're business owners. Talk to me about just starting this, starting your business and what it's what it's taken for you to kind of get it off the ground.

[Flor Bria]

Like I say, it's a lot of work. It took me a lot of work and a lot of planning to make things work. And I'm very pleased of how successful my business are, the way the programs I design, that's working for our children on today's life. And not only that, we help inclusive children's, we help everybody. Neurodiversity, neurotypical children's, it's like all mix that actually help everybody.

[Jason Tyler]

I wanna, you know, as we sort of wind down the podcast here, guys, if you're still watching at this point, I want to make sure that you check out Florida's episode, which will be coming out shortly after this podcast drops. But if you could give one message to the viewers out there. Anybody out there that has a business that's just getting started, or maybe, you know, they got started a while ago, but now they're on kind of, because, you know, business goes like this. Maybe they're on like it's a roller coaster. I'm telling you, if somebody's just getting started or they're on a downturn, what's one piece of advice that you would have for them?

[Flor Bria]

First, you need to do your school. Like, preparation to me is the most important thing if you want to be successful in something, you cannot open a daycare or school. If you do something different, like, you have to know, what do you want to create? Be consistency. Because at the end of the day, consistency, it's the key in life to be successful.

[Jason Tyler]

It's. And I wanted to piggyback off of that. It's. It's the consistency, but it's also the discipline to stay consistent. Right. I feel like so many people, we can create as many systems as we want as we can plan for the future, and life has a wave. If you have plans, life is going to tell you, no, no, these are, these are life's plans, actually. But the discipline to say, hey, I'm the type of person that gets up and does this every day. I'm the type of person that operates my business this way. I say no to anything that is going to keep me off of the path that goes to where my business wants to go. I just want to say it's been a immense pleasure having you here on the show. Thank you, guys. If you're still tuned in at this point, make sure that you're tuning in for her episode which is going to be coming out shortly. Where can people find you on social media? Where can they find your business, your websites? Where's, where's your address? On the Internet?

[Flor Bria]

Yes, yes, you can find us online and also on Facebook and Instagram. You can look it up. LucasRainbow.com and Matteo's plays.com as well.

[Jason Tyler]

Perfect. Perfect. Well, that's another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast. Guys, again, I'm your host Jason Tyler Flor. It's been a great, great joy having you on the show. Any final words for the viewers?

[Flor Bria]

Just don't give up. It's a lot of work. As a business, it's a lot of work. But just don't give up.

[Jason Tyler]

That's it. That's it. All right, guys, I will catch you in the next one.