Title:
Lisa Cox | How a Life Altering Brain Hemorrhage Combined Advertising with Disability Inclusion

Subtitle:
How Lisa Cox Transformed Adversity into Advocacy for Disability Representation

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome back to pushing forward with Alycia. I am so excited about today’s guest. I’m going to start with, if you haven’t listened to her TEDx talk, you really need to, I just got home from the gym right before I started this episode. And my husband was screaming at me, you listen to her TED talk. It’s really good. Packed with content. Lisa Cox is a global published writer, international awarded. Thought leader and major

disability inclusion advocate in the space. She’s basically a powerhouse in our community. She’s an influencer. She’s all over Instagram and other social medias. You need to follow her. More importantly, though, she brings an articulate conversation that is advancing the discussion of disability inclusion in corporate representation through her lived experience, in the workforce. Specifically in marketing and advertising and lights in her talk, the 1. 9 trillion of buying power that disabled community can bring to the table when we’re talking about business and advertising and marketing is super powerful. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.

Lisa Cox: Not a problem at all. It’s really exciting to be here. Thanks so much for having me on the show.

Alycia Anderson: So let’s start off with your personal journey. If you could, briefly with whatever you’re comfortable with, share your story about. Your life change that happened where, how you entered into the disabled space and how that translated into you becoming an advocate.

Lisa Cox: So when I was in my early twenties, happily going about my corporate career in advertising, I’d been to uni, done all the things and climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak.

And then I was at the airport one morning when I had a brain hemorrhage, like a stroke and went into hospital. I spent three weeks in a coma, two months on life support and over a year in hospital after that. So during that first year, my left leg, right toes, nine fingertips were all amputated. If you’re yours can see the screen, there’s still got my thumb.

But now I live with numerous physical and Invisible disability. So the brain injury, the permanent brain injury is probably affects my life more than my prosthetic leg on my wheelchair and things like that. But I was working in advertising and then went back into the industry after several years of hospital and rehabilitation and it became really apparent to me, which it hadn’t before.

It just wasn’t on my radar. I was too busy. Being a feminist and looking at women in, in representation and in advertising, it became really clear to me that there was this complete lack of disability and shame on me for not realizing that sooner. But I knew that I was in a unique position to help change that conversation.

Because I did have not only my lived experience, which is now nearly 20 years, but also that professional background. So I knew why things were like they were and how the industry was working. So if advertisers or marketers say to me these days, Oh, I can’t do that because of X. I’m like, Oh, now I bought it.

Yes, you can. And here’s why, or here’s how it can work. And that’s what I’ve done these days, I suppose, is try and take a more solutions focused approach because Having once been that non disabled person who really wanted to do more and say more, but I was also terrified of getting it wrong, saying the wrong thing, of being screamed at on Twitter or something like that.

I try and help professionals now to find solutions, whether it’s in their content or workplace practices to include disability along with voices from the disability community. So it’s more of a co design, what we do.

Alycia Anderson: I think that’s a really cool story of. taking your experiences of already being an advocate and seeing a problem that needs to be solved and then going straight in at it. That’s amazing. So that’s kind of where it like unfolded.

Lisa Cox: Yeah, I suppose I only got into disability advocacy several years later, right after my my disability isn’t like, well, I can’t really be a hardcore advocate, so to speak, because I know nothing. I’ll be the first to admit that I knew nothing coming into the sector. So I did do a lot around body image and body confidence than women generally.

Because that’s what I really had a lot of experience in media literacy and body image and those sorts of things. And it was only several years later that I did more and more in the disability space as I learned more and connected more with amazing people like myself.

Alycia Anderson: Okay.

So you brought it up, body image advocacy, how does that translate, to you as a disabled woman now you are healing from your illness. but now your body, it looks different, right?

Lisa Cox: Well, you’re right. My body has changed significantly. So for your listeners, I’ve got amputations, one leg scars everywhere. I no longer have a cleavage. I just have a big scar down the middle of my chest where I had open heart surgery, all sorts of things like that. And my, if you want to call it by turning point for want of a better word, happens partway through my hospital during that first year.

I had just had 9th and 6th amputated. I had both hands up in slings because they couldn’t be lying down. And I was like that for weeks. So scratching my nose was impossible, but I was watching mainstream television and at the time, There was a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and every time it came on, they would always rerun the statistic that four in five women hate the way they look, don’t like their bodies. And I remember thinking, this is terrible that there are so many women walking around with all their faculties, everything in place and just can’t appreciate their bodies for what they can do.

Think of what they look like on a, you know, in a bikini or something like that. But the human body is so amazing and having that appreciation for what it can do rather than what it looks like in a bikini or on a t shirt. Stage or something like that. It really upset me.

Alycia Anderson: And that statistic that four out of five women don’t feel good about how their bodies look is actually an astonishing statistic. And I wonder even like on top of that, what that number is for disabled women.

Lisa Cox: It’s really horrified me when I heard it. And as I said, I wasn’t completely in love with everything that had happened and knew it looked terrible, but I had so much appreciation for what my body had done and was still doing had died twice and was still going. And of course I had all the usual fears about how, you know, I was still in hospital.

How will society perceive me now that I’m out? And what will the guys think? Because I was single. I’m like, Oh, well, I, you know, I’m dating again. And those sorts of thoughts start going through your head. But there was a lot to process to say the least.

Alycia Anderson: You found a way to appreciate how your body was fighting through this and surviving. You’re starting a new, almost a new life.

Lisa Cox: And I think a large part of that was my predisability. I was always really into sport and being active and volleyball was my thing. And at the same time, I was this lanky little teenager with braces and Zits and all sorts of things going on.

And I definitely don’t want to compare the two, but just make the point that I, dealt to it learned to deal with me and the bullies and, you know, All of those sorts of things by going, well, you know what, on the volleyball court, it’s about what my body can do

and so I bought some of those experiences into coping with what has happened.

Alycia Anderson: That’s really. Yeah. Amazing. So you mentioned societal perceptions

let’s talk about that a little bit.

Lisa Cox: When they first told me, Oh, you’ll be disabled. You’ll spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair, prostate, all these things.

I was devastated because I thought that, you know, life’s over. I’ll never have a social life, a fulfilling career or anything like that, let alone, you know, meet a guy, all those sorts of things. Turns out that’s not the case at all. But I, looking back, I realized it’s only because my head was full of 24 years worth of media stereotypes,

you could be a Paralympian. that was kind of it for us. a lot of the work I do now is fueled by the fact that I never ever want anyone, a person with a disability to suddenly acquire one to have to feel the way I did back in hospital. And I don’t want parents whose children, they find that their child’s going to be disabled to think that, well, they’re never going to have a future.

And so that really fuels a lot of the work that I do now is not wanting anyone to feel the way I did.

Alycia Anderson: That’s a powerful story. I love the connection and I love how you’re putting your expertise and that, the amazing work that you do into this advocacy from this perspective, I think is amazing.

So tell our listeners what kind of work you’re doing right now.

Lisa Cox: I’m a inclusive advertising consultant. So working with brands and businesses, helping them to include disability, particularly in their content.

because we know that those industries, advertising, media, marketing, are huge and so powerful to shape and reshape public perceptions and social attitudes.

Alycia Anderson: How is that being received?

Lisa Cox: There’s been an increase of the awareness of how important disability inclusion is not just from a social point of view, because yes, it’s a really nice thing to do for society, but also it’s smart business.

So, I guess as a non disabled business person who wanted to do more, I needed those solutions, not just to be yelled at from Twitter. So, that’s why. I’ve taken approach and approach these days of really working with those brands of businesses and guiding them a bit more with no shame, no judgment.

I’m like, I used to be you. I get it. I understand why there’s that fear. unfortunately that’s one of the main barriers to businesses and brands starting is that fear, because if they do get it wrong they’re going to be yelled at, screamed at, all those sorts of things.

So we need to take all of that into account.

Alycia Anderson: And it’s so important right now. you’re in Australia, so I don’t know what the energy is there right now about diversity programs and inclusion, but here, you know, there’s a lot of these programs being challenged. And I think it’s these voices of change that are starting to speak up, that are starting to really make some real clear impact, I think, with, Understanding and awareness in the conversations

Lisa Cox: so social media has been such a big part of that, and it can be a horrible place, no doubt. Don’t want to minimize the dispute that, but for advocates like myself and many others, you as well. Previously we relied on gatekeepers to get our message out there, we had to get things to a gatekeeper who said, Yes, no, you’re not a heterosexual white able bodied person.

And so it was very hard to spread messages or build that awareness, I suppose. But in that respect, social media has been fantastic to connect with people, but also to share messages about why things are important.

Alycia Anderson: How has that been for disabled people in that narrative as well?

A body image perspective, I think it’s been a really good not so good in some ways, but great in other ways that We can just see ourselves. I mean, my feed is full of people’s disabilities. And so when I go through it, I’m like, Oh that’s a bit like me.

I can see myself represented, but that’s just my Instagram feed, which is not a lot. So what I’m trying to do along with others is get that sort of representation across into mainstream media so that whether or not people have a disability, experiences can just be normalized a bit and people can flip through the paper or whatever and just go, yeah, it’s not the disabled body.

It’s no big deal. So to speak,

Being able to challenge those stereotypes of we are only this, that, or the other you know, the Paralympian or the hero or the hospital patient or something else and. Other people might post images post and I have as well.

Just I’m just doing grocery shopping, buying toilet paper through COVID, all those really ordinary things just to let people know that now we’re actually quite ordinary in a lot of ways too.

Alycia Anderson: The lived experience, it allows us to believe in ourselves. So there’s like, benefits of just seeing these basic, you know, like even I’m sure you get this a lot, like on my social media, people love to see just the most basic, it’s like shocking to me sometimes what is so interesting. But I think it’s because we need to see to either learn or believe

Lisa Cox: it shouldn’t be such a big deal or reading, letting really organized and I know CEO students, all sorts of great people, but they just very quick normal, but we don’t see that represented in mainstream media. So until such time as that happens, people will react with, you know, there’s a little shock when they discover that I’ve got a business or I’m married and they’re like, Oh, really?

We didn’t expect that.

Alycia Anderson: It’s still shocking to me though. Like I get the same thing. Oh, you’re married. What a special guy. Brought up your husband. You want to share a little bit about

your story?

Lisa Cox: So all of my places to meet people had suddenly disappeared.

So I had a You’ve got to try online dating. It’s the thing.

So this is over a decade ago. I’m like, Oh, okay. Isn’t that just for dodgy people, but okay, I’ll give it a go. And it wasn’t so met some people, went with some dates and things like that, and they didn’t work out. And then met this absolutely amazing man who I’ve been married to for close to 11 years now.

Alycia Anderson: I am too old for dating apps. I just missed that ride. So I, but I often wonder, like, do you disclose before you go

Lisa Cox: Yeah I personally did, I know it’s a topic in the disability community where not everyone agree agrees, and everyone can choose whether or not they want to. There’s no, you know, definite you must, or you mustn’t. I was just in the opinion that I don’t wanna not disclose and then get on the date and just either watch their face drop or something like that.

I mean, a lot of the guys I dated were okay with it, but we were just a bad fit, so to speak. But yeah, Ren is his name. Like Ben with an R and yeah, it’s been nearly 11 years now that we’ve been married.

Alycia Anderson: I love it. That’s beautiful. That’s pretty great too, that you had several like dating experiences that were pretty typical and good. It just wasn’t the right fit. Cause that was not my experience. I really struggled with dating and. I had a couple relationships that I really felt like we really loved each other, but they were never settled enough with my disability.

And I just always feel like there was a little bit of hesitation or embarrassment or, and I don’t know if that was in my own head or if that was actually happening. It was probably a combination of both. So I think that’s really hopeful to hear your story. Cause I struggled hard, hard when in my dating life.

Lisa Cox: I know I spoke to a friend with disabilities early on and she gave me some great advice, which some of your listeners might be interested in, which is be aware of the ambulance chases. And there were a few of those and the, you know, guys who just want to date you because you’re a poor, broken little bird and they can make everything better and fix you, so to speak.

Alycia Anderson: I want to ask you about the work that you do with your role with the media diversity Australia council. Am I saying that correctly?

Lisa Cox: Almost just media diversity, Australia. I’m the disability affairs officer and then the disability

Alycia Anderson: Tell me about your work there.

Lisa Cox: So that’s a organization had been running for a little while, focusing on cultural diversity. And I approached them and said, you need to do disability as well, because Hey, we’re the world’s largest minority.

And. that were, keen to do some work. And they previously published an indigenous reporting handbook. And that was a way for all the journalists who wanted to report on indigenous affairs to use the right language and know what terms to use and things like that. So over a period of, it was over three years.

Myself and a team of really great people put together a disability reporting handbook and it’s just been republished or updated recently to include a media and advertising chapter that I wrote and I’m super excited about that. But having come from that, that media background where again, I wanted to say do the right things, but just didn’t know how there was no template.

Alycia Anderson: What is the handbook called? What is it titled?

Lisa Cox: Disability Reporting Handbook.

Alycia Anderson: Disability Reporting Handbook. Congratulations. I’m going to check it out. I can’t. That’s amazing.

Lisa Cox: It was a team effort, but really excited that it’s a marketing and advertising chapter in there now, because previously I’d be presenting to a bunch of marketers and advertisers and stuff. Having to tell them about the handbook, I’ve written for journalists and newsrooms, but just pretend, imagine you’re in an ad agency and you’re a copywriter, translate that across.

But we’ve included that chapter now, which is probably more relevant, is definitely more relevant to a wider audience.

Alycia Anderson: What is the name of your TEDx talk?

Lisa Cox: Why diversity is good for business.

Alycia Anderson: We will leave your TEDx talk and the show notes, your website, how to get in touch with you, how to follow you.

So do you have a pushing forward moment, some advice that you can give away to our community?

Lisa Cox: I suppose my word of advice is to know that it does get better and whatever’s happening today, doesn’t mean that’s what it’s going to be like tomorrow or in a month’s time but it does get better and it does change and, but you have to be prepared to put in some of the work.

Alycia Anderson: And you have sister,

Thank you so much, Lisa, for your time and your beautiful grace. And thank you so much to our pushing forward community for joining us today. This has been pushing forward with Alycia and that is how we roll on this podcast.