Episode 70 Transcript


Published: Thursday October 31, 2024

Title:
Embracing Disabled Joy: Advocacy, Innovation, and Community with Ali Cameron

Subtitle:
Founder of Seated Perspectives: Brand Builder for Disabled Folks

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to pushing forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice each week. We will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths. Let’s go.

Welcome back to pushing forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia and I am thrilled about my next guest. I’ve got a friend, a colleague, a fellow disability advocate, entrepreneur coach. She’s a force to be reckoned with.

I have watched her platform grow massively over the last couple of years. Ali has a platform called the Seated Perspective, and she’s dedicating her life to changing the narrative around disability by centering it to disabled joy, which we’re going to dive into. I love that. The word joy in itself is such a beautiful word connected with disability.

I can’t wait to discuss this. Congratulations on this beautiful platform that you have developed and is blossoming into so many spaces. I’m so proud of you.

Ali Cameron: Thank you so much. And yeah, to your point we have been following each other since you spoke for boundless babes a while ago and it’s cool to have markers along the journey seeing how far it’s come. So thank you for pointing that out.

How much has grown lately?

Alycia Anderson: I love that we, the Rolettes experience and the Boundless Babes. which is a women empowerment group that we talk about a lot on this because I’ve met so many amazing women that have been on the show. I’m so grateful for the connections that I’ve made specifically for the ones like you that feel very much like a sisterhood, lifting each other up and being there for each other.

So I’m so happy that we met and your disability journey, I feel like you’ve come so far. It’s been really beautiful. To watch from an outsider looking, and I’m really proud of you. I think that’s honestly where we should start.

Can we look back a little bit and talk about your disability journey, whatever you’re comfortable with where it started.

Ali Cameron: I was injured I sustained a spinal cord injury when I was 14. I was In Argentina with my family on a ski trip. Argentina is where I grew up and where my family is now. I know it comes out of left field a lot of the time. Cause it’s not something I talk about super often on my account, I think. But yeah it’s where my family’s from and yeah, it, it was just a very quick and. spinal cord injuries are a quick and immediate thing that changed my life in a matter of seconds. And What was, interesting about my experience is that was like, ready to go to boarding school in Canada at the point, like I was two weeks away from going, that didn’t happen then. It was almost like COVID was at the beginning where it’s like, Oh, it’ll be over in two weeks. So I was like, Oh, I’ll be better in two weeks and I’ll be able to make it. Once we got more information about What the injury was and what it meant plans changed, but it very much gave us a goal for, okay, it’s not going to happen this year, but it is going to happen next year. My rehabilitation process was very focused on, okay, how do we get to that goal? How do we make it so that you’re independent enough in a year, which now, if I think back on it, it’s just ridiculous to me. I have a lot more compassion for that person than I maybe had at the time, this is a survival mechanism that we’re leading on is pushing forward towards that goal. And we made it happen. I, a year later, went to boarding school across the continent. In a school that had zero disability representation. I was the first wheelchair using student on campus. So that meant there was a lot of adaptations that had to be made and just thinking that had to evolve.

And of course it didn’t all happen in my time there. I’ve done a lot of reflection since on what my time was like there and what could have been a lot better, including some of the adults at the school that really didn’t have the capacity or capability And yeah, I think that experience ultimately is what taught me at a very young age to pull focus away from my disability. The instinct that any teenager has at that time is don’t focus on what makes you different, but rather normalize and acclimate as much as you can. And I just made myself different in other ways. I did really well at school. I participated in musicals and plays and I just excelled in other ways because I didn’t want that to be the focus. that’s an instinct that like became very ingrained in me and it’s how I went into adulthood. It’s how I navigated university. It’s how I navigated my first few years of work. And wasn’t until I started taking myself out of these systems and I started freelancing and giving me the space to really figure out what my identity was outside of someone who excels and does really well that I started to give space to my disabled identity more. And that’s the space from which Seated Perspectives emerged. It was me realizing that I had Put up with a lot of different things. I had come up quite against microaggressions and situations at work where I just went with the flow instead of asking for better. And I guess from a place also of just realizing that I deserved better too.

Alycia Anderson: That second piece is really important because what you’re talking about, I think a lot of us do. Just get through it and want to be accepted and mask as much as we can. Until you get to the point where you go, you know what? I deserve better. This is too hard. Why am I making this so hard?

And I think that sometimes comes with age and experience and.

Getting burnt out, of putting in too much effort.

Ali Cameron: Yeah, absolutely. I think I got to the final straw that I didn’t even realize was the final straw in a work environment where I had to advocate for myself and ask for just what felt like common sense in terms of, Accessible events in the workplace it took that to make me realize all the things I had been through and I don’t know what sorta flip what switch flipped me that I was like, wait a minute.

I’m missing something here. In going out and starting seeding, started seeding perspectives. I didn’t just start educating and putting my message out there. I also gave myself the gift of community, which, All the stuff I talked about before had just passively kept me away from. And the magnificent transformation that comes from seeing your stories reflected back at you. I can’t put words to it still. For me, the first thing was coming across Rebecca Taussig and reading her book, Sitting Pretty. I can still feel the physical reaction I had to reading her book, and how it was like, oh I’m not alone here I don’t know how it is that we convince ourselves that as disabled folks, we’re the only ones experiencing the things we’re experiencing. Finding that community was so important to me. It’s, what gave me the space to just start being much more comfortable in myself and realizing that I deserve community and I deserve ease and I deserve joy. and yes, that sometimes comes at the cost of some other uncomfortable moments when we have to advocate and we have to push to Put ourselves in spaces that aren’t designed for us. But it’s reframed how I make decisions. It’s reframed what I choose to do and what I choose not to do, before was like, again, go with the flow. And now I’m like, nah no, I’m not going to do this thing that makes me uncomfortable. I’m not, and I’m not going to compromise my comfort for your comfort. Just not.

Alycia Anderson: I remember one of the first times I did that for myself, it was at A family event and there was a bunch of steps and I just got, I was all of a sudden strong enough to be tired of it and just say, I’m not going to go there. And somebody in the family was like, Alycia, that’s not like you. And I go, yeah, but it is me, that is so powerful and liberating for us to just take a break from that.

Okay, so you mentioned joy, you mentioned the word joy.

Talk about this central concept to your work and what it means to you and how it’s inspired you to create this space and this platform with, and the activism that you’re doing, your voice is strong, it’s powerful.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

Ali Cameron: Disabled Joy came in early in my journey on Seated Perspectives, and it was like, first sort of choice I made to center it was, Doing this series called Moments of Disabled Joy. I was just like, Hey, I now have access to all these really cool stories of people doing cool things in disability. And sorry, doing cool things and doing joyful things. As disabled folks, and I’m just like, what, why don’t we talk about this more? Like, why is this a normalized experience? And so that was the first thing. I’m just like, I’m going to feature disabled folks, having a joyful time. And the response I got to the first few was like, Oh, like people are interested in seeing this not just disabled folks. Disabled folks are obviously like really keen to have that showcased. And non disabled folks are like, Oh, that’s really cool. Oh, I didn’t know that this was a thing. I’m like, great. And then I started, it was almost like reversed engineered because I started thinking about, okay, why is this such an appealing avenue for me to follow? And. I realized that it’s because like disabled joy isn’t talked about enough. And there are such like, we’re, society is so stuck in these narratives around disability and that it’s either a super tragic thing. It’s something that we have to overcome or it’s inspirational, which is a tired trope. it’s unbelievably tired trope, but it’s still there. And I want to change the narrative. just, I don’t I want disability to be normalized and if we want disability to be normalized, we need to show all the different facets of it. and show that it’s as dimensional as any other human experience. And every other human experience has joy. So like that it’s to me like a missing piece in the puzzle that just needs to be put in and often and always.

I think.

important thing.

Alycia Anderson: go ahead.

Ali Cameron: I think the important thing to say is disability is never always joyful.

It’s as Rebecca says, it’s like the both and of disability. There are multitudes in our experience. It goes back to being a dynamic thing. We hold hard and tough and difficult times, but we also have a ton of joy.

Alycia Anderson: And I think also From an internalized ableism perspective.

Ali Cameron: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: we need permission to be happy just the way we are, and leverage the power of our path and be joyful in the accomplishments that piece brings to. And obviously, like you said, it’s a give and a take and it’s an ebb and flow.

And it’s not always. Joyful but I think from that perspective of looking at disability is like something that needs to be fixed and that it’s bad as disabled people, we almost have needed the permission to be joyful in our own space, and find the bright light in it, which there is, lifting up the community is core and I know that you work with a lot of clients on their platforms and creators can you share a moment that you really felt like you could see the impact?

Is there a story you can share?

Ali Cameron: Yeah, there are a couple. So I recently worked with Lucy Webster, can’t say enough good things about Lucy. She wrote the book, The View from Down Here, and she has a weekly newsletter with the same title. It’s amazing giving really incisive viewpoints on disability and living at the intersection of womanhood and disability, which is unique in itself. And she got in touch cause he was like, feel stuck on where my brand is at right now. And yeah, just could use your help. And as part of my coaching program, we do three, one hour calls. On the first one and I was like already fan I was fangirling like I was coming in as the authority but still like very much fangirling. But we had a really cool talk because she was like yeah I’m not quite sure what I’m doing my colors don’t really feel me and had recently come out as queer and I don’t and had introduced a lot more color and changed her style and I was like I think there’s like a mismatch like how you’re showing up on Instagram in terms of compared the changes you’ve been making in how you show up in person and that led us down a journey of changing up her color scheme and her logo and her friend created a new illustration for her. And then after our coaching program, she launched the brand. I was in tears watching her and seeing the response because it all felt so aligned. That’s the power of branding and what I feel like I’m so focused on and in how I produce the content for seeded perspectives is that Once it aligns and feels authentic, people respond much more. I also worked with Jill Cabernet here in Vancouver, she’s starting her journey as a disabled creator. And is primarily focused on like disrupting the body positivity space. And I think her main concern is like, she didn’t feel confident enough showing up. And there was a moment where she said something along the lines of Oh, I’m not an authority in this. And I’m like no, let’s stop a second. Like your lived experience is what makes you an authority.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Ali Cameron: And that clicked something, like something clicked there. And a few weeks later she started like going on camera and speaking her account for the first time ever.

And that was like such a big moment. then she, yeah, started like making stronger claims in the way that she was positioning her content and like taking up space as like someone who’s disrupting the space. And it was, yeah, that If I just get to sit back and be a cheerleader to the people I work with, I would be happy because it’s such a proud moment for me. And yeah, I’m just, don’t know. That’s the impact I feel that keeps happening. And I’m just excited to keep working with folks who, who make, like it’s a ripple effect. They keep making an impact as well.

Alycia Anderson: My note here is to ask you in that work what are some of the biggest barriers that you’re seeing? And what I just heard a couple were I don’t know if it’s insecurity or imposter syndrome or not feeling like you’re good enough. What are, like, from, A content creator perspective, what are the barriers that you’re seeing of like entry?

Whether it’s like a personal thing or it’s in the market or both.

Ali Cameron: Yeah. I think the space is there. I think where people get tripped up is that thinking, Oh, I’m not an authority or yeah, I guess imposter syndrome to some extent, or I hear also, Oh, I’m not creative. And I’m like, Oh, come on. Disabled folks are some of the most creative people I know.

Maybe you’re not a designer. Maybe you don’t know what colors go well together, but we can work on that together, but yes, you are creative, like disabled folks are inherently innovative and adaptive. And that makes us like really well suited to be entrepreneurs and creators. And that’s like a myth.

I like to dispel very quickly. Another one, obviously, and this is something that I’m constantly thinking about is just general access to income. The reality for a lot of disabled folks is that, access to income is because of the way society works and capitalism. And so I, it was interesting.

I was talking at a marketing, or sorry, I attended a marketing conference this weekend and I kept landing on the fact that entrepreneurship and content creation are some of the most accessible forms of income generation for disabled folks because they can do it on their own time. But it’s like that hurdle of getting there is actually what’s scary to a lot of people and people don’t want to let go of their access to income or they’re worried about the energy that it would take to build something. so I keep thinking about, yeah, the ways that I can support folks in getting there faster so that there is, not as big of a barrier. And also there was someone who was talking at the conference who I was really pleased because she Centered her knowledge or her expertise around the fact that she has three chronic illnesses. And so she’s set up a whole bunch of AI and automation systems mean that her business can run even when she’s not feeling well, or when she has a flare. So that’s got me thinking in the background of okay, maybe it’s a partnership with her down the line, or maybe it’s like the brand support with AI. Additional systems based thinking that really gets people to a place where they don’t have to rely so much on their energy store, or let me flip that, where they can protect their energy store while still generating income for themselves.

I’m loving this, like modern conversation of AI being an accessibility tool to like help.

It…

Alycia Anderson: the day. And. This is not the first time I had another guy on the show. Jan Vishnepolsky and he was ADHD and neurodiverse and he uses a AI in the workforce. He leads teams and he’ll use it.

He builds AI, but he also uses it to put his concepts in. To see if the layman mind will understand how they will understand. And I just think it’s so fascinating and incredible that these tools are actually accessibility opportunities for us as disabled people to lift, take the load or to help, see things through a different lens or whatever.

So that’s cool. I like that.

Ali Cameron: is really cool, and it’s interesting how, or what I found interesting at the conference is that the fear around AI is actually bringing up quite a few ableist tropes, I find, as well. People were like, oh, I don’t want my kid to be lazy and use AI to write their essays, and I’m like, okay, not generalize here.

This, for some people using AI, whether it’s to write or whether it’s to draft something or create a system or automate a function, it’s actually lessening the load for them, whether it’s cognitive, whether it’s mental, whether it’s physical, like they’re, we need to be able to have this conversation as a more holistic thing versus just Oh, I don’t want my kid to write their university entrance. Without sitting and doing the work and I’m like, okay, but but we need to be having, yeah, I don’t know, a more in depth there.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I’m broader, like looking through it through a broader lens for sure.

Ali Cameron: Yeah.

Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: I

You mentioned Argentina and I find this fascinating about you. I did not know this piece. So you’re originally from Argentina, you now live in Vancouver. So two very different cultural experiences, I’m assuming have shaped your advocacy And I was wondering have you noticed how, I don’t know, they cross, like, how have, how has two different cultures shaped the way that you advocate?

And is there an intersection of the two? Because I can imagine they have to be a little bit different.

Ali Cameron: Would say a lot of my advocacy is shaped primarily by my experience here in Canada. The reality is that sort of in me. Argentina, going to boarding school right after my accidents, it put me on the track to Oh, I’ll visit Argentina and I’ll go see my family, but it’s not a lived experience for me.

What I wish, what I do, I’d say the way it does inform me sometimes, and I think I still need to do this more is it makes me think of the experience of disability outside of just North America and Europe, which obviously is a far more, it’s a far more. experience than it is in a lot of other parts of the world. I’m very fortunate that I can choose to live outside of Argentina, which isn’t a super accessible place in the world, even in Buenos Aires, which is the city capital, there’s still a lot, there’s still a long way to go before I would feel comfortable living there. And it’s. just a reality of a lot of old buildings and not a lot of progressive thought in that capacity. yeah, I think it’s just unfortunately something that’s lacking, but the reality also is that there are a lot of disabled that doesn’t mean there aren’t disabled folks there. There are a lot of them there, and their access to a lot of things is hindered by the fact that Their world is not accessible to them.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Ali Cameron: So yeah, I think that’s going to be a step for me down the line is to start expanding my advocacy to not just focus on the challenges that we experienced day to day. In a North American European.

Culture, but rather go a step further and be like, Hey, need to think about this or partnering with folks who are there and elevating their voices.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I agree.

Ali Cameron: they get more exposure.

Alycia Anderson: I agree with that. And I think it’s really needed. I love it. So what advice would you give to disabled entrepreneurs or creators who are, Ali, just starting out on their journey? What is the thing that you would say to them to keep them motivated or to get going or a tip to build their brand?

Is there any advice that you can give?

Ali Cameron: A couple of things. One, if I were thinking back to where I was when I started, is think big. Because was very much oh, if I only influence the people in my circle, then I’ll be happy. I remember my coach at the time, my social media coach, being like no, we’re going to think about how we can monetize things for you.

And I’m like, no, I’m fine. I don’t think about the money. This is more of a side project. No I think if I’d gone in with the intention from the get go, like maybe I’d be a little further down the line than I am now, which is fine. Like I’m not, I don’t regret where I am now in any way, shape or form. Sorry. I’m dealing with a. seeking dog over here. But yeah, so I would just say, start think big, dream big from the get go and you’ll go realizing what you need to do and adapt and evolve as you go, but don’t be afraid to like, yeah, have big aspirations from the get go and in terms of thinking about branding one thing that’s true for me as Cedar Perspectives is that I thought about it as a brand from the very beginning, maybe as a procrastination element, maybe not. I immediately started playing with like colors and fonts because I wanted to have just a and resonant and consistent approach to how I showed up and that brand has shifted and evolved since then. But I’d say start with that and just start playing a little bit and figuring out. your identity is and also what the purpose is behind what you want to do. Having a why behind the brand or however it is you want to show up crucial because that lets you have somewhere to go back to whenever you’re posting something or entertaining a new opportunity. Then you can go back and be like, okay, does this align with my, why does it fit my purpose? And that will also give you permission to say no, when things don’t.

Alycia Anderson: I am.

Ali Cameron: thing. Like we should be, we should normalize saying no. Cause it’s so easy to just say yes to everything.

Alycia Anderson: so bad at it. Oh my God.

Ali Cameron: So yeah, I, I really encourage people to think about their why and their vision or their purpose from the very beginning.

Alycia Anderson: Their identity. I like how you framed that. That’s a lesson for me to take away from this as well, honestly. Okay. So looking forward, what is the future? What is the North Star and how do we work with you?

Ali Cameron: Yeah, my North Star at the moment is to keep finding ways to work with disabled folks and building their brands. It’s, I’ve had the honor of working with seven coaches so far, and it’s been such a joy each time. I come off each call just buzzing, because it feels like it’s exactly what I’m meant to be doing. And then my future, Eventual North Star that I keep coming back to is something that I really want to do eventually is writing a book on disabled joy and Just crisscrossing around the world and talking to different folks about what disabled joy means to them and having that live Physical form in a book.

So that’s.

Alycia Anderson: You need it. You need to start that like now.

Ali Cameron: sooner than .

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I actually think you need to start that now. And when you’re talking about the seated perspective, I’m like, that’s you, like you should be writing that book. I would start that now if I were you. Okay.

Ali Cameron: I need, I, yeah, I need to figure out the process, but I will. I have a couple of people who have written a book, so ask them for advice first and go from there.

Alycia Anderson: What is, how we in the show, we need a pushing forward moment from you a little bit of mantra, something to gift away to our community. To be motivated to go and start their branding and their platform.

Ali Cameron: Yeah, just, I don’t know. Just go for it. I think it’s so easy to believe that everything’s already been done, it’s not true. You have your unique perspective, your unique, vision, your unique project that is made unique because it’s you behind it. And I think living in that and being authentic about it, because I think authenticity is more valuable than anything else right now, especially on social media is really going to attract people to you and to your vision and to your mission.

And yeah, I think that’s all I can really say.

Alycia Anderson: Go for it. I love it. I think that’s great advice. I wish I would have done that a lot, a long time ago myself. So Ali, we’re going to leave all of your information so everybody can follow you, work with you, book you, hire you to speak throw a book deal. Do you let you all of the.

Ali Cameron: Love that.

Alycia Anderson: Thank you for number one being in my life.

I’m so happy that we have this shared. space together, honestly. And just thanks for doing this. You’re a really amazing woman. So congratulations.

Ali Cameron: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a joy.

Alycia Anderson: And thank you to our Pushing Forward community for joining us again this week. We do have an announcement. For November and December, Pushing Forward with Alycia is going to two episodes a month so I can take a little hiatus for the holidays. So that’s the announcement on Ali’s episode. And we will see you next time.

This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia, and that is how Ali and I roll on this podcast.