Title:
From Fearless to Owning It: Alycia & Marty Push Forward into 2025
Subtitle:
This Power Couple Fearlessly Reflect on Their Journey Through 2024 and Brace for Owning Their Paths in 2025
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 Anderson and we have made it to our second New Year’s episode, which is so exciting and as we close the chapter of this incredible, fearless year of 2024, and gear up for hopefully a brighter 2025, I am thrilled to share this new year’s episode with y’all and with a familiar face, my work partner, my life partner, my adventure partner, Marty. Today we’re going to revisit some highlights of 2024, reflect on some lessons and look forward to 2025 and all the exciting things we hope to achieve this last year has been nothing short of monumental.
And the theme moving into 2025, we’re going to also share towards the end of this episode, Marty, happy new year. It’s January 2nd.
Marty Anderson: Happy New Year. how exciting is it to take another leap and run around the sun together? I’m so excited. Last year was so amazing and I can’t wait to see what happens this year.
Alycia Anderson: It was so amazing, and I’m just so happy that we get to experience these things together. We had an incredible year. I guess the first question I want to ask you is, looking back at 2024 what are three words that you would describe the year that we experienced, and why?
Marty Anderson: One would be busy for sure. It would seem almost nonstop. The second would be impactful. And maybe even who knows honorable or something. There was so many so many things going on virtual events, in person events, we traveled a lot again last year. We continued to do the podcast nonstop, making friends learning, creating new content.
Absorbing ourselves fully into this journey that we’ve decided to throw ourselves into. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago we were working in corporate America now We’re 100 percent devoted to disability inclusion, all day long. It’s really been rewarding. And this year proves it. I don’t want to spoiler alert, but we found a lot of accolades this year and we’ll talk about it, I’m sure. What was your favorite in person events of the year?
Alycia Anderson: Don’t you want to know what my three favorite words were for the year? Of course I do. What are your favorite three words? I want to share everything that we’ve been through, but I think my three words are important too, We’ve had this year of bucket lists, which is one of my words for sure. But achieving those bucket lists has been pretty hard.
It’s been taxing, it’s been stressful. I’ve had moments of pretty bad anxiety as we’ve been navigating travel and trips and events and awards all deserve their own right to be celebrated, but in navigating all of that I was tired I had to really find a way to have some sense of balance to get a little bit of rest as well.
this year, was full of bucket lists. milestones and achievements, it’s a year to remember for sure it’s really important for all of our community to understand that.
We have these amazing things happening but it’s very important to also manage the stress and anxiety that can come with it It’s been a year of achieving and you and I have traveled so much, literally the globe, I’m grateful for the experiences we’ve had in different cultures and communities.
And there’s been a lot of growth this year, so it’s been beautiful. I don’t even know if that was three, but that’s me summing up how the year felt for me. What about, some of the events that we had, some of the bookings, we are in the business of booking speeches and events and trainings to make impact in corporate America and beyond.
What are some of the virtual event highlights that we’ve had Marty this year?
Marty Anderson: For me, it starts with those return customers coming back to get more of what we’ve been giving to them. that includes people like Blue Shields of California, Etsy, Siemens, Sodexo, great companies that have wanted the follow up conversation because We offer so many different iterations of talks on disability, and there’s so many more to create.
we’re in an industry that is at its infancy and , there’s so many opportunities that it’s mind boggling. I talk about it lately, just thinking on it and going, wow, there is so much opportunity. But it is awesome to see those companies coming back. And then on top of them Microsoft, great big logo this year Virginia Tech. It was beautiful to see the industries that are coming to seek answers about disability. You have lawyers and law firms, education institutions, a myriad of different types of people coming, the Port Authority for New York and New Jersey. There was just so many.
And then the in person events were just as amazing. What were your favorite in person events of the year?
Alycia Anderson: Before we jump into that, I just have a piggyback to the virtual events that we’ve had. Clients that came back are clients from our past that have booked us multiple times also the Virginia techs or PBS is of the world have also been, they were first bookings this year, but they were long over the last 12 months building those relationships.
the key thing for our community to understand in business in general, if they’re interested that a lot of these companies that are either rebooking us and, or booked us this year for their first time, these are relationships that we are building over time. It doesn’t often happen overnight.
Microsoft happened overnight. They came to our website, they put in a booking request and we were speaking there the next month. That was really amazing. But a lot of these were nurturing relationships over time, creating trust, creating value, figuring out where are products that will fill their need and creating those offerings around that.
it’s been really beautiful to nurture these incredible relationships with these amazing companies to continue to make that impact within each one of those organizations.
Marty Anderson: One hundred percent. And you do a great job at that. And it goes back to the branding of our whole movement, the Heart of Inclusion. Opening up our hearts to those that want to learn and ask questions and being vulnerable enough to say, Hey, this is what it’s like to be living with a disability in today’s world, especially on our focus towards work. it’s so important for people with disabilities to be able to have work. So many of us want to get out of this situation of the locked in number of amount of dollars you get every month go for more. And in a world where we’re moving towards technology and everything’s becoming computerized the importance of adaptability comes to the websites, tools that companies are using makes it so much easier for people with disabilities to enter and get into those work places and fulfill the roles that they’re so desperately looking to fill. Read about it all the time in tech. They need more people for data analytics. They need more people willing to scrub content.
They need more people that want to be creative, that want to share, that want to generate, and it’s all technological, and anybody can do that, right? And not only that, but there’s so many other realms where people with disabilities are breaking down barriers. I have friends that want to become jewelers get into manufacturing and that are in retail so it doesn’t have to just be a computer job. It can be any job that a person with a disability is looking for. companies need to realize that 80 percent of people without a job that have disabilities. Are sitting there waiting to be that pool of available opportunity for those employers.
Alycia Anderson: From an in person perspective, how’d we do?
Marty Anderson: This year was so fun to get out on the road
Alycia Anderson: It was fun.
Marty Anderson: I loved starting off the year in Murrieta and that powerful event where you spoke to literally over a few thousand educators from middle school to elementary school to high school, the whole unified district of Murrieta. And it was three sessions back to back, filling the auditorium that had over 1000 people in it. it was just so beautiful to be Starting that way. and then of course the educational trips that we took to Michigan and working with the transitions teams of Wisconsin and Michigan. And then also the education out there with Pinnconing and Bay City it was just a lot of travel
We went to Paris if you didn’t hear the episode before and New York. And what else did I forget?
Alycia Anderson: I don’t want you to get to far off because the education piece was really important this year. We had A lot of deals that we close that were either school districts or schools or educational organizations and this has been snowballing over time where we’re getting more and more opportunities like this.
Important, not that every deal that we have isn’t important, but there’s certain industries like education or medical or things like that, that really can impact policy or, learning and one of my bucket list to go back to one of the words of the year for me was I really wanted to get on bigger stages you mentioned that in the beginning when we’re speaking at Murrieta Unified School District we spoke to 3000 people there towards the end of the year, we booked Stockton Unified School District.
My goal was to speak in a stadium and that was a stadium environment. It had 4,500 people. It was the biggest event we’ve booked so far. it was a message that we were able to deliver to teachers and administrators and staff and everybody who works within.
Schools to talk about disability inclusion and why it’s so important our very last in person event this year was at Sequoia middle school. We spoke to about 2000 middle school students.
this was the largest event of youth that we had the privilege of speaking to. it reminded me of how we need to be as adults in this conversation, daring, authentic, curious we shifted the conversation into lifting your superpower up as your difference as your superpower and how can you leverage that in your life to reach your dreams we had so many students raising their hands, wanting to engage share and ask about disability.
And they would ask things like. How do you drive? How do you go to work? Can you get out of bed? What’s it like to be disabled? What is your superpower? the authentic questions they were asking are things we as adults are curious about too. they did it in such a fearless way.
it was so beautiful. it reminded me. of the innocence of children and how we as adults need to be fearless too, when we’re navigating things that we don’t understand. There was one little girl specifically where at the end of the event, she was raising her hand she really wanted to share what her superpower was.
And she stood up and said, I have autism and ADHD, and I want to tell you what my superpower is. I said, that would be great. she said, I’m really good at math. she said it in front of all the students. it was a beautiful moment.
having those moments this year were some of the most amazing moments. We spoke at Netflix. That was cool. We’ve been to all these amazing places But there’s just something really special about being in front of 2000 students in front of an inclusion matters sign that they hand painted.
engaging discussing accepting others and how we could do better in the future. was some of the most important work, in my opinion, that we did this year that I really hope we get much more of moving into the future.
Thank you once again to the Conejo Valley Unified School District. And really makes me think about all the other educational institutions we spoke with this year, like the East Valley SELPA, the Supporting Inclusion Practices, which works with every county in California, up and down the state, that shares with special education teachers how to support students . Up those numbers of inclusion in school and in every facet of school, whether it’s sports activities or groups beautiful stuff with all the school districts. And again, Stockton unified.
They were all there in one big group at the University of Pacific and just a beautiful stadium at the Alex G. Spanos center that had over 5,000 people, I believe all at one time. I remember covering that one. It was pretty special. We can’t forget our trip to Kentucky and the headquarters of Humana and all the medical stuff that we related to again this year, there was some big news also in that realm of the industry.
Let’s talk about it.
Marty Anderson: It was amazing when you were asked by Ricardo Lara, the commissioner of the California Department of Insurance to be appointed to the insurance diversity task force as the first person with a disability, to fill that role and help create more conversation around people with disabilities. In the insurance industry from life insurance, fire insurance, home insurance, health insurance, all the insurances There’s so much conversation to be brought to the table when it comes to disability. Disabilities oddly enough entered in every one of those aspects, but it’s generally looked at through the lens of what do you get when you become disabled? And not necessarily, how do we cover people with disabilities because they need coverage too.
Alycia Anderson: This is a very important role for both of us advocate for better policies and opportunities in an industry that overcharges us because we have some type of disability. To receive this type of seat is one of the most important things, that happened this year and is giving us the biggest opportunity to make real change in society. I’m very proud of this opportunity hopefully we do a good job with it.
Marty Anderson: Yeah. we can’t change anything overnight. It’s a long process and it’s these small wins opening the door and creating the possibility. we’ve had some very powerful conversations. with some very powerful people through that connection. And I know that we’re making a difference there.
I want to congratulate you again. I think that’s a great opportunity to talk about a lot of the honors we received this year. I was so proud of you to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from California State Chico the highest award a person can receive as an alumni of the school.
Alycia Anderson: Go wildcats.
Marty Anderson: And the honor of watching you be presented with the award from the President of the University and the Dean of the School of Communications and Education, Dean Trethewey. Beautiful experience and speaking with the students that are there and all the impactful work that brought about was amazing As well, you were honored by ProFound, another disability leadership work group in our community that you’re a founding member of and they just see you as a shining light and receive the amplification and impact innovation award from them was just another treat. And of course, I got the USTA President’s Club for NorCal, the wheelchair USTA stuff, and that was a little fun too,
Alycia Anderson: Okay. So let’s not blow that
Marty Anderson: to
Alycia Anderson: up.
Marty Anderson: the
Alycia Anderson: I would like to lift Marty up for a moment This has been a year of recognition. When I get recognition, it is recognition for both of us. The business that we have is not just me. It’s both of us working on the things that we’re accomplishing. So anytime that I receive any type of acknowledgement, it’s acknowledgement for both of us.
Marty has been doing a lot of work in Northern California for Wheelchair tennis and growing the sport, not only in Northern California, but throughout his entire life. we were at the USTA end of year dinner, like we go to every year and we were thoroughly surprised when he was awarded the USTA United States Tennis Association President’s Award, I screamed Oh my God, they’re calling your name.
it was, One of the most amazing moments of the year because you were being acknowledged for your work being lifted up for the immense amount of work you’ve given this sport and so many players that have come after you you’ve changed their lives.
Let me lift you up for one more minute. Marty has many stories like this one but I’m going to share one because I just want to share with our community what an impact Marty has within the disabled community through. Wheelchair tennis, wheelchair sports, and beyond.
He is the first one to stop a wheeler, as he calls them, to introduce himself, to share what’s out there. Dez Del Barba, who’s been on the podcast last year, is a service member who had a medical malpractice case while he was serving. he’s now a wheelchair user and an amputee.
Marty started playing wheelchair tennis with him about a year and a half ago. his life has completely changed his self confidence, his talent in the sport. He’s on a fast track to the Paralympics in LA Marty took him from not knowing how to play the sport to being one of the best in California.
And this changed his life. that type of work is the most important thing that we could be doing.
Marty Anderson: I appreciate that, sweetheart. And it is an honor to help people achieve great things, but it takes Their want, their will, their desire. all respect Dez is doing this on his own. I’m just opening the door and providing an opportunity. And there’s so many other people in the group enjoying it.
it’s great to be able to be a part of that. Our work with Adaptive Athletics Association something that I think we should pour a lot of energy into this year this goes right to the heart of the things that we do as people with disabilities to try to amplify and lift up our community and celebrate.
And it’s Not often that people get recognized like we do. it is awesome when we do not, everybody’s going to be recognized for the work they’re putting in. And there’s so many millions of people out there putting in work and they don’t ever receive the glory. So lifting you up right now for all the hard work you put in It makes me think of all the beautiful celebrations we had this year. disability pride persons with a disability day international day. there’s a list. We’re going to have to put them all on the website and do a post for every single special one of them.
But it’s so amazing. And all the work that we did in helping to spread that word and all the social media posts on a weekly and I know y’all get bored of them and everything but they’re necessary, to just keep the movement going and everybody out there in the community is doing such a great job working together and sharing that news
Alycia Anderson: They don’t get bored of my social media.
Marty Anderson: It’s maybe I, maybe it’s just me, but there was so many other things going on this year. And I think we should try to touch on a few more. What do you think? Talk about disability pride and all of those fun things. Let’s talk about the runway of dreams a little bit.
Alycia Anderson: I would love to talk about the runway of dreams. That was the runway of a girl’s dream. And maybe that’s like a sexist statement. It’s a, it’s the runway of dreams. And it was this girl’s dream to roll down a runway during New York fashion week. Which I was able to do during this event. one of my favorite projects that I had all year Target hired me through gamut management to do some fit modeling and do some consulting on a adaptive puffer jacket that is now on sale.
On target.com in their adaptive wear. I’m really proud of that project. I got to wear the jacket as I rolled down the runway of dreams during New York fashion week. And it was what a experience that was. I’ll never forget it. It was really awesome.
Marty Anderson: It was pretty amazing to fly straight from Paris to New York City and to just be absorbed in so much going on. I know this episode is going to be a little longer than most, but we get a chance to recap. all that happened last year, Alycia was great enough to honor one of my wishes of going to see the Paralympics. they only come around four years, every four years, whatever with every two when you consider winter and summer. But I’d never been to the Paralympics before. Alycia’s worked at the Paralympics.
She’s gone to a couple of them. And I was dying to go. when we saw the tickets come available this year. I was like, it would be really nice to go to Paris and see the Paralympics. And, Alycia was like, let’s do it. it turned into little stressful, anxiety ridden type of thing.
Trying to figure out all the details in the travel. I Had to go get a special driver’s license from AAA. had to make sure that we had our passports all up and current. the stress of trying to find accessible hotels in Paris where everybody’s grabbing them because it’s going to be just a bunch of people with disabilities.
So everybody wants a disabled accessible room. And. renting the car and getting around driving the city streets trying to figure out how to get into these locations. it was just super fun and jam packed with so many experiences podcasted it on it before, and we’ve written articles.
And there’s a lot out there about all these other things. We met great people and had great food
Alycia Anderson: We experienced unbelievable events in the most beautiful, stunning, romantic setting, and this absolutely was a once in a lifetime experience to experience Paris, the Paralympics. And an adventure together. And this is my favorite part about the business the adventure that you and I are on together, experiencing life.
the world impact and purpose together the feeling that Paris gave us in our hearts and souls. I hope to never forget that feeling. it was such a beautiful, moment in time. I am so happy that we did that.
I’m so happy and grateful.
Marty Anderson: And congratulations to all of the Paralympians out there. We graced to have Dana Mathewson on and her official retirement notice, had gold medal winner Jason Tabansky share his beautiful story of resilience and just going on to achieve greatness. We shared all about of our experiences. that brings us back to one element of the year that we haven’t talked about yet, the podcast and another over 47 episodes. We slowed down a bit over the holidays, cutting it to two a week, but we’ll be ramping it back up again this year. amazing guests have been on our podcast, pushing forward with Alycia, which you’re listening to right now
Alycia Anderson: And a shout out to all of our guests that gave their time and their stories and their motivation and inspiration to our community. Each one of you has been incredible for us to experience one of my favorite pieces of all the interviews this year with our amazing guests is.
I’ve had a lot of sisterhood with Kimberly Elliott Lisa Cox Jane Mattingly Cassidy Huff and Angelia Yoder I don’t think I can pick favorites, but Angelia and I really connected offline about having very similar disabilities
And it’s just been really powerful for me to create this community around me. each conversation I have on this podcast has inspired me. To be stronger in my advocacy my words and the things that I share and in the acceptance of my own self. So I know I can speak for Marty and I both were so grateful for the community that has rallied against this, not against has rallied.
With us through this podcast it truly is a community where we’re building strength among every single person who touches the show. we’re really grateful for all of it and we really hope that you continue to support the show, share it because the community is growing stronger and we feel the impact.
So Marty. I’m getting towards the end and I’m trying to wrap up. what do you hope for?
Marty Anderson: I hope for continued growth. I hope for excitement to continue entering our lives through our work. Everybody should know that we’ve created a small business certified by the SBA called Jam Pro Web Design. It does good for us to know that we can build websites for all of you out there in the community that are looking to grow your organizations, grow your personal careers, help tie into products, sales, all of those things. I’m available and Alycia is my saleswoman on that side of a new business that we’ve founded. We have Adaptive Athletics Association, which is going to do great work and continuing to put out information about resources on how to get involved with wheelchair sports, adaptive sports, whether it’s deaf, Blind Special Olympics.
It doesn’t matter any adaptive sport. You can list on there, add your organizations, put up your events. So everybody knows about it. And then of course, we’re doing great work with the Alycia Anderson company and all the speaking and all the things that we’re doing there. And our podcast pushing forward with Alycia, which is just amazing.
It’s hard to believe just a year ago, we had Chelsea Hill Dr. Donna Walton, Aisha Robinson. Jonathan Goodwin and his story on America’s Got Talent. Jillian Kerwin. Ryan Hudson, Peralta, Josie Scott, Dr. Lindsay Alray, Katerina Rivera, Branstrader, Jan Wyschnapolsky, Kimberly Elliott, Samuel Benefold,
Alycia Anderson: Marty?
Marty Anderson: family and our
Alycia Anderson: My love, we don’t need to list every episode, but we do recommend that our community goes to the website and checks out the incredible. Talented people that we’ve had on the show and listen re-listen and share I wanted to note one thing, ’cause I think it’s important with Adaptive Athletics Association and Jam Pro Web Design.
We’re gonna leave the links in the show notes. If anybody is looking to get involved, please go to these websites and become a member of Adaptive Athletics. There’s no fee, it’s just a community for. Adaptive sports There’s a lot of you out there that are reaching out to me asking, how do I get started to become a speaker?
How do I become an entrepreneur? Website is a huge part of it. Marty is offering cost effective solutions for y’all to get your businesses kickstarted. So please reach out to us for that as well. We would love to help you.
Marty Anderson: A village out there and we’re looking for interns to help us in these
Alycia Anderson: totally.
Marty Anderson: if anybody’s out there that wants to reach out and say, Hey, I want to put in some time. I want to learn how you guys are doing it from the inside. We got more work than we need right now.
So it would be great to have some great hands out there.
Alycia Anderson: And so I’m going to wrap it up with my theme of 2025. Last year, it was fearless, trying to be as bold as I possibly could And this year I was hired to speak at a women’s empowerment conference. called Own It. that term Own It has been resonating in my mind that I need to Own my platform, own who I am, own my power, own my disability, own my business, and take it to the next level.
Own that so it’s going to be a big year of growth, hopefully. And we just want to wish everybody a very happy new year. And we are so grateful again for each and every single one of you showing up for us the way that you do, please share this podcast. The more we share, the more we grow.
Marty Anderson: What we need now to finish up this episode, as we always do, is a pushing forward moment. for me, I’d like to honor your own it. as we all look forward to 2025, Let’s release all our doubt. Let’s release our non confidence.
Let’s release our ineptitude to share our feelings and to own how we feel. Look forward to releasing more of what’s holding me back from accomplishing all the things I want to do in my life letting go of the doubt and fear And just going for it a little more and continuing to make action every single day. What about you?
Alycia Anderson: Own it.
Marty Anderson: Yeah.
Alycia Anderson: own our space. Let’s own our power. Let’s own our talents and let’s grow this year
Marty Anderson: Happy 2025, y’all.
Alycia Anderson: Great episode, Marty. We’re going to wrap it up. This has been our first episode of 2025. Thank you for showing up for us. This has been pushing forward with Alycia.
Marty Anderson: And, Marty.
Alycia Anderson: And that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next time. Happy 2025.