Thomas Wilson, tell me about your vision.
So my vision is really to make sure
that the community has access to high quality events,
high quality stories that don't just entertain
and enlighten, but to also emphasize the understanding
that if you have sensory needs
or you want to experience something outside the norm,
or if you have a family member who is not gonna do well
in a big social setting, that they can go to a space,
they can experience the world of stories
through a variety of means from public speak
to Dungeons and Dragons and so much more
in a space that's gonna honor them,
that's gonna respect them and is going to treat them
not as if they're just their diagnosis or their need,
that they're a person that is a part of the community
that deserves to be treated as a whole person.
That's a beautiful vision.
So let's see here, there's a couple of questions
I wanna segue to on that.
One of them is where did your vision come from?
My vision came from my own experiences
with sensory needs, with mental health, their diversity.
I've got a whole long list, we don't have time for me
to dive into all of my diagnosis,
but it really comes from living in those communities
and experiencing a lot of systems that were quote unquote,
supposed to work that were designed to help people like me,
but ultimately failed me from the school system,
from friends to even state-run organizations.
And it really, from those moments,
I learned that there are a lot of systems
in place that don't work,
but they also don't honor all of who a person is.
So as I grew older, as I really started sharing my story,
I knew a big part of my life is that I wanted to be able
to deliver the care, the compassion and the empathy
that my community deserves, but also in a creative,
unique and empowering way that mixes multiple genres,
multiple forms of media into a world
that I knew that I deserved.
I knew my friends that were struggling deserved,
and it really comes from those moments of pain,
but also those moments of resounding joy
where I found things that really impacted
and worked well for me.
Wow.
Thomas, what is the story behind your why?
So I grew up as a young kid.
I had various mental health needs.
I wasn't diagnosed until I was eight.
And I often say that diagnosis in the United States
is a very rocky journey.
It's something that is not definitive for a lot of people.
They think they have an answer.
It turns out it could be wrong.
But I grew up in that.
I've had a lot of loss in my life as well.
So as a kid struggling with mental health
and not really knowing how to understand it,
not really knowing how to advocate for myself,
I spent a lot of my time when I was about four or five,
I was told I was a prodigy.
By the time I was 10, my teachers hated me
and I was viewed as a problem in my school system.
That carried out through a lot of different programs.
And I learned really quickly as a kid
with mental health needs and diversity, a variety of things,
it's really hard to advocate for yourself
when people aren't just telling you
you're a monster or you're a problem,
but when you're experiencing those complicated emotions,
we often tell a lot of youth and a lot of families,
people are trying to tell you one thing,
but when you're fighting your brain,
it won't be able to be communicated
the way a lot of people want it to.
So I spent a lot of time dealing with
structures that didn't work.
I spent a lot of time being ostracized
based on my behavior.
And as I grew older, I learned something really powerful,
which was that I have a unique ability to communicate
when I really put the effort in.
And I have a story that resonates with a lot of people.
So I went into college, something schools told me
I would never be able to achieve.
I ended up in as a reading tutor for school
in the Wilmington school system, which was amazing,
but through the program I was in,
there were some complications with my manager.
That actually sparked a deep introspective dive
into how broken the United States employment structure in.
And even now to this day, I do a lot of work in that.
I've had a lot of experiences with someone
with mental health needs and how broken
the American mindset of work is.
And throughout a variety of processes
that we don't have time to get into fully right now,
I was able to discover that my unique way of communicating,
my unique story is something that people
really resonate with.
And so I've been in healthcare for about 10 years now,
working with communities,
trying to help people gain the skills
they need so that they don't have to be alone,
so they don't have to be ostracized.
But I also opened my own business in 2021, late 2021,
at a point where I needed some change.
That's when I opened my own business.
And since then it's been a blur,
but I keep learning each day that I have this power,
I have this technique and I need to use it
in order to help my community,
because so often we are kept down, we are ostracized,
we're told not to ask questions.
And in my work, I'm able to help people
and really make sure that my community has access to events,
but is also empowered to not go through the experiences
that I did, which no kid ever should.
Wow.
That's very profound.
Do you mind if I ask what is your secret
to improving communication?
So there's a couple of things.
The first thing is listening.
We live in a world today that I feel like
doesn't respect the act of listening as much as it should.
So I often ask people questions,
but I put more effort into understanding
and appreciating what the person tells me.
I work with a lot of adults, I've worked with a lot of youth,
but when they're asked questions,
they're not treated with respect,
or their opinions have been seen as this mentality
that somehow they're just gonna be childish or immature,
which is something I work very hard to challenge.
The other thing is the mutual usage of empathy and respect.
I touched on those a little bit,
but part of what I do is work to make sure that,
even if something is dark or people are hurting,
making sure that they have a right to feel those emotions,
a right to share their story
or communicate without judgment or pain
or skepticism, and within that realm of empathy,
I also work, no matter who the individual is,
I work to make sure that they feel respected,
truly and fully as a person,
so that they do not have this idea
that they need to be shamed for having emotions,
that if they're a youth,
that they're not gonna be disrespected
because they don't understand something
in the school system or what they're going through,
and in all of those, I also work to make sure
that my voice is not always the only one talking.
It's making sure to ask questions,
making sure to step back in the sense of empathy
and respect and listening,
so that people have that time
to share their true voice with the community.
Okay, and Thomas, where are you going with your vision?
Where do you see it ending up on the horizon?
That's a great question.
I'm constantly kind of surprised by how fast
things are moving.
I know a big thing that I wanna do.
I'm currently gonna be running some camps,
potentially classes in the fall, a couple of big hopes.
I would love to someday have a storytelling
like international storytelling camp on the Scottish Isles,
helping people develop their voice and all of these things.
But I think for, in the smaller sense right now,
I wanna continue to grow my community.
I want to continue to get out there doing the work.
I wanna keep my passion for it.
And I really wanna help people on larger scales
and more and more organizations
be able to build this mindset and this power of,
collective, respectful, empathy-based listening
and help to help the community.
It's gonna be a long, arduous road,
but it's something that I'm dedicated to doing.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.