Tell me about your vision. What was your vision?
Well, I'll tell you, my vision was something
similar because I'll tell you, when I was a young
guy, I spent seven and a half years in speech
language therapy because sometimes my words didn't
catch up to how fast my brain was thinking them.
And, you know, my T's and my S's worked. uh jumbled
together so i spent uh seven and a half years
in speech language therapy and my vision as a
speaker is to break down barriers towards inclusive
employment future and the way that i look to
tell organizations that i tell them that your
life is your victory lap and when i talk to organizations
i tell them that they hold the key the possibilities
for both innovation and inclusion because if
you embrace a diversity you also embrace things
like innovation inclusion and new perspectives
which provides you a winning edge so my vision
as a speaker is very simple it's to break down
barriers towards inclusion and to tell people
that their lives is their victory laugh and that
they hold the key to possibilities for advancement.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that vision and
it's a very strong vision and it's all inclusive
to everyone. You know, it's a change and it's
a change that needs to happen and should happen.
And in regarding to overcoming challenges, how
do you turn your physical restrictions into opportunities
for growth? Well, I'll tell you that I have a
saying that I live my life by. And I say that
inclusion is the gateway to independence. And
I believe that everyone's portrait of success
looks differently. And that's the thing about
life is that I always say that the only standard
of expectations that you have to meet are your
own. Because if you can't rise to the level of
your own expectations, it's hard to rise to the
level of anybody else so the way that i um i
get through obstacles and overcome barriers is
saying that i'm the author of my own story narrative
and i am in control of the way um chapters of
my best book of life is written and i always
say that my vision of success will contribute
to a prosperous future for future generations
so i look at life as a vision board of success
and everybody's vision board is different Absolutely.
Absolutely. It just reminds me of, you know,
at the beginning of the year, everybody makes
vision boards and we are all usually sitting
side by side. And I tell you, no matter how many
magazines that we pick out of, our picture for
our vision is always different. So you are absolutely
correct. You mentioned success. So I have a question
for you. What is success to you? A success to
me is, you know, I look at success as an ever
-evolving market. And what I mean by that is
I tell businesses and job seekers with disabilities
or anyone that I meet is that life is a constant
game of networking, you know. It's the lifeblood
or heartbreak of everything you do, no matter
what line of work you're in. part of life to
come from. So success for me is always networking
to uncover or cultivate new opportunities for
advancement because it's my belief that no matter
how many degrees you have at all or how many
years you went to school, you could learn something
from the janitor to the president of a company.
So my vision of success is always learning and
applying those lessons to our own vision of prosperity
because leaders who want to lead have a vision
of how they want to advance forward and not stay
behind a vision of their life for somebody else.
So I always believe that life success starts
with who you want to network with. what is your
vision and what is your timeframe for getting
that vision accomplished. Everyone's vision or
timeframe of success will be different, but it
starts with what are your resources, who do you
know to get your vision in motion, and what's
your timeframe to get that accomplished. So that's
sort of my... free vision of my three -legged
stool of success what are your resources who
do you know and what is your time frame after
getting that done and if you have concrete answers
to those four questions then you can achieve
success because then you've uh created your own
definition of the world absolutely how long have
you been speaking kevin So I have been speaking
professionally since 2013. So I've been at this
a lot. Nice, nice. And I have one favorite question
for all my guests. What are the greatest joys
of what you do? The greatest joys of what I do
is helping others see the value in themselves.
You know, I shared with you. uh when i graduated
college so i graduated college in june of 2010
and i didn't get my first uh paying job until
uh february 1st of 2016 because when i uh went
on job interviews when i graduated college i
was told some version of they're qualified but
our news uh department staff is kind of small
and we don't think we have the resources to support
in the newsroom so i personally became a speaker
by accident because no one else was hiring me
so out of college when i did was was i volunteered
for four straight years at a local uh television
station in my hometown without a paycheck and
i covered a total of 50 stories in those for
years and i work alongside the ontario government
to appoint a special master and advisor to look
at hiring folks with disabilities within our
provincial government for those watching or listening
to this in the states it would be the equivalent
of a state government in the state so i work
with our provincial governments break down the
barriers towards inclusion and that's how I got
my first paying job in February of 2016. So my
vision for the future would be to work with people
to realize their own value because for me to
discover mine was a journey and I want to help
others do the same. Absolutely. And I love that.
I mean, you said you worked for free for four
years. Without a paycheck. Not a lot of people
would do that. Absolutely not. And I believe
that that's where your level of success and those
three questions that you have to ask yourself,
right? Because even though you did not get a
paycheck, you were still networking, right? Because
that was the key to figuring out who you know
and who could get you there. also you mentioned
you started speaking pretty much on an accident
it wasn't something that you were you know thriving
to do you just fell into it and i feel like you're
doing exceptionally well so many years later
what's next for you kevin well yeah so what what's
best for me is to elevate the audience that i
speak to And I also host a podcast called Let's
Have This Conversation on YouTube. So I have
two fundamental goals. It's to grow the audience
or the level of audience that I speak to. And
it's also to turn my YouTube podcast into a national
talk show. So those are my two professional goals,
for sure. Absolutely. That is so amazing. And
I tell you, Kevin, whatever it is that I could
do to be able to assist you, you please let me
know. I don't have the tools to get you any further.
However, I know many, many, many, many people.
So I love that you've chosen to come on here
and talk about this. And I cannot wait to see
the feedback of audiences and what you're discussing
because it's exceptionally important. With that
being said, can you please tell everyone where
they can get a hold of you at or watch your podcast
and speaking and then also your social media
handles? Yeah, so you can find everything about
me at KevinMcKenzieSpeaks .com. And you can subscribe
to my podcast by going to Let's Have This Conversation
on YouTube and just typing my name after Let's
Have This Conversation. And you can watch all
of the interviews that I've done. I started the
podcast about five years ago and about two weeks
ago. we surpassed a thousand episodes for the
endeavors so a lot a lot of people have been
uh taking to the endeavors so they can find me
at kevinmcchanspeaks .com or on youtube at let's
have this conversation 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 going to 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.