All right. Welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have discussions with individuals
who are building inclusive and accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or
excelling in adaptive sports. Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with
disabilities, but rather amplify their ideas and share their stories so you can make a more
accessible world. Today I'm joined by Tony Jacobsen, who is many things to many people,
motivational speaker, a fitness professional author, and I'm sure more that will unpack in
this episode. We're excited to bring his incredible story of overcoming the fears and barriers of
his diagnosis to you today. So Tony, thank you for joining us. Yeah, Brendan, thank you so much
for having me. I'm excited to be here on the AdaptX podcast. Maybe you can start by sharing
with our listeners a bit how you got into the career that you're currently in, or maybe take
us back to maybe even before you were a professional, what things influenced the career path that you're
now on? Yeah, I really got into being a coach, certified personal trainer, adaptive fitness coach,
I really got through got to this through my own journey of having a disability and learning how
to embrace it to get healthier and understanding what that what that process took. So yeah, let
me go back my story. I was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, which is basically brittle bones
disease. We call it OI. So I'll refer to it as OI going forward. That's a lot easier for for me to
say and for others to understand. So OI, I have type one, which is a mild form of it, but I've
still fractured 75 ish times around there had 12 surgeries, I have steel rods in my legs. And you
know, my journey started when I was younger, I was breaking all the time. And I used a wheelchair
for most of my childhood and then ended up on crutches as I got a little stronger in my teens.
And then finally took my first unassisted steps when I was in my early 20s when I was the 24
years old. So through that journey, and breaking all the time, you know, I was left with a lot of
mental barriers, being careful was the biggest one. And so I spent, you know, after I started
walking, I spent the next 20 years not being physical at all. And that led to me being very
unhealthy. So because of the disability, because of my mental thoughts around the disability,
I was stopped. And, and it led to me being very unhealthy. And I had a huge health scare when I
was 42 years old, where I was told I might have had a heart attack. And so I was overweight, I was
overweight, I was barely walking, I was in physical pain every day. And then once I had that
diagnosis come through of, you know, I could have had a look like I had a heart attack, I didn't,
by the way, thank goodness, but there was indications of it. After that happened, I realized
in my own life that I needed to do something different. And I really had to figure out how to
get and be healthy. Because I didn't want to I didn't want to die, basically, you know, and I
didn't want those barriers to be there anymore. So I did the work of what it took to get over all that.
And once I did, you know, once I got through all that, and I started doing things that I never
thought possible for myself, I realized that I could help others do it. So I wrote my book,
I started I got my certification as a trainer, I was like, what can I do to help others that have
my disability, and have other disabilities have other limited mobility and have these same sort
of barriers? How can I help other people get through this too? So that has led all the way
up to today where now I'm certified, I have my online fitness program, I do one on one coaching,
virtual all around the world, in person. And, and also just in addition to that, just getting out
and encouraging and motivating people with disabilities. So even if I don't train you,
I'm always encouraging people with disabilities to think differently. And to think about how,
how, excuse me, think about how to get moving in the right way. So that's the, the beginning
and the end of it right there is of my story of how I got to where I am today.
Yeah, I love that. I mean, the goal ultimately with anything that's revolving around inclusive
fitness or adaptive fitness is to move people closer to the recommended levels of daily
physical activity, which is typically not always met not only by people with disabilities, but
maybe exacerbated by those with disabilities, they face obviously more barriers to being active.
Before we dive into your adaptive fitness platform, which I know we'll touch upon in your book,
what was essential for you transitioning from mobility with crutches to independently walking?
What was that rehabilitation process or strengthening process like?
Yeah, for me, it was just time, first of all, because with OI, after puberty, it starts to,
the fractures become a little less. So fortunate, fortunate for me, and with my type being not so
severe, I was able to just start to get stronger, which led me to the crutches and spending more
time on the crutches. And then for me personally, to make that big jump was a surgery where I had
because I had rods in my legs from an early age. And so in my gosh, it must have been in high school
years, I had broken my right femur that had a rod in it. And that rod got bent when I had that
fracture. So it was bent at like a almost 30 degree angle. And so they didn't adjust it at that time.
And it was left. And so the next few years I spent legs were very much different in length,
I had to use the crutches because I just couldn't walk right. And so when I turned 24, that's when
the doctor was like, you know what, we got to replace this rod, it's time to do it. And so when
I had that surgery, made my legs the same length. And basically, that was the point at which the
doctor was like, okay, it's time to get on your feet and start walking because now you have the
mobility and the functionality to be able to do it. So that's what happened for me. And it was,
you know, slow going at the beginning, I was still on and off the crutches. But again, I got stronger.
And I did a little bit of rehab at that time, like physical, physical therapy, but it wasn't too much.
At least it got me to the point of just understanding how to walk because I just
didn't know how to do it at that point. Without the crutches. So it was just a natural kind of
thing of me getting stronger just in my legs in general. And having that final surgery that was
like, okay, now your legs are the same length. This is a huge deal. Yeah. Or did you find any
ways to be active when you were a youth, either during your time in a wheelchair or when you
transitioned into crutches? Did you find sports or fitness that was that was suitable for you?
Yeah, I personally did wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis. Those were like the two
kind of sports that I was involved with. But again, it was very much, you know,
trying not to break bones. So no matter what I did, even even doing those things,
there was still a lot of fear. So I did them to an extent. But I did them to what was,
you know, what I felt was good for myself. So it kept me moving. You know, and I would do some like
when I was very young, I was like, I participated in Special Olympics, and I did wheelchair racing
and stuff of that nature. But then later there was wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis
as well. So I would do those activities. But again, it was very minimal just because I was
always being careful and trying not to hurt myself. Yeah, knowing what you do now about adaptive
adaptive fitness, and maybe the literature on OI has expanded or improved over the last 15, 20 years.
Would you have done anything different? Would you have tried to go to a gym when you were younger?
Was strength training safe, but you just didn't really know how to approach it?
Yeah, that was a huge deal. And that that's almost part of why I'm doing what I'm doing now.
Because even you know, 10 years ago, when I started getting into my own fitness journey,
and I started doing research, there was nobody talking about it in the OI community.
And so I was struggling to find people that were even trying to have the conversation
within OI. So I could imagine back then, when I was younger, because that was like when I was 42.
So I can imagine when if I was when I was 24 ish in my early 20s. First of all, I didn't know
anybody with OI. And any of the research, there was barely anything. Nobody was talking about
how fitness would would help. Now, my doctor, he would encourage me to move. He encouraged me to
get up as much as possible and get moving. Again, I struggled with the fear of it. So I didn't listen
as much as I should have. But, you know, I do know that if there would have been something there
to tell me, look, if you just do some fitness, that's proper for you, and you do it in the
right way, then you can succeed and you can get stronger. I just didn't have that resource. So
that was another big push for me doing what I do and writing my book and getting it out there,
because I do feel and it is important. And now it's great, because now since I've been talking
about it, the conversation has been becoming a conversation within my community. And that's
really important. And that's a big accomplishment for me. Yeah, I mean, I don't know much about the
OI literature, but I would imagine that the orthopedic benefits of strength training in
terms of improving bone health and bone strength, like, I wonder if that would carry over to someone
with OI in a similar way. Maybe during that portion of puberty, when you're beginning to become
stronger, and like you said, your motor skills and your strength is improving, I wonder if
supplementing it with some strength training that's kind of catered to that population and
the level you're at would be would like expedite those improvements even further. Yeah, I absolutely
agree. I think it would. And I think there's just not enough. The conversation just starting
around it. And I hope that they start to do more actual research around that. That would be great,
because I absolutely agree. And I do think that it would help because we know you need to do
resistance training to strengthen bone, like we know that those things work in a regular bone,
right? So then when you're talking about an OI bone, now we're not sure just because of the
science behind OI. Yes, we can develop more bone, but it's just not good bone, right? That's kind
of what OI is in basic terms. So but you know what, why don't we we don't have research around it.
So we can't say definitively that it doesn't work. All I know is for me, in my 40s, by doing what I
did, you know, I know that I've gotten stronger, I know that I've gained balance, I know that I've
gained strength. Can I say my bones are stronger? Maybe not necessarily, because I haven't like
stayed up on my bone density, but my bone density hasn't decreased. So like, I know, personally,
I have some indicators that show that this, this does work. But I would love love love and perhaps,
you know, in the future, it will become a conversation and through research and, you know,
some dedicated, some dedicated research around that age range would be great. Yeah, it would be super
interesting to see some longitudinal stuff, because I mean, in the older population, bone density
decreases. So the fact that you're maintaining in of itself is a win. Because we know that as people
get older, bone density decreases. So it's sometimes when we're communicating with our older clients,
progress isn't as fast as the younger ones. But we're typically trying to remind them that
not making progress is not regressing. And that in of itself is a win. Because as you get older,
you lose muscle mass and bone density. And so if we can prevent that, it's essential to longevity.
So yeah, it would be super cool to see if OI responds in any specific way to strength training.
I would imagine with it being the potential to be a low impact exercise that it might not be,
quote unquote, quite as dangerous as like a sport like wheelchair basketball, because you don't have
the impact in the in the collision that you might have with a with a competitive sport. So yeah,
absolutely. What was the influence for your book? Or kind of what was that process? Like when did
you decide that you wanted to write a book? And how did you go about doing so?
Doing so? Well, I was always told you should write a book like just from the people around me,
just seeing what I was doing in life and whatnot. And, you know, I just never had the
the impetus or the through line for what it would be. I always thought, oh, well,
I'll write a memoir when I'm older. So that sort of kind of idea came. But after I went through my
personal transformation, my physical transformation, and what all of that brought to me in my life,
it finally kind of fell into place where it was like, you know what, I know what story I need to
tell now. I know how I can use this book to tell my story and help other people. Like there was like
all of the pieces of the puzzle of what I feel is the importance of a book. They all came together,
and it was just time for me to do it. So I was able to really focus on the physical aspects of
my life. That's kind of the through line of my book, Disable Your Disability. So it's like,
I was able to look at that in the first half is my story. And then the second half is a how to.
And I really just kind of share like, these are the tactics, these are the strategies that you can
use to do what I did. So that's kind of how the book came to be.
How long did that process take? I guess I mean, obviously, it's a lifelong process,
because you don't have a story without experiencing all that. But maybe from like the time that you
sat down to write something to the time where it was released, do you recall?
Yeah, I kind of what that process was like. Yeah, it was about it was about a four year
process from, hey, you really got to do this. And then the last six months prior is when it
really came to be. I mean, I sat down and churned this thing out in about four or five months,
because it was really focused. And I knew exactly what I wanted to say. So it was,
it was pretty quick when it came down to it, because it was very clear of what the message
was going to be in the book. So now I totally understand I'm on the other side of writing a
book. And I know the process. But for anyone out there who and I always encourage people that
have disabilities have a story to tell, I encourage you to share your stories, like really,
even if it's not in a book, like, you know, share your story about what you've been going through,
because we need to get the word out there and, and let more people know. But for me, it was very
clear. Once I decided this is the theme of the book, this is what I want to share. So it was a
pretty quick process. Yeah, that's essentially the goal of this podcast for me to have conversations
that challenge my biases teach me something new, and then hopefully listeners form their own take
away or they find ways to apply it to their own life. We've just have like kind of a running
Google Doc me and my team of just like, things that stick out after these conversations or during
these conversations, takeaways that people can apply across different industries. So maybe it
becomes sort of some sort of book after we have dozens of these conversations, maybe it just
becomes blog posts, but it's like sharing people's experiences and lift experiences is essential to
me and in the same way that, like you said, it took you four years, but really only four months
of like targeted work. It took me six to 12 months maybe to write my course, but it took
six years prior to that of different experiences, different trial and error to come to the
conclusions that we have and then share those through the course. So it's like maybe a book's
only a one year process, but it's a lifetime process, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. Did COVID
influence your direction in terms of like how you disseminate content, whether it's the online
fitness stuff? Did that transition that a lot of people started offering remote services kind of
benefit you in any way, I guess? It benefited me simply because that was the direction I was
going to begin with. I realized that, especially with my disability, we're very few and far between
since it's very rare. So when I was starting to reach out online is where I really went in head
first to touch base with my community. And so everyone was online. So I started building my
business online. And when I built my online, the online fitness club, I like to call it a club
because it's a lot more fun than a platform. So my fitness club is a lot more fun. And when I started
building that, I'm like, no, this is the way I want to deliver it. Even in today's day and age,
now that people are starting to get back together, I'm still going to do it this way. And I still
want to continue this method because I want to reach people around the world. So not only with
my disability, it's very few and far between. And it's great because I do have members on there from
all around the world, Europe, India, United States, Australia. So it's great because I can, you know,
train and coach people from around the world through the platform. And, you know, it's great,
I can go out and do this in person too. But, you know, and I have, and I have had a few clients
come through. But for the most part, my business plan is to keep it online, figure out the best
ways to deliver it that way so that I can reach more people and, you know, reach them where they're
at. Because that's another piece of making sure it's accessible, making sure that, you know,
anybody can get to this because there's people in rural parts of the country that can't even get to,
you know, maybe their town where they can find training or get somebody. So hey, you can connect
with me on the internet. I know you've got an internet connection, so let's do it.
Yeah, yeah, that global impact is incredible. Congratulations on that. Yeah, definitely.
There's obviously huge benefits of being online to my experience running a brick and mortar facility.
It's expensive. It's obviously a huge piece and the internet not only reduces that barrier to
accessibility, but it's also it can be a central part of a business model on a kind of a low cost
option to reach a lot of people. You mentioned not having a lot of connections with other
individuals with OI growing up. But what is that representation like now that you've connected
with others through, I assume, Facebook is a strong way to find those groups. But
what have you learned through, I guess, connecting with other individuals with OI?
Yeah, that's the biggest, the biggest thing I've learned is to make that connection. So
it was when I was growing up, I knew one other person that had OI. She had a more severe
version of it. And she was the only one and her and I thought we were the only two people in the
world with OI. So we, you know, spent our childhood connected and then we lost contact.
And but she was the only person that I really knew that had a wide then there were a few people
popped up like in the celebrity world, very few one or two. And I was like, oh, that's cool.
And then the movie Unbreakable came out. Right. And that was like a big thing, kind of an introduction
to Osteogenesis Imperfecta. He did his best. It was OK. You know, it was an OK introduction. But
you know, it made me think, oh, yeah, other people should know more about this and think about it.
So that kind of started my started my journey into learning a little bit more. But then when I,
you know, start after I wrote the book and I was like, I really need to connect with my community.
Even before I wrote the book, I wanted to connect with the community going to Facebook.
That was the first spot. And then finding the organizations that were dealing with it.
So there's one big one in the United States, another one in Europe, a couple others. But that
was another piece of it, too, is reaching out to them and trying to connect to the community.
So doing the social reaching out to the organizations was very important. Now I know
a ton of people with OI. And it's great because now it's even helped me to learn more about
how I can help the community and learning more about because for me, when I started even training
was like, OK, I'm looking for OIers that are like me, that have type one, maybe have the same amount
of breaks, kind of are in the same abilities level or spectrum. But now, since I've been
training and working with all different types of OI, it's been great because now I can help
a more wide a wider variety of people. And so being connected, learning more. I mean,
I'm meeting new people every single day and they're coming and checking out the platform.
So it's great. It's just been a so expansive for me even because then it pushes me to learn even
more about what I'm working on when it comes to training somebody with the why or any, you know,
limited mobility sort of situation. Yeah. When we talk to people that want to start more
inclusive and accessible programs and they ask how you go about getting those first clients,
it's not a very it's not the answer they want, but it's usually find the organizations that
already serve these populations, find ways to connect with them, offer your services, establish
some validity in that way, establish some social proof and demonstrate that you can help them.
And then it kind of just grows organically through that. So there's no easy marketing scheme that
gets it. Sometimes it's just direct outreach to the people you want to serve and a genuine interest
in helping them and demonstrating how you can help them, which it sounds like you've done pretty
successfully. Yeah, that's the that's the biggest thing is connecting to the community and, and just
starting, you just got to get, you know, the one, the two, and then really it's word of mouth at
that point, because then people say, oh, no, he really does know what he's doing, or she really
knows what what she's doing. And then the word of mouth will help to start to spread that.
How often or how long have you been doing motivational or educational speaking?
That came really in before the book, I was doing some motivational speaking, because I've been a
DJ for many years. And so through the DJing, I had a few opportunities, because a few of my friends
were they knew about my disability, I was very much not about my disability before, when I was
unhealthy, and I was really in that denial phase of like, I'm not disabled, I don't think about it,
it's not part of me, etc, etc. So I was very much in that phase. But still, some people knew about
the fact that I had a disability, and they were encouraged and inspired by the fact that I was
successful as a DJ and doing that. So I got a few talks through that. And I realized, oh, wow, you
know, I love speaking in general, I love performing, you know, I'm a DJ, and I'm a rapper,
I'm an MC, I've done like hip hop music, all this stuff throughout my life. So through that, I love
being in front of crowds, I love entertaining, I love motivating and encouraging. So as I started
to get those talks through that method, that led me down the path of now, okay, well, how can I do
more of this? And then, again, through my whole transformation, writing the book and understanding,
wow, I have a bigger message that really can impact people in a big way, in a big way, not
only people with disabilities, but also just the, you know, the public in general. So that's how
really it pushed me, it pushed me to say, hey, where can I get out and share this message of
resilience, of overcoming of thinking differently, thinking positive, you know, so that's kind of how
that was formed. And then when the book came out, I mean, it really was, it's in support of the book,
you know, it's like getting out there and sharing the message to let people know, hey, I got this
book, come check it out. This is a short talk I'm going to do that's talking about, you know, my
story, but you know, come and read the book and you're going to get more. And that's how it's been
progressing. You mentioned at the first part of that comment there that you were kind of in denial
about your disability. It's a conversation that we've had with most of our guests, but how do you
feel about the term disabled or how would you like people to refer to you? Not that they necessarily
have to say, oh, that's Tony, he's disabled, but like, does that term offend you in any way? Do you
prefer something else? What do you think about like person first language, like individual with
disability versus disabled individual? Do you have any opinions on that?
Do you have any opinions on terminology? Yeah, my opinion is it's all semantics and that stuff doesn't matter.
So, you know, I think a lot of people use that as a as a I want to say as a crutch,
right? They use it maybe as an excuse. And I've come up against some people like that,
because I'll use both and I'll interchange them. And, you know, you can call me whatever you want.
It doesn't it doesn't change how I feel about myself or what I'm going to accomplish in this
world. And that's what I try to encourage other people with disabilities to think about is like,
you know, it's all semantics, man. It's just words. So you can put whatever meaning to that word that
you want. But, you know, at the end of the day, by trying to change the way somebody refers to you,
what is that going to do? Are you accomplishing what you need to accomplish in life just on your
own? Because guess what? Everyone's going to have their opinion, and everyone's going to have the
way they want to they want to refer to you. So don't worry about that stuff. For me, you know,
I will say it if I need to say it. If I feel that it's important to that immediate conversation,
then I'll talk about it. But otherwise, it is what it is. And, you know, it really took me a lot of
years to get to that to understand. But it was a lot of introspection and understanding that I needed
to do some personal growth through that, because I was in denial for many years. And that denial just
came from fear and from me not understanding myself and me not having confidence in who I was,
etc, etc. So I would I remember having those conversations of saying, Hey, don't call me that.
Hey, don't do this. Don't. But that didn't matter. What I needed to change was what was inside of me
and how I felt I presented to the world. So once I gained that confidence, once I understood that
it's all based on who I am as a person, all of that stuff kind of went to the wayside. So
it's all semantics. Don't worry about what we're calling it in the in the words and stuff. That
stuff is just wasting our energy. And where we could be focusing that on more important things
to actually help not only ourselves progress, but our community progress.
Very eloquently said. I think communication, though, is still a big barrier. One of our things
is to try to like normalize the inclusion of people with disabilities in our fitness environment
on a small scale, but hopefully it becomes normalized on a larger macro scale. But I think
oftentimes, people don't have exposure to disabilities. And they don't have these
conversations, these candid conversations that you and I are having. So they don't know what to say.
So instead, they just don't say anything at all. So they avoid interacting with you because
they don't want to offend you. Did you have experiences growing up that kind of resembled
that? And how do you think we get to a point where younger individuals are more comfortable
interacting with people with disabilities? Yeah, I think it's just having those conversations.
And so it's for me and what I'm seeing and what I've been through, it really is a change for
the people with disabilities. So a lot of people with disabilities feel like the outside society
needs to change. And that is true. There's a lot of conversation that's happening over there.
But guess what? We are half of that conversation too. So there is an aura that we put out there.
Are we approachable? Do people feel comfortable talking with us? Do they feel comfortable asking
questions? Because I see a lot of people that will get mad and they get angry at certain things. And
then that just turns people off. So it's like a 50-50 conversation. And that's how I see it.
So there has to be a little give and take on both sides. People have to be willing to ask questions.
People have to be willing to accept that they're being asked questions. And so I think that both
sides need to work on it. And again, it's all individual and depending on the situation. But
at those moments, people that don't have disabilities, look, you got to feel comfortable.
You got to feel comfortable in your situation and being able to talk about it. People with
disabilities, same thing. You got to feel comfortable. You got to feel okay to answer questions,
to talk a little bit more about what you got going on. And I think if we do more of that,
if we think of it more of a 50-50 conversation, man, that could help so much. And just like,
for lack of better term, just cool out. Just like cool out. Just have fun. If people just realize
life isn't that serious, we can all just have some fun, put a smile on our face, be happy,
put some more joy in life. These types of things will get easier for people as well.
Yeah. And that's why we say at the beginning of the podcast, I don't intend to speak on
anyone's behalf, but hearing you say that, I'm not just looking to confirm my biases, but I do
think it's a two-way street. And the people at our gym with disabilities, they're wonderful and
they're easily approachable. And our members interact with them. And I think that has kind
of lowered the barrier for a lot of our members in terms of how they see disability. So I think if
there's more environments like that, where people with or without disabilities seamlessly coexist,
then more people are kind of exposed to this idea that there's a lot more similarities and
differences. So that's where it's one of my driving incentives behind maybe trying to have
more gyms is to create more environments like this or to educate fitness professionals so they
can take these principles and apply them in their gym so they can start to create those communities.
Cause I don't think those conversations happen naturally unless they're kind of facilitated in
some way where people are sharing like a common experience or a common interest, and in this case,
it being fitness. So I think fitness, not to oversell the importance of it, but I think it
can be a great vehicle to introduce people with and without disabilities and kind of demonstrate
how they're similar in many ways. Yeah. And if I just can comment on that, I think you're
absolutely right for like a gym facility, for any facility really, if you think about someone's
putting a gym together and then if you bring up the idea of someone with a disability coming to
the gym, a lot of people get surprised, right? They're like, oh, I didn't think about that.
And it's like, I agree with you. We need to have that conversation kind of normalized where it's
like, well, just always think about that. Just always think about like, well, how can someone
with a, with who's using a wheelchair use this piece of equipment? Like that should always just
be in the conversation as opposed to when it comes up, it's a surprise for people where it's like,
oh, wow, I didn't think about accessibility. Well, you should always be thinking about
accessibility no matter what, because even if it's not meaning someone that's using a wheelchair,
it could be someone using a mobility aid. Oh, can someone that uses crutches get up here or uses a
cane or a walker or whatever they're needing at that moment? Can they get in here to utilize this?
And that's another piece of it is a lot of people that are in the fitness industry, don't think
people with disabilities can work out or should work out or, you know, they have this weird kind
of thought about it. It's like, no, no, no, we do, we need it in our lives. It's actually going to
improve no matter what the disability is or what the impairment is. There's always great stuff that
comes from fitness. So again, yeah, I love what you're doing because it's kind of normalizing
this conversation and bringing it to the, to the forefront where we're like, we're just thinking
about it all the time. It's just part of the conversation. Yeah. Accessibility benefits
everyone. Like you said, it might be the thought process might be for someone in a wheelchair,
but maybe someone after a knee replacement who needs a little more space to get onto a piece of
equipment or move around. Or if I'm guiding someone with a visual impairment through the gym, we need
a little, a wider walkway. So it's like, you can go through these scenarios when you're planning out
the layout of your gym and you can think to yourself, can someone who can't see access
everything, can someone who can't hear access all the programming, can someone who can't walk access
this. So it's just a very simple thought exercise. And some of these discussions that I've had with
like accessibility experts, the one that we're releasing, I guess, when this one comes out,
it will have been the previous week, but Brad McAnnell was talking about how you don't have to
be, you don't have to serve everyone, but you have to take small steps towards trying to accommodate
as many people as possible. As a business, you're not going to be able to cater to every person in
the world. And that's fine. But as long as you kind of are making those steps to making it more
accessible and inclusive, and when the issues come up or when the accessibility barriers come up,
having a response and addressing those problems is important. So one other question that we've
asked some of our guests is kind of related to the inspiration narrative that we sometimes see
with disability where everything that someone with a disability does has to be perceived and
publicized as inspirational. Do you have any thoughts on that as a whole or are you familiar
with that kind of concept or that fallacy? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've got a somewhat different
view on this because I feel that inspiration is good. And I think everybody should view inspiration
as a good thing. And so unfortunately, in my community and the disability community,
you know, there's been this tag put on called inspiration porn. And it's like,
it just rubs me the wrong way every time I hear that because you're putting a negative on a
positive. It's like toxic positivity. We're tagging a negative to something that's actually really,
really good for people. So when it comes to the inspiration talk, I try to encourage people to
be an inspiration. I say, look, you want to be an inspiration for people. It doesn't matter if you
it doesn't matter if you do something very small and it inspires somebody. That's actually a really
good thing. Because just in the world in general, we want to shine positivity out to people. So if
I can encourage someone and inspire someone by doing something that seems many menial in my life,
that's actually a pretty cool thing, because now they're going to make a positive change in their
life that's then going to affect someone in their life. And then that's going to affect someone and
it's a ripple effect. So that's kind of number one. Number two is this. Look, I don't get to
choose who I inspire. None of us do. We don't get to choose who we inspire. So it's not really up
to us. We just kind of got to live our lives, do our things. And, you know, we do whoever,
whoever comes up to me and trust. There's been some people I inspire and some people that I
don't inspire. And that's just how it goes. I don't get to choose and say, Hey, you know what,
I'm going to go over to this guy today and I'm going to inspire him. I'm going to go to this
lady today and I'm going to inspire her. That's not up to me. It's really up to the individual
who's watching the things that I do. And so it's it's really great when you have that perspective,
because then you just kind of live your life. You spread positivity, people get to, you know,
make positive changes in their life and they get to they get to be inspired wherever you
from whatever you're doing, be it menial, be it a big task, major, minor, whatever it is,
as long as I'm inspiring someone to make a positive change in their life, that's my focus.
That's my goal. And so I always encourage people to kind of leave that conversation alone. I hear
it all the time. They don't want to be an inspiration. They don't want to. And I'm like,
man, you're missing out on a great opportunity. You're missing out on a great opportunity to
make a positive change in someone's life for doing nothing. You even say it's nothing.
So that's kind of my take on it. I know it's really controversial just kind of in my in my
community, but I don't care because I want people to think differently. I mean, it doesn't have to
necessarily be controversial, but I think like what you mentioned with it, as long as it inspires
action is an essential piece to it. When you see just people on Facebook, oh, like it's almost
belittling to some people, I guess. I think some people feel offended when they're just trying to
do tasks that maybe for at one point in their life was really simple. And now it's harder for
them because of a disability or an acquired disability. I think sometimes people get
frustrated when someone will comment on that because they remember how easy it used to be
and they don't want to like kind of be belittled or reminded of that. So I think being inspirational,
as long as it's like inspiring people to actually take change when it's belittling or if it's
lowering the expectation that people have for individuals with disabilities, if it's kind of
perpetuating this narrative that they're less than, then that's when I guess it might become
a little bit of an issue. But obviously I just listen to how you all describe it and how our
various guests describe it. And it might be similar to kind of the terminology. It's a case by case
basis where some people want to be inspirational and others don't, but it's just, it's an interesting
conversation to have. I don't think we're required to be an inspiration, but I just want everybody to
understand that if you have that possibility, then be the inspiration for somebody. Yeah.
And it's probably not, there's probably some parallels between that and like the motivational
speaking you do. Your goal with the motivational speaking is to inspire people to overcome whatever
barriers that they face. So I would assume there's a lot more carryover between with that
occupation or with that portion of your job, the speaking. Yeah, definitely.
What is, this is a question that we asked most of the guests towards the end of the episodes,
but what do you think needs to be done maybe for the industry as a whole or to make fitness
more accessible for people with intellectual and physical disabilities?
Yeah, I think it kind of touches on what we talked about earlier, where it's like just making that
part of the conversation. So people that are within the fitness industry, just understanding
that that population does exist, that people on all levels of ability should have access to
this, to fitness, to better nutrition, to movement, you know, proper, I call it proper movement.
I call it our personal peak performance. Everybody has their personal peak performance. So I think
within the fitness industry, it's really important for people to understand that it's not just,
you know, looking for or helping just people that, you know, already have something, full mobility,
and you're going to take them to the next level. Of course, you're going to help people that way,
but I think just opening up and keeping that conversation of like, there's all abilities,
there's all levels of ability within fitness. It's not like you have to be at a certain
level to then start getting involved in fitness, fitness and movement, and all of all of that,
which we, you know, help people with. It starts at any level, it starts at the levels of someone who
barely moves, you know, and like, we have to remember that I think a lot of people
within the industry think, well, you know, people have to be at a certain level.
And then on the other side, people with disabilities, it's like, you have to, you know,
you don't have to, you don't have to be any at any specific level to start. Right now is the right
time to start. So I think if we, you know, keep that conversation going, I think will help to
improve the conversation and improve the environment again, where it creates that
comfortability for people to feel like, oh, yeah, I can start now. And then someone on the fitness
side to be like, oh, yeah, I can help somebody that's at this level. I think we can meet in the
middle if we do that. Yeah, there's always an entry point to exercise. And it's our responsibility to
help people like help people find that so they can be safe, they can be confident, they can feel
comfortable with what they're working on and being comfortably challenged over time to continue to
make improvements. What do you hope the next five years looks like for you? Or maybe even the next
year? Man, the next year, I want to keep growing Unbreakable Body. That's the online fitness club,
I want to keep growing that. I want to keep getting out and, you know, spreading the message
of encouragement to get more people moving. I personally, I'm writing my second book now. So
that's going to be coming out in 2024. And I'm going to be working on some other programs that
are bigger and helping other communities, other disabled communities. I hope to see, you know,
this conversation not be something that we have to focus on in five years, right? Like, it's just
going to be part of part of the canon that is the fitness environment and the fitness industry,
where it's like, yeah, this is just part of it. In five years, we should be able to do that. That's
my hope is that in five years, it's just part of the conversation. But you know, I'm going to keep
encouraging and helping as many people as I can along the way, through my books, through my talks,
through my online programs, through anywhere where I can get in connection with people to help uplift
them and encourage them. Yeah, well, Tony will definitely let us know if there's any ways that
we can kind of amplify those projects that you're working on. We'll include a link to the book in
our next newsletter that goes out in a couple Wednesdays. The podcast will be released in the
next week or so to hopefully spread. You had a lot of beautiful comments in this episode. I really
appreciated a lot of what you said and definitely appreciate the time that you took today to talk
with me. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate this and I love what you're doing.
However, I can support you too. I love what you're doing. I love the platform.
Thank you for listening to the AdaptX podcast. Our effort to amplify the ideas of our guests
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