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Welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals who

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are building accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or excelling

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in adaptive sports.

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Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but

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provide a platform to share their voice and amplify ideas to make the world

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more accessible and inclusive.

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Today we are joined by Leanne Reiber, the owner of Second Skin Society that

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we're looking forward to learning more about.

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Leanne, thank you for joining me today.

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Thank you for having me.

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Maybe just a overarching view of what Second Skin is, and then we can backtrack

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into where you got there, but can you explain what the company is and possibly

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why you founded it?

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Yes.

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So it's a health and fitness app designed around accessibility and really to create

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the experience for people with disabilities and people without disabilities to be able

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to work out together.

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We are still in early stage production.

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We'll actually be officially launching in market in September and have lots of user

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testing things happening in the background right now.

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So it's a really fun and exciting time.

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How we got here is a very long and winding road, like many entrepreneur stories.

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I won't go into all of the details, but essentially we started as a brick and

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mortar yoga studio in Ontario, Canada, ran that for a year, ended up having quite a

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lot of people from surrounding cities asking if I would come and teach in their

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area.

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And I took the risky move and decided not to renew the studio lease.

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And what a reward I received when three months later, the pandemic came and I was

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so grateful we didn't have that studio lease.

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That would have been an incredibly challenging time for us, just given that we

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were very new.

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So we created a virtual platform.

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We actually ran that for a couple of years, mostly in the B2B space, offering

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employers a virtual wellness benefit they could offer their employees.

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And really, I just came to realize that the most feedback we were receiving from our

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members from the previous web-based application we were running was that people

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loved our seated class options.

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This is where my entrepreneur aha moment happened.

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Many entrepreneurs experience this where they start off doing one thing and all of

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a sudden get some information and realize, ooh, this is the direction to move in.

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When I got that feedback and really it wasn't until I realized that we were

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continuing to get that feedback over time, that's where everything shifted for

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me because previous to starting my business, I had a career of over 20 years

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supporting people with disabilities in a variety of capacities.

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So I was actually hired when I was 13 years old, which is another story in itself.

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But ultimately, I did so much growing up personally, being immersed in a community

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and multiple communities of people with different disabilities, people that had

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developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, some dual diagnoses.

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And I really appreciated and loved the opportunities that I had to work in those

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different spaces and when we got this feedback, I just started looking at what

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was available for people with disabilities in the fitness space and how could we

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create something that I would call inclusive, which was really the idea of

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bringing people with and without disabilities together through movement.

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How would you define inclusion broadly speaking?

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What is your vision of inclusion when you think of it, at least maybe in the

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fitness space?

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Oh, goodness.

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This is a tough question.

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And probably if you asked me this question every day for 10 days straight,

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I'd give a different answer.

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At the end of it, when I kind of peel back all the layers, I would say for me,

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inclusion is really just like a safe space that people get that sense of

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belonging because they've entered a space in person or virtually or however they

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enter that space and have this experience where they get to let their shoulders down

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because they just know that they're included.

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Like they know that they belong in that space and belonging in that space to me

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is having people think of you before you enter the room so that the environment is

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already created with you in mind.

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That's what inclusion is to me.

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That's the way that we're really developing our internal team and our

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business practices.

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And that's certainly the way that we're developing the app and the content.

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We want people to have that experience.

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And I really believe there's such a need in the fitness industry for what we are

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doing because the fitness industry plays such a large role in the value that's

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placed on bodies.

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So the fact that people with disabilities are really quite missing from that

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entire industry.

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And I know there's lots of other businesses that are coming up to meet different needs

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within the fitness space.

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But still, when you compare the ratio of people with disabilities being included to

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people without disabilities, to me, it's my mission to really disrupt that entire

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space because of that fact that the fitness industry plays such a large role in how

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valued bodies are.

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Yeah.

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I think that was a wonderful definition.

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The idea of belonging, I think, might be kind of at the crux of it all.

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I guess for a long time, to me, inclusion was like an environment where people with

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and without disabilities were together.

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But just doing so doesn't inherently mean that it's inclusive or that the individual

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will feel a sense of belonging or that, like you said, the key stakeholders made the

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prerequisite steps or took the prerequisite steps to making sure they were supported and

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had all their needs met.

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So inclusion seems to be a proactive process towards making sure people feel a sense of

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belonging.

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Absolutely.

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We talk about this all the time.

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Inclusion is not passive.

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It's active.

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It's not just saying, hey, if you need something, let us know.

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It's us taking the step to say, what do you need?

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Us asking first rather than waiting for you to share how we can create that experience

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for you.

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It's definitely active.

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You mentioned that people with disabilities are often missing within the fitness industry.

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How do you think fitness could be more effectively marketed to that population?

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And how do you intend on marketing your services to people with disabilities?

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Oh, goodness.

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There are so many things that I'm thinking about in terms of what we're doing, but also

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what I've seen as gaps or barriers for people.

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There is when you look at any marketing related to fitness, even the fitness brands that are

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marketing themselves now as inclusive are still not including people with disabilities

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in their marketing materials.

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So obviously, when you start to see a fitness brand saying, hey, this is for everybody,

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hey, we're inclusive, and you look at the different marketing efforts that they have

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across their socials or on their websites or on their app, and you don't see people

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with disabilities, that's an issue.

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No one's going to feel that sense of belonging if they don't even see themselves

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represented.

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The other thing I would say is that the instructor community that we have in the fitness

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industry lacks people with disabilities.

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And so part of what we are doing and we're assuming and hoping that people with

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disabilities are going to be really inspired by what we're doing, by what we're

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creating, that they themselves will think, hey, maybe I want to be a yoga teacher,

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maybe I want to be a fitness instructor, maybe I want to be a dance teacher.

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I never saw myself represented in that way, and now I do.

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Maybe that's something that I want to explore as a career option for myself.

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And so part of what we're doing is offering the opportunity to give people scholarships

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so they can become certified fitness instructors and then we can hire them as part

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of our content creation teams.

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So definitely that representation in the fitness community as a whole, but also in

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the instructor community is lacking and that sets the stage.

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When you don't see yourself in a space, you assume you're not meant to be there.

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Yeah, the representation and the visual depiction is definitely essential.

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I think it's sometimes tough to navigate, at least I know personally in terms of

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marketing, the inclusivity of our gym or marketing, for lack of a better term, like

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our adaptive populations.

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Sometimes it feels exploitative, like, oh, look at me, I run this gym for people with

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disabilities.

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And sometimes it's hard to make it just feel like it's the expectation and not the

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exception.

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Like to me, I'm very matter of fact with it because to me, it's just a part of our

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business.

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But to the untrained eye, and it's always well intentioned when it gets commented on,

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like people are like, oh, this is so incredible.

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Like, I don't want it to be incredible.

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I want it to be like the expectation.

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So I just wonder how it gets to that point.

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I think more of us doing it is how we get it to that point.

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You know, I've had a lot of people ask about other competitors and other people

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emerging in this space.

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And I love when we see someone new coming up.

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It elevates every single person trying to do great work in this space.

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And to make it so that it is absolutely just normal that people with disabilities are

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here and that it's not, you know, it's amazing work because every body really needs

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movement in some capacity.

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So the work that you're doing is absolutely incredible, but it shouldn't just be

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incredible because it's inclusive of people with disabilities.

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It should just be incredible work because you're doing incredible work.

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Competitors, competitors, right.

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Competitors, competitors also like validate the need for something.

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So if there's more people getting into the space, then you can probably assume that

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there's a market for it or that it is a, a important idea.

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Did the pandemic, obviously a lot of fitness companies went remote and added remote

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offerings to their services.

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Where, where did the pandemic, I guess, fall on the timeline?

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I know you said you, you stopped brick and mortar a few months before.

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Did you already have a remote like live streaming system in place by the time that

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hit, or were you able to respond to it and start growing a business during the

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pandemic?

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Kind of what was that timeline and period of uncertainty like?

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Yeah.

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So I left the studio in December and of 2019 and in between December and March

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was when I was actually traveling across Southwestern Ontario.

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I was renting studio spaces and doing classes in different locations because of

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the experience that we had had where people were reaching out saying, Hey,

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will you come and teach in our area?

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And I, and I thought of it as, you know, market research.

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I thought of it as testing to see where are we going to be able to build the

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biggest community to open in another studio.

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That was truly my intention.

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At the same time, I had always had it in the back of my mind, thinking about a

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virtual membership because I'm, I'm a big thinker.

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I love thinking about, you know, things that are possible or potentially some

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people would say unrealistic.

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I love thinking about how do you get there?

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And for me, the idea of a virtual membership was something that was so

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expansive and you can take it global and you're really not limited by

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geographic location.

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I thought that was, you know, maybe a 10 year plan that we build up the

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community in the studio.

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Then we start offering virtual opportunities and kind of take that and run with it.

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And so the in-between time between losing the studio and, or letting go of

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the studio and the pandemic was really that travel time.

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And as soon as the pandemic came, I knew I was no longer going to be traveling

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to teach in-person classes.

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I didn't take any time to think about what I could not do.

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I immediately started thinking about what can I do?

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And I started creating YouTube content.

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Then I, you know, had some friends who had studio spaces that were not being used.

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They had said to me, I know I can't use this space and you need a space, you

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know, if you're looking to film content.

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And so we just did kind of an exchange of service to be able to, to give me the

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opportunity to create hours and hours of content, most of which I threw out.

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Something in me when I started creating content virtually told me it needed to be

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perfect.

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There, it's an interesting experience when you're used to teaching in-person

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classes in a group setting.

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It's normal in, as a yoga teacher to fall out of balance.

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And for you in that experience, it creates this human connection with all your

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students where you get to say, see, I'm the teacher and I also fall out of

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balance and it's okay.

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And some days, you know, my right leg might hold a balance and my left leg

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won't, or some days I can, I can get deeper into a hip opener in this way.

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And some days I can't.

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And some days I fall out of balance.

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And it creates a beautiful opportunity to connect with people around your

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humanness.

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But for whatever reason, when I started creating content virtually, the

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perfectionist in me watching the videos said, Oh, that wasn't good enough.

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Or you said right hand when you meant left hand, or you forgot to, you know, to

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do this.

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And so unfortunately, I created a lot of content, deleted it, and I was able to

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a lot of content, deleted it, and later came to remember that it is the human

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and authentic aspect of teaching that really connects us to our instructors.

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So then I moved forward in creating basically, you know, my own library of

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content outside of YouTube and worked on a membership from there.

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Yeah, we always joke when I send, when I send videos that I make to our team that

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helps with that, they're like, this is the first take.

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And I'm like, absolutely knowing that there was about 55 takes beforehand that

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I refilmed because it wasn't perfect.

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But what are the advantages that virtual and remote have over in person, maybe

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for people with disabilities specifically?

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Obviously, convenience.

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You know, there's a lot of different aspects of life that people with

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disabilities experience.

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And being, you know, knowing that if you go to a studio or a gym, and there's a

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class running at a certain time, and the logistics of getting there at that time

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can create a lot of barriers for people, let alone thinking about the accessibility

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of the space itself and whether or not there's access for people.

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So the convenience of it just allows people to, you know, show up whenever

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they can, whenever their body has capacity for them to do it.

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You know, there's just a lot of barriers that I would say are removed in creating

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virtual opportunities.

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That said, there can also be accessibility barriers in a virtual platform or a

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virtual app as well.

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And that's exactly what we're looking to reduce with the way that we're

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developing our app.

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Maybe on that topic specifically, digital accessibility wise, are you familiar with

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what barriers and concerns they're looking at predominantly?

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In a fitness app, you mean?

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Yeah, just from like the accessibility nature of an app as a whole, like

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screen reader compatible, color contrast.

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Like, do you know what specific steps your team is taking to make that digital

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experience more accessible?

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Yes.

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So first of all, we're having a lot of conversations.

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We have had a lot of conversations with people with disabilities to understand all

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of the different aspects of how apps for them have been inaccessible.

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We're also working with a couple of not-for-profit organizations that are

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supporting us in really learning and working on our project in a consultancy

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capacity where they can look at what step that we're at and be able to review and

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basically kind of provide an audit and share about the ways that we can make it

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more accessible.

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But a lot of the information that we've gathered from people and my team, I have a

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fantastic team.

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We have a chief accessibility officer and our CTO who both have extensive

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experience in accessibility.

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So they bring all of that, their own knowledge to the table.

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But it's really around, you know, looking at all of the different compliance

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aspects and then looking at the actual user usability experience to know that

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there's so much that we're putting as much control into the app as possible for

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people.

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So things like, you know, to be able to navigate through the app and find

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content if you're using a screen reader, to be able to change the text size of the

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captions and the classes and the contrast and the lighting, we have a feature that

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allows you to adjust the volume of the instructor separate from the volume of the

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music.

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So you can actually turn the music down or off completely if that's beneficial for

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you.

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It's one of those things where I look at the type of accessibility features that

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were including being so impactful for people with disabilities, but also really

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impactful for people without disabilities because, you know, I've certainly been

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in a fitness class before where I didn't love the music and it would have been fun

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to be able to turn it off and keep going with the instructor and put my own music

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on in the background or turn the volume of the instructor up so that I could more

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clearly hear and understand them.

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Yeah.

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There's lots of different accessibility features that we're baking into the

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actual MVP, but then certainly, you know, a long list of features that we want to

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continue to include as we roll out new features.

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How have you bootstrapped this to get to that MVP level?

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Like, if it's okay to discuss the business side of things?

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Yeah.

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If you have a CTO, if you have a Chief Accessibility Officer, you have yourself,

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what's been the process like going from idea to hopefully this MVP coming out in

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the fall?

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What has been the process?

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Divine intervention and miracle upon miracle.

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Truly.

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Every single person that has come into my life has shown up in such a unique and

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unexpected way.

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And I just finished a team meeting with our leadership team where I expressed my

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gratitude for all the things that they're doing and where we are.

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Obviously, running the brick and mortar yoga studio, I mean, we didn't reach

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profitability in one year in that space, so there were lots of personal financial

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contributions that I made for us to keep going.

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I did as much, I have done and continue to do as much work as I possibly can in

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all of the different capacities of running a business.

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I'm not taking any compensation from the business today, and my team members are

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also not taking compensation from the business yet.

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When each of them showed up in their own different capacities, and it really

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started with my COO, they approached me and said, how can I be part of this?

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And I said, listen, full transparency, I want you here.

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I think there's something really great here that we can build and create a

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successful business with, but I don't have the resources today to be able to

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bring you in.

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And those conversations just moved to, well, what if I could support in some

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capacity, and we kind of contracted an arrangement of how that could look,

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knowing that we are fundraising for the business as well.

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From there, it was people making introductions to other people and saying,

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hey, I met Leanne, I understood what it was that she wanted to build.

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I've heard from several people that the term or kind of the language around the

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way that we're working is that we're doing it in the right way.

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It is with the right intention.

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It's slowing down the processes to build the foundation of this business with

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the integrity and intention behind it that we want to have.

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And people have continued to make introductions and have shown up saying, I

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would like to be part of this too.

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I'd like to have my name on it.

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I know how much impact it can create for people with disabilities and kind of

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our greater society as a whole.

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And that's how we've gotten here.

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I've also just, you know, done all kinds of things myself with, I did for a

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period of time, I was coaching other entrepreneurs specifically around their

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own mindset and the way that they were thinking about business and

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opportunities.

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So I brought in some resources that way.

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I have done whatever it takes to get here is how it's happened.

340
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Yeah.

341
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Familiar with that process?

342
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Yeah.

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What's the path to profitability or what's the business model once the app

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comes out?

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How do you intend on monetizing it?

346
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Yeah.

347
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So at this point, we firmly believe that it's direct to consumer.

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We have a monthly membership or a yearly membership.

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We do also have corporate rates.

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Just given that we were working in that B2B space with our previous platform

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and we developed a lot of connections there, it made sense for us to just have

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another rate, not specifically, you know, focus sales in that space, but offer

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it if they were coming to us.

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And then, I mean, ultimately in the future, it's really about building the

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community within the app and looking at other opportunities to be able to

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provide even more great service for them in different areas.

357
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We're thinking a lot about, you know, training for instructors with disabilities

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specifically, also thinking about training for people without disabilities who

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want to be able to feel comfortable and confident in providing adaptive training

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or adaptive offers for people with disabilities in their own careers.

361
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:01,600
Definitely, I mean, our name is Second Skin, so in my mind, there's a lot of

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things to find.

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00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:07,600
There's a whole active wear line associated with Second Skin, merch

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00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:09,600
opportunities, things like that.

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00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:14,600
But the bulk or the core of what we're doing is really focused on creating

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fantastic fitness experiences for people and creating as much accessibility

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along the way as we can.

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So even offering subsidized memberships for people that need it is another

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aspect of what we're doing in partnership with some corporations who are helping

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to fund that aspect.

371
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:31,600
Yeah.

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00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,600
Do you intend on marketing to people without disabilities or do you think

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attracting that population will kind of be an unintended consequence?

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00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:43,600
Like you said, a lot of people like the seated versions of your classes when

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you were first describing your offerings, and that isn't exclusive to

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00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:48,600
disability.

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00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,600
That could be to someone that prefers a seated workout class.

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00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:59,600
Do you intend on kind of both populations and only using populations to

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00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,600
differentiate between people, those with and without disabilities?

380
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:07,600
But I guess, yeah, do you hope that people without a diagnosis will also

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00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:08,600
take your classes?

382
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,600
Yes, 100%.

383
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:15,600
How we market that is still something that we're talking a lot about.

384
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,600
So first and foremost, we want to market to people with disabilities.

385
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:20,600
There's just such a need there.

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00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,600
There's such a huge gap there in the fitness industry, so that's certainly the

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direction that we're going.

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00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:31,600
We do think that because of their social circles, we'll naturally be able to

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attract people without disabilities in as well.

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00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,600
And the intention really, if I were to give you the one sentence of what we

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do, it is that we're creating fitness experiences where people with and

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00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,600
without disabilities can work out together.

393
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:51,600
So the marketing aspect of it is certainly what I would consider a

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challenge because we want to make sure that we're reaching the right people,

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but we also don't want to exclude people who can benefit from the service as

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00:25:58,600 --> 00:25:59,600
well.

397
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:04,600
Really, every entrepreneur kind of goes through this, how do you frame it?

398
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:11,600
The intention is certainly for both to benefit, but we think it's likely that

399
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,600
we'll naturally attract people without disabilities because of the social

400
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:20,600
circles that are included in the people with disabilities that are coming in

401
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:21,600
and into the membership.

402
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,600
Yeah, absolutely.

403
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,600
You had mentioned onboarding coaches, both those with and without

404
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:32,600
disabilities, to become an instructor role.

405
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:37,600
How do you intend on formalizing that process, or are there going to be some

406
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:42,600
degree of standards for someone to be an instructor on the app?

407
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:43,600
Definitely.

408
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:48,600
We're in the process of creating our own instructor onboarding pipeline,

409
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:54,600
which really is breaking down the process of onboarding into different trainings.

410
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,600
So we look at what we are doing.

411
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,600
We're, as an organization, developing our own inclusive language guide.

412
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:07,600
It is specific to all the ways in which we as a brand speak or do not speak,

413
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:12,600
but also then taking into consideration the way that we speak and do not speak

414
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:14,600
regarding fitness.

415
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:20,600
I think in a previous conversation, you and I had, I spoke about how some

416
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:25,600
coaches still are out there going, do 10 more squats so you can earn pizza for

417
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:26,600
dinner.

418
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,600
That's not the way that we coach.

419
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:35,600
We don't move our bodies to punish them or to try to change them to fit a

420
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,600
certain mold that society thinks is valuable.

421
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:43,600
We want people to show up and challenge themselves in a way that feels really

422
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,600
good and will certainly coach and encourage and support people to do that,

423
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:49,600
but not in a harmful way.

424
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:53,600
So we've got that inclusive language guide as part of our training.

425
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:55,600
We work with people on confidence.

426
00:27:55,600 --> 00:28:00,600
So some of the instructors that are coming in are new instructors, and it is

427
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,600
certainly a different experience when you're teaching to a camera than it is

428
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,600
when you have that energy of a room full of people.

429
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,600
So we work with people on really helping to build that confidence and have that

430
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:16,600
energy to present to a camera knowing that there are people on the other side

431
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,600
of it who are going to receive it.

432
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:23,600
So there's lots of different aspects of our training, but ultimately, the

433
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:29,600
unique piece of our instructor onboarding, I would say, is that we are not

434
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,600
providing exclusive opportunities.

435
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:38,600
Where I see a lot of other fitness brands have a few coveted fitness

436
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,600
instructor positions available, we kind of want to be able to do that.

437
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,600
We kind of want to do the opposite.

438
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:49,600
We kind of want to say, hey, you know, if you want to be here, we want you here,

439
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:54,600
and we'll support you to get through the instructor onboarding aspects so that

440
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,600
you reach that level of standard that we have set for our instructors and so

441
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,600
you can be part of our instructor community.

442
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,600
Really, truly every decision that we make in this business is through that

443
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:09,600
lens of how can we be as inclusive as possible.

444
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,600
And so if people want to be fitness instructors and maybe aren't quite at

445
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:17,600
that level, then we just need to start asking questions, how can we support

446
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:18,600
you to get there?

447
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:22,600
And that's really the experience that we want to provide for people.

448
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:29,600
How do you replicate community within a remote offering where the people on

449
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:33,600
the other side of the camera don't know one another and might not have no

450
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,600
interaction with each other?

451
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:37,600
It's a great question.

452
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:42,600
One, that we are still working to validate, but ultimately how we see

453
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:48,600
ourselves creating that community is providing a forum inside of our app for

454
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:54,600
people to be able to connect with each other, but also providing specific

455
00:29:54,600 --> 00:30:00,600
topics or specific opportunities for people and showing them why they would

456
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,600
want to connect with each other.

457
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:08,600
So the example that I would give is, you know, as much as we can say, we want

458
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,600
to provide fitness experiences that are for every single body.

459
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:16,600
We are all human and we are all different.

460
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,600
And so if I am a full-time wheelchair user and I'm following an instructor

461
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:25,600
that's a full-time wheelchair user, it does not mean that my body will move in

462
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,600
the exact same way as the instructor's body.

463
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,600
And so what we see as being a great opportunity for that community

464
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,600
interaction and connection with each other is actually having our members

465
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,600
share what works for them and what didn't work for them in specific classes.

466
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:45,600
And were they still, you know, creating different adaptive movements in those

467
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:50,600
classes that they could then share with us for feedback so that our

468
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:55,600
instructor community can take that and into the next versions of classes that

469
00:30:55,600 --> 00:31:00,600
are created, but also can we provide a platform so that they can share it

470
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:04,600
with each other and connect with each other on the value that each and every

471
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,600
human that is part of this membership can bring.

472
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,600
It is our differences that create the value, right?

473
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:16,600
It's an opportunity for them to connect with each other and say, yeah,

474
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:19,600
actually, that movement didn't work for me either.

475
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:21,600
Here's what I did instead.

476
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,600
And there's some great opportunities there.

477
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:30,600
That's obviously like I'm not going to kind of give away all of the next set

478
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:34,600
of features and where we're going with that community connection piece, but I

479
00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:38,600
think it's really about creating this space for people to interact with each

480
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:41,600
other and giving them a reason to.

481
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,600
Yeah, absolutely.

482
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,600
What type of classes will be in the app?

483
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,600
I know we talked about yoga, but will it be exclusively yoga or do you

484
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,600
envision other forms of movement?

485
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:55,600
No, so yoga, dance, cardio classes, strength training classes, and then

486
00:31:55,600 --> 00:32:00,600
there will also be a library of meditation and visualization audio files

487
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,600
for people to be able to follow along to.

488
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:06,600
All live or on-demand classes?

489
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:11,600
All on-demand, and that is again for convenience of our members, but also for

490
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,600
capacity of our instructors and making sure that we're setting up this space

491
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:21,600
where they have specific deliverables and timelines related to those

492
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:28,600
deliverables, but that it's not really, really taxing in creating a virtual

493
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:33,600
schedule that's live and what happens if one of our instructors isn't able to

494
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,600
teach the live class on the schedule and just kind of mitigating those risks

495
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:41,600
and making sure that we're providing as much support to our instructors as

496
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:42,600
possible.

497
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,600
Yeah, that's great.

498
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:51,600
The on-demand is convenient, obviously, for people, but I know also with the

499
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:57,600
live, you can get some interaction with the instructors as well, so I guess my

500
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:03,600
first thought would be how can you ensure through on-demand classes that

501
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:09,600
movements are being executed properly without that visual feedback or how can

502
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:15,600
your instructors play a role in people's experience beyond just recording the

503
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:16,600
workouts?

504
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:21,600
Yeah, so similar to how we're thinking about that community forum where there's

505
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,600
that engagement and interaction, our instructor teams are all present in that

506
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:26,600
as well.

507
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:31,600
It's an opportunity for that constant feedback loop and an opportunity for

508
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,600
people to just be able to share how the experiences are and to connect with the

509
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,600
instructors themselves.

510
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:45,600
Beyond that, I mean similar to any other virtual fitness platform that there

511
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:51,600
are out there, if you think about Peloton, there is a certain standard that

512
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:56,600
they have for their instructors and there is no necessary opportunity or

513
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:01,600
there's no real opportunity for the instructors in the moment of the class to

514
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,600
say, hey, this needs to be adjusted here.

515
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:10,600
It's our job as an instructor community to make sure that we are setting out

516
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:15,600
very clearly the different movements and what's happening in the body

517
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:20,600
throughout those movements and supporting people as best as we can.

518
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:27,600
But ultimately, yeah, we could only do so much with a scalable opportunity.

519
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:28,600
Yeah, absolutely.

520
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,600
What aspects of UDL, maybe on that topic of communication, like what aspects of

521
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:38,600
UDL will the app utilize to more effectively communicate with the user on

522
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:43,600
the other end of the screen?

523
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:49,600
That's a good question.

524
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:55,600
Like captions, still frame pictures versus videos versus like timers, like are

525
00:34:55,600 --> 00:35:01,600
there specific features you think that will make the instruction a little more

526
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:06,600
accessible for someone who's unable to hear or unable to see, et cetera?

527
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,600
Yes, which is exactly where my mind was going.

528
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,600
So the first thing, obviously, there are captions in all classes.

529
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,600
We also have enhanced queuing in all classes.

530
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:24,600
And what I mean by that is if you are someone who's blind or has low vision or

531
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,600
if you're someone who just doesn't want to have to watch the screen to see what

532
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:32,600
the instructor is doing, we are instructing in such a way that's providing you

533
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:37,600
with great cues so you know where the body is moving or you know exactly what

534
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:43,600
we're asking of you to do without having to see the instructor doing it.

535
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,600
We have classes that are taught with American Sign Language for people who

536
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:49,600
rely on that type of communication.

537
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:54,600
We're still, again, collecting a lot of feedback from community members to

538
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:59,600
understand how we can even enhance the communication experiences further.

539
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:04,600
A lot of that is still, you know, we're early stage testing and collecting

540
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:06,600
feedback on those features.

541
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,600
But ultimately, you know, our starting point is the captions, American Sign

542
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:16,600
Language, enhanced queuing, and then just continuing to listen to what else

543
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,600
people need.

544
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:22,600
So is it currently kind of in beta testing, like the next four months or so?

545
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:28,600
Is it mostly just a special group of users participating and giving you

546
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,600
feedback so you can make the adjustments before you roll it out?

547
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:35,600
We're doing kind of two different types of testing.

548
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:40,600
So we're doing testing with, you know, basically right now we have some free

549
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:45,600
class options that anyone could try and give us feedback on the actual content

550
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:47,600
side of things.

551
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,600
Now, there are a lot of people within our community that speak to the different

552
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,600
communities that we really want to make sure that we're supporting.

553
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,600
So certainly that feedback is going to be really critical from them.

554
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,600
And then on the app development side of things, we're just working on all of

555
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,600
the different accessibility testing that's going on through all the different

556
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:09,600
sprints.

557
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:13,600
Some of that is in consultation or in partnership with some of the not-for-

558
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,600
profit organizations that we've been working with.

559
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,600
And some of that are going to be our community members coming in as testers

560
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,600
themselves and providing feedback that way.

561
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:27,600
So it is still, yes, I would say we're, I would categorize it as we have a

562
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:32,600
concierge MVP right now that we're working with people on.

563
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:37,600
If it was useful for us to direct some people towards those free classes,

564
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,600
where would they find them?

565
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:45,600
Yeah, so they can just go to our website, which is www.secondskinssociety.com.

566
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,600
Second is spelled with a K, S-E-K.

567
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,600
They can get some more information about what we're doing.

568
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,600
That whole website needs to be revamped too, which we're working on all of it.

569
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,600
You know, many, many moving parts at the moment.

570
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:00,600
But they can get some great information there.

571
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,600
There's a place for them to submit any questions that they have.

572
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:08,600
And there's also a space for them to submit email, which gets them access to

573
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,600
some free classes.

574
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:12,600
That was going to be one of my questions.

575
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:17,600
How did you land on Second Skin and why the deviation in the spelling?

576
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,600
So it's a great question.

577
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:26,600
And I usually talk about it being a little bit of an unexpected manifestation.

578
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:32,600
So when I first was opening the yoga studio, I was teaching a very niche style

579
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,600
of yoga called Bhuti yoga, B-U-T-I.

580
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:37,600
Not very well known in Canada.

581
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,600
It's a little bit more known in the U.S., but even still, it's quite niche.

582
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:47,600
It is a mix of yoga, some cardio strength, dance elements to it.

583
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:49,600
So not your traditional yoga.

584
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,600
And we did not open a traditional yoga studio.

585
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,600
Every yoga studio I've been in is very light and bright and airy, and you get

586
00:38:57,600 --> 00:38:58,600
this sense of calm.

587
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:02,600
My yoga studio had black walls, a black ceiling.

588
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:07,600
We had mirrors across the front, but we used a disco light in the classes that

589
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,600
kind of moved to the beat of the music.

590
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,600
It was just a contrast to what I had seen.

591
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:19,600
And when I was thinking about the business name, I was thinking about I wanted

592
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:23,600
people to, I was thinking about the experience I wanted people to have.

593
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:29,600
And when I was thinking about yoga and the reason yoga is something that I now

594
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,600
love, I actually truthfully did not always love yoga.

595
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:40,600
I now love yoga because it never ends and it's this constant going deeper

596
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:41,600
within yourself.

597
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:47,600
A lot of times people think about yoga really from the movement aspect, and

598
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:51,600
there's a lot of pretty poses and there's a lot of fun things that you can do,

599
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,600
but the true essence of yoga is really about peeling back the layers of

600
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:56,600
yourself.

601
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:01,600
And that idea of peeling back layers to me was that kind of representation of

602
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:06,600
shedding the skin, just like the snake does, and cobra is a yoga pose.

603
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:09,600
So it was kind of all tied into it for me.

604
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:14,600
The K and even in our logo is actually a backwards K.

605
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:20,600
It was just to kind of create something that we thought was trendy and cool.

606
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:26,600
And when we moved from the studio into a virtual place, we had the original

607
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:28,600
business name was Second Skin Studios.

608
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,600
We changed it to Second Skin Society.

609
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,600
And now if you were to say to me, what does Second Skin Society mean?

610
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:40,600
It's very much the experience of stepping outside of your own body to

611
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:46,600
understand or to work to understand how other people live and experience the

612
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,600
world and for us specifically experience movement.

613
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:53,600
It's an opportunity that all of our instructors get to have every time that

614
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:54,600
they create content.

615
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,600
It's not just people with and without disabilities looking at how do I

616
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,600
experience this movement and how can I think about how other people are going

617
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:05,600
to experience this movement.

618
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,600
So that's what it is for us.

619
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:11,600
And we're still working to be trendy and cool.

620
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:12,600
So.

621
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:13,600
I like that.

622
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:15,600
That's well articulated.

623
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:20,600
I think a lot of us have some experience or introduction to disability that

624
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:21,600
really stands out.

625
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:25,600
I know for me, I was first introduced to it through Special Olympics

626
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:29,600
basketball and the first athlete I had the opportunity to work with.

627
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:34,600
I would credit to changing kind of the scope of my career, the trajectory of

628
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:35,600
my life as a whole.

629
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:39,600
You mentioned starting quite early when you were only 13.

630
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:44,600
Do you have a experience with an individual or just with inclusion as a

631
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,600
whole that kind of stands out?

632
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:48,600
I have many of them.

633
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:52,600
I want to speak to two that were very profound.

634
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,600
The first was being hired when I was 13.

635
00:41:56,600 --> 00:42:01,600
All of my friends and all the people that I knew my age at the time were

636
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,600
getting babysitting jobs at that age.

637
00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:09,600
And I thought, yeah, I could do babysitting or I could get a job.

638
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,600
And they're in a small rural area where I live.

639
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,600
There weren't many places to apply.

640
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:19,600
One of the places was a developmental services agency.

641
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:24,600
And I put in a resume really having no thought of getting anywhere, but I

642
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:25,600
did it.

643
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,600
And I received a call.

644
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:29,600
And they didn't know how old I was.

645
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,600
That was just not a question that was really asked.

646
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:33,600
But they knew I was young.

647
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:36,600
And I think that's why there was initial interest.

648
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:41,600
Because I received a call to work with a specific young woman.

649
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,600
Who was living with her family.

650
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:47,600
She had finished high school.

651
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,600
She was quite social.

652
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:51,600
She could read and write.

653
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,600
And she had a really full life.

654
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:59,600
But unfortunately after high school, she was living at home.

655
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,600
And she lived on a farm with her siblings.

656
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:04,600
She had eight siblings in her family.

657
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:06,600
And she was the youngest.

658
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,600
And everyone in that house had a family.

659
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:13,600
And everyone in that household, from the time the sun was up and probably

660
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,600
before, to the time it went down, was out working on the farm.

661
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:19,600
They had a very, very large farm operation.

662
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:23,600
And she really spent a lot of time in isolation and over time actually

663
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,600
regressed and wasn't speaking very much.

664
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:28,600
Wasn't very social.

665
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,600
Didn't have the same reading and writing skills.

666
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:36,600
And they had had teachers coming in to support her and kept having a lot of

667
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:39,600
turnover because of course they would get a full time teaching position and

668
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:41,600
then move on.

669
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,600
So the interest in me was, hey, maybe there's somebody here that can work

670
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:48,600
with this individual for a longer period of time.

671
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:56,600
And I was introduced to her and she repeated my name immediately in the

672
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:57,600
introduction.

673
00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:00,600
Her mom said, you know, this is Leanne.

674
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:03,600
And the young woman went, Leanne.

675
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:09,600
And it was such an energetic moment because this is someone who at the time

676
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,600
I would go and spend four hours with and I'd write down any word that she

677
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,600
would say and she would maybe say two or three words in a four hour period of

678
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:17,600
time.

679
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:21,600
So for her to repeat my name back was just this kind of instant connection

680
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:22,600
that we had.

681
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,600
And her mom said, you know, if you're interested in coming, we'd love to have

682
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:27,600
you come.

683
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,600
And I ended up working with that family for six years.

684
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:36,600
I did so many things that I had no idea what I was doing, but really I just

685
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:38,600
wanted to know her and understand her.

686
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:40,600
We had dance parties.

687
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:41,600
We went to movies.

688
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:43,600
We did all kinds of just fun stuff together.

689
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:48,600
But then it came into, you know, really actually showing up and putting some

690
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:54,600
work in to help her social skills come back to, you know, anywhere where I

691
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:58,600
could get them further ahead than where they were, where she really wasn't in

692
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:00,600
that isolation anymore.

693
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:04,600
And at the end of the six years, she was speaking in sentences and going out

694
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,600
and doing things socially and having fun.

695
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,600
And it was just a beautiful experience to get to see her kind of come back to

696
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:13,600
that part in her life.

697
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:18,600
And the other experience that I had that was very profound for me was I was

698
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:21,600
supporting someone who lived independently.

699
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,600
So, you know, I worked many, many different jobs to support people with

700
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,600
employment, rec and therapeutic activities.

701
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,600
I worked with people who lived independently and also who received 24-hour

702
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:33,600
support.

703
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:39,600
And one day I was showing up to an apartment and this woman was just getting

704
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:43,600
home from work and she was in tears and she was very, very upset.

705
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:48,600
And I, you know, went into her apartment with her and I asked what had

706
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:53,600
happened and she said that the kids across the street were sitting on the

707
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:54,600
library steps.

708
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:59,600
And they were yelling across the street at her the R word.

709
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:08,600
And for me in that moment, still being quite young and at that time, a lot of

710
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:12,600
people, a lot of people were still using that word.

711
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:15,600
And I know there's still a lot of people that use that word today.

712
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:20,600
But in that moment, it was such a profound experience where I understood

713
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:26,600
more than I ever had before the power that words have.

714
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:34,600
You know, that woman was an incredible woman who got up and went to work

715
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:36,600
like many of us do.

716
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,600
And she did, you know, participated in lots of different community activities

717
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:41,600
like many of us do.

718
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,600
And she was just living her life.

719
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:50,600
And part of what she had to experience was that type of, you know, someone

720
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:55,600
across the street yelling out at her and calling her the R word.

721
00:46:55,600 --> 00:47:01,600
It just made a big difference in my life and in how I understood people and

722
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:07,600
experiences in a new way and how important and impactful language is.

723
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:11,600
And it made me change how I thought about the words that I was using.

724
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:13,600
And I think about that example often.

725
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:20,600
And I also share that example often when I hear people, if I hear people.

726
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,600
I don't really have anyone in my network now.

727
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:28,600
But strangers, if I hear using that word, I will tell them that story of,

728
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:32,600
you know, how upsetting that was for that individual.

729
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:38,600
And there's a real reason that words have so much impact.

730
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:46,600
And we need to continuously look at how we are creating impact through our

731
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,600
language and work to be better every single day.

732
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:53,600
There's, you know, so many different things happening in society right now.

733
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:59,600
And I know people have shared with me before that it feels almost like it's

734
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:02,600
hard to get it right, you know?

735
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:06,600
And so people stop trying because they're afraid of being canceled or

736
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:08,600
they're afraid of getting it wrong.

737
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,600
They're so afraid of getting it wrong that they just don't say anything at

738
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:13,600
all.

739
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:17,600
I actually think that's a big reason why people with disabilities are

740
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:19,600
missing through every single industry.

741
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:24,600
You know, there's, I think there's a lot of people out there that want to

742
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:29,600
take steps towards being more inclusive or to create accessible products and

743
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:30,600
services.

744
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,600
And they're afraid of getting it wrong.

745
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:40,600
And I am just one of those people that really firmly believes in, I know I'm

746
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:41,600
going to get it wrong.

747
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:43,600
I know I've gotten things wrong before.

748
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,600
I know I'm going to get them wrong again in the future.

749
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:52,600
But if I continue to show up and listen and take that and learn, just like I

750
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:57,600
learned in that experience, how powerful that was, how impactful that was for

751
00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:01,600
that individual, that's the only way that we can create real change.

752
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:06,600
Yeah, I don't have too much to add to that because that comprehensively

753
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:11,600
covers kind of our approach to language and growth mindset and just the

754
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:20,600
overall expectation that when your efforts are preceded with just passion

755
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:27,600
and compassion and care, then those mistakes are alleviated by your effort

756
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,600
and willingness to get them right and resolve them appropriately.

757
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:37,600
How do you think those individuals, maybe just in that second story, because

758
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:42,600
it's something that I'm very interested in, like why, not only are, why are

759
00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:47,600
some people afraid to communicate with people with disabilities, but why are

760
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:51,600
some people critical of those with disabilities or why do some people feel

761
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:57,600
the need to even be demeaning in a situation like that?

762
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:01,600
What would change that individual's life who was yelling across the street

763
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:03,600
at your friend?

764
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:08,600
I think there's a lot of answers to that question.

765
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:15,600
I would say one of the things that would change is if those people had someone

766
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:22,600
in their network that had a disability, meaning if they had a friend or family

767
00:50:22,600 --> 00:50:27,600
member that acquired a disability, it would shift their perspective.

768
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:32,600
Now, sometimes what I have seen and heard from other people's experiences is

769
00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:37,600
that when that happens that someone is in an accident and acquires a disability

770
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:43,600
that way, it actually creates distance between those people because, again, the

771
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:47,600
person without the disability all of a sudden feels like I have to treat this

772
00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:56,600
person differently and there's this distance that is like an unknown.

773
00:50:56,600 --> 00:51:02,600
The only thing that I can think of as far as why that happens or why people are

774
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:08,600
afraid to or don't know how to speak to people with disabilities is I think in

775
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:13,600
large part simply a lack of representation.

776
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:18,600
If you go back only a decade or two, so many things were different in our

777
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,600
society related to people with disabilities.

778
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:27,600
We've seen such a great uprising and there's still so much to do when it comes

779
00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:33,600
to awareness and education and really teaching people that there is no

780
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:38,600
difference to speak with someone with a disability versus someone without a

781
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,600
disability.

782
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:46,600
But I think going back to that time, there were a lot more people that were

783
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:48,600
really ignorant.

784
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:54,600
They were not educated around even that word specifically.

785
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:59,600
It was a joke to them and clearly not a joke for that woman.

786
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:04,600
So in all the things that we're doing and all the impact that we want to

787
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:09,600
create, it's creating better access for people with disabilities in the

788
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:14,600
fitness space but also better representation where people with

789
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:20,600
disabilities are included and it's not in a way that is oh, wow, just kind of

790
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,600
how you were speaking to before, how incredible it is that they get to

791
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:28,600
participate in fitness classes too or they get to teach fitness classes too or

792
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:33,600
not this inspiration porn idea and not this pity me idea but they're just

793
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:35,600
human beings.

794
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,600
We are all just human beings.

795
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:41,600
And there's so many people out there that just haven't kind of had that

796
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:46,600
moment where they've been personally impacted by disability because they've

797
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:52,600
either acquired one themselves or they've grown a social circle that

798
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:56,600
includes people with disabilities.

799
00:52:56,600 --> 00:53:03,600
And they're likely still just feeling like it's fear of getting it wrong is

800
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:05,600
really the only thing that I can think of.

801
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:09,600
Yeah, I'm hoping the representation that you mentioned as well as just

802
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:13,600
exposure, the more the people with disabilities are immersed within just

803
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:18,600
traditional community environments and programs, the more people who will not

804
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:22,600
have that family member with an acquired disability but that will have some

805
00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:25,600
sort of interaction with someone with a disability might change their

806
00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:29,600
perspective or at least make them more reflective of their biases and not be

807
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:34,600
ignorant to how their words affect people and kind of how they view

808
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,600
disability.

809
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:39,600
But one overarching question that obviously we're fitness industry

810
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:45,600
specific but I think it can have broader implications is how you envision that

811
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:47,600
the fitness industry could be more accessible.

812
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,600
And I know we kind of already touched on a lot of those topics but do you have

813
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:55,600
any maybe like last thoughts on what other companies could do either fitness

814
00:53:55,600 --> 00:54:01,600
or not to make their products and their services more inclusive and accessible?

815
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:07,600
I mean, the very first thought is just to start actively going out and having

816
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:13,600
conversations with people with disabilities because everything should

817
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:15,600
stem from those conversations.

818
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:22,600
But in terms of a broad idea, definitely thinking about, so I think about this

819
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:27,600
in all of the things that I do and not just related to my business but when I go

820
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:32,600
to conferences or when I go to specific events, I'm always paying attention to

821
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:36,600
who's not in the room.

822
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:41,600
I think it's often that we look at who's already in our membership and we're

823
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:46,600
looking to really get to know our community and we certainly need to do that.

824
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:54,600
But equally important in my view is to look at who's not in the room and ask why.

825
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:59,600
Have we not created the environment that they know that they're welcome to be in

826
00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:03,600
this membership or in this conference or at this event?

827
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:08,600
What are the ways in which we can very easily make changes so that people know

828
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:10,600
that we're already thinking of them?

829
00:55:10,600 --> 00:55:15,600
I attended a pitch competition in the fall and I had the opportunity to share a

830
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:20,600
60-second pitch and there was about 350 people in the room.

831
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:24,600
It was a great accessible building, accessible washrooms.

832
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:28,600
There were a lot of different things that were put into place, but it wasn't

833
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:33,600
marketed in any way where people with disabilities would know that they were

834
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:38,600
considered and thought of and simply in terms of image description in marketing

835
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:43,600
materials and camel case hashtags and actually talking about the facility

836
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:48,600
itself being accessible and putting in the marketing efforts or on the landing

837
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:54,600
page for the event that if there are specific needs that you have, we want to

838
00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:55,600
hear from you.

839
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:59,600
Any of those things, those are very simple things that anyone can do.

840
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:04,600
But it's pretty tough when you get up in front of 350 people and talk about 25%

841
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:07,600
of our population having a disability and you look around the room and you go,

842
00:56:07,600 --> 00:56:11,600
okay, well, I don't see anyone with a visible disability in this room.

843
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:15,600
There's a huge disconnect between how can there be this stat?

844
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:19,600
But I look around the rooms that I enter and I don't see people with disabilities

845
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:20,600
there.

846
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:27,600
So I'm always thinking about who's in the room but also who's not there and how

847
00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:31,600
can we create that space for them to know that they're being considered and

848
00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:36,600
they're being thought of and we want to know how we can include them in a way

849
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,600
that's going to be really meaningful and impactful.

850
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:45,600
I think at the end of the day, if we started, every business started asking

851
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:51,600
themselves who are our customers and what are the different avatars and also

852
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:56,600
who are the other people that could benefit from what we're doing or how can

853
00:56:56,600 --> 00:57:02,600
we create more opportunities for people outside of those core members to be

854
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:07,600
included here too or those core customers to be included here too.

855
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,600
Get curious, ask questions and then go out and find people and have

856
00:57:10,600 --> 00:57:13,600
conversations.

857
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:14,600
Yeah, that's perfect.

858
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:17,600
That's a great way to kind of conclude this.

859
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:21,600
If people want to learn more about Second Skin or stay up to date with

860
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:24,600
announcements, you mentioned the website.

861
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:28,600
Any other resources that they should be directed to?

862
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:33,600
Yeah, follow us on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Facebook.

863
00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:34,600
We do have a TikTok.

864
00:57:34,600 --> 00:57:36,600
There's nothing on there.

865
00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:42,600
There will be when we get to that prioritizing the social stuff, but

866
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:47,600
LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, great place to get updated information.

867
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:48,600
Awesome.

868
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:50,600
We'll include the links in the show notes so people can more easily access

869
00:57:50,600 --> 00:57:54,600
them, but Leanne, thanks so much for the conversation.

870
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:57,600
It was incredible, a bunch of things that really stood out to me that I'm

871
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:01,600
looking forward to sharing that I think are applicable outside of the

872
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:04,600
fitness industry as well, which is ultimately one of the goals.

873
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:06,600
Again, thanks so much for your time.

874
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:07,600
Thank you.

875
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:14,600
Pleasure to be here.

876
00:58:14,600 --> 00:58:16,600
Thank you for listening to the AdaptX Podcast.

877
00:58:16,600 --> 00:58:19,600
Our effort to amplify the ideas of our guests and create more inclusive

878
00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:22,600
and accessible industries is futile unless these episodes reach a larger

879
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:23,600
audience.

880
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:26,600
If you enjoyed our discussion today, please leave us a rating or a review

881
00:58:26,600 --> 00:58:28,600
on whichever platform you use.

882
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:30,600
And if you would like to learn more about AdaptX, the course that we

883
00:58:30,600 --> 00:58:33,600
teach to health and fitness professionals and the projects that our

884
00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:36,600
organization is working on, you can subscribe to our newsletter through

885
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,600
our website, www.adaptex.org.

886
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:58,600
Until next Monday.