[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Welcome to Disability Empowerment now, season four. I'm your host, Keith Mavigensini.
Today I'm talking to Nadine and Gretchen, who will introduce themselves.
Foreign.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Thank you, Keith. Hello, everyone. I'm Nadine Vogel. I AM founder and CEO of Springboard Consulting. Springboard operates in about 85 countries, working with large corporations to mainstream individuals with disabilities as candidates, as employees, and as customers. Everyone at Springboard has a disability and or is caring for someone with a disability. And one of those employees is my fabulous daughter, Gretchen Vogel. So, Gretchen, you can introduce yourself.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Gretchen. I'm Nadine's daughter, as well as her executive assistant to Swimmer Consulting.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Welcome to you both. Thanks for making the time to be here today.
Nadine, you already answered my first question in your intro. Thank you for beating me to the punch.
So tell us more about Springboard, your company.
How you originally envisioned the idea.
How long did it take to get off the ground? You'd said, in 85 countries.
That's pretty impressive by any standard, particularly today.
So walk us through the history.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Sure. I had been a corporate executive for almost 20 years and had actually created. Created a division of a Fortune 500 company around disability issues. I was reporting to the CEO, and he asked me one day when I did that why I didn't start my own company. And my answer was, I hadn't thought of it, but it was, which was true, but it had become one of the most profitable divisions of their entire corporation. So he got my wheels turned and got me thinking, and two years later, he retired. I went to his retirement party on a Monday evening. I turned in my resignation after 19 years with the company on a Tuesday, and I started Springboard on Wednesday. And that CEO actually ended up joining my board and, you know, providing guidance. And then he went on to became the CEO of another company that became one of our first clients. So very, very exciting. The initial plan was us focused, but what I quickly learned was those roles of chief diversity officers, heads of hr, heads of marketing, typically have global responsibility.
And they would say, nadine, you know, do I have to find a Springboard in every country that we operate in, every region?
Can't you just help us? And that was really the start of the global piece. And so in addition to working with the companies on a variety of things, and I'm happy to share all of that with you if you're. If you'd like. We also produce an event called Disability Matters. It's an annual corporate conference and awards. We have one in North America, one in Europe one in Asia. Although Gretchen said that she is my executive admin, she did not give herself enough credit because she also handles many of the special projects and works very closely with our chief operations officer to help manage that event.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Well, where do we go from here?
That's great.
Gretchen, what is it like working with your mother and being so close to everything that Springboard does on a daily basis?
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Well, working with her isn't great.
I've been with springboard for about 10 years now and you know, we do so much around disability and as someone with a disability themselves, I feel that I can really, on a personal level and it's just been, you know, really hard. As my mom mentioned, I also manage events, disability matters, and I really enjoy it.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: So, Nadine, after you take over the world with Springboard, because, and I'm slightly joking there, but it sounds like from listening to you, that's exactly what you're planning to do.
Where would you like to see Springboard go in the next five to 10 years? But before you answer that, how did you come up with the name Springboard and hatch out its mission and vision? Because as you know, once you do that, you really have to think about it beforehand. And once you do it, that basically becomes what the organization is in just a page or two. So walk us through that process and then skip ahead to the end and tell it. What do you hope that Springboard evolved into? I much confess, and it's maybe my nieve here.
After everything you told me Springboard does, I'm like, what's next? What is there next for Springboard to do that they don't already do right now?
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So, yes, this is world domination. Just so you know, I actually, I should show you, I have a, I have a ceramic plate and it has a globe on it and it says Springboard, World domination.
So, so that is the goal. And Gretchen reminds us of that every day.
The name itself.
This is a funny story. So when we first came out almost March. March, by the way, will be 20, our 20 year anniversary. So when we came out 20, almost 20 years ago, the first couple of calls that we got, people thought that we were either like a diving board company or a full service company. Yep.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Because our tagline for Springboard was dive in with precision. And so it just reinforced that, oh, there must be a pool company.
And you know, my, my background is, is marketing and advertising. And so there's a lot of, you know, visualization and imagery. Right. When you think about diving and you think about diving into Whether it's a pool or whatever, you do need precision. You have to approach that dive knowing exactly what with the end in mind, what you would want to achieve, what it has to look like. If you think about the Olympics today, right, they start with the end and then work backwards. What are the actions, what are the practices, the diet, everything they have to do to. To achieve that perfect dive or swim or whatever it may be. And so for us, that was really what it was about. That disability is a very large pool, right? It's 20, 25% of or worldwide community. So it's not tiny. So that's the pool. That's that big ocean, that pool. But when you go into it, when you enter this work, you need to be precise, you need to do this the right way, and you need to be strategic about how you do it. So that was really the. The what's behind the name. Although, like I said it, people got very confused at the beginning, you know, the work that we do. So just to give you a sense, we do assessments, we conduct organizational assessments and gap analysis, physical accessibility, universal design, digital accessibility and usability assessments, communication, employee benefits. We have an area that focuses on talent acquisition, learning and development, compliance, celebratory events, marketing, communications, branding, like all of that falls under that, right? Employee resource groups. And so you have to be. To be able to offer all of that, and we didn't offer all of that day one. Obviously it has grown. But to be able to offer all of that, we need to be strategic in our approach and then ensure that the clients, the corporations, and the schools that we're working with are as strategic. I have seen Gretchen, Gretchen and I were talking about this just a couple months ago, that there are companies that put big money and sign up, like with a nonprofit and get their CEO's name and their website. But then there's no meat behind it. That's the illusion of disability inclusion for us. Springboard is to dive in with precision. That means be strategic and have actually affect change, affect behavior change on the part of individuals. To embrace appropriately, embrace not equality, but equity of people with disabilities and understand what the difference is between those two, right? When we talk about mainstreaming, many times folks will be familiar with that term in the school systems, but it's about integration. It's not about treating every child the same or every adult the same. It's about giving everyone the same opportunities to be successful. And to do that, an organization has to take a step back and understand what their issues are. What are the opportunities? What are the risks, risk mitigation. So that we do this appropriately and we do this in the right way in the right manner, meaning also the order, you know, a company might want to go out and start recruiting. Well, is your accommodations process appropriate?
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Do you have your essential job functions delineated out? So it's really understanding what's behind it and moving forward. And so when you ask, you know, kind of what's forward for. For Springboard, this has already started in many ways, but I hope to see it expand.
About four years ago, thereabouts, the Harvard Kennedy School had approached us and actually wrote and published a case on Springboard and the work that we do. And then they asked us to come in and work with some of their executive students, but that was so successful because people hadn't really heard it framed in this way. Right. So then the Harvard Business School came to us and wanted to publish a case and have us teach in their MBA program. They have a podcast that actually just. They just did a story. I think it was published last week or the week before, kind of where we are today. What that journey. The journey has been during this time also, we were asked to develop curriculum for European University in Rome for disability management and how managers can effectively do this work within their remits.
We just had a meeting yesterday that. That's been so successful that now we're going to help them build a master's program, really, for very senior executives to understand at a very macro level, how to appropriately direct their teams, their staffs, to do this work.
So I would love to see more of that going forward, because I think if we. If we educate folks in colleges and universities, and I probably should start before that, but from a. From a workplace marketplace standpoint, if we start providing that level of education and we mainstream it into our colleges and universities, these students will come out working at these companies, knowing what to do, understanding that disability is not an afterthought, that disability is not, oh, if we have some budget left, but that this is who we are, it's part of what we do, and it makes us better. It makes us more innovative. It makes us more successful when we acknowledge and recognize that Gretchen kind of had a. A step into that because, you know, she's lived with Springboard, right? So when she was in college, she already knew about all of this. So for stepping in, you know, to her first job, which wasn't at Springboard, she was able to, again, permeate that information.
You know, for Springboard, I want to see ultimately, and this won't happen, I'm sure in my lifetime. But when Gretchen takes over and continues world domination.
Right. That at some point companies won't need a springboard. Right. They will have chief accessibility and chief disability officers just the same way they have chief diversity officers, heads of hr. It will already be seamlessly integrated into the company as part of doing business. So hopefully that answered that question.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yes.
You give very detailed answers, just like I give very winding questions sometimes.
We should go into business together, have joke in their ads. Well, Gretchen, what is it like putting on this annual conference for chief executives and really taking the reins of that and planning it out every year?
[00:15:49] Speaker A: She usually wants to kill me. I'll just start with that.
Wow.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: There's a lot involved, right, Gretchen?
[00:15:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
Well, I love planning events. It takes a village to plan these events.
And I really am able to speak one on one with these senior executives at different corporations, whether that's via phone, in person or email.
And I really like putting, you know, some other events, we have panels and we really try to make a very educating and empowering conference, student conference to these senior executives all over. And you know, at the end, my hope is that these senior executives from companies bring back to their organizations the importance of disability and that and how it's necessary to be inclusive. Right. So inclusive for people who already work at their organizations and also inclusive for people that they want to hire.
So I personally love it. It touches my heart and home to me.
So. Yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: So, Nadine, the ins.
You clearly have a very personal connection to disability with your daughter.
Would that the original seed that planted this idea or was it you just saw as world dominators usually do?
Hey, there's some real.
No one's taking care of it. I should do it. And once more inside should make everyone follow my lead because I'm the best here, joking aside. And it can be both of those and I get the feeling that it is and that's certainly okay.
You should sound like you live with sleep this job much like I do the video cats. But you've done it for almost 20 years.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, it's always been a passion. Right. So you know, you have a passion and. And it's always great to say, you know, let me live my passion. I think that having. And I should say that my younger daughter was. Was also born with. With disabilities on more on the medical side and she's doing great today. But when you're confronted personally with a situation, you have a choice in how you embrace it. And do you embrace it. Do you fight it? Do you deny it? Do you embrace it? You know, what do you do with it? And is there some underlying interest, education, background that could help you embrace it in some way? And so while I believe. I'd like to believe that I'm a good person and certainly, certainly because of my passions would. Would be doing work like this, I think if not for Gretchen and. And even my younger daughter, I probably wouldn't have done it. To the magnitude, right?
[00:20:20] Speaker B: To the.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: To the magnitude that I've done it because Gretchen has given me perspective, right? You gain perspective. You know, not everybody wants it, but once you have it, you have it. You got to do something with it, right? So. So Gretchen has given and continues to give PERs. And I think that it's a shame to waste perspective.
I. I was saying, I always say do that which others can't do, won't do, or don't know how to do, right? And if you do that, not only will you do something amazing and impactful, but you'll do something that you'll be proud of and there'll be a legacy, right? There'll be a legacy that will go beyond me to Gretchen and beyond Gretchen, right? So, you know, my hope is that Springboard and what we do in the manner in which we do it will continue and, you know, and it'll morph, it'll change, and that's okay. But that. That it will. It will be there. That's something that's really important to me. It's, you know, we. I've heard over the years, people saying that, you know, they need to find themselves and things like that, and it's about creating yourself, right? It's not what happens to you in life, it's what you do with it that matters. And I think Gretchen, actually probably more than me, is a perfect example of that. Right? Keith, I think you're a perfect example of that. Right? It's. It's things that happen to us in life, whether at birth or later on in life. And whether it's disability or it's something else, you have a choice. You have a choice of what to do with it. And I. And I'm just really proud of the fact that of the choices Gretchen has made relative to that.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: So Gretchen just went out of my mind. And I would judge about to accident yet we met through a mutual connection and. Lamar College.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Tell me about your and Springboard's history with Lamar College. How did you discover it?
And so.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: When Springboard talks about disability, we talk all disability Visible, invisible, born with acquired, veteran, you know, age related everything. And at our conferences at Disability Matters, we almost always have a session that focuses on post secondary education and the impact of that to employment, successful employment of people with disabilities. And so I, you know, Landmark is an amazing school and I've known about them. And we also every year have sessions that focus on different disabilities. So, you know, it could be autism, it could be mental health, it could be whatever. And so I had reached out to them quite a number of years ago actually about disability Matters and said, you know, I want to have a session that focuses on a combined discussion around post secondary education and autism spectrum.
And there is, you know, from my perspective, no better people to do that than Landmark. And so they did. They've actually done this now twice where they lead a mainstay session for us and actually bring students, bring students who have been successful in transitioning to employment to illustrate to our executives, you know, you can't just talk at executives. You have to illustrate. You have to give them examples of how they can then mirror that. And that's what they've done for us. And, and I have to say that their sessions have always been one of the highlights of the conference.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: So your conference is called Disability Matters, and early on you had mentioned the illusion of disability and how companies will do lip service.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Why do you think that still is the case? I mean, disability itself isn't a illusion.
And yet the accessibility and accommodations that some companies, a lot of companies, although they're getting better, bane on judge doing the bare minimum. It's 2024, almost 2025.
I don't need you, I don't need to tell you to that it's way past time every company wakes up up to not only providing accommodations, but also recognizing that workers with disabilities are a very sorely untapped resource of incredibly hard workers. Getting back to my question, why do you think this problem has stayed where it is, where the illusion of helping disability and being accommodating, that's the outperforms actually helping out.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, I mean, it's a great question. It's one that Gretchen and I and our entire team bat our heads against all the time.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: I bet.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: You know, I think it's a lot of reasons. Right? So one, you know, many years ago we had not actually all that long ago, we had, you know, the medical model of disability, that disability is a cause to support.
So you still have folks out there that believe that, that it's a cause to support. So if that's the case we're going to give a donation to X, you know, organization and we feel good about it, we've given and that's it.
You have situations where we have many people who, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier, don't have perspective. They've not had someone personally in their lives or professionally even who has a disability, who they've been able to see. Well, we're the same, like there's no difference here in terms of how we work, etc. And so without that perspective, it's easy to ignore. It's easy to just put blinders on, so to speak, and you know, make believe that they're not there because of that. When it comes down to this is especially for for profit companies, these budgets. And so when this budget cuts, well, what should we cut? Well, let's cut what we don't know. Let's cut the things we either don't care about, don't know about, don't think really impacts right, right or wrong.
The other challenge sometimes is that, and this is where springboard really comes in, companies will say, okay, we're going to hire some people with disabilities. And they hire a person, one or two people, but they don't hire the right people. Whether someone has a disability or not, they have to be the right people. They have to be able to do the job. And so when they take that approach, no, we'll just hire someone and whatever we need college educated, but we're not going to bother college educated for someone with disability. We'll just do this. Then it's a self fulfilling prophecy. And it's like I knew that wasn't going to work. I knew that person couldn't do that job. Right. And then once they reinforce what's that myth in their minds, it doesn't go anywhere right? Then, then, then you have that. Those are just a few, just a few of the reasons. You also have sometimes philosophical conversations of well, if we're going to give money around disability, we should give it to a nonprofit. They do good, we'll get a tax write off, you know, right. You have a lot of that, which is if you're getting services, right? Nonprofit, you don't have the tax write off. But there's just so much out there that that's not, not right in terms of how people are thinking about it and what the approach is, which is why we talk to companies about at Springboard about organizational readiness. You come to me, you want to recruit people with disabilities, that's great. But that's not where we're going to start. We're going to make sure that your careers portal is accessible and usable. So someone who's blind or has a visual impairment or can't use a mouse or keyboard can actually apply for the job, can, can see the site. Right. We want to make sure you have an accommodations process that is fair, equitable and consistent across the footprint of the enterprise. We need to make sure that your talent acquisition folks and your hiring managers are trained so they speak to the individuals appropriately. Right. We have to have all that so that when you do this, we can ensure success not only for you as a company, but for the individual with the disability. It takes a little more to do it that way. It'll take a little more time, doesn't really take more money, but it's strategic. And when you do it that way, we can be sure there'll be success. As soon as you do something to shortcut it, I don't care if it's disability or anything else, you take that shortcut, you think it's going to be less costly, less time, the easy way out, there is no such thing. And actually in the end it's going to cost more, take longer, and it's probably not going to work.
So I think that all of these things, right, combined, we also have laws in place and be, you know, let me be clear. I'm glad we do things like, you know, the ada, right, really important. But those are minimum standards. Those are just minimum standards. You know, if you think of physical accessibility, ADA is minimum. It's important you have your ramps. You know, your doors can't be more than five pounds, the internal doors, more than five pounds of pressure, things like that. But if we overlay that with universal design, now we're really talking, now we're, now we're talking equity.
And so I think too that there are some that just rely on, well, I'm meeting the law, you know, we're not being sued. I'm doing exactly what the law says. Well, okay, but so again, I think there's just so many reasons behind this. I don't think any of them are good, to be honest with you. They're good reasons, but they're ones people use, unfortunately.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: So, Gretchen, what is it like having a mother who is so forward, focus and gung ho on disability?
Acuity and rights, Disability, really everything, it's how it's being blowed up and by someone like that and working alongside them day in and day out.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Probably a part that just drives her crazy. But go ahead, Gretchen.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: So there's two parts. One is room how.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:00] Speaker C: One is how it is.
How it is how I was brought up as someone that's very involved in disability and on the personal level it was great because when I was younger I had a lot of disabilities and had to overcome a lot of obstacles. And one of them is to me being mainstream in some rules in high school and middle school. And my mom and also my dad, they fight for me to be mainstream. Right. Because in my opinion, people with disabilities, they are just like anyone else. They may look different or have, you know, a cognitive disability, etc. But they are deserving as everyone else. And so my mom made it a mission to make sure that everyone around me, whether it's in stool, when I was in, you know, speech and occupational therapy when I was younger, she made sure that, hey, this is my daughter. Yes, she has disabilities, but we are going to do everything that we can to mainstream her. Right. And as I got older, I graduated college and I worked at a financial company for a little while before I came over to Springboard. So that's like one side of it and then another side.
Now that I'm working with her and I see how she interacts with some companies and how it's so important for these companies to be ADA compliant.
I, I, I, I, I love it, you know, and I just obviously there's a lot along ways to go and you know, I, I see it with her working together and it's really great and hopefully we can make even more strides in years to come.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: And I think the frustrating part is probably because I'm always pushing, right? We never, it's never enough. We always need to do more, do it faster, do it better, do it right.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Nadine, you seem very friendly, very relaxed, but let's be honest, are there times in your work that you had to be tough edge nails with some companies that no matter how many times you explain it to them, they either still don't get it or very resistant.
And I mean, I hope you get, you don't get those interactions a lot. But again, I don't know why I'm asking this. You'd seem very hopeful about the work you're doing and let's be real, you absolutely should.
But does it make encountering such resistance easier or harder? Or does it depend on on the day? Are you still trummix that some, let's say well known companies still don't get it in 2024, almost 2025?
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
I am, you know, after all these years, I am still shocked.
I always say I shouldn't be shocked anymore, but I am still shocked when, when some large companies, you know, say, well, we know it's important. We just don't have the budget to do anything with it now or we'll get to it later, or we haven't been sued yet, or it's on the list, or, you know, any rate, you know, any of these things.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: So you really hear what you just said, do you?
[00:38:34] Speaker A: We haven't been sued yet, so we must be doing okay. Yeah. So when we first started Springboard, I, I didn't even get angry. I got upset. I, I, you know, because it's so personal. Right. So I, I would just, I would get really upset and I would try every which way but Sunday to, you know, convince them. And then, and then there was a transition at some point that I didn't get upset, I just got mad.
And, and the truth is, getting upset or mad didn't do me any good. Didn't do any good for Springboard and truly didn't do them any good either. And so my, my approach today is at Springboard is quite different. And the approach is, you know, I'm going to still educate you. I'm going to give you the information, whether it's up to you and your company to determine how you use it, if you use it, if you want us to help you kind of go to the next level. If not, I can't take that on as my responsibility. Right. That's, that's you.
And I will say that over the years, there have been companies that said no, no, no, and then, you know, eventually said yes and, and saw the light, so to speak. But Springboard, a couple years ago, made a, made an announcement which was that we would no longer work with any company, that their approach was just checking the box, that the illusion of inclusion, disability inclusion, that they had to show to prove to us that there was a true commitment to do this work and to do it right. Not just, well, let's do a training next year and then we can know we did it right. You know, let's hire one person. And so, so we, you know, we, we made that announcement and we really stuck to that. Does that still just get at me when I know organizations aren't doing the right thing? Absolutely.
But I, I'm not their parent. I can't take ownership of it. Right. But, you know, I'll share with you. Yesterday, just yesterday, I received a call from a tenured professor this is, this will really put this in perspective. A tenured professor who's working at a very, very large university in this country, very well known university public, I might add, and she has lost her sight over time. She's probably, she probably only has now maybe about 15% of her sight left.
And they knew this when they hired her.
And there were just a myriad of obstacles they put, they've put her through, from accommodations to physical accessibility.
So they've, they had, they weren't, they didn't have handrails on some of the steps.
And so the fact that she had a fight for the handrails, 1, 2, when they finally did it, they said they were doing it for her as an individual accommodation, like no one else needs a handrail.
And three, that when they had a consultant come in to assess how to do this with the handrails, they literally only looked at handrails. They didn't look at the whole campus and all the physical accessibility, right. So there's a perfect example of the illusion of inclusion. We're doing so much for this one person. We're good. It shows our commitment, right, to hire, to employ. And it's like, no, not so much, not so much because there's probably other faculty and staff or students or students families that are coming on campus, right. That need not only the handrail, but, but other things.
So that's, that's extremely frustrating to me. It's like nails on a chalkboard. But at the end of the day, they have to live with that. And, you know, if we can help them, we will, but it's going to require a commitment. If, if a company called us and explained that situation and said, so we have, you know, five sets of steps. We just need you to kind of measure and look for the handrails. For us, we would not do that because that is not mainstreaming disability. That is not committing to this work. That's. I'm trying to just make a current problem go away.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: So, Gretchen, are you looking forward to being the heir apparent of world domination after your mother retired? Which, to be honest, I don't see how you can ever retire.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: You know, it's funny, Gretchen says that all the time.
That's funny you should say that.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: Well, action colors everything. Like, the only reason or the primary motivator of why I do what I do is I'm innately curious about other people. But I, I'm painfully shy. I know that makes no sense, but what have you.
But padging does color everything leads, everything worth doing. And what Doing right.
Speaking of that pageant, Gretchen, does it get intimidating being around that much pageant? I mean this doesn't have to be your mother to be a co worker or uncle someone.
It the pageant, not the problem. But it's like overwhelming to a degree.
[00:44:58] Speaker C: No, not at all.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: I love how you answered that like that.
So are you nervous about.
Oh, none of it. How do you feel about the eventuality of taking over for your mother?
[00:45:24] Speaker A: Yeah, Gretchen.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: In about 15 or 20 years, maybe 30 if we're really being honest and trying.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: That would be really scary if I.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: Keep going for that long.
Or maybe 40, who knows. Oh yeah.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
Now you guys are scaring me.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Success.
[00:45:54] Speaker C: I. I feel pretty good. You know, like I said, I'm not intimidated around it. And so I'm a person who always speaks my mind about things related to disability or not. And so, you know, when my mom retires, I think or I would hope and believe that I could also make a world domination and major impact on these companies for the future.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: Amen, sister.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: There's always two questions I'd like to end with. In case there are any inspiring advocates who want to get into this field, what would be some advice you would give them as they are just starting out in their career?
[00:47:05] Speaker A: That's a great question. And especially because I've had folks contact me, right. That want to get into this work and want some guidance.
And I think it depends on first and foremost what route they want to go. Do they want to be in the important world of nonprofit and serve in more advocacy type roles, Right. Which we desperately need, or do they want to focus on the business aspects? And if it is the business aspects, is it the large global corporations like our approach, or is it the small and medium sized businesses that may not have the same resources but need to accomplish the same work?
So really that's first and foremost and that comes down to their interest, their passion, but also their experience, their knowledge set.
Because everyone from Springboard comes from corporate and corporate executive roles. We understand that world. That's the world we really focus on and we get it. We've all been there.
So if someone comes from small business, whatever that might help them on their path if they are going to go into the business side of it, the for profit side of it. What I would say is this, please understand there is a huge difference in the approach that you must take.
Because in a for profit large corporation, yes, they want to do the right thing and so forth, but there's really no role for advocacy, if you will. Right. If They're a public company. They're meeting the numbers every quarter for the street. Right. You know, that doesn't mean that there's no role for, you know, employee resource groups or, you know, guidance around accommodations and support and things like that, but advocacy specifically, that would be more like on the foundation side. Right. And, and what we find is many individuals that want to go into this work and want to do it on the corporate side, but their only experience and background and, and reference points are on the advocacy or non profit side.
They get frustrated because they're not successful.
Because the language is different. Right. The, the language that we have to use is different. The approach we have to take is different. We have to understand profit margins, we have to, you know, we have to understand risk assessments. And so it's not that it's impossible, but it's different. And that's why I say, before you start, really think about where in this space you want to be or should be and then go from there.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: Gretchen, do you have anything to add to what your mother said?
[00:50:12] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:50:13] Speaker B: She said it all so large, Gretchen, and it's a big one. I like to think that both advocates with disabilities and those who have yes. To discover or embrace their own disabilities listen and watch this program. We're now all born video cats.
But I'm not naive to think that each group of groups within those groups take away the same things from every episode, adds the other groups. So adds my gads. And we've talked about a lot of topics in this episode. What do you hope that advocates with disabilities take away from this episode? And what do you hope that those who have yet to discover our ingredients, their own disabilities take away from the.
[00:51:37] Speaker C: I'll let you start, mom.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: Oh, I think he was directing the question to you. But I will just comment and say from my perspective, if someone has yet to embrace their disability, be out of fear. And often that's what it is. Right? Out of fear, out of comfort. If I do, you know, how is this going to affect my job, my career, etc.
Know that Springboard is out there and, and we're working with these companies so that you won't have to have that fear. Right. And, and there are many companies today out there that are doing great things that they will embrace your disability if you've embraced it. Right. So that's one for those who are disabled and have embraced it.
I think what I would say is live your truth.
You know, disclosure. Disability disclosure is a very personal thing. Whether you do it not do it, how, when, etc. But I will say that it's exhausting to not live your truth. It's exhausting to feel like you're always covering or hiding. And if you want to show your best self from a performance standpoint and excel, I think you have to be truthful with yourself and those around you. Now that does not mean that you go and share about your disability and oh, I had a surgery last week and. Right. But rather to talk about disability if, if you need to in terms of how it makes you who you are and how it makes you successful. Right. And the, and the skill sets that you have that you might not have had not become disabled. Right. Some people call it superpowers, whatever, whatever you want to call it. I think that people with disabilities have a heck of a lot to offer. And the barriers that are out there are not because of people with disabilities, but because of folks that don't have disabilities, that don't understand that if we just embrace it as organizations, we're going to benefit so much more, if that makes sense. So Gretchen, to you, as someone with a disability, I mean, I don't know how you would answer that.
[00:54:00] Speaker C: So as someone with a disability, I think that people should be who you are, show up as an authentic person and know that you or anyone can make an impact on this world, whether it's in a company for, or at home with family or whatever the case may be. But be who you are, be confident and know that you do make an impact and the world will see it one way or another.
And those who haven't had a disability yet, they think they, they shouldn't be afraid to embrace change because if you never had a disability and you have a disability, obviously your life isn't going to change in one way or another.
And so people shouldn't be afraid of change and just embrace the life that you have to live. And everyone has a lot to offer whether you have a disability now or you don't.
And that's my take on it.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: And by the way, no one gets out of this world scot free. At some point in their life, they will experience some adversity whether it's a disability or not. And I always say with disabilities, you know, if you break your leg skiing and you're on crutches for six weeks, see, see what you need to actually operate at the level you are at, the same way you operated physically before the accident. That'll give you some insight. Very little, not certainly the same as living with a disability, but to Gretchen's point, embrace those experiences. Break those changes. Because most likely if you live to a ripe old age, you'll probably experience disability of some type in your life.
[00:56:35] Speaker B: Don't engage. Anyone want to know more about Springboard or reach out to you directly? What is the easiest way to do that?
[00:56:52] Speaker A: So the website is www.consultspringboard b o a r d.com or you can certainly email Gretchen directly at Gretchen G R E T C H E N gretchenonsultspringboard.com and if you want to learn more about disability matters, our next North America Conference will be held April 29 to May 1 in Charleston, South Carolina. There is information on the website and I will say too, we have a lot of information on the site that that's free that people can access and use to help educate some of their own folks in their organizations. And whatever's on the site, feel free to use because it's there to help you.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: Well, thank you very much Nadine and Gretchen for coming on. I'm very hopeful that your work is going to continue to make your difference for 40, 50 x number of years to come.
You can do it and I look forward to remaining in touch. Thank you again for coming on today.
[00:58:12] Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Amazing opportunity. Thank you.
I know Gretchen feels the same. We're humbled that you would consider us for your podcast. So thank you.
[00:58:22] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you so much.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: You have been listening to Disability Empowerment Now. I would like to thank my dads, you are listener and the Disability Empowerment team that made the separate show possible.
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