Transcript
Speaker: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Changing Minds, Changing Lives podcast. My name is Julie Sowash. And as always, I am your humble host and co-founder of Disability Solutions. I still have the honor every day of being a strategic advisor to Keith and Ashley and the team over at DS. and we have, again, another great guest that we have been connected with and I've been waiting to record with for more than a month. His name is Welby Broadus. He is a visually impaired business strategist, keynote speaker, author, and disability advocate focused on creating more inclusive opportunities in entrepreneurship, education, and employment.
Speaker: Through his company, Broadus Business Solutions, he helps individuals launch their own businesses, support workforce development and initiatives, and advises organizations on the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Broadus is also excuse me the author of Leading Blind Without Vision,
Speaker: the benefits of hiring the blind and visually impaired. He serves, which serves as a guide for employers, HR pros, and hiring managers seeking to create more inclusive workplaces, what we're all about here at Changing Minds, Changing Lives. Welby brings more than a decade of experience in workforce development.
Speaker: And an interesting twist, juvenile justice, which he has championed um both equity and opportunity for underserved communities. He serves as a chair of a breakthrough series collaborative dedicated to addressing racial disparities in juvenile justice and mentors college students navigating visual impairment.
Speaker: Whew, what a bio that is. um At the heart Broadus' work ah is a belief that leadership requires empathy, equity, and ability to see people beyond assumptions and stereotypes.
Speaker: Mr. Welby Broadus, welcome to Changing Minds, Changing Lives. Julie, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here today. That was quite a bio. and i And I am ready to dive into it. um But first, as we were kind of talking about before we recorded, a lot of our listeners, viewers,
Speaker: may not have the privilege to have people who are blind or visually impaired in their everyday lives, which I am lucky enough to have in my life. And so I've built a great deal of comfort um in how to interact, how to hire, how to engage people with all types of disabilities, including people who are blind or visually impaired, and also just hang out and be their friends, um which is the best part.
Speaker: And so I thought what we could do is spend a little bit of time talking about your personal journey as as little Welby um and what it's been like for you growing up and navigating life with a visual impairment.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Thank thank um I don't have a problem telling that story. So I'm um I was born here in Akron, Ohio. And i i actually, just a little caveat for you. So I was born the hospital at Akron General Medical Center. That was the hospital was born in.
Speaker: And there's two famous and NBA players that actually actually was also was born in this hospital. I'll tell this story when do my presentation. Okay. So at's the same hospital. LeBron James was born there and Steph Curry both was born in this hospital.
Speaker: really Yes. so wow So I think i think that if I was a vision impaired since I was born before, yeah I might be one the best in my appearance as well. I think I got a good jumper. I think it's in the water right there. Yeah. Yeah. So um I was one, two, it's two train of thoughts when I was born the hospital.
Speaker: Either i was born vision impaired or something happened while I was there. And I think it was a lighter. So I'm diagnosed with optic atrophy and nystagmus. So optic activity is I have severe optical nerve damage in both my eyes. some I am severely nearsighted that I am considered legally blind.
Speaker: Even with me wearing my glasses, that doesn't help me make my vision be 20-20. Okay. okay um And nystagmus, I have that in my left eye. So my left eye tends to move on the zone from left to right.
Speaker: Some people have nystagmus where the guy, their eye goes up and down, but my eye tends to left to right. And so with nystagmus, I can't control the muscle. So are rare I really don't even do use my left eye. mainly only use one eye, my right eye.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. And so you were born in an amazing hospital. And when went home as a newborn, you had these disabilities.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So and what what happened was my lungs wasn't fully developed. and And my mom did, when I wrote my book, I tell about this in my book, my mom didn't, I think she forgot about this, what happened, but I did research.
Speaker: So my lungs wasn't fully developed. So I had to spend some time in incubator. It was to the point my mom, after my mom's maternity said, I think she stayed for a week with the hospital with me. She ended up going home, had to stay 10 extra days in the hospital.
Speaker: And I think that's what caused my vision because I had to stay in the incubator for so long. The oxygen incubator caused me to be visually impaired. Oh, wow. Okay. That's, ah yeah, i I would not have thought that. um So you've always known life as a person who has a visual impairment. You're not like my friend Matt, who became visually impaired when he was closer to an adult, but he was still in his teenage years. How do you feel like that has...
Speaker: changed your perception about your disability or how you move in the world i think it gives me um i think with with my vision impairment i had to grow up fast had to and i'm not saying growing up i still was a kid but i had to really really recognize who was for me who wasn't for me at a very young age and i think a lot of people don't have to have to go through that i had to recognize that in the beginning especially um when it's time for me to go to school, because I always saw a specialist. i think I never went to a regular eye doctor. Actually, me going to like the eye vision works in the mall, those type of pearl vision, those type of places, it really doesn't do me a favor. It actually does more for the doctors because they get to see somebody like me with my vision. It's more of benefit to them to see me versus me, me seeing them.
Speaker: So always saw a specialist specialist. I went to to the Cleveland Clinic. And on dr Dr. Price, and he's a great guy. My name is Welby. It's a shoot gear show called Marcus Welby. MD is is a doctor show that came on. So you always call me doc when I go there. So I feel like I part of I feel like I was part of the team. But um when it was time to go to school, they told my parents that it's probably best that I go to a specialized school for kids who are blind and visually impaired.
Speaker: And at the time i was five, My brother was two and my parents was young. they was like in their twenty s and they had just bought this house.
Speaker: So they couldn't afford for me to go to a specialized school for kids who were by the vision impaired. So I ended up going to the traditional public school. And elementary school was is pretty fine because it's more hands-on learning elementary school. you more you you do like You work together as a team and things like that.
Speaker: And you got more one-on-one. So, and the kids at that age, they're more curious than like trying to be pick on you and things like that. I mean, they would, they would always want to say, Hey, well, we need help.
Speaker: I'll read that for you. ah Or you want help you with that? So that was fine with me. It wasn't until I got into junior high school or some people call it middle school now, but when things i I know is a difference and mine, the entire time at elementary school, always got A's and B's all the time. all And I love school. I love going. I love to learn.
Speaker: So two things happened when I got junior in high school. I started to get picked on and bullied. And also my grades dropped. And my parents and my counselor, my counselor's named Carol Sharon.
Speaker: I'm gonna put this out there too. I would love to meet her and thank her for everything she did. I know she retired and somebody said that that think she moved out to the West coast. Her name is Carol Sharon. She's be a counselor Akron public schools Akron, Ohio.
Speaker: So if any the listeners, may know her, maybe you can reach out to you. I would love to talk to her. So they thought them that my grades had dropped because the transition from elementary school to junior high school.
Speaker: And it wasn't until my counselor, she ended up talking to my teachers and they said, well, we don't think that's it at all. We noticed that when we write stuff on the board or put something on an overhead projector, he he see he write down part of what's on the board and almost like he guessed at what he think it is or he leaves it blank.
Speaker: and And that was true. That was so true, but that's what I was doing. and And also they said that when we noticed when we call on him to read something, He has to put it real close to his eyes, even with his glasses on.
Speaker: And so when my counselor found this out, she talked to my parents about it. and And she told us, said hey, well, I'm going to try to find something, get some resources to help well-being, or be more successful in school to pull these grades up and things like that.
Speaker: So um she found VSVI, which at the time, is that was Visual Service for the Visually Impaired as part of the Ohio Behavioral Rehabilitation Agency in Ohio. Now it's OOD, Opportunities for Ohio's with Disabilities.
Speaker: And my counselor at the time, his name was John Buckman. And I worked with this guy since I would think I was 11 until I was about 30 years old off and on throughout those years.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah. And and so. um When we met with him, he came to the school, my parents was there and he said, hey, we're going get you some resources to help you improve your grades and and things like that.
Speaker: And me being a junior high school, I was already getting talked to, picked on, talked about. I got called four eyes, Mr. Magoo, all types of things I've been picked on. I was so nervous about what this guy is going give me.
Speaker: to bring more attention to myself being a visually impaired kid and and um in a public school. I dreaded it. And I never get the day hu that he is coming to the school, this shirt, that this, the share all the resources he had got for me.
Speaker: I was getting ready for school one morning. My mom was getting ready for work. And she said, ah well, today you need to catch the bus home. Cause me and dad got coming to the school today. I said, for what?
Speaker: yeah I had an idea, but I was hoping it was something else. So Mr. Buckman's coming up. He going to share what he, all the resources he got for you. Julie, that day i was so nervous.
Speaker: I was like, oh my God, I dreaded it. And in that afternoon we got, we caught on call slips. We got called down to the principal's office of the counselor. You would have thought that I was about to get expelled from school when they called my name afternoon to go down to the Mr. Rohn's office.
Speaker: it I was so nervous that I took the long way. I went around the whole school building before I even went to her office. And so when I got in there, I could hear her office that my parents and they're talking, but they all like having a good old Joe Field conversation. They laugh had a good old time.
Speaker: So when I walked in, Ms. Rohn said, oh, here's Welby. And um my parents said, hey, I said, hi to him. Mr. Buckman shook my hand. I said, how you doing? And we sat down. And I could tell he was really excited about what he did for me.
Speaker: and how And I'm sitting here like, oh, I don't know what's going to happen. yeah So he he started out. He said, hey, I i got some resources for you to help you hope is you. These things help you pull your grades up, even help you out in the community when you navigate throughout society as well.
Speaker: I'm like, okay. So the first few things he gave me was some visual aid things. He gave me some magnifiers. And what cool thing I did get was like a little small portable telescope that I can use when I'm walking down the street to see addresses, street signs, name of business, and things like that. All that' all every all those things were pretty cool because I knew that I wasn't taking them to school.
Speaker: So I said, these are not going to school with me. And so he talked about, ah he got me some other resources and things like that. So the audio video is, then he said, the last thing he said, also, we got you some, oh, we got some talking books. So, and at that time, talking books was was books on cassette and on LP albums. I'm give you a tribute for you, share with your listeners.
Speaker: um you probably want to thank your friends that who are blind visually impaired because if it weren't for us, you wouldn't have records with music on them. Really? Yes. Record, initially records was made for the bonding of Vigie Berry community, but talking books on it was, it just, yeah, it just happened that somebody decided let's, let's, let's try putting music on there and see what happened.
Speaker: Yeah. So I'll, I'll take my, my flowers for that. I'm giving you your snaps. Yes. Yeah. yeah ah the Wow. Okay. yeah Go ahead, please.
Speaker: Yeah. And so, um, I got i got these these records with books on and cassettes and I got a record player. Now mind you, i'm I'm a kid in seventh grade and I got my own record player in my home. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker: It wasn't nothing fancy, just like the old box type record players you have. And I got a cassette player. So I'm like, all right, so I can get these books. I can put them on my plate at home, things like that. So that was all that was good. that's awesome And then he says, and also we got you some large print books.
Speaker: And so he went in his bag, he pulled out this book and I'm and i'm not kidding. it's not that like It's not like the large print books we have today. Actually, it's about as big as your laptop. That's the size the book was.
Speaker: Oh, wow. And my my head just dropped. I was like this. And as as I sat there for a moment, then my mom finally said, hey, what's wrong?
Speaker: I said, you guys expect me to walk in the class with those big books? I said, they already talk about me now. I'm really gonna get picked on now. And the whole and i by me making that statement, I took the whole energy out the room. er Everybody was quiet for a second.
Speaker: And then Ms. Jerome finally said, here, I got a great idea. This is we're gonna do. You're gonna take those books home, go use them to study from and do your homework from. You just bring your regular books to school and just basically perpetrate like I'm using them, but not.
Speaker: They were props. Yeah. Yeah. Basically like a prop. And, and, and that's what I did because what happens is at this point, also my teachers started giving me the notes, like copy them for me.
Speaker: So I can get them off the border over here. And also I got like extra time to take my test if I needed it. Somebody could read my test to me. Extra time do like assignments outside the classroom with things like that. i need more time on and everything.
Speaker: All that worked out pretty good. yeah, My grades improved. um And I'm, I passed all my classes. Now it's time to go to high school.
Speaker: Now mind you, I get to high school. Ms. Sharon, my counselor, she doesn't come with me. She stays back at the junior high school. I get a new counselor.
Speaker: And probably can count on one, on how many times I met with this my counselor. and it And it's not more than five times on my own one hand. In all four years. off Yeah. yeah and Well, actually, so and back then, we did ninth grade and junior high. It was just so the 10th grade was high school. So it was three years.
Speaker: Okay. So my constant never helped me. So I had to do things on my own. Thank God what I learned from Mr. Wrong. I knew what how to talk to my teacher about what I needed. So I went to my teacher. I told about any extra time take tests, extra time to reports, things like that.
Speaker: So it helped out a lot. Now, what what didn't help me is like when I got to my junior, you I got to became a junior. I knew that I wanted to go to college.
Speaker: I wasn't sure where I was going to go to school at this point, but I knew I was going to So since my concept really never met with me as a visually impaired student, I took it upon myself to do everything I need to do.
Speaker: So it's time to take the ace ACT test. So I filled out the packet. I turned it in. i go Saturday morning to take the test at eight o'clock for four hours.
Speaker: And i got my results. It was horrible. My skills, are it was really bad. But at that time in Ohio, they didn't really care about your school. You didn't need to take the test for formality, get accepted to a state college.
Speaker: So i did I wasn't really worried about it at all. But what I did find out after the fact is that I could have went to my counselor and they gave me a special form to fill out to get special accommodations to take the test. But she never told me about that because she never never called me down to do that.
Speaker: But it wasn't a big deal. So fast forward, it's my senior year. So at this point, I got more confidence in myself being a student that's visually impaired.
Speaker: ah I got confidence in myself. I love myself being an individual that's visually impaired because now my friends, they can't people can't pick on me anymore because it didn't affect me. Actually, I gave i would give it back to them just like they would give it to me.
Speaker: okay And also, i just but I know what I want to do with myself. So at this point, I'm going to Kent State. I'm majoring in computer science.
Speaker: That's my plan. So senior year, your counselor called you in the office to map out what's your plan after graduation. I couldn't wait to meet for this meeting. So I get there, my counselor's office, my counselor's like, so Welby, what's your plans after high school?
Speaker: I set up my chair, chest was out. I said, I plan to go into Kent State. I'm gonna major in computer science.
Speaker: My counselor said with confidence, you're not conscious of material. You probably need to go find a job.
Speaker: So it did it deflated everything that I had in me. i I sat there and I said, and I'm saying to myself, I can't believe this person just told me this. said, this is a person who never got a chance to know me as a vision impaired student, never helped me.
Speaker: How can they tell me that I'm not conscious material? And the person that i I am and was at the time, like that motivated me. So I sat there, I said, i said to myself, now I got to go to college and I got to graduate because I know what I'm capable of doing. So I got to prove this person wrong.
Speaker: And I probably stayed in my concert office for about like another 20 minutes. But at while we was there, it was like the Charlie Brown's parents talking, Peanuts' parents' parents talking to me he was like, walk, walk, walk, walk.
Speaker: So everything that she said, i i didnt I couldn't tell you what we said after that. I just know that when I walked out of there, I was so motivated. I got to go to college and I got to graduate. So that summer, I'm going to Kent State. um' um um I enrolled at Kent State and the University of Akron.
Speaker: Okay. So, and I was going to Kent State. One of my buddies I grew up with, we was going, we going to at dorm together. We had our dorm and everything. going to together. And at the last minute, his parents said they couldn't afford it. Oh, no.
Speaker: Now, my already went to orientation at Kent. I had to test out a math. Math was my favorite subject. I tested out a math. ah My mom comes to me and say, hey, you still want to go to Kent State since Butch's, his name was Butch. Since he's not going, if you got to let me know by Friday cause I got send me a check to ask you by Friday if you plan a go on going there.
Speaker: So I decided, I said, oh, do I wanna go by myself? So I did go to University of Akron. And this this is how I know that God has a mission for me to to be an advocate for individual disability, because this is how things happen.
Speaker: So I ended up going to Akron U. Now, my cousin was right about one one thing. I didn't go to Kent State. And I did major in computer science, but I did go you to the University Akron and I got two degrees.
Speaker: I got a bachelor of science and technical education and I got a Societies of Applied Business Management Technology. It looks like you are college material. Yes.
Speaker: So my first job after graduated from college is actually getting a job back on campus, working in this program. it's called It was called Advancing Up Program. And at that time, the government had these programs that were welfare to work programs, so individuals receiving some type of government assistance.
Speaker: They either had to be in a job or get some type of training, to get a job, or in in in college, in in education, some secondary education. So what we did, we helped that, worked with that population. so job and family service, we refer people over to us, get in the program.
Speaker: They help them either get into school or get a job, get their basic skills up. So I taught basic math to the participants. ah But also through this department, we also ran a pilot program where I grew public schools where we worked with special ed kids at the time who was in 12th grade.
Speaker: They would come on campus in the morning and I would teach employability skills to them. And then the afternoon, they'll come back and um they work on different departments on campus. And I would be like a job coach going, making they're doing the job right, things like that.
Speaker: And so I was a liaison for the university and they had a liaison for Akron Public Schools. His name was Kent Russell. And so we would meet once a week. And by the second or third week, he said, hey,
Speaker: Because the high school that we work we we worked with, they had an agri-public school that high school that was actually on campus. So the kids actually walk up and back and forth they had a good transportation. So hey, why don't you come down and meet the kids' teachers and and and talk to them a little bit. I said, okay, I'll come down.
Speaker: And this is how I know that um but the point I'm about to tell you, what this is what I need to be doing. So I go down, I meet the teachers, talk the kids a little bit. He said, while you're here, I want you meet the counselor.
Speaker: Who do you think the counselor was? Uh-oh, not Miss Sharon, the bad one. It was the bad one. It was the bad one, whose name we don't say. Yeah, yet the same person that told me that was I was a college of material. Now I go down here, I'm working with her kids with with two college degrees and working at the university with the program.
Speaker: And i tell this story all the time. I do my presentation because Two things, no matter who what you somebody tell you, long you believe in yourself and you know yourself, you can do everything you wanna do, no matter who is the person telling Because like a lot of people, if the counselor said this, I might be, who knows, i definitely won't be here talking with you if i listened to her.
Speaker: I know that for a fact. I wouldn't no book and I probably wouldn't no college degrees, but I believe in myself that I know what I'm capable of doing because that person doesn't know me like I know myself.
Speaker: Wow. You have put me through a roller coaster of emotions in the last few minutes. No joke. i So i I realized a couple of things. um One is that when I was in elementary school, there was a kid in my class. I can see him playing his day. And he had a hard time with the projector because we had the overhead projector. teacher would write on it. I don't know why we did it that way.
Speaker: And he would always get either notes or or a large print version or he'd be able to sit really close to the board. And i didn't know at the time that it was an accommodation, but it was obviously. And then all of the things that you just walked me through to get what you needed.
Speaker: And kids were so mean to him because he needed his glasses and he needed to be close to the board, blah, blah. um And none of us knew what it took for him to get to that moment. um that That was the first thing. um The second thing, or the second thing, it was just a shout out to OOPD, um who in in my opinion, outside of the state of Indiana is probably the best vocational rehabilitation
Speaker: system in the country to what a blessing for you to have ah a counselor from 11 30. Like that just doesn't happen. Right. and An incredible story.
Speaker: And then the last thing, and I think the thing that i I want to take away and then start to move into your business stuff is what Ms. Sharon did for you. um this That is the whole point of this podcast, of Disability Solutions, of all of my work in my life has been to say, if we can convince one person, like a school counselor, that WellBe has a value then she can not only change her mind about what people with disabilities can do, but she can change Welby's life, which is exactly what she did for you. Not only did she give you the tips and tricks to make it work for a junior high kid, but she also gave you then the ability to advocate on your own behalf.
Speaker: Yes. And if we could, hopefully the the the bad one, the one we don't talk about, after seeing you, I hope she had an epiphany of like, hey, maybe I need to think a little bit more broadly. We never know. But that could have been another moment of changing someone's mind because they saw what you did because Miss Jerome believed in you because you believed in you. Your parents believed in you. What an incredible story.
Speaker: Thank you for sharing it. problem So let's talk about then you've graduated, you you've worked with the school, you've worked then now with some kids who are been offenders or reentering through juvenile programs. um When did you start your business, Broadus Business Solutions, and what made you go that direction instead of going into corporate America? Yeah.
Speaker: So I started my business because of my my grandfather, my my mom's dad. okay He's passed now, Sylvester kid. Growing up with him, i was, prior to when I was three, all the until he passed, I would always be with him, like all the time.
Speaker: alet But he would drive me from home, could stay my parents' house for a while, and he'd ready to go. I'd grab my coat and back with him again. And he always had some type of business. He he sold insurance. He sold Kirby sweepers.
Speaker: He had a business where he'd go and clean corporate offices. He always had a business doing something. And he had an office in his basement. And I got an aunt that we we're like six months apart.
Speaker: And we'd be down in his office, ah my own have his insurance letterhead, like we type in. know one we i know i know he probably, that letterhead probably cost a lot of money. We use his letterhead, we be on his ad machine, just adding up numbers like we running a business.
Speaker: a And it really, I would be with him all the time when he go he had to do some business, I'd just be with him. And I would soak all this stuff in. i like, dang, this is the life I wanna do. I wanna to be a business, have my own business.
Speaker: And so that pursued me going to business. um And then the the the type of business I wanted to go into is because i said, how can I help people who are less fortunate than I am, who may not know how to start a business, who may be going through something, because I'm that person with my disability.
Speaker: um I have barrier my barriers. This is my disability. Other people have different barriers they may have as well. But who's advocating for those people? I'm always i always have been the person who wants to work with the underdog, the person who who never really got a chance.
Speaker: And that's why I wanted to start my business to help that population out to be successful business owners because everybody has a dream. Just some people don't get a chance to pursue their dream. And I always want to give them a chance to pursue a dream. that That was a business they wanted to start.
Speaker: Very nice. So no, that's, that's amazing. So tell me um a little bit about then, got your business decided not to go the corporate route but you did decide that it's time to write a book and hopefully we get some of that amazing story i just heard um in the book and other people are are privileged enough to to hear your journey but kind of walk me through the book itself and sort of your process of of deciding to author it um
Speaker: So I always had the title, first title of my book, Leading Blind Without Vision. that's I always wanted to write a book about me being blind or vision impaired. And so Georgetown University had this program. It's called the Creators Institute.
Speaker: it's a program where you you can go in and they teach how to write your own book. They basically teach how to self-publish okay But they have their they they have their own publishing company called, at the time it's called New Degree Press, it's called Manuscripts now.
Speaker: That is a non-profit publishing company. And so i'm I found out about this and now mind you, I applied, but always in my mind it's like, ah, they're not gonna take me.
Speaker: But I applied. Get called. but but by Professor Koster, Eric Koster is his professor's name at the time, and he ran the course. By his assistant, he said, hey, he want to schedule an interview with you about your your book idea.
Speaker: I'm like, what? I couldn't believe it. So we get on a Zoom call, and I'm telling him about me, I'm being vision impaired, talking about the book um but I want to write. i won't write out I'm saying I want to write a book about me growing up being vision impaired.
Speaker: Great. So he gave me some assignments. Hey, I want you to research, find some YouTube videos or 25 other people that might be like you blind or visually impaired that's successful.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm in the program. I'm shocked. I'm like, I wasn't even expecting this. So when you get a program, we meet and it's a cohort. don't know if you use a platform called Quip.
Speaker: Nope. So Quip is like a community and they're doing away with it next year to shut it down. But it's a platform going where it may be me and you and like 500 other people.
Speaker: We all in this group and all got a folder with all our work in it and we just share each other's information. Like if you write a book for something, i might somebody I might know somebody you may want to interview. iall say hey I say, hey, you might want to talk to this person for your book ah or something like that. Or you might vice versa for me.
Speaker: So and basically the philosophy is if you write it as a community, you're more likely to finish your book. and And I strongly believe that as an author. So I get in the class.
Speaker: And so the first couple weeks, we're just writing. And you have ah you have editors you work with in between time. So the first one is a D.E., which is a distributing editor.
Speaker: And that person's job is basically to keep you on point, get words on paper, get X amount of words each week. And her actually her name is Julie too.
Speaker: So um we will meet once a week. Finally, by the third week, she says, And they paired her with me cause she has, she's she has, she has, she has a disability as well. So they paired me with her.
Speaker: it the domestic So we we had the same type of community, same type of language. We understand each other. So she says to me in my third week, she said, well, back I got a couple of questions. I'm like, okay.
Speaker: What made you write, writer wait what made you want to write a memoir? I said, well, i want to tell the story about myself growing up, vision impaired, the struggles I went through that they got me where I am today. She said, all right, that's good.
Speaker: She said, but normally people that write memoirs are people are already successful, like presidents, athletes, celebrities. So when you write your memoir, who are going to buy your book besides your family and friends and probably people in Akron?
Speaker: And I'm sitting here like, is she trying to like discourage me from writing my book? And so I said, what do you mean? She said, nobody knows you.
Speaker: and And I'm sitting like, what? So she said, won't you write a book to educate people with disabilities like us on how to get a job? And I sat there for a moment. I listened to her.
Speaker: And I said, well, anybody with a disability that wants to get a job pretty much has went through this state's vocational rehabilitation agency. You have. I have.
Speaker: That's because everybody does. So to me, that's not helping. They already educated on that. I said, this is what I'm going to do. always take that always take the difficult part if I know it's going to help the greater means of people.
Speaker: I said, well, Julie, I'm flip it. I'm writing a book to educate the business world on the benefits of hiring individuals with disabilities, especially those who are blind visually impaired like me. And she said, that's going to be hard to do.
Speaker: I said, it probably is, but I'm up for the challenge because I think that's what I need to do. and And that's what I did. that's how I ended writing my book.
Speaker: Wow. So, yeah, so the, ah I don't want to say it's the the chronic,
Speaker: low expectations that even our community gives ourselves sometimes it's, you know, I'm going to say that, you know, the other Julie was trying to be a good steward of your time and your, and your necessity. And obviously you've written a book. Maybe the next one is the memoir. ah yeah and As you think about all that you've accomplished. um but But what I think gets lost in so many of these conversations. And, you know, I've, like you, have been doing this work for 16 plus years now, is that a lot of the same a stale business language is still getting used today um around, you know, it's the right thing to do. It's good business. And all of those things are true. Right. But what we lose, I feel like as a community that, and this is me talking, so bear with me, but what I think that we lose as a community that other underserved communities get more of is storytelling.
Speaker: And we hear a lot. We don't want to hear the story. We just want to put you on the website. We want to tout you out at a a Clippers game or ah a Nets game or, you know, something like that, since I'm thinking about basketball um as as an employee. And then we want to kind of just shove you back in the closet or tell me the technical reasons why I should hire people with disabilities. And that's great. But what we're doing is selling a community.
Speaker: we in And no one buys something because the technical guide is great, right? They buy something because they feel it in their heart. They have to know that it's going to work, but they buy it because Welby has a great story. They buy it because Julie has a great story. They buy it because other Julie has a great story. um And that's probably one of the biggest takeaways I've had from from doing this work is that we have to be better at storytelling. um
Speaker: And it's successful storytelling, not pity storytelling. The stories that you told were about the adversity you overcame um and the adversity that you that impacted your life.
Speaker: And I don't know if you have an opinion on that, but I love hearing the story. And then I can see with my own two eyes what you've built. Like the work is there. um So sorry, I'm droning on. Right.
Speaker: Yeah. I think the story is great. I mean, it has to start. Business start has story. I mean, commercials are story. I mean, it's like 30 seconds, but it's a story. Like nobody sells anything in America without having a story.
Speaker: Nobody has, even if you have logo as a story, like, you know, just do it, Nike, just do it. That's, they tell you, just do it. That is a story. So, yeah, like you why can't an individual with disability tell you their story, how they get where they are? Because if they come and apply for a job, it's a success because they had to go through some type of training or education, even get a job.
Speaker: and i'm And I'm not... And I'm not saying everybody with disability want to do that. I know some people with disability, they're content not not working. I mean, just like any other population in America and world that don't want, you got some who do and some who don't, but don't don't put us all in the box and feel that we can't.
Speaker: And then what's crazy about this to do me is those same employers that say that they can't hire somebody really never got opportunity to see if they can hire. And I had this conversation with someone before, and I don't want to say that all employers that don't hire is is discriminated toward because I don't believe that.
Speaker: I just think that they like the education or the understanding or afraid that they might say something inappropriate and then get some type of lawsuit or something or ADA guidelines come down on something like discrimination. But you got to be able to do outside the box because what employers don't really, they really don't see the big picture.
Speaker: Because i use a report from Accenture and it it it has data that states that companies that hire individuals disabilities earn more net income profit than their counterparts who do not.
Speaker: Yep, they do. Numbers don't lie. Numbers don't lie. And I just talked to the National Association of ah Workforce Professionals And I said, you guys are the key to help individuals like us to get an employment and you are the key for those employers to get employees on the market that the competition never thought about having.
Speaker: Set them on the bottom line because all they care about, the first thing they care they're make me some money or save me some money. So that's, you got the research to show it. Take that report in there when you talk to them. Yeah, no, that's a great point. it it There is a duality. I, as an employee, want to take something to my boss that works and makes me look good, but I also want to do something that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning, right? And if you can put those two pieces of our story together into one, um then it's hard to say no to.
Speaker: um At least that's what we found at Disability Solutions. So, um dear listeners, viewers, I told Welby that we would talk as long it was as it was interesting and we'd keep it around 30 minutes. Well, clearly it's been a really interesting conversation because we are well past ah my 30 minute kind of mile marker. But this has been such a worthwhile conversation. i have just enjoyed hearing your story, hearing about you. um and I think more people should.
Speaker: So if they want to get a hold of you, if they want to order the book, learn more about your business, how do they find you? um You can find my website, which is Broadest Biz Soul. So
Speaker: um You can email me at the same Broadestbizsold.gmail.com. um you I'm on LinkedIn under my name. Just type in Welby Broadus. I'll pop up.
Speaker: If you wanna reach out to me for consulting, public speaking, do trainings, anything like this, there's a contact sheet on my website. And you can find me on on on Facebook as well.
Speaker: It's going to be Welby Broadest Chucky because I'm a junior, so i gotta that's my nickname. The Stewards Week called my dad. Yeah, so you can find me there.
Speaker: and Yeah, the best way you probably know is email me at my email address, which is broadestbizsoul at gmail.com. Awesome. Well, we will put these links in our show notes um so that everyone knows how to get hold of you.
Speaker: Also, a special thank you for recording with me on American Labor Day, taking time away from we both grew up in the Midwest. So from our cookouts and our barbecues and all the things that we do to wrap up the end of summer, that really means a lot to me. And I really appreciate the time you've given us today.
Speaker: ah Thank you for having me i appreciate it. All right. This is another episode of Changing Minds, Changing Lives. Reach out to WellBe. Let me know what other guests we should be having on the show um and what you think we need to talk more about.
Speaker: Until then, we'll see you next time.
