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Inspire Club EP #15 - Mike Adams
7 Plays4 years ago
In this episode we talk with Mike Adams OBE, CEO of Purple.
Mike leads Purple in developing products and services which are transforming the landscape of business. His initiative Purple Tuesday has received national acclaim for its contribution to changing the customer experience for disabled people - including online accessibility. Purple is changing the disability conversation with businesses and disabled people across the globe - making an incredible impact on the world.
In his chat with Ruth, Mike highlights the importance of demystifying disability in the workplace, why mental wellbeing is so crucial during this time and what international celebrity he gets mistaken for whilst abroad!
We hope you enjoy it.
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Transcript
Introduction to Inspire Club Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome back to our podcast, The Inspire Club. I nearly forgot the name of it then.
00:00:10
Speaker
I'm your host, I'm Ruth Dance, for those of you that haven't heard me before, hosting the podcast. I share the duties of hosting Inspire Club with my colleague, Matt Maners, and we are just part of the team at Inspiring Workplaces. We interview people from all over the world, and this is probably my favourite hour of the week, each week, when I get to chat to people all over the world about what they're doing to create Inspiring Workplaces.
Podcast Rule: Sharing Inspiring Stories
00:00:36
Speaker
I run the academy which is the professional development and consulting arm of the business and if you haven't heard of me or seen anything we do we've got lots of our content that we're sharing on our website so go and take a look now just like in the 1990 classic fight club we only have one rule our rule is we must not talk about
00:00:57
Speaker
No, our rule is that you must share a story of someone that has inspired you along the way. We want to help put positivity out into the world. We want to thank people who maybe had no idea that they had inspired someone else. This can be a past colleague or they can come from anywhere outside. We really don't mind, but this really is all of our sharing and inspiring one another. So I'll get straight into it and introduce our first guest, our only guest of the podcast today, which is the incredible
00:01:27
Speaker
Mike Adams. I have
Introducing Mike Adams and Purple Tuesday
00:01:29
Speaker
known Mike for some 10, 15 years now, but we haven't been able to see each other all that often because Mike is such an incredibly busy in-demand man, that's what I think anyway. Mike is CEO of Purple. They're an organisation who are changing the disability conversation with businesses and disabled people all over the world. And in my opinion, they're having some incredible impacts in what they're doing.
00:01:55
Speaker
Purple, the organisation that Mike founded and is the leader of, they see disability as a value opportunity and Mike is leading them in developing products and services which are really starting to transform the landscape across all different sectors of business.
00:02:13
Speaker
Purple Tuesday is an initiative and it's been created and coordinated by Mike. That has received national acclaim for its contribution to changing the customer experience for disabled people, including online accessibility. Don't just take my track record for how amazing Mike is, though. Don't just take my opinion on it. He does have that track record. He has been one of the senior management team at the Disability Rights Commission. He has been the director of the National Disability Team for Higher Education.
00:02:42
Speaker
and he has also been co-director of disability research at a university here in the UK called Coventry University.
00:02:51
Speaker
Mike was actually awarded an honour by our Queen of England here in England. He was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his services to disabled people. And in 2019, Mike was listed in the Shore Trust Power List as one of the UK's top 100 most influential disabled people. Wow,
The Power of Inclusive Leadership
00:03:12
Speaker
Mike, I feel like I'm in some incredible company right now getting to talk to you. Are you there? How are you?
00:03:18
Speaker
I'm here Ruth and I can't believe we finally got to chat to each other so absolutely brilliant and I'm really looking forward to talking to you and to all your listeners it's brilliant.
00:03:31
Speaker
Oh, well, we're really just honoured to have you here today, Mike. So we're just so grateful for that. Let's get straight into it. And with our first rule of Inspire Club that I've already mentioned, can you share a story with me of someone who has inspired you in the world of work and why? I can. And the trick here is the problem is I can't tell you their name because I don't even know it. But let me tell you the story.
00:04:00
Speaker
We've been working with a large corporate organisation who are really committed to going on that disability inclusion journey, both with their employees and with their customers. And to achieve it, it always requires the chief executive or managing director to commit because they then inspire
00:04:29
Speaker
their managers and their staff as well. And it sends out a really strong signal. And about four months ago, so in lockdown, the chief executive, I won't say the organisation, but the chief executive has a Friday morning, thank God it's Friday session with all their staff members. And
00:04:55
Speaker
around the UK and globally as well actually and that morning he said look I'm going to talk to you today about our work around disability, our commitment to disability issues and he talked through for about 20 minutes really eloquently on what they were doing and why they were doing it and
00:05:20
Speaker
At the end, he just said, you know, has anyone got any questions? Happy for you to come off mute if you want to, et cetera. Listen, as a chief executive myself who's been doing staff meetings virtually, you know the answer to that because no one comes off. But he asked the question anyway. And then someone came off mute and said, I can't quite believe I am saying this. I have worked for this organisation
00:05:50
Speaker
for 15 years. But today I have been so inspired about what this company stands for. I am telling every member of staff that I have a hidden disability and it's linked to mental health. Wow. And so that's my inspired book. But what then happened was someone else
00:06:17
Speaker
came off mute and said well on that basis I'm going to tell you I'm severely dyslexic and I've hidden it from the organisation for the last eight years. Someone else came off and said I've got mental health etc and in seven minutes he had four staff members who had disclosed that they had a disability
00:06:46
Speaker
that no one in the organisation previously knew. And do you know what Ruth, you know it has inspired me to carry on doing what we do because it works and you've just got to remember that there are in the UK 14 million disabled people
00:07:08
Speaker
80%, four out of five disabled people have hidden disabilities. And so in a workplace, they have the opportunity to decide whether they disclose or not to disclose. And it's all about culture. And that day, the chief executive in one speech enabled, allowed, facilitated, call it what you like,
00:07:34
Speaker
for individuals who had been there a long time to disclose their disability, not just to the head of HR, but to the whole workforce. That's just amazing. I've got chills, Mike, listening to that.
00:07:49
Speaker
Thank you. It's something that we've talked about, I know a lot together, Mike, that if organisations don't start putting inclusion form in front of their agenda and actually taking real actions to it, then they're not going to survive.
00:08:05
Speaker
any longer and we've been talking a lot at Inspiring Workplaces around we need organisations to have cultures that are psychologically safe where people feel they can bring their whole selves to work if they choose and as a result they will deliver their best work and be innovative and be creative and feel supported and feel cared for.
00:08:27
Speaker
And that is a really great example of a leader showing that by being open, enables everyone else to be open as well. That's a really incredible story. And I hope if anyone's listening, they feel inspired, particularly if you are a leader in an organization, you feel inspired by that and can take some action from that story as well.
Personal Experiences of Discrimination
00:08:50
Speaker
Mike, what drives you? You do some incredible things, right? And you've been honoured by our Queen for it. What's your why? What's my why? My why is pretty simple, Ruth. So I went to school, I went to college, I went to university and
00:09:14
Speaker
From the age of 11, I always wanted to do business and I always wanted to be a leader and I always wanted to run an organisation. And when I graduated, I got an interview on a graduate programme, which was my absolute dream.
00:09:39
Speaker
with a highly well-known retail organization that again will remain nameless. And just to put into context, I don't think I ever practiced so hard and got ready for that interview. And I walked in and I sat down and there was the chair and there was five others on the panel and they asked me my name
00:10:05
Speaker
And bear in mind, I was 21, so I asked my name, which I was able to answer, and then said, why? Why do you want to come and work for? And I knew the answer, and I'd started with my two-minute patter. And after about 10 seconds, the chairwoman stopped me, and she said, blankly to me, she said, you know and I know,
00:10:31
Speaker
And everyone else in this room knows you're not going to get appointed. So we might as well stop the interview now. You must be used to disappointments. And actually, I wasn't. And that was absolute direct discrimination. That was about my disability. That was about not giving me an opportunity. That was 30 seconds into an hour long interview that I had practiced so hard for.
00:11:00
Speaker
And I think, reflecting back, I've had a long time to reflect. I think what drives me, what drives what we do, what drives the organisation is not allowing any other disabled people in 2021 and going forward ever to have that experience again. And in the nicest sense, and this is not about ego, not allowing
00:11:29
Speaker
organisations to overlook talented people because of pre-assumptions that have been made. And I think it was crushing, I have to say, it was absolutely crushing. Looking back, Ruth, it is probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it gave me drive, it gave me passion, it gave me determination.
00:11:55
Speaker
And it's what gets me out of bed every morning to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. Mike, I can't even begin to understand being in that room, being in that chair and being you right then. And I'm so sorry that happened to you. And I agree with you. I truly hope that never happens.
00:12:16
Speaker
anyone again but what like you say what a negative experience that now just gets you out of bed every single day and is the best thing that's ever happened to you like what an experience again i really really urge our listeners to learn from mike's experiences we're talking about making pre assumptions there's also a lot of talking organizations right now about
00:12:40
Speaker
the non-conscious assumptions and this kind of unconscious bias that people have, whether it comes to all different aspects of inclusion from race, religion, disability, sexuality, and the list could go on, right? There's a lot of work to do in that area as well. There is and quite interesting. We ran a webinar recently on unconscious bias in relation to disabled customers.
00:13:06
Speaker
And I think the thing people need to understand is we all inherently have unconscious bias. It's in us all. It's what you do with it that absolutely matters. And so we all have the ability
00:13:26
Speaker
to behave in a way that addresses all our unconscious bias. So I think it is incredibly important. It's about who we are as a society and who we are as a business and making assumptions about people that determine whether or not they buy something from your shop or your restaurant or your hotel or whatever has got to be something of the past.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, many, many years ago, I worked for Christie's, which is an international auction house for auction business. And it was during the art auction boom, I guess. And one thing I remember being taught all these years ago, actually, was around this kind of we build this unconscious bias that if we've got an art sale on and the average price of a painting was maybe $60 million.
00:14:25
Speaker
never to create assumptions that someone walking into that room is not able to pay for it. I learned that very early on and that was from a money art world that has developed, continued to develop for making assumptions or keeping an open mind all the time. We just talked a little bit then actually about a really poor and really sad experience that you had in the world of work. Let's flip that. What's the best experience you've ever had?
00:14:55
Speaker
I think the best experience I ever had was speaking at an international conference on disability. It was actually in higher education. It was at the very start of my career in Canberra, Australia. And just
00:15:21
Speaker
speaking to an international audience about disability and access to higher education and how important it was. And there was two legs to it. So we did one in Canberra and then we all went to Tasmania and did it again. And I remember standing outside after giving the speech and realising you could be the other side of the world and the issues are exactly the same.
00:15:47
Speaker
And for the first time realising that disability was an issue of global significance and similarity. And also someone saying to me, looking out to sea and going, next stop is Antarctica. So I remember that like it was yesterday. Has the world changed? Do you think, are there some countries that are further ahead?
00:16:17
Speaker
Well, I think I think it's more difficult now to discern. So early in my career, we were in a research centre, a disability research centre, and we did a paper on how
00:16:34
Speaker
airports treated you as a proxy for their culture around disability. And, you know, you wouldn't be surprised to know that, you know, Scandinavian countries were probably way ahead of, you know, Southern European countries where it was kind of really rickety and, you know, make it up as you go along. But I think, I think in many ways, that has
00:17:03
Speaker
That is narrowed. And I think, you know, I've had the opportunity, it's weird sitting here talking to you, having been locked down for a year, talking to you about travel. But I've done quite a lot of travelling and I think most disability issues are about mindset.
Global Disability Issues & Progress
00:17:29
Speaker
the society and my mindset and you know so I've been to some really kind of intrepid places where you have to improvise but with people with you who are committed actually it makes it easy so I would say globally there has been a lot of progress and a lot of narrowing so I think as a disabled person you can go almost anywhere in the world and
00:17:56
Speaker
have a level of kind of customer service and respect which is brilliant. Not to say there's still a lot to do and that's not to say there isn't areas that could be improved absolutely but you know I think awareness and understanding is getting better. Thanks mate. It was good to hear that the call industry is improving. In workplaces in general what do you think is the number one
00:18:25
Speaker
priority right now.
Mental Health as a Workplace Priority
00:18:27
Speaker
Easy, straightforward. Well-being, mental well-being, mental health, it is rising exponentially. And I think for all businesses, it is the one issue that they are going to have to get to grips with because it is going to impact so many staff. And I think
00:18:49
Speaker
14 months ago, it was taboo, and it has been taboo for a long time. And that's because there were so many people who never believed mental health would ever touch them in that kind of negative way, who have been touched through the pandemic.
00:19:11
Speaker
I think as lockdown eases around the world and restrictions ease and people go back into offices and blended ways, I think there will be a huge productivity challenge and mental wellbeing challenge that if organisations get it right, it will be part of them absolutely thriving.
00:19:34
Speaker
if they don't, I think they've got a big productivity issue on productivity, retention. And I think, by the way, Ruth, that it is what customers are going to want to see and expect from their organisations as well. And I've always said that organisations
00:19:56
Speaker
who do well for their staff with disabilities, that becomes their biggest marketing for future talented staff and customers as well. So it is mental health which I think is the major workplace priority.
00:20:14
Speaker
And as it should be, and I was about to ask you, is it a workplace responsibility? But you answered that pretty perfectly as well. It absolutely is, isn't it? Speaking about mental health, actually, Mike, I know just like me, we've got twins who are very similar age, they're both one. I mean, all four of our twins are one, actually.
00:20:34
Speaker
And you've got two older children as well. And you have been working incredibly hard during this pandemic. Your business is incredibly in demand. I can't even imagine, plus many other things, the level of periods of stress you must have experienced. Is that an assumption of mine? Or have you had periods of stress? And what do you do in general to get through it? Yeah. And I would be honest with you, Ruth, and say,
00:21:03
Speaker
I have a physical disability. I never really thought that mental health would ever touch me. I was one of those, which is why I can talk so eloquently about it. And I think there have been times in the last 14 months when I've had to be really thoughtful about my mental health. And I'm a proxy for everyone else in society. We've all gone through the same thing.
00:21:31
Speaker
Yes, we have four kids. I have four kids and I have twins who have spent over half of their young life in lockdown. And I wouldn't underestimate, as we start easing now, them socialising again,
00:21:52
Speaker
and how difficult that is because they know no different and they've known no different and they've had the security and the chaotic and chaos of living in our house, you know, but actually that's what they've known and I see that with staff who have been in their spare room, their attic for the last 14 months and actually
00:22:21
Speaker
going back to work is a big, big thing. And if we have to be honest now then about if this is a truthful session, how do I cope? How have I coped? What have I enjoyed best? A glass or two of red wine. That has been my saviour. That has been the thing
00:22:41
Speaker
that I have really looked forward to, you know, the wine o'clock time in moderation, but I've really enjoyed that as well and it's absolutely helped. Yeah, being kind to yourself. I don't know whether it's because we've both got one-year-old twins, but that's been what's been helping me this year too. And being kind to myself, I'm not beating myself up that I am looking forward to wine o'clock.
00:23:09
Speaker
allowing myself that wine because it's been a challenging day or even if it hasn't been a physically demanding challenging with the kids then it's mentally demanding the times we're going through right now so being kind to yourself in a glass or two of red wine. What do you think is the most important quality that you can have in a leader? I personally think it is consistency. I
00:23:38
Speaker
Your staff, your customers, want to see you day in day out be the same. They want to know, you know, 90% something happens, they know how you are going to respond. Because I think it is the link, it is the bond that builds the trust and respect as you are in a leader. And I think
00:24:04
Speaker
For me, so consistency and being consistent in your leadership, whichever style you lead, you know, I, you won't believe this, but I happen to be quite outgoing and some people might say charismatic and would rather be on stage than pulling the curtains behind the scenes. Oh no, I believe that. But I think you can be a totally different leader, but
00:24:34
Speaker
Consistency is still the thing, part of the leadership DNA that matters most. Brilliant, yeah. And is there anyone in the world that you'd like to swap jobs with for a day? I know some people that I wouldn't like to swap jobs with, so I wouldn't want to be the Prime Minister, I wouldn't want to be the Secretary of
00:24:55
Speaker
Thanks for health. Neither of those would suit me very much. My passion outside of work is sport, so I would love to be a football commentator and I could get inside those stadiums and watch the games and bring to life that for other people, if I could swap.
00:25:23
Speaker
But as I said, I've got a face for radio. So maybe that would be my dream job. Oh, Mike, I actually did a brilliant football commentator. But what would we do without you in the world of helping create an inclusive culture in this entire globe? We'd be lost without your talent. So you'd be great, but we're not letting you go over there to be a football commentator. What are you learning at the moment? What I'm learning at the moment, so let me tell you,
00:25:53
Speaker
A year ago, Ruth, I had a blackberry, which made me pretty unique. Everyone else had an iPhone. Yeah, I was about to just clarify. We're talking about blackberry. Yeah, not the fruit. So we're talking about the phones. And I was in my office and everywhere else, a laughing joke, and I was determined
00:26:18
Speaker
not to ever change it, which it didn't enable any other kind of social media platform, but I did not care. I was keeping it. And then it wouldn't use the P and it wouldn't use the A. And at the moment, I couldn't also use the E. I decided it probably had to go and I made that switch to an iPhone.
00:26:48
Speaker
and have gone on that journey and now to the point where I do social media, LinkedIn posts twice a week on a Tuesday and a Friday and
00:27:08
Speaker
I love it. And it's really a great way to engage with people on changing the disability conversation. And I looked yesterday and I wrote a post two weeks ago about my experience of an inclusive vaccine jab and the whole thing around social model and how great it was.
00:27:34
Speaker
And it's had 92,000 views. And so, yeah, it's so.
00:27:42
Speaker
learning, learning about the power of social media, learning to let myself go and realize that digital is going to be a big part of the future. And if we're going to take disabled people with us on that journey, I had to really learn it myself first so I could practice what I preached. And yeah, so that's that that's what I'm learning.
00:28:12
Speaker
I'm learning every day and your listeners won't want to know about algorithms, but I could talk to you at length about how algorithms work and what does that mean for social media, but I won't. Oh, you'll spare us that. Thank you, Mike. I'm going to switch up the pace now before we talk about algorithms and move us into a quick fire round. So I've got some quick fire questions for you. First one, if you were a teacher, what would you teach?
00:28:40
Speaker
Wow, I really liked photography as well, but it was much more of a physics, physics woman, girl, I guess when I was studying. Are you an early bird or a night owl?
00:28:49
Speaker
I have twins, as you do, so can I say the answer is neither. It's about survival. I don't have late nights anymore. I collapse and just go to sleep and mornings being woke up to screaming kids is also a rude awakening, so neither. Yeah, twin toddlers. You know when mine wake up at 5.30 tomorrow morning, I'm going to think of you, Mike. At least I know you're in the same boat.
00:29:18
Speaker
Absolutely. What is your favourite, what song really gets you going and fires you up? Anything by Bruce Springsteen. I love Bruce Springsteen and if I want to be fired up
00:29:38
Speaker
I will put on the Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf album. So you can have a bit of entry, you know, there's six or seven songs, but whatever mood you're in, there's a 10-minute rendition of each of them, which is always a good one for the car, I tell you. Yes, yes, plays to your mood as well. Yes, that is a great one. Is there anything that you can keep clean, that you can share with us that's been funny that's happened to you recently?
00:30:06
Speaker
Well, not necessarily recently, but if you allow me to indulge two, three years ago, we took my older two kids on a trek through Vietnam. We did a tour of Vietnam and we toured the whole of Vietnam. And everywhere we went, people came up to me and were talking really excitedly and wanting photographs and everything.
00:30:36
Speaker
Purple hadn't long started and I knew we had an international reach, but I didn't quite realize that we had got into Vietnam and et cetera. And everywhere we went, we were traveling every day, but it didn't matter whether it was village or town or whatever, people come over, I was so excited. And then we got to one place and it all happened and we had a tour guide and I said, look, I just do not understand it.
00:31:04
Speaker
you know, can you just ask this person why she's so excited? Anyway, he did so and he said, Oh, apparently you are this Australian croat evangelist who has just been on a tour of Vietnam and played to television crowds, etc, etc. And they can't believe that they've seen you in the face and
00:31:32
Speaker
I googled this guy. Is he called Nick? Yes. Yeah, Nick Puckovich, his name is. And I'm a goodness man. I looked at him, I thought, that's me. And bearing in mind, I've got no arms and short legs. There's not many of us in the world. But not only did he look like me, he, his wife looked like my partner.
00:31:57
Speaker
And he had two kids that were the same age as my two kids. And so I was known throughout that whole trip as this Australian Croat evangelist. So it absolutely popped my balloon when I said, oh, I'm from purple. And they just looked and went, oh, such a disappointment to everyone. Hey, Mike, he's quite good looking. That's a compliment, right?
00:32:21
Speaker
Well, he's aged as well, yeah, during the pandemic. I look at his pictures sometimes just because actually I want to look like him again. Right, we've got to include the link to Nick, won't we? Right, here's another question for you. Household chores. How are you around the house? Do you do a lot? I do. I do. My job every night is sweeping the floor. And Ruth, listen.
00:32:48
Speaker
You don't need me to tell you with twins in high chairs, most of the food ends up being thrown on the floor. So when I say my household chore is wiping the floor, it's a big job in our house. Yeah, I agree with that. It's a bigger job than in most people's houses. What's your favourite film? Usual Suspects.
00:33:13
Speaker
Brilliant. And we've heard you've been to many places around the world. If you could choose one best place, what would it be? If I could choose one place in the world, it would be Hoi An in Vietnam. And my plea to everyone is if you've been, you will absolutely agree with me. I have got no doubts about that. If you haven't been,
00:33:39
Speaker
go in the next five years until because otherwise they're going to overbuild there and it will be spoiled. But Hoi An in Vietnam by a country mile. You know, Mike, so I've never been to Vietnam, but I don't know anyone that has been who didn't absolutely love it from a cultural learning perspective, the food, the people and everything. I really want to go. I just might have to wait for the twins to get a little bit older. Yeah, they need to be what Daniel was.
00:34:08
Speaker
Daniel was six and really, really embraced it. And I think why it's so great is because there's a fusion of French and Asia. So we love French food and we love noodles. And for me, I'm a real foodie. So
00:34:30
Speaker
We were just desperate every day to have a big lunch and big evening meal and snacks because the food was so brilliant and the people were so warm. It was unbelievable and we will take the twins. We have promised to take the twins. So let me know when you go because we might be going at the same time.
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Well, I'm just ready for everyone to follow you around taking your photo. I can pretend to be the glamorous celebrity assistant. Right, my second to last question for you, Mike. If people want to get involved with Purple and they really want to, they're really serious about creating these truly inclusive workplaces, what can
Starting the Disability Inclusion Journey
00:35:19
Speaker
they do? What's the one thing they should do? Well, the one thing I always say to people
00:35:24
Speaker
is do something. So disability is a journey and everyone starts that journey in different place and it's a long journey and so I say to organisations just do something, give one commitment, start that ball rolling whether it is with your staff
00:35:49
Speaker
And we've talked, company Ruth, about mental health and hidden disabilities. So start having those conversations in your organisation, or it might be to do with customers, in which case, go and have a look at purpletuesday.org.uk, which is our initiative to improve the customer experience, which is a benefit for organisations as well as your customers.
00:36:19
Speaker
We at Purple can support all organisations across the world in all sectors and all sizes and our approach, our model is to
00:36:35
Speaker
see where you are and be real about where you are, see where you want to go and just in the 90s sense hold your hand as you get there and try to take you at a pace that works for you as an organisation and you know you can look us up at wearepurple.org.uk and see
00:36:57
Speaker
some of the work we do. So broadly splits into three things, which is about, we work on, you know, the built environment, which is becoming increasingly important in a socially distant world, the online environment, which I've talked about, which is the place, and people, and that's your staff. And just one final stack to kind of leave you with, 50%,
00:37:25
Speaker
of people who work in the UK and probably abroad as well by the way either have someone in their family who has a disability or someone in their close network. So disability has resonance with everyone and I always ask the question of staff if your auntie, grandpa, uncle, niece
00:37:53
Speaker
went into your place of work and had a worse experience simply because they happen to have a disability, would you like it? And the answer is always no. And therefore, you know, I think disability is something that unites people. I think it's a much bigger issue than people think it is, you know, 22% of the population have rights under disability legislation.
00:38:20
Speaker
And for some organisations, they're on that journey and they've got to push on and do more. For some people, realistically, they haven't really started it. They've got to start somewhere, make a commitment, get momentum, involve your staff and you'll find that actually it works for you on so many different levels. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for those incredible stats as well. I always think that 22% is such a hard hitting and alarmingly high stat.
00:38:49
Speaker
that is really a cause for concern that we are, why are we not already truly inclusive with both customers and people. My final question for you is who would you like to take the baton in and see as a guest on our Inspired Club podcast series? Well, if we finish where we started,
00:39:15
Speaker
I would like potentially to connect you in with either the chief exec of that organization, who did the Thank God It's Friday, because they were an inspiration to their organization. Or maybe at some point, the person who then came off mute and said, Oh, by the way, I've now felt for the first time. Because I think
00:39:41
Speaker
For me, you know, in the last five, 10 years, it's the most inspirational thing I've witnessed, I've seen, I've heard. And it really, really, you know, makes me believe that, you know, we we're on the right track, Ruth, and we've got a real opportunity. And, you know, you're Inspire Club.
00:40:04
Speaker
is inspirational and your listeners, if they take a fraction of the conversation today and go and do something, you know, together we can absolutely change the disability conversation.
00:40:17
Speaker
Yeah, our mission is to change the world through the world of work and your mission is changing the disability conversation and we're not going to be able to change the world until we change that conversation. So Mike, I thought I knew you somewhat but I didn't realise how many similarities and how many amazing stories you've got. I'd love to chat to you forever but
00:40:38
Speaker
For now, we're going to say a massive thank you for coming on the Inspire podcast. To all of our listeners, if they want to hear from anyone else, if they've been inspired by Mike and want to get in touch with Purple, if they want to take a look at the recent inclusive cultures workshop that we ran with our Inspire community and the content we produced from that, or really get in touch with us around anything that how we can help you or Purple can help you or even what you're doing.
00:41:03
Speaker
around changing the disability conversation then do let us know. For now it's a thank you to you Mike and goodbye.