Episode 2 - Insight into business start-up, and developing community leadership
Transcript for My Rhythm, My Ride ‘Episode 2 - Insight into business start-up, and developing community leadership’ with guest Tim Young, released 7 November 2023.
Voice over
Hear about disabled people finding success. Stories from Aotearoa's disabled community. Their journey your voice my future. My Rhythm My Ride. A podcast by My Life My Voice, hosted by Kylee Black.
Kylee Black
Hello and good morning everyone. We are here with My Rhythm My Ride, a podcast by My Life My Voice and we are here today with Tim Young who is the CEO of My Life My Voice and the startup lead for Smart Access and we are absolutely stoked to have you here and join us today. Tim, thank you.
Tim Young
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
Kylee Black
It's a pleasure and it's an honor. We are having a really open and honest discussion about what it looks like behind the scenes of leadership and learning from the journey of those who are doing it. How did you get where you got and how do you do what you do? And so I wondered if you could tell me a bit about yourself and your journey and how you've come to where you are today.
Tim Young
Cool. Yeah. So Ko Taranaki te maunga, Ko Maunganui te awa, Ko Ngāti Mahuta te mana whenua, I tipu ahau I Kirikiriroa, Kei Ngāruawahiā e noho ana ahau, Ko Tim Young tōku ingoa. So my family come from the Taranaki region and I grew up in Hamilton and I now live in Ngāruawahiā with my wife and young son. So we have a lot of fun out here. Bit about my background. So I did a Masters of Science in Psychology but after kind of realising that that professional pathway wasn't accessible and there weren't many accommodations in the workplaces, I wanted to go. I developed an educational video game to try and create some opportunities for myself and start a business that I could do from home. And then I ran for Hamilton City Council in 2019 and some great opportunities came from that. Luckily I didn't get elected, otherwise I wouldn't be where I am now. So I'm pretty happy about that. But I got to a point where I could kind of put forward my platforms and my priority areas and a lot of them have been followed anyway, which is great. And then I helped develop Mahi Tika - Equity in Employment for DPA and MSD, Diasbled Persons Assembly (DPA) and Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
And then around the same time I started Smart Access when I saw a gap in the use of data by councils to prioritise infrastructure spending objectively rather than waiting for kind of often people in richer neighborhoods with more time on their hands to complain about infrastructure rather than looking things objectively where the greatest need was. And so I'm still doing that with a lot of my time and then also being Chief Executive of My Life My Voice for a year and five days, I think.
Kylee Black
Congratulations.
Tim Young
Thank you. Still here. And then I'm also co founder and Vice Chair of Magical Bridge Playground which we're building our first playground in Claudelands and that will be done. Should be opening 1st or 2nd of December.
Kylee Black
So exciting. I have been watching that unfold and I am really excited to join you guys for the opening.
Tim Young
Yes, we're looking forward to having you and lots of other community members.
Kylee Black
Yeah, I think that's a real stake in the ground and legacy thing, actually.
Tim Young
Yeah, it's pretty cool. We've been telling my son that I'm building it just for him, so he thinks it's a real dad thing for Jasper, but we'll tell him the truth when he's older.
Kylee Black
So what does something like that mean for you?
Tim Young
It's really exciting at the moment. There are a few playgrounds that have parts of them that are accessible that I can go and do stuff with Jasper. But they're relatively new, those playgrounds too that have the rubber batting rather than being lifted up on bark and segregating disabled people from non-disabled, like symbolically it's huge. But personally knowing that now that I've got a kid and we embarked on this before we had even conceived Jasper, but I knew we would have kids or hoped we would have kids eventually and knew that, you know, as things currently stood, I wouldn't be able to interact with him like other parents would. So, yeah, really exciting that we're going to be able to do that. This playground isn't just for disabled kids or wheelchair using kids, it's kids with neurodiversities, blind low vision, deaf. There's something for everyone and it's for older people and disabled parents, non-disabled kids. So, yeah, we're really excited just that it's like the first playground that I've seen that's built from the ground up with everyone in mind.
Kylee Black
And I have heard a very special, very very cool secret addition to this playground recently, which is I had seen online recently and I was like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. A communication board that anyone can engage with as well. And it normalises all disability, but it shows that able-bodied kids can use it, disabled kids can use it, disabled, like everyone can use it. I can take my niece there and engage fully in the playground with her as opposed to sitting on the sidelines or being like, I'm watching you from here. Or my friend's child who I look after and help out with sometimes. And I can't chase him around the playground or keep an eye on him close enough because he can get to places that I can't get to so I can't go to the playground with him on my own. And he's like, come up here, Auntie, come up here. And I'm like, I can't.
Tim Young
Yeah, exactly. In every section there should be something for everyone and anyone can get anywhere and it's fully fenced so you don't have to be chasing the 'bolters' and yeah, I'm not sure why it's called a core board. We've been calling it a core board, but that's another name for it. Even for non-disabled children, the comprehension comes much earlier than the ability to communicate, so that's cool for everyone.
Kylee Black
So this is a bit of a sideways slant from what we had initially talked about. But how do you start out doing? How do you even take something like that and start, how do you take something from the idea or something that's overseas and implement something like that? I imagine huge funding, a huge organisation, you've got to work with council, and I'm sure you're running for a council and being involved in that helps. But how would someone wanting to set up something or seeing the need, how do you begin to fill something like that?
Tim Young
Yeah, it can seem so big if you're thinking about from the beginning to the end, it's massive leap. So I always think it's good to have the end in mind, but think about all the little things you can do in the meantime. It makes it overwhelming. So my other projects I'm like spending most of my time, but our chair, Peter van Vroonhoven, has done the lion's share of the work. And then another board member is our playground designer. But basically Peter, myself and Joy Ho, we got together and we wanted to make this happen. So then we just started calling up our contacts. We had some contacts in council, but otherwise if you didn't have any contacts in council, most council members are pretty open to talking community members. You just often need to find the right one. So you might start in community and then they'll introduce you to someone in playgrounds and you're just having conversations, this is what we want, this is the model we've seen that works overseas, starting to get funding ideas, this is how much it's going to cost. So it's just breaking all those things down. You can even ask Chat GPT now to ask you, what are the steps I would need to build a playground?
Tim Young
And honestly, that would probably give you a pretty good idea of where to start. And it's just chipping away and working towards the goal a little bit. Every week, every couple of days, just doing a little something. One email will get you further than you realize.
Kylee Black
How long has this process been from inception, from conception of the idea to starting it, to being where you are now?
Tim Young
Think three years, I think 2020. So I ran in 2019 and then the start of 2020 where Peter, myself and Joy had come across the Magical Bridge Playground and shared it on social media, decided to get together. And then over that first year, I think we had maybe not an official memorandum of understanding with City council, but pretty close to it. They wanted to see the same thing and we needed to just kind of get a bit more funding under our belt. So then we reached out to Trust Waikato and Lion's and these other well known Lotteries things. Started with the big funders that would be able to do a decent chunk. And then when we started getting some commitments, it must been 2021 and then it must be end of 2021, we started getting some pretty decent commitments from councils and big organisations. Really knew the ball was rolling and we started the project in three stages, so that we said, hey, even if we can't do stage three, we can do stage one that will cost this much money. In 2022, most of the design would have been going on while we were trying to figure out if we could afford stage two at the same time as stage one, which we could.
Tim Young
And we haven't been able to quite afford stage three yet. But, yeah, just so about three years and yeah, it's been a decently long journey, but we're getting to the point now where other councils are becoming interested in similar things, even if it's just part of a bigger playground and different consulting. So, yeah, it's really started to snowball.
Kylee Black
And a lot of work behind the scenes.
Tim Young
Yeah, a lot like Peter and Georgina have done heaps and heaps of work behind the scenes, we have board meetings every two to four weeks and do the odd email in between as well. It's been pretty ongoing, but, yeah, lots going on, but it's achievable for people in other parts of the country.
Kylee Black
So if someone wanted a playground, who would they contact, if they wanted to see a playground in their community?
Tim Young
So you need some level of community support and momentum to say to the council, all these people want to see it. And if you kind of get half a dozen or three to six advocates together in a meeting with council, this is what we want and either Magical Bridge or yourself can pull that together. So you could reach out to Magical Bridge, we have a website, https://www.magicalbridge.co.nz or on Facebook, but if anyone, we just want to see more inclusive playgrounds. We don't care if we do it. And so it's finding the right people to talk to and you need some community push behind it for them to think that that's actually something that's going to be popular.
Kylee Black
Cool. I can imagine that wouldn't be difficult for most communities.
Tim Young
Yeah, I know. I think there's a huge demand out there.
Kylee Black
So that's one thing that you're involved in. So tell me about Smart Access and how do you set up your own tech company and how do you manage that while also working other jobs and being involved in other spaces? Because on top of that, in the meantime, you've also become a dad and you've got a partner and that takes time and energy as well. And then you've got your disability as well. Did you want to talk about your disability or Smart Access first?
Tim Young
Yeah, I can kind of talk about both. So I started Smart Access; ongoing since my accident, I've always kind of been, I had my psychology thing so I lent into that and I was trying to get a job in that and from that and other experiences. It's just blindingly obvious the amount of barriers that you come up against and the amount of opportunities that you miss out on.
Kylee Black
Because of access issues.
Tim Young
Because of access issues and how the world is designed and the data that's available for me to see where barriers are and how decision makers can better improve that. So I kind of work from first principles, which is a bit boring for some people, but I think it gets to the heart of the issue. What would actually improve this? And so, speaking to decision makers for my council run, and even throughout the council run, there were times that I couldn't do what the other candidates were doing, and that was embarrassing for the council, but it was also a good public reminder of the need of these things. And so yeah, I decided to just get at the root of the problem and collect more data. And I advocated for this for months before council wasn't showing an interest. So I okay, well, I'll just do it then. And I kind of found a cheap solution to begin with. I think some people, when they start a tech company, they'll go, okay, what do we need for the proper end product? Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars that's too hard. Or try to cap raise and they might get lucky and get enough money to do that.
Especially being disabled and not having a lot of money and kind of being when you're disabled, you're always kind of trying to figure out how you can make do with what you have and use things in different ways. You get quite creative and you get that kind of number 8 mentality to make things work. And so I found a cheap app that would allow me to drop pins on a map, and that's all you needed. I was like, okay, well, I can see where the barriers are, and can I attach a photo to that? Yes. And then from there, I decided that would make do for now and start trying to get some customers. And then I saw there was a good stuff grant from TSB and applied for that and got $20,000 from that. And so you got to put yourself out there and if there's an opportunity, you just have to go for it. You don't even think about it and kind of having that confident, that kind of growth mindset and that confidence behind you. Even though you might not succeed, you just confidence to try and not care if you fail because you've tried and things work out.
Tim Young
I think when you have that attitude, not always, you need some luck, of course. But I got that $20,000, which allowed me to develop the app and kind of get started. And then I went to a number of council. We just did cold emails, random cold emails. We didn't have connections at other councils, so somehow got my foot in the door at Wellington and Hobart and a few other councils and that's kind of been how I developed it. Then we had enough revenue to keep things going. And a lot of research you just got to keep. If you don't know something, you research it and you have to kind of do it yourself. And so, my disability just briefly. So I broke my neck snowboarding in Canada in 2009. Now I'm a C5-6 tetraplegic, so I don't have any hand movement. And I've got kind of half my arms, I've got my biceps, but not my triceps. And so I'm not only am I a wheelchair user, I'm kind of a higher level, one of the highest levels that would still use a manual wheelchair, which gives me a pretty good insight into the challenges of terrain and the environment.
I started with that, so that gave me kind of the first ten variables that we collect data on of what's useful for me. And then I just did really extensive community consultation with lots of disabled friends that I'd met through my council run. And now we're at about 38 variables and that's basically everything we've been able to identify that could affect someone's personal mobility.
Kylee Black
Amazing.
Tim Young
And so that's kind of how my disability and journey has related to Smart Access.
Kylee Black
So you got the grant. How did you find out about the grant? Where do people go to find grants like that? And did that grant pay for the technology that you needed or did that help fund your time and hours to be able to do that? When you started getting contracts and stuff, how did you know how to revenue place your time and value and what you needed for that?
Tim Young
Yeah, so first one for that grant, it was kind of a public, what do you call it, project that they put out to you. I think someone may have sent it to me on Facebook or something, come across it. That was just luck of the draw. There's not too many of those kind of random grants out there from companies that are trying to support good things in the community. So other popular ones are obviously like Lotto and stuff. You can just search what grants are out there, google search and they'll come up. And I guess the hard part with grants is trying to figure out each one kind of has an angle where they'll be, okay, we're supporting these things, but not these things. And that's kind of a tricky thing to figure out. And then, okay, well, that's actually not open for another six months. So grants are quite tricky and you just have to keep your eyes open. We recently got a good one from Waka Kotahi for an innovation grant to help develop our navigation system for the app. So that was awesome as well.
Kylee Black
Are you a business or a charity or social enterprise? Business?
Tim Young
It's a social enterprise.
Kylee Black
So there are grants out there for business?
Tim Young
There are some, yeah, there are more for charities. And so My life My Voice, is a charitable organisation. There's pros and cons for either way. When you're a charity, you have to be sustainable from grants and contracts, from government, those sorts of things. For Smart Access, I kind of wanted it to try be a bit more sustainable with its own income streams. What was the other question?
Kylee Black
So how did you manage the funding side of things? Like, did that funding go towards your technology and stuff or did that support you to live?
Tim Young
No, it just went to the technology, all to the technology, which was really hard. At the time we were pretty poor and just trying to make our way and it's hard when it's a gamble and you already kind of have, you kind of have the scarcity poverty mindset when you don't have much income coming in. I was on 80% of minimum wage from an ACC loss of potential earnings at the time, so just trying to get by. I think I was working for Mahi Tika for DPA at that point, so I had some income coming in, but it was like 20 hours a week because I needed to focus on Smart Access as well. It's not for everyone because there is a bit of a gamble involved. But personally, I felt like I didn't have much of a career at that point and I felt like this was giving myself work experience that would be useful in a future career I'd be able to get. Even if this failed, I'd have the skills I would have had spent time developing the skills I needed to be successful in other organisations as well, which is actually kind of how I got into My Life My Voice.
I wouldn't have had that experience to run My Life My Voice without running my own company. So yeah, that worked out.
Kylee Black
How did you get involved in My Life My Voice? And how did you become the CE? How does someone become a CE of a company?
Tim Young
Yeah, so I think two things. One, I had the experience of Smart Access in my previous education these days, which was the video game. I'd also run my own carer team, which I have 4 to 6 carers for 18 hours a day. I'm very lucky to be on ACC and have that support. That takes a lot. And some organisations don't value that experience in itself.
Kylee Black
But it counts. You learn so much, you literally become your own employer of your own support staff to live your life.
Tim Young
I know. And it's not just doing like organizing four people to do eight hour shifts. That most of the day I need to cover. And so luckily, My Life My Voice, being a disabled lead organisation, valued that experience as well. And so yeah, I guess like, 1. Aligning your values with an organisation that will appreciate it, is key and has kind of been a more recent phenomenon that we have disabled led organisations and organisations that really value lived experience. So it wouldn't have been possible probably ten years ago potentially to not just be tokenised and put in a position and actually really valued for that. So I think that's quite a key part of it, just being really confident in myself. So I was on the board of My Life My Voice, and I got that just from Gerri shoulder tapping me because there'd been other forums that we were part of where I'd come up with good ideas and stuff and those I was putting myself out there. I was in a meeting with you, actually, first time I met you I think, around the council run, and we had a sit down with Minister Sepuloni and so I was like, oh, here's my time to shine.
So I wrote down like a list of all these ideas of things, like tangible ways that the government could improve the life of disabled people and I don't know if it was really for that. I think they wanted some ideas, but your just bold and you just go for it. And I was like, all right, and you kind of put your name on the map a little bit and all those little things, you never know when they're going to lead to something, but they always work out in the end. You build more connections. So that's how I got on the board and then our past business manager left and we didn't have a lot of time to find someone new while advertising and doing a decent handover. So, first off, the board kind of looked around and was there anyone here that might be interested? At that time? I was halfway through my PhD, but it's a long story, but it was linked to Smart Access and they were looking at wanting some of the intellectual property, so I was not that keen on that. And then this opportunity came up. I just made a case for myself and I just said, look, I have some ideas about the organisation and I have this much time and I think I could do a good job and if not, then we'll find someone else.
I just want the best for the organisation and yeah, and so far it's been going really well. It's been really, really challenging balancing all the time that I need for my different projects and my family, like you said. But I think I'm getting there now. We've promoted some other people to take some responsibilities and I've kind of found really comfortable now doing the things I need to do for the business to survive and thrive. And with family, I just have to prioritise them when they come home. I let people on the call know that it's going to get loud and I'm going to head off soon. It's really challenging, but I think just being really honest with yourself about what's needed to be successful and honest with other people around you about what you need in those times, to be successful is really key, just being open and communicative.
Kylee Black
How do you do that? And obviously there are challenges, there are deadlines, there are pressures from other people, there are pressures from Smart Access, there are pressures from My Life My Voice, there are pressures from the Magical Playground at times, I imagine. There's a lot of demands of your time and spaces. There's family and I often think of it like, we talk a lot about work-life balance, but I think for disabled people there's a third division. There's work-life and disability. And so I feel like we start with a third less than our able-bodied counterparts before we even get up for the day. Because for some people, you've got pain, you've got fatigue, you've got medication management, you've got things that happen, you've got having to navigate the extra time of your disability and not just being able to jump out of bed and jump in the shower. You've got managing your support staff, you've got managing those dynamics and relationships and people. And then sometimes life doesn't happen how we want, plan, or even expect it to. We have an infection or we have an injury or you find yourself in hospital.
How have you learnt to manage and navigate those complexities and how do you do that well?
Tim Young
Every day is different, obviously, but it is hard. I think at times. There's been times where I've had too much on and again, I need to be honest about that and to myself and to other people and be like, okay, I'm actually really struggling at the moment to keep up with all of this. What responsibilities can I delegate to other people?
Kylee Black
Amazing
Tim Young
People can't always do that for their own life and that's really challenging when you're the only one that's really responsible for your support workers and for you to keep yourself healthy and in a general good well-being. But in terms of running an organisation, there's obviously people that you can delegate certain things to. Last year I was in hospital like three times in two weeks and that was really challenging and then during that time, one of my support workers left and I was just like it was really, really hard. And yeah, I just like made sure people got paid, was the first thing and then kind of just made them organise themselves for a little bit. I was like, can you just make sure someone's able to help me and can you guys sort it out between you.
And family stepped up and would be ringing different people. I guess just honesty with yourself is really key about what you can and can't do and what you need others, but obviously you can't do it without a support system as well. I just need people to help me. That's just something that's always been hard to get used to is like, losing your independence and not being like, I've got 4 or 5 support people each week that I rely on to be able to even get out of bed, let alone because anything beyond that.
Kylee Black
It doesn't matter. And this is I think one of the things I struggled with a lot in my own journey is that when I was starting up my own business, trying to find business mentors and people that understood, I had someone say to me, you should have a launch date. And I'm like, if I don't have a launch date, I have a launch goal. They're like, you have to have a launch date. And I said, but I can't. And he's like, well, you're obviously doing something wrong, so if you haven't reached your launch date, and you have to push it back more than once. Because I was like, well, I've already missed three launch dates. And he said to me, he said, well why is that? And I'm like, because if you don't have someone turn up in the morning, it doesn't matter how much you want to get out of bed and how much you've got to do, if you don't have the support in place, you can't do and achieve what you need to in that day. There's so much we don't have control of, that we can't necessarily navigate.
Tim Young
Exactly, yeah. And I think, you just need people around you I guess, that will understand that, that was obviously the wrong advisor because that was bad advice. It's like off base, it's a different person's perspective, and you can take that and be like, okay, well, I understand that that's sometimes how things work. But then actually there's soft launches and there's hard launches, and you're talking about a hard launch, and so disabled people adapt, and we do soft launches, and you just hope for the best. I think just when there are disappointments, there are going to be disappointments that you don't achieve a deadline. Something doesn't happen the way you want to happen in business anyway. There's things happening now where I'm relying on someone to collect data in Australia, and they've been really unwell. They're not disabled, but they've just been really unwell. And so deadlines get pushed back and it's a little bit embarrassing, but you just keep moving forward and you just do your best every day and like I said earlier, I think if you have this goal in mind and you don't put too much pressure on yourself to get to that end goal within a certain time, you need to have a general idea of okay, well, this is going to take roughly this long and whatnot,
but you just need to keep chipping away whenever you feel okay. I think you and I do that similarly, where you just work unusual hours sometimes because you wanted to work at 2:00pm, but actually you felt okay at 6:00pm. Okay I'm going to quickly have dinner and then I actually need to do that email and that's a lot of pressure and it's not for everyone. Some people just need 9 to 5 and then they relax at home. But that is kind of how I've had to achieve it. For a long time I was doing a lot of work between seven and ten at night. That was when I was most productive.
Kylee Black
Yeah.
Tim Young
Luckily I have support workers in the sense that they're kind of obligated, they need to have a period of 8 hours that they're doing the sleepover shift and so I actually need to get in bed, otherwise I'd probably be doing all nighters and it would be really bad for me. So that's actually quite good that I have that structure forced upon me that I need to get some sleep. But yeah, you just kind of hustle when you kind of have that mindset of something that's really important to you. It's really important to me personally, it's really important to my family potentially, if I do it well, it could work out well financially and then it's really important to the community. So those things just drive me to just keep chipping away whenever I can.
Kylee Black
I think you raise a really good point that for some people 9 to 5 works really well and that structure is great, but for others it's a real battle. I have no predictability in my day. I can have my day set up, I wake up in the morning throwing my guts out and so it doesn't matter how much I want to work, I can start work, but I'm not actually going to be able to give my best. Whereas if I can push that back, I know that, like yourself, when I get that moment and I'm in the zone, I'm just like, man, I'm off. I'd rather give my best to something when I can, than give a subpar version of myself because I'm like, it's a challenge and I think it's a constant. It means that I often end up working on weekends and late nights and stuff like that, but I don't want my disability and my own personal challenges to take away from what I want to be doing and what's important to me.
Tim Young
Yeah, and I think it has a big influence on what you find is valuable or important. I think when you have these barriers that you're really passionate about overcoming, life can be a lot more purposeful and give you more purpose and motivation to break those barriers down for yourself and others. And also the other strategy I have is I'll have tasks that I need to be, on my game for, my emails and talking to people and then I have really monotonous tasks because I'm working with data a lot. Then if I'm not feeling well, I put my hood up and I sit in front of the TV and I wipe because I get all sweaty when I'm not feeling well and have a towel near me and I just kind of chip away, just kind of do these boring monotonous tasks when you're not feeling well. And other times I'll just do nothing, of course, but I try to set things up that way as well. That I can be doing something productive when I'm not feeling well.
Kylee Black
My favorite thing
Tim Young
Just be kind on yourself as well.
Kylee Black
My favorite thing is to put a movie on and just chip away at stuff while I'm doing a few different things. But it sometimes doesn't feel like work for me, when I'm doing things in business and community or supporting others. It's my fire, it's my light, it's my spark, it's what brings joy and distraction, I think to is key. I focus on my own world I drown. I can't cope when I look at my situation and my reality and what I'm navigating. But if I can look outside and look at what's in my hands and what can I do with what's in my hands that changes day to day. But when I look outside of my world, into the world of others and see what can I do with what's in my hands and how do I be involved, allows me control in a situation that I often feel like I don't have a lot control.
Tim Young
Yeah, it's interesting that, sometimes when I look at what I've achieved it feels different. It feels like separated from me in a way because then if you do think if I think about my disability and the amount of challenges I have and how little I can physically do for myself, it is hard not to think of yourself as not being able to do much. When I look at what I actually do, just by chipping away at things that are important to me, it's crazy. I just thought I'd reflect on that. It's like a weird feeling that you can feel quite disabled at times but then, when you're focusing on stuff you can do and not focusing on stuff you can't do, then you don't feel disabled at all. You just like, busy in your zone, in the flow of being really passionate about something and motivated and yeah, I think that is like yeah, I wouldn't have good well being if I didn't have things to focus on and distract myself from my disability at times but yeah, I just want a good life, right? And the best way to have a good life is
Kylee Black
Get involved?
Tim Young
Is to, you know, is to be successful and have a family.
So for the family thing, to start a family and find a partner is just as hard as maintaining that relationship and I think that's something.
Kylee Black
Did you want to touch on that and explore that?
Tim Young
Yeah yeah, so like I really wanted a partner and so just like these other things, it feels like an unobtainable goal to have a wife potentially, what do I do in this day to get closer to that goal? And so download Tinder and swiped right on everyone, if that's the right way, I haven't done it for a while. Yeah, and just put yourself out there and just like try be brave and fake it til you make it and have some disaster dates. But you kind of build confidence from that, in a way.
Kylee Black
Do you build confidence, though? I had some very interesting experiences and I was just like, you know what, I tap out, like I'm done. There's a really big question a lot of people ask, is that how do you handle the disability conversation? Do you put your photo on it or do you not put anything on it? Do you tell them the first time or do you not?
Tim Young
Yeah, I owned it. I just put it in my photos, because I just couldn't bear that conversation I think of, by the way, I'm disabled. Okay, well, sorry, I'm not interested anymore. That was very hard for me. I would have liked just straight up to know if they know I'm in a wheelchair and I got friend zoned a lot more than I would have liked. And they're like, oh, I'm not interested in dating, but I'm keen to be your friend. And I was like, I've actually got heaps of friends, so thank you, but no thank you. I think it is hard, confidence is key. It's really hard to be confident as a non-disabled person, let alone a disabled person. It is largely fake it til you make it. But I think, it does work out that you do end up making it, because people see that you're confident and you see confident people out and you're like, wow, how are they like that sort of thing. How can they be confident? I was like that for a long time. I wasn't very confident. But just once you do it and it's out into the world, people see you as confident and then you're continuing to act confident.
And then I think that's really attractive for people is to see someone who's happy, or not even necessarily happy, but comfortable with themselves and kind of having a direction in life, is really important as well. Yeah, I just put myself out there and just tried and tried. And you just have to kind of when there's a, when there's a fail, you kind of have to just put that on them and you just have to make that an external thing, not an internal thing. But that's the key I think.
Kylee Black
I didn't go on any dates at all. I literally only had messages. But I decided that I would pursue life and live full life, that someone would have to chase life to chase me. They would have to pursue and find life, and that I would find someone out living life and being confident in who I am. And it took someone whacking me over the head with a hammer, really, to be like, because I was like, there's this guy hanging around, I'm like, I think he likes me. And everyone around me like, no shit, dude. Like, you sorry, language. You are late to the party. You're really late to the party. And I was like, oh, really? But for me, he already knew I had my disability. I had my disability and I was out running a space at a music festival to make it fully inclusive for other people. And it was an incredible journey, but yeah, it's a hard one. I spent ten years going and so many well meaning people would be like, who would want to be with you? Like, really? Like, no one wants to take that on? Who's ever going to want to take that on?
And you're just like, Come on, man. I don't think we help each other sometimes, and our friends and family at times as well meaning as people might be. And he had a lot of pushback too, actually, by people being like, really? Do you really? And I think it's unfortunate because he's like, Damn, you don't know what you're talking about. The disability is nothing, and it's taken some navigation and we spend a lot of time in hospital, but we laugh and we giggle and we have fun, and it doesn't define the relationship. How did a relationship happen for you in the end? How did you find someone? Was it through Tinder?
Tim Young
Not in the end. I had some good days and I met some nice people through that. But yeah, just to reflect, I also had the same experience where I'd ask friends, often when I had a couple of drinks, which I don't recommend to young people, but that was what was happening. And I was like, to my friends, yeah hook me up with your friends kind of thing. And it was discouraging when they wouldn't or I'd kind of like, ah yeah. And you could tell that they were like, yeah. They wouldn't necessarily say it's my face, but you could tell they were like, well, good luck with that kind of thing. And then with her friends and family, there was some like, are you sure? And I think to a point, it's okay. It's just like, you're aware of the reality. Yes, great, go ahead with it. But, yeah, there was some, and it's already hard enough for me to convince her, let alone against her friends, so that's not ideal. But no, lots 90% of her friends were actually amazing, and I think without that, I wouldn't have been with my partner Erica, but we ended up meeting in person, which was really cool, which is like, what are the chances in the day and age of Tinder.
But yeah, we were in our educational psychology class and so it was perfect, because we were studying the same thing we had the same values, and we cared about education and young people, and that often meant that you care about people who are less fortunate and you want to help them. And so I think we shared that and we introduced ourselves in class to everyone and we realised we had a common history of spending time in Canada. And then, yeah, I just had to be confident. And when I saw her leaving class, I quickly left and was like, hey, can you open the door for me? So you just kind of have to take your opportunities, aye. And then afterwards, I Facebook messaged her and she didn't see it for three weeks because it was in your 'other file'
Kylee Black
yeah
Tim Young
so I was like, all right, well, whatever, we'll move on to the next one. And then she replied and yeah, we had a couple of dates and just hit it off. So, yeah, it was cool how it ended up working out, but it's lucky to find someone in person these days. You just kind of have to be prepared for online and hope for the best in real life.
And when there are opportunities, you just go for it. And being rejected sucks, but you only need one person to say yes. And then after that, now I'm like forget about all don't have to worry about any of that rejection, it was all worth it. So it is hard, but you just keep going and you only need to find one person.
Kylee Black
I wanted to reflect back for a moment, back to so you had an accident, an injury. In the time after your injury, did you ever imagine that you would be where you are now or as a young person, even before your injury?
Tim Young
Yeah
Kylee Black
Yeah
Tim Young
I guess I did in the way I had like a vision board, of like, what would be a good life for me. I'd have a family, a good career that I was happy in. I'd have an accessible home, that's warm, and it's like the main thing. And so I always just knew, I guess, deep down, that if I didn't believe there was a chance of those things actually happening, I never would have tried to make that happen. But what was really helpful was, like, seeing other disabled people in hospital that had achieved all or some of those things. And so really early on I connected with, it was quite good in Canada, at the hospital, they introduced me to other tetraplegics and back when I was in Middlemore, I was on a ventilator for all that time, so it seemed like a far way off, but I met people who had been on a ventilator and then weren't anymore and had a partner and had a job, and I think that was really key. And there was a documentary called Murderball, which some people may be familiar with, but I highly recommend if you haven't it's about wheelchair rugby.
It's what wheelchair rugby was called, before they needed sponsors and they had to change the name, something more appropriate and in that movie it was really cool because they talk about rugby, but they follow the tetraplegics behind it and the lifestyles had as well. And so I could see pretty early on that it was possible. From my psychology studies, I knew the power of belief and confidence and a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. I think a fixed mindset is the worst thing that can happen to anyone, disabled or not, but it's worse if you're disabled. If you think this is who I am and this is where I'm at, that's it, that's just poison. You just always have to think that you can do better and that your life can be better and then that's way more likely to happen. And so, yeah, I just kind of always held that with me. I think I shocked some people with my attitude early on, but I think that's 100% why I am where I am today.
Kylee Black
What have been some of the greatest challenges or stumbling blocks along the way?
Tim Young
So really early on I had lots and lots. Like, surviving was a really difficult thing. So I was on a ventilator for five months and then I went to rehab for five months and then three months and then one month after that for different surgeries. So it was really hard to breathe and eat and so that was quite a journey. And then after five months, when I was breathing, eating and in a wheelchair, I was like happy as because I just had those first five months was so, so difficult. So, yeah, that was probably the biggest challenge at the start. Then throughout the way, like business, there's always stumbling box and challenges running out of money and needing a way to go forward and trying to balance having a job versus believing in your business and wanting it to succeed. So I did have to cut the first business quits after a while when I just that was educational. These days, if I had more money, I still believe it would have been successful, but I just didn't have enough to market it and get the word out there enough and solve a couple of small, couple of small challenges.
And that's really hard to know as well, like when to call it quits, to be like, okay, well, I could have just spent another $10,000 over a year. I didn't have a lot. All my disposable income was going into it, so it might have been $10,000 over a year or so and I could have just kept sinking that in. But then I had this other idea with Smart Access and that seemed a bit more commercially viable, so had to focus on that. That was a big stumbling block, like that whole journey. And I ran for council because I believed in what my platforms, but also I needed a job and it paid well. Being a councillor, that was like a big chunk of why I went, why I put myself out there. So, all that whole time was a big stumbling block. It's really kind of only been honestly in the last year, 18 months with this job and finances picking up, that I've actually kind of felt a bit more comfortable about my position and feeling like I have some sort of job security and not just hustling the whole time. So it's been like just constant barriers until physical and attitudinal and economic there's just barriers every day.
But yeah, you just kind of have to keep going through them, I guess.
Kylee Black
What would you tell yourself if you had the opportunity to go back and tell that person that was in that bed or that young person that was running around and skiing in Canada and that kind of thing? What would you tell yourself or what would you wish you could tell other young people if you had a platform as you do now to share your learnings and your gold with other young people?
Tim Young
Yeah,
Kylee Black
and older.
Tim Young
Yeah, I think it'd be pretty cliche my things, but hopefully what I've talked about today kind of backs those up. But you need to believe in yourself and you need to keep going. That's kind of it. You could believe in yourself and keep going and still fail, if your luck isn't on your side. There is some element of luck of course, but eventually you'll succeed if you keep trying and yeah, just having that growth mindset and just chipping away. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Having what your final goal you want to be is important too. It has to be something that's achievable without too much of a budget. If you don't have much money, you do kind of need to orientate yourself around your reality to a degree, but then I think you can extend what is possible for you with that drive and determination and again, that's really hard, especially when you're disabled and you have all these other barriers. But hopefully by seeing people through this podcast who have achieved, in face of all those barriers, I think that will help a lot, hopefully with people realizing that they can do it, they just need to start.
First of all, start, don't think, okay, I've got this idea, I'm going to think about that and maybe in the future I'll do it. Just get on the internet, start researching about it, just start writing stuff down and just keep going.
Kylee Black
How much do you think community and the people have played around you have played a part in you being able to be as successful as you have been?
Tim Young
100% from the people who do the rubbish to the roads. And you need a huge community around you, not even just your immediate family and friends, but just like a community in general. And people who think you don't need to pay taxes is ridiculous to me. You need a society to be well functioning and I've always been fairly politically active for that reason. I think for people to, I'm really passionate about I think it comes down to I'm passionate about equality of opportunity. I want people to have the same opportunity whatever their life circumstances are. And I think that's just good for the country. I don't even think it's like a charitable thing to be like that. I think everyone is definitely better off. If random kid from a poor neighborhood is able to be a CEO, that's better for everyone. And so that drives me. What was the question again?
Kylee Black
Yeah, just that do you think communities played a part? I often say in my own world, they say it takes a village to raise a child, but I say it takes a community to hold a Kylee.
Tim Young
Yeah, absolutely. There's been times and I'm really lucky to be in this position. My parents aren't really well off, but there's been times where I've run out of money and I've needed $2,000 or something, and that's quite a lot of money for a lot of families. And my parents are like, okay, well, you got to pay me back. They're serious. That's a lot of money to them as well. They did have it available to lend me at times when I got really stuck. And I think that's one thing, money. But then also, especially socially, I really needed my big supportive friends group around me to be probably happy enough with my social life to then be also confident and happy in my personal life. I'm a strong believer that confidence in one part of your life will really translate into confidence in all parts of your life.
Kylee Black
It sounds like you said yes to a lot of opportunities that came by your way as well. Paying and not paying, getting involved in community organisations or saying yes to events or yes to things in your world to open your world to other people. Isolation, I think, is a killer for any of us and disconnection from community. But it sounds like community played a big or engaging in spaces, created the opportunities for you to step into other roles they haven't come by through applying for a job, for example. It's been small steps.
Tim Young
Yeah, absolutely. And yes, I guess there's like a few different levels to community. There's kind of that wider view. I was talking about the kind of micro version with the immediate family that's really important. And then, yeah, I 100% wouldn't be where I am in terms of My Life My Voice, Magical Bridge, Smart Access. If it wasn't for community members like Gerri Pomeroy in particular, but also Helena and Jean and Terry and these other Rodney Bell, Angela Desmarais, Peter van Vroonhoven and all these people who are involved in this other mahi that I was involved with for it to be successful and to move forward with it. So, yeah, there's kind of like the wider society and then the community and then your immediate family and friends and all of them are crucial in different ways.
Kylee Black
And having, I guess, people see value in you and seeing and calling out that in you and creating opportunities. And it just shows how important looking for people that are coming up in leadership as well and giving opportunities to each other and allowing people to step forward and shine.
Tim Young
Definitely, yeah. Like you said before, I said yes to a lot of things and whatever I had capacity at a point, It's kind of been a skill. I've learned to say no just so I can be successful in kind of the three areas I am now. For a while there that there were all these different task force and if I felt like I could give value, it's really hard to say no. And so you can kind of put too much on yourself then. But yeah, no, it's all doing those things and doing them well, if you say yes to something, I think you still need to be able to commit to it and do it well or you probably won't be offered another opportunity in the future. So not only saying yes and taking those opportunities, but really being like, okay, this is a really important opportunity for me to show what I can do, and realising you're kind of talking to yourself on the way to a certain meeting and being like, wow, this one's pivotal. And just putting everything you have into it, I think that's really important as well.
Kylee Black
And how have you learnt to say no over the time?
Tim Young
Just by running out of time and just being starting to get really stressed and then having to spend less time with family or something and being like, oh, I don't like that. And so it's like one or the other, really. Luckily, I didn't get to the point where I was completely burnt out and I never let it get that far, but there were times where I was feeling burnout and feeling overly stressed and things were too much and just said, okay, I need to take a step back. And yeah, that's kind of how it worked out.
Kylee Black
That whole I've got a saying that I use in my own world, but one step at a time and soon enough, when we look back, each of those little steps have turned into miles and we've come further than we ever thought we could.
Tim Young
Totally. Yeah, all those little steps. Yeah, it's crazy to look back. I'm 35 now, so for the last 15 years since my accident, been hustling non-stop. And if I looked at all of that in one thing, it's like impossible. But you break down what you do by month or by week, and all those little steps have turned into miles.
Kylee Black
Two last things before we wrap up. What's your hope and dream for the future?
Tim Young
My hope and dream for the future is that we have for Smart Access I kind of broke it down. But first, the overall dream is that everyone has the same opportunities, regardless of where they come from. For the disability community I think, for Smart Access I've found it's really important that people can get to where they want to go and that they know where there's barriers in the physical environment so they can make plans. That's important. So I want to see that all over the world, but first all over Australia and New Zealand, where you're going somewhere. And you're not scared of going there. You're not worried about it because you know what's there when you're going to get there, and the different you can plan where you're going to go toilet or where you're going to park. And you know, I really want to see, for My Life My Voice, I want to see a huge community for disabled people. Whoever wants to be part of it, you don't have to, if you're on your own journey that's fine, but if you think if there's value in disabled people talking to each other, I want to see everyone talking and just sharing those gems.
And I really want to see more disabled people in leadership opportunities, not necessarily in the disability sector, because under the only inclusive industry at the moment. And so I want to see that. I want to see disabled people and other people of other marginalized groups, in those board positions across the landscape. And I think that's what's going to be really key to providing that equality of opportunity to other people coming up, because they're going to understand the barriers and help break them down from positions of power. So, yeah, that's probably enough of those.
Kylee Black
That's awesome. And being able to access playgrounds around New Zealand and Australia and not have that be a barrier that we face now moving forward. As yeah
Yeah, it's crazy through that, you know because I had my accident as an adult and just hearing about the amount of people who were disabled as children, not ever being on a playground, and some of them didn't even like, it never got to the point where they thought they should be able to. That was something for other kids. That's what breaks me when it's like because that's why I keep talking about having that drive and confidence to do better. I think that's so key. But some people get so broken down time after time and then just don't even, they can't try. So I think that's really hard and that's not their fault and it would happen to anyone being broken down that many times. So I think it's just like good to help lift those people up and give them a bit of opportunity so they can get on that positive feedback loop of achieving and confidence and building and going further and further forward.
Amazing. Is there any other last words of wisdom or gold that you would like to share? Or any parting words. Or anything that's not been said.
Tim Young
I think that's pretty much everything. But we had spoken in the past just about like how when I was in hospital on a ventilator, I was having all these panic attacks and anxiety attacks in closed rooms and I couldn't move. And I guess just like, no matter how hopeless things seem at a time, things will improve if you kind of are able to work yourself into that positive mindset and just trying to have hope for the future. I know it's easier said than done, but it can happen. If you're always striving to achieve better and you're taking steps to achieve that goal, your life will be better than if you didn't do those things. Trying to just want to give people hope, I guess.
Kylee Black
Tim, thank you so much for being with us today for this podcast interview. It's incredible to hear your story and see some of the background of where you've come from and how each of those small steps have added up, how positive mind frame and the mind frame we put ourselves in can play a huge part and also each of those little tasks and just sticking to the little tasks each day can help to get us where we want to be, relying on community and those around us and just each moment at a time. Thank you for the wisdom, tools and pearls you've shared and a bit about how you've got to where you've got and we look forward to continuing to watch you and see where you continue to go and see Smart Access grow and the work of My Life My Voice. So thank you very much for having and being here with us today and we look forward to, yeah. Seeing you and hearing from our next guest next month also. Thank you for your time Tim, and have a wonderful afternoon.
Tim Young
My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Kylee.
Kylee Black
Bless you. Bye.
Voice over
My Rhythm My Ride, a podcast by My Life My Voice, available on YouTube and Spotify.