Navigating Disability and Career Choices: A Conversation with Martin Sibley

Disabled and Proud

Brooke talks to Martin Sibley, a guest who shares his experiences as a person with spinal muscular atrophy. The discussion delves into various aspects of Martin's life, including his childhood, schooling experiences, career journey, and the development of his marketing agency, Purple Goat.

Martin reflects on the challenges and triumphs he has faced, highlighting the importance of disability inclusion in the business world. The conversation also touches on the concept of internalised ableism, the need for representation of disabled individuals in media, and the positive changes observed in disability awareness over the years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Martin reflects on developing resilience during challenging times and acknowledges the importance of not giving up and having patience.

Martin highlights the significant lack of disability representation in media and marketing, emphasising the need for more inclusive campaigns.

Embracing contradictions and paradoxes, such as recognising personal traits while also striving for improvement, is seen as a valuable aspect of self-awareness.

In professional settings, there is a noted wariness among others to avoid saying anything potentially judgmental or offensive regarding disability.

BEST MOMENTS

"I think it's fascinating the the DUI strands, there's so many parallels and similarities that the more we can connect, the more we all have an even more powerful voice against oppressive forces."

"0.06% of adverts feature disabled people and as we know there's like 20% of any given population has a disability so really Purple Goat is just looking to close that gap and then the benefits come off the back of that."

"Two things can be true at once. And I was like, in my state of being like, we're very much deep into the woo-woo chat, like we're talking about life."

"I once or twice, I got bluntly asked, can you have sex? And it was just like, hello stranger in a pub."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/disabled-and-proud/id1621152878

HOST BIO

Disabled and Proud is the show that brings listeners a different perspective on disability. Each week this podcast highlights an awesome disabled guest speaking about their own disability; why they are proud to be disabled and why they are proud to be themselves.

The conversations in this show will look at what challenges these amazing people face socially, mentally, physically and life in general. This show is raw, open, honest, funny, welcoming and educational.

Disabled & Proud does exactly what it says on the tin! And whilst we are creating this space for disabled people to be unashamedly themselves, without the need to conform to society, this is also not about toxic positivity. This show will be shining a big, bright light on disability without it being “Paralympic or pity”.

As you will hear disability is WHOLE, COMPLETE & PERFECT and whilst the topic of disability can be quite heavy - and we definitely don't shy away from the bad days - this podcast is also about having fun too! Our aim is to play a part in reclaiming the word disability - turning it from inadequacy to perfection!

INSTAGRAM! https://www.instagram.com/disabledandproudpodcast/?hl=en: https://www.instagram.com/disabledandproudpodcast/?hl=en