Ep. 26: The Misfit 100 Disability Inclusion Mission

Advertising and disability. There’s a lot of both in North America. Eight per cent of the population in both the U.S. and Canada have a disability. In the U.S. that’s about 87 million people. In Canada, about eight million people.

In the U.S., there’s an average of about eight minutes of television ads every hour of programming on major networks. In Canada, there’s now no limit on the minutes per hour of national television advertising allowed on both network  and specialty channels.

Maybe you’ve seen the occasional television ad that includes someone who has a disability. There are a few out there — emphasis on “a few.”

Kelsey Lindell is determined to change all this. She’s a disruptor who was born with a disability. She’s been called an “impact entrepreneur.”

In 2022, Kelsey started Misfit Media. It’s run by people who have a disability, producing creative that’s disability inclusive, and educating brands and advertising agencies about why and how to do disability-inclusive creative — and do it right.

Now she’s leapfrogging off all this and taking a really disruptive step forward. She’s setting out to revolutionize the entire advertising industry across North America and how disability is represented in it — within two years.

She launched The Misfit 100 in March 2024. In this episode, she talks about the Misfit 100’s disability-inclusion mission and the state of disability-inclusive advertising in North America.

 

SHOW NOTES

• Learn more about Misfit Media and its disability-inclusion services
• The New School, blog post, Impact Entrepreneurship — Mentor Spotlight: Kelsey Lindell (October 14, 2023)
• Culture Creators: The Power of Simplicity — talk by Kelsey Lindell
• The Misfit 100 Master Class — March 26, 2024 — official kick-off of The Misfit 100
• Kelsey Lindell’s LinkedIn profile
• Contact Kelsey directly by email: [e-mail]
• Episode 26 transcript (PDF)

Episode Transcript

Dean Askin (00:03):
You Can't Spell Inclusion Without a D, the
podcast that explores the powerof inclusion and why disability
is an important part of theworkplace diversity, equity and
inclusion conversation producedby the Ontario Disability
Employment Network with yourhosts, Jeannette Campbell and
Dean Askin.

(00:26):
Advertising and disability.There's a lot of both in North
America. Let's just talktelevision ad creative, to put
things in perspective here in2021 there were about 450,000
Prime Time ads on broadcast andcable TV in the US now. Keep in
mind, a lot of those would havebeen seen in Canada too, on

(00:47):
American network channelsbroadcast here. That figure is
from Nielsen ad Intel, by theway. Hi, I'm Dean askin, and
welcome to this episode of YouCan't Spell Inclusion Without a
D.

Jeannette Campbell (01:00):
This is episode 26 Hello. I'm Jeannette
Campbell. In the US, there's anaverage of about eight minutes
of television ads every hour ofprogramming on major networks.
Here in Canada, there's now nolimit on the minutes per hour of
national television advertisingallowed on both network and

(01:21):
specialty channels, and thereare a lot of agencies producing
advertising creative 98,000across North America in 2023
now. What about disability?

Dean Askin (01:33):
Well, Jeannette, there's certainly a lot of it.
In the US, 27% of adultAmericans, or about 87 million
people have a disability. That'saccording to statistics from the
CDC. Of course, that's theCenters for Disease Control and
Prevention, and north of the49th parallel, the 22 the 2022

(01:53):
Canadian Survey on Disability,showed that 27% of Canadians, 15
and older, that's about 8million people have a
disability. But here's thething, while there's a lot of
both disability and TVadvertising in North America,
there's not a lot of disabilityrepresentation in all those ads.

(02:17):
Maybe you've seen the occasionaltelevision ad that includes
someone who has a disability,there are a few out there.
Emphasis on a few.

Jeannette Campbell (02:26):
And Dean, remember those 450,000 prime
time television ads in 2021 youmentioned there was disability
representation in only 6000that's 1% but Kelsey Lindell is
determined to change all this.She's a disrupter who was born

(02:47):
with a disability. She's beencalled an impact entrepreneur.

Dean Askin (02:51):
In 2022 Kelsey made the D 30 disability impact list,
that's diverse abilities list ofthe top 30 disability activists
in the world. And in 2022 KelseyLindell started misfit media.
It's run by people who have adisability producing creative
that's disability inclusive andeducating brands and advertising

(03:13):
agencies about why and how to dodisability inclusive creative
and do it right.

Jeannette Campbell (03:19):
And Kelsey and Misfit Media have won
awards, including theAdvertising Federation of
Minnesota's 32 under 32 andEmmys for her work in producing
disability inclusive content.

Dean Askin (03:33):
Now she's leapfrogging off all this and
taking a really disruptive stepforward. She's setting out to
change a society that, in herwords, has seen disability as a
really bad thing for a reallylong time, and to revolutionize
the entire advertising industryacross North America and how

(03:53):
disability is represented in itwithin two years. How? With the
Misfit 100.

Jeannette Campbell (04:00):
Kelsey launched the Misfit 100 in March
Hi. Thank you so much for havingme. It's a pleasure to be here.
of 2024, so this is breakingnews, and she's here on You
Can't Spell Inclusion Without aD, to tell us about her Misfit
Wonderful. We're so glad youcould join us. So Kelsey, let's
100 mission. She's joined usfrom Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kelsey Lindell, welcome to YouCan't Spell Inclusion Without a D.
start off this conversation byyou please telling us in your

(04:33):
words, what is the Misfit 100?

Kelsey Lindell (04:36):
Yeah, well, the Misfit 100 is a call to action
and coalition of creative teamsand agencies committed to
changing the representation ofdisabled people in media,
marketing and entertainment.Specifically, we want to double
the amount of representationthat we see in advertising over
the course of this two yearsprint. It's a two year sprint
that takes creative teamsthrough training to understand

(04:59):
the basics of. DisabilityInclusion because you weren't
taught this. It supports teamsin creating inclusive content,
and it creates targetedmarketing and positioning
strategies to ensure that yourcontent will be seen and well
received by the disabilitycommunity.

Jeannette Campbell (05:14):
Wow. Okay, so you've, you've got quite,
quite the goal there arounddoubling the numbers. So let's,
let's talk about, you know whatyou sort of hope this response
is going to be like you? Youofficially launched misfit 100 I
think it was March 26 so what doyou hope is going to be the

(05:35):
response from brands andagencies in both the US and
Canada, and maybe if you have atarget, if you want to share
that with us, yeah.

Kelsey Lindell (05:43):
Well, the goal is to get 100 agencies to do we
want 100 agencies, or creativeteams, large creative teams, to
commit to 100% increase by theend of 2025 of people with
disabilities. So it's a two yearsprint. So we hope that instead
of that number being 1% ofadvertising to include people
with disabilities at the end ofthe misfit 100 we want that

(06:04):
number to be two, and weunderstand that 2% is still not
enough. We are 27% of thepopulation, as Dean mentioned.
However, when was the last timethat any industry doubled the
representation in just twoyears? We think that by coming
up with a very strategic,challenging but scalable goal.
We can double it and then we candouble it again, and then we can

(06:25):
double it again.

Jeannette Campbell (06:27):
Nice.

Dean Askin (06:30):
Now, you said, when you launched this, and I
remember I watched the misfit100 master class video. You said
that this is disruptive. This isgroundbreaking stuff. Now, we
mentioned a few statistics whenwe were doing the intro to the
show, but I want to get yourperspective on why the misfit

(06:50):
100 initiative is so important.

Kelsey Lindell (06:52):
I think it's important because a lot of teams
are starting to understand thatdisability maybe it's not just a
feel good thing. For a longtime, some brands were kind of
starting to dip their toes intodisability inclusion, but now we
have studies that prove thebuying power people with
disabilities, depending on whichstat you're looking at, it's
anywhere between eight to $13trillion in global spending
power every single year. And Iactually didn't get my start in

(07:16):
disability advocacy within themarketing world. I got it. I was
living overseas. I worked withinternational development
organizations, and I saw some ofthe worst human and civil rights
violations you could everimagine happening to people with
disabilities all around theworld. And I asked every leader
that we were working with, if Icould do one thing with my life
to change these outcomes, whatwould it be? And every single

(07:37):
one for five years straight,looked at me in the eyes and
said, change the way thatthey're viewed. So we believe
that in order for perceptions tochange, what people see informed
by media needs to start tochange first, and once people's
perceptions change, thenpolicies can change, then
systems can change, and peoplestart to vote differently. They
start to treat people withdisabilities differently. They

(07:57):
start to change their hiringpractices. We want to create
systems of change, but we haveto start with implicit bias and
change in the way people thinkabout disability. And there's
not been a collective, organizedeffort that teaches people how
to do this. There's a lot oforganizations that talk about
the importance of it. They talkabout kind of like best
practices, but there hasn't beena coalition of experts like my

(08:19):
team to hold people's hands andsay, we're going, we're pulling
you through this for the nexttwo years, and we promise you
it's gonna work. So it'sgroundbreaking, because there's
never really been anything likethat. Yeah,

Dean Askin (08:30):
I want to explore that a little bit more. I mean,
how has your your livedexperience with disability? I
mean, you've been talking aboutit since you are five, and your
parents were making you get upin front of the class and and
tell them about your disabilityand and your advocacy experience
around the world in SouthAfrica. I mean, how has all of
that shaped what you're doing,both with misfit media and the

(08:52):
misfit 100

Kelsey Lindell (08:53):
I think it gives marketers an advertising
professional and just people,but specifically, I mean, that's
who we're talking to, right? Ourmarketers and advertising
professionals some context. Istill, I tell the story a lot. I
don't know target. Do you guyshave target in Canada? We used
to, okay, you used to, okay,well, I'm from Minnesota, which
was like the home of target. AndI'll never forget this story

(09:14):
when or and don't forget thesituation I'm I was in a I was
in class, and there was anoption to do a school project,
either with a team or on yourown. You could choose you can do
as a group project or on yourown. And I was bullied a lot
growing up. I always say thatdisabled kids are low hanging
fruit, and that meant that I gotbullied a lot from like the get
go, which is why my parentswould have me talk about
disability publicly a lot to tryto educate my peers. And I was

(09:38):
nervous and I didn't want totell my parents, because I knew
they'd be upset that I was beingbullied. And so I told my mom,
like the night before theproject was due, and she brought
me to target to get the posterboard and school supplies that I
needed. And I was, like,ashamed, and I knew my mom was
mad, and I had a lot of work todo that night. And I looked up
and I saw in that school schoolsupplies aisle, um, there was
both a picture of the child thatwas my main bully. She was a

(10:00):
model. And there was also apicture of a child with Down
syndrome. And I remember I sawthat, and I it impacted me, and
still is like I will be a targetloyalist forever. I remember
somebody somewhere saw thatchild with Down syndrome, who
was child with a disability,just the same as I saw that
child that made my lifemiserable, and they said that
that person had value, thatperson mattered. And so I think

(10:20):
my lived experience can reallyspeak to like, the why, the
emotional why? I mean, we talkabout a lot that, like, I wish
everyone wanted to includepeople with disabilities in
their marketing, because it'sthe right thing to do, because
it is the right thing to do. Butthe reality is that you have to
pull both the heart strings andthe business things and the
business strings, right? Youhave to show both sides. It
can't just be a business tacticand it can't just be an

(10:44):
emotional tactic. It has to beboth. So I think that emotion,
that lived experience, and like,what I've seen abroad, you know,
of course, I lived in SouthAfrica, but I did work in Kenya,
I did work in South America. Idid work all over the world. And
seeing so much of like, what'sat stake, it's, it's literally,
it's people's lives. It makes itboth very real and applicable
for marketers to listen to. Andalso, I mean, what I always say

(11:07):
is this is going to bechallenging, like I wake up
every day both extremely excitedand extremely terrified, because
what we're doing has not beendone before, and if it were
easy, somebody would have doneit already. This is not easy
stuff. So I think a lot of mylived experience, I also think
about little Kelsey and what sheneeded to see. And someone
somewhere in that art directorposition at Target decided to
cast that child with adisability, and it changed my

(11:27):
life. It showed me that, youknow, someone somewhere saw me
as valuable. And then I alsothink about a lot of the things
that I saw while I was livingabroad, and like, these are
people's lives that are atstake. And it keeps me up at
night, and it gets me out of bedin the morning, even on the days
when I feel like I feel like Idon't want to do this anymore
and I'm lonely and I'm sad andI'm terrified, like there's just
no way you'll stop once youexperience this kind of stuff.

Jeannette Campbell (11:51):
And you know, Kelsey, you know what
you're what you're talkingabout. I think is something that
that a lot of people and I knowfor for people who are listening
to this podcast, and for thepeople that interact with with
Odin, we talk a lot about that,if you you know, you need to see
yourself in something and andthat representation is so

(12:11):
important for everybody. And,you know, so this, this
initiative, this is, this isgreat. And really what, what I
think we're hearing is, youknow, it's not just that, it's
unique, but you're, you'retrying to change how an entire
industry across North Americadoes things, you know, how they

(12:32):
how they think, how they makedecisions. So how challenging,
speaking of keeping you up allnight, um, how challenging Do
you think that's going to be?

Kelsey Lindell (12:41):
Oh, extremely, I mean, it is extremely hard. I
mean, here's the deal is, I'vebeen back from my international
advocacy for over a decade, andI've been building up to this
for over a decade. I just didn'trealize it, um, it's, you know,
it's, it's a schlep. It's reallyhard. It's, you know, you're
convincing you it's building theright relationships, building
trust, showing proof of concept,you know, earning your heap

(13:03):
Right? Like, no one's gonna hireme until I have some awards or
some, like, really big accoladesunder my belt. Because, I mean,
first of all, the creativeindustry is really hard to break
into in the first place. Butsecond of all, like, we're
asking people to changeeverything about how they're
viewing an entire, like, thelargest marginalized community
in the world, we're askin tochange the way that they're
hiring. We're askin to changethe way that they are executing

(13:24):
on creative it is a big ask. Itis a big undertaking. But what I
always say is that, like we'recreating systems, we're getting
new systems for you. Weliterally have done we have
templates that you can just chopand change that fit your own
workspace. We have workflowsthat you can implement, that
make sure that disability isprioritized. We have

(13:44):
accessibility, languagestatements, we have guides, and
then we're here to hold yourhand the entire way like of
course, it is challenging.Honestly, one of the biggest
things that we find, that wefind that is the most
challenging, is getting theright people in the right
decision making seats to evensit down and listen, because
they think of disability,because of the way that

(14:04):
disability has been portrayed inthe media, and because of
systemic ableism that keepsdisabled people in poverty. They
view disabled people as nothaving any sort of disposable
income, and they view disabledpeople as not being an audience
worth marketing to. First ofall, that's not true. Like we
said, we have huge spendingpower. And the other thing is
that it's not just people withdisabilities who like it when

(14:26):
brands prioritize people withdisabilities. So we talk a lot
about the disability community,but we also talk about the
disability adjacent community.So for instance, my husband is
disability adjacent, my fatheris disability adjacent. And I
guarantee you, before I wasborn, my dad really didn't pay
much attention to disabilityinclusion, but once I was and he
saw brands that would prioritizeit, oh my goodness, it changed

(14:47):
how he perceived them. Itchanged how he wanted to
interact with them. And we knowthat just non disabled viewers
when they see people withdisabilities in advertising from
brands, it increasesfavorability and trust of those
brands by. Between 75 to 84%depending on which debt you're
looking at. So it's reallypowerful, but you have to get
the right people to sit down andlisten and look at the data.

Jeannette Campbell (15:08):
Yeah, you know you're really you're
hitting on on some points that Ithink are really important for
people when you're for people tothink about when they're when
they're undertaking this orthey're getting ready to is
making sure, you know, you'vegot the right people on the bus
who are do you have the decisionmakers there? You have to have
that buy in from the top, andthat messaging needs to come

(15:28):
from the top. The supportthroughout the whole
organization is great, but it'sthat, that leadership, there's a
reason it's called leadership.The example, yeah, is so is so
needed. And you're also touchingon, when you talk about this
disability adjacent, that thatconcept, you know, originally
said the disposable income ofthe disability community

(15:50):
anywhere between eight and 13trillion, and we know that
included in those dollars is thedisability adjacent. So it's
that, you know, if in Canada, wetalk about the stats. In
America, we talk about thestats. But when you add friends
and family, now you're talkingabout a community that's 53% of

(16:13):
the population. And so forbusinesses, understanding like
that's a huge market, it's amassive market. How are you not
talking into this? Oh, wait,there's somebody here who's
gonna help. So, you know, Ithat's why I think this is, this
is great. And sorry, Dean,because I walked right in front
of you on that, on thatquestion, like, go ahead.

Dean Askin (16:37):
That's, that's okay, Jeanneette. You know, it's, you
know, you've said it, Kelsey,you know, it's challenging, and
it's something that keeps you upat night, but, and, but it's, it
sounds like, what it's allcoming down to is, really, you
know, forcing people to havethat awkward conversation. And,
you know, I watched yourCreative Mornings, Minneapolis
talk, and I watched your misfit100 master class, and you come

(17:02):
across as a person who's reallynot afraid to make other people
have that awkward conversation,to initiate that awkward
conversation. So for you doingthis, what's the best, most
exciting thing about being adisrupter like this?

Kelsey Lindell (17:21):
Okay, well, I have two. The first, I'm sorry I
can't choose one. It's the firstone is, we call it our internal
advocate. So like we were justtalking, it's really hard to get
that CEO or that person decisionmaking power. They don't just
email me. I hate to break thisto you, but I don't just, every
day, I don't wake up from emailsfrom emails from every single

(17:41):
fortune, 500 company begging meto work with them. That will
shock you, but that doesn'thappen. So most of the time it
comes from somebody who isdisability adjacent, who has
found our work somehow gets intouch with me and says, I don't
know how I'm gonna convince myboss to do this, but we have to
do this. And oftentimes theycome to me and they are like,

(18:02):
timid. They're like, I don'tknow if I can. I'm like, let's
get on a call. Like, what areyou talking about? You are the
person that we want to talk to,because you are the person who
can start to change perceptions,who can be that mosquito in the
room, like one person you thinkthat's not going to make a
difference. I mean, this is,like, you know, a cliche
analogy, but you notice amosquito, even if it's just one,
it just keeps getting at you. Bethe mosquito. Be this mosquito

(18:23):
for Disability Justice. Youknow, seeing those people really
find like, almost like, apurpose in their work. I just
think especially in the creativeworld, it is so toxic sometimes,
and so icky and so cutthroat. Sobeing able to provide people in
like, a mostly toxic environmentpurpose and be like, we're not
just doing this for theshareholders. Your shareholders

(18:43):
are going to kiss your feetbecause you're going to tap into
that audience that very fewpeople are doing well. But also
we're giving purpose to this isreally, really powerful, and
seeing their faces light up andthem get excited when their
company finally does this, andknowing that they were the
change maker is honestly, it'smy favorite part of my job. And
then the other part that I justI absolutely love. We just came

(19:04):
back from South Africa, myhusband and I just went for a
couple weeks. We try to go oncea year to see the organizations
I used to work with, see my kidsthat I used to work with there,
and stuff like that, and theissues that they deal with don't
change. They haven't changedyet. And so I will get emotional
thinking about it like, thisisn't just a business tactic.

(19:25):
This is, this is people's livesthat we're going to change. And
so the idea that we couldactually do that is wild, you
know. And Judy human always saidthat, like, you know, the
disability the fight fordisability rights, feels like
you're not making any progressat all, and it's just day after
day, and it is hard, and thenall of a sudden you look back
and you're like, Wow, holysmokes. And I feel like that

(19:46):
might only live over the last 10years, like the fact that we're
doing this is wild to me. And Ican't wait to look back in 10
years and be like, Oh my gosh.Remember we did that little
thing called the misfit 100remember when we, like, had 100
brands? Oh my gosh. Now we have1000 like, I can't wait for that
day. And so whenever I feel likeoverwhelmed, or like, oh my

(20:08):
goodness, I just I think aboutwhat that's gonna feel like
based on what I feel like nowversus 10 years ago. So those
are kind of the two main things.

Dean Askin (20:16):
I mean, you know, bringing change, you know, it
needs there to be awareness. Imean, you know, when you do get
those emails and people saying,hey, we'd like to talk you're
the person we need to talk to. Imean, how would you describe the
disability awareness of theadvertising and marketing

(20:36):
sector? And I'm talking likeboth the agency side and in
house creative teams. I know inthe misfit 100 master class, you
kind of use the phrase there'swell intentioned ignorance.

Kelsey Lindell (20:49):
Yeah. I mean, one of our mantras at Misfit is
that we believe in creatives. Webelieve that people like you
want to do the right thing, butthey likely are just really
uninformed about how and why todo it. And we believe that those
who create content createculture, and if that weren't
true, none of us would havejobs. Hello. Like the

(21:11):
advertising industry existsbecause we know we create
culture. We believe that inorder to shift the systemic
issues that disabled peopleface, we first need to address
the way society viewsdisability, and we know that
this work is really good forbusiness. So like, I mean, there
is just so much well intentionedignorance, like companies are

(21:32):
focusing more and more on how tobe diverse, and we know that 90%
of companies have a plan forDei, but only 4% include
disability within that. And Ithink on top of that, I mean,
this is something I was talkingto one of my mentors about,
literally last week. Is thereare so many times when, like,
really excited people will sendme an email like, Oh, my
goodness, you have to meet myfriend who also works in

(21:53):
disability inclusion, and I'llsay, Cool. What do they do? I'm
like, Oh, they're a sped teacheror they're an occupational
therapist. And I'm like,awesome, and I'm sure their
friend is lovely, and I'm sure Iwould like their friend, because
I like most people, if you'renot a bigot, like, I really, you
know, I'm sure I would likethem. But there's just not much

(22:13):
like, adjacency. There's, Ithink there's a lot of ignorant
sounding like, what exactly likeall of the facets of disability
inclusion, unlike race orgender, where it's like it's
more about acceptance implicitbias and making sure that those
implicit biases don't perpetuatewage inequality or, you know,
lack of hiring. There aretangible things for disability

(22:35):
inclusion that you have to do.So I think a lot of people just
lump it in one big circle anddon't realize that disability
inclusion needs to be embeddedinto every facet of business,
rather than just one littleperson that does everything,
right? So I think there's a lotof ignorance there. I think the
other thing that happens a lotwe hear this a lot, a lot, a
lot, is in agents of like, Oh,we don't need that. We have this

(22:56):
person's child has a disability,so they know what to do. And the
analogy I always give is, okay,cool. So my dad is disability
adjacent, and my dad is he lovesme very, very much. My dad is an
engineer. He does not know howto communicate about people with
disabilities. He it ischallenging for him to remember

(23:19):
that handicapped is no longeraccessible. I have to remind him
that a lot. So we always say,like, just like, just because
somebody has adjacency todisability doesn't mean they're
an expert on this, and that'shard for a lot of people to
hear. But the analogy that Ialways use is, imagine a dad and
his daughter. Will a dad have tojust like, you know, non
disabled daughter, right? Will adad have to advocate for his
daughter? Of course, he's herdad. She won't be able to talk.

(23:39):
She'll be a child for the first18 years of her life. Will the
dad potentially see some sexismthat his daughter has to go
through? Of course,unfortunately, that is a part of
being a woman in today'ssociety. But will the dad ever
know what it feels like to notfeel safe walking home at night
because of his gender? No, hewon't, not the same way a woman

(23:59):
would. And so we've seen thecatastrophic outcomes that
happen when men are in decisionseats, making choices about
women. And the same thinghappens with people with
disabilities. There are peoplewith disabilities who are adults
who can speak to these things,who are experts in these things,
like me and my team, who cancome in and help. And we're not
going to come in with a tone ofjudgment. We're going to say, oh

(24:19):
man, we don't want to do that.Here's why, and here's why, and
here's how we can do it better,right? We're here to help. We're
here to support. And you thinkthere's just, respectfully, a
lot of ego surrounding it, and alot of ignorance, and I think
people just don't know what theydon't know. So we always operate
with assume, like theunderstanding of best intent. We
always assume people have goodintentions and are just ill
informed. And we want to makethat not the case anymore.

Jeannette Campbell (24:40):
And so, you know, Kelsey building on that.
How would you describe what'sout there now? So how would you
describe the creative that'scoming out right now in
campaigns where people who havea disability are being
represented?

Kelsey Lindell (24:58):
Well, I mean, studies show. That it's not very
good. There are certainsituations where, like, I mean,
you look at the Apple ads, oryou look at Google Super Bowl
ad, or certain ads, and it'slike, wow, that's amazing. That
was, you know, flawlessly done.They looked internally. They
actually did something thatended up in the disability
community. They hired disabledcreatives. They were involved in
the whole process. They didinfluencer campaigns, or they

(25:21):
got ambassadors to, you know,share the content far and wide,
and it really resonated with thecommunity. And it's just like,
oh my gosh, no. Notes,incredible. But then you look at
other commercials that are stillrelying on stereotype stigmas or
tropes, we know that 90% ofcommunications that do feature
people with disabilities rely onstereotype stigmas or tropes.
And I think, like, again, Idon't think that these creatives
are waking up and sitting intheir strategy meetings and

(25:44):
thinking, Hmm, how can we screwover the disability community
and create content that'sperpetuates stereotypes, stigmas
or tropes, and also doesn'tmaximize on the ROI that's
possible? I don't think they'redoing that. I think we know that
90% of the content that's outthere that is inclusive is
relying on those stereotypestigmas or tropes. That's a
fact. It's not my opinion. Yaleand the valuable 500 have done

(26:06):
studies on this. We know that.So what we want to do is we want
to come in and say, Okay, let'spause. Let's make sure we
understand this community andthe stereotype stigmas or tropes
that surround it so we don'tperpetuate it. Let's put some
systems in place to make surethat we don't accidentally do
that, and we have a team thatyou can run your content by
before it goes live, to makesure that it's going to go like
you think it's going to go. So,yeah, I mean, respectfully, it's

(26:30):
pretty bleak out there.

Jeannette Campbell (26:31):
And you know, you kind of answered the
next question that I was goingto ask, you know, touching on
things that are reallyfrustrating about this lack of
representation. So I'mwondering, what are your
thoughts around the dangers ofthe myths and misconceptions?
Like, is that, is that what hasbeen sneaking into the portrayal

(26:53):
of disability when thereactually is representation,

Kelsey Lindell (26:57):
Absolutely, absolutely you look at so I
mean, there's lots ofstereotype, stigmas or tropes.
There's four, like, mean,buckets and categories that we
look at. And a lot of timespeople think that they're being
like, for instance, if they showsomebody, let's say, I mean, I
can use it. I'll use this. Idon't care. I'll throw them
under the bus. They're not myclient. There's this Chick fil A
ad that we talk about, right?And it's, it's their red couch

(27:21):
series. And if you're notfamiliar with the red couch
series, and the only reason I'mdoing this is Chick fil A has
done all kinds of horriblethings the LGBTQ community. So
not really surprising that didthis too. Um, they have this red
couch series, and it's allabout, like, quote, unquote,
inspiring things that happen intheir stores. And this one is
about, it's a worker that worksat Chick fil A, and she's

(27:43):
talking about how every timethis customer, who is either a
an old teenager or an adult whohas autism, every time he comes
in, she remembers his order. Andthe tone is like, Oh, that's so
inspiring. She's nice to thisperson with autism. But the
reality is that that is nondisabled saviorism. And like,

(28:03):
people don't realize it. They'relike, Oh, that's so nice that
she's treating him so solovingly. And it's like, Well,
imagine any other brand that youknow making an ad that makes a
big deal out of treatingsomebody who's from another race
or another gender or who isn'tstraight as a customer, as
inspirational, it would benauseating. They would get

(28:25):
canceled. But with thedisability community, it's just
accepted. It's tolerated. It'slike, Oh no, that's good and
it's not good. Like that shouldbe the line in the sand. You
don't get my money unless you dothis every single time. What the
heck are you talking about? Kindof tone, right? So I think
there's a lot of like. The thingis that team didn't sit like I
said. They didn't sit in theirstrategy meeting and say, Hmm,

(28:46):
how can we double down onstereotypes? They spent money
thinking that this was goodcreative. And the reality is
that, like, they didn't, becausethey weren't informed about
this, they had no idea what thestereotype stigmas or Trumps
were that they wereperpetuating. They had no idea
about this history of systemicableism within our country or
within the world. They createdcontent from a place of bias.

(29:08):
And one, I know it didn'tperform well for them. And two,
it reinforced negativestereotypes in the people who
did see that, who thought thatlike, oh yeah, that's good. If
they just treat the disabledperson like a customer. That's
inspiring. Well, then what's ittelling them they can do the
rest of the time, you know? Solike we see that a lot, there's
a lot of really just, eventhough I really don't like the

(29:29):
brand Chick fil A because ofwhat they have done in very
harmful ways to the LGBTQcommunity, I don't think they
set out trying to make that adto harm disabled people, but
that's what they did, and we'retrying to help prevent that from
happening.

Dean Askin (29:42):
So there's, there's brands out there that go there,
but they don't necessarily gothere the right way. I want to
ask, you know, you say on yourwebsite that we take you where
96% of brands won't go. So I'mwondering, you know, when you
talk to these agencies andcreative teams and leaders.
Dollars. What are some of themost common reasons you hear

(30:02):
about why they won't go thereand be disability inclusive?

Kelsey Lindell (30:08):
It's usually their budget. They don't have
budget, they think it's going totake too much time, or they're
focusing on another aspect andelement of diversity and
inclusion. And I mean, I gotrebuttals to all of them, if you
want them budget. It's like oneof the best ROIs you could have

(30:28):
for your business if only 3.1%of total media inclusion is
focusing on people withdisabilities. Only 1% of
advertising is doing it, and 90%of the time it is done in
problematic ways. And also, weknow that that community has
eight to $13 trillion in buyingpower. 53% of families have
somebody with a disabilitywithin them. 27% of the

(30:48):
population that's disabled. Andthen, if you do it right, you
will see 84% of favorabilitywith our community. Like, I'm
sorry, what about that? Is anROI? What? Yeah, very few
companies are doing it, right?So we've got that. And then on
top of that, when you look atlike, oh, well, we're focusing
on other elements of disability,one of our core values as a

(31:09):
company is intersectionality. Sothat's why I searched a company.
I was already speaking and doingconsulting on my own, but the
last thing that the world needsis to center a, you know, middle
class, straight, white woman'sopinions on disability
inclusion, right? I've got ateam of people who are from all
different backgrounds that canconsult on different aspects of
this, right? Likeintersectionality is so

(31:30):
important if we're going toreally fight for the rights of
disabled people, we do not justwant to prioritize the, you
know, my lived experience. Wewant to prioritize lived
experiences from all differentkinds of disabilities, all
races, all genders, allsexualities. We need this to be
intersectional, and when youlook at other communities,
there's actually higherprevalence of disability. The

(31:51):
LGBTQ A plus community has ahigher prevalence of disability.
And through every other raceother than white, they have
higher prevalence of disabilitywithin their communities. So if
you're not including people withdisabilities, but you're
prioritizing other forms ofdiabetes, prioritizing other
forms of diversity, meaninggender, race, sexuality, but
you're not including disability,you're actually not featuring,
like, up to 33% of thatcommunity. So you're not even

(32:13):
doing what you say. You're doingeffectively.

Jeannette Campbell (32:14):
And you know you, you said in one of your
talks last year that justbecause an organization is
disability centric, it doesn'tmean they do good disability
communication. And I think someof what you're touching on sort
of leads into that. So what,what impact does it have when an

(32:35):
organization thinks they'redoing it right but they really
aren't? Yeah,

Kelsey Lindell (32:41):
I mean impact, meaning on the disabled
community as a whole, or ontheir business.

Jeannette Campbell (32:45):
I think, I think on, on the disability
community, on their business.And just, you know, you talked
about some of the culturalimpacts, the the responsibility
of of this industry, aroundcreating culture. So there's,
there's, you know, there's a lotof areas of impact.

Kelsey Lindell (33:05):
Yeah, cool. So I'll use one of my I won't name
them, but they're one of myclients. They're one of my
favorite clients. It's adisability centered organization
in its was originally started bytwo people in honor of a family
member who has disabilities, andthey were really leaning in. I
mean, they were, you know,positioning themselves as a

(33:28):
service provider for familieswho are affected by disability.
And they would use the termSpecial Needs often. And they
were platforming. They weregoing to do an event that was
platforming, an influencer,blogger, creator, I would say,
that showcases their brothersexperience with a developmental
disabilities. That was somebodywho's not disabled, who's going

(33:50):
to be speaking on behalf oftheir brother that posted some
pretty, I would say, like,privacy violation content,
right? Like, oh, here's how heshapes his face. And it's like,
showing him in his bathroom justtrying to, like, do his basic,
like, hygiene activities, right?So, like, that would be kind of
inappropriate for somebody.Like, I wouldn't like that if my
husband just came in and waslike, here's my wife shaving her

(34:12):
armpits. Here's how she does it,with a hand missing, right?
Like, that's it. It feels reallyexpletive, right? And so, you
know, and they weren't, theyweren't, like, thinking about
that. They were like, Thisperson has a huge following. We
can really help them. We canhelp a lot of people. Let's
partner with them. And so Ireached out privately to one of
their folks, and I was like,Hey, are you open to feedback on

(34:32):
this? And they're like, Sure.And I said, If this goes well
meaning, you get a lot of peopleto sign up, you will have
annihilated yourself from thedisability rights community who
are adults with disabilities whoare saying special needs is
offensive. We don't want to usethat term anymore. It also will
reinforce that this is an okayterm to use, and this is an okay

(34:53):
way for people to featuredisabled people on their social
media profiles, and it's.Doubled down on a lot of like
the paternalism and phantilismtype stereotypes that disabled
people are dealing with, andimmediately they're like, Oh,
shit. We didn't think of that.And I was like, yeah. So they
took it down, and instead, weredid their entire website, and

(35:16):
we changed it to be using, youknow, person with disability. We
added a statement because theywere they were genuinely
concerned that they were goingto get called out for changing
from special needs to peoplewith disabilities. Because a lot
of parents of people withdisabilities, they think that
special needs is the appropriateterm when adults with
disabilities have asked peopleto use the term either disabled

(35:37):
person or person with adisability. And we also have
sociology studies that back upthat back up that special needs
actually increases stigma, so wehave literal sociological proof
that that is not helpful. Theywere really worried. That's
like, that's they said, that'swhy we've been going with this.
I said, Okay, well, let's justput a language statement on the
back end of your website, and ifpeople push back, you can link
them to that study and say, Thisis why we've chosen this. We're

(35:58):
listening to the community, andwe also honor personal
preference. So if your loved oneprefers to use special needs, we
will use that for them, but as acommunity, we refer to them in
this way they did it, and it haschanged the way that they
communicate. It has changed theway that they are able to help
people. It has gotten them moreinvestment from venture
capitalist firms for their techstartup like it has really

(36:19):
changed things for them. So, Imean, it's not just, oh, do this
because it's the right thing. Ofcourse it is, but it's also,
here's how, and here's why, itcan actually impact your
business, you know,

Jeannette Campbell (36:29):
Yeah, and, you know, that's, that's such a
fascinating example, becauseit's a, you know, people who are
close doing doing something, andhave have this lived experience,
or shared experience ofdisability, you know, you're
saying there's a family member,and there was things that they

(36:53):
needed to to unlearn, somewhatso, as in, you know, the family
members. When you think aboutadvertising and marketing teams,
what are, what are some of thethings that they need to
unlearn? You know, are therewhat we like to talk about those
aha moments? You know, what?What kind of aha moment do you

(37:17):
think some of these agencies orbrands need to have. Because I'm
assuming you know your theagencies and these creative
teams, they're doing work forbrands. So you know, if the
brands are also asking for this,that's going to put pressure on
the agencies to get more moreinclusive. So what's, what do

(37:40):
they need to unlearn? Or what'sthe big thing that has to happen
for them?

Kelsey Lindell (37:44):
Um, I think they need to unlearn that, like the
idea that disability inclusionis just a nice little moral
imperative, like, Oh, that'snice, that's cute. It's not it's
a matter of civil rights, andit's also a business tactic.
It's not just, you know,whatever. And the other thing is

(38:05):
that, you know, it's somethingwe lead with, is that not all
inclusion is good inclusion.That example from Chick fil A
that's not good inclusion. Thatthere are certain, like, there's
literal frameworks that we have,but also, like, you know,
there's a few out there thatalready exist, but there's
certain ones that we have that'sliterally, like, okay, based on
where your company is at, thisis exactly what you should do.
It's not like guesswork. We'renot just throwing stuff on a

(38:27):
wall and seeing what sticks.There's strategy behind this.
Based on what your company hasdone internally, there are
frameworks to decide, like,Okay, what like lens of viewing
disability are we gonna go with?What type of disability
inclusion are we gonna go with.We call it Gen, pop, functional
or narrative centric. Like,people don't even know what
those terms are, right? So it'slike, okay, Apple's the greatest

(38:49):
is absolutely narrative, whereasthere was a Super Bowl
commercial. Like, you know,Google's was narrative as well.
But then we look at Volkswagenwas included in there, and they
just had somebody who wasmissing an arm. And I noticed it
right away. It was super, super,like, two seconds. So we call
that Gen pop or generalpopulation, right? So don't even
realize that there's it doesn'twe do think that all companies

(39:10):
and all creative teams at somepoint, if they really wanted to
happen to the disabilitycommunity, need to do all three
types of inclusion, but itdoesn't have, you don't have to
shoot for the moon and beatApple right away. You know what
I mean? I used this analogy theother day of like my my little
nephew. I think it's gonna be arock star someday, but he's
eight, so of course, he's notnow. He's just drumming with his

(39:31):
friends, like you have to startsomewhere, right? But you know
what he had to do before he haddrum in a band with his friends?
He had to take drum lessons likeyou don't just wake up and know
how to do this, right? We'rehere to teach you. I don't
expect, I mean, I think I canget you to make an Apple
commercial in two years. Iabsolutely think we can get you
there, but that's not going tohappen overnight. You have to do

(39:51):
training. You have to practice,like, get your feet wet, get
comfortable with it, and then gofor it. You know what? I mean? I
think there's a lot of like,just like I said, well. Tension
ignorance surrounding this.People don't talk about it. If
90% of companies have a plan fordei and only 4% include
disability at all as like aspecial call out. It's not
happening in marketing rooms. Itis not, but it should be.

Dean Askin (40:13):
So let's get aspirational here for a minute.
I mean, you know, and think thatyou know all that unlearning is
going to happen and people willstart taking, you know, those
drum lessons, so to speak, andhaving those aha moments. I
mean, the misfit 100 is a twoyear initiative and and there's
a big finale plan for this. Imean, you're aiming to take over

(40:34):
Times Square in New York City onInternational Day of Persons
with Disabilities in 2025 Imean, how confident are you that
all those times square digitalad billboards really will indeed
be totally filled withdisability inclusive content on
December 3, 2025?

Kelsey Lindell (40:53):
Well, if marketers are smart, 100%
confident, like Double Dog, getme in a meeting with your CMO,
and I dare them to say no to Me,like I've got the study, they're
going to tell Yale they'rewrong. I don't think so. Like
they're going to tell YaleAccenture Voya and basically
every single research firm outthere that has done studies on
this that prove that this is aviable and important business

(41:14):
tactic, that they're wrong, andthat we have a system, and we
win awards for it, that weshouldn't help them,
respectfully. That's not justnot gonna happen. There's no
way. I think it's a lot aboutlike, awareness and getting it
out there and being thatmosquito in the room, so that it
happens. So we need a lot ofmosquitoes, but if all the
people that really care aboutthis get this into their bones,

(41:37):
I have no doubt that we willhave millions of casinos or
mosquitoes, and that thosemosquitoes will get all of those
ads filled for me.

Dean Askin (41:46):
So what happens after Times Square is is filled?
I mean, at the end of the at theend of the two, two year
initiative. What happens afterthat?

Kelsey Lindell (41:57):
Well, your brand makes a lot of money. Um,
everyone loves your brand, youget that 84% you know, trust and
love of our community, your bosskisses your feet and says you're
the greatest employee they'veever had for introducing this to
them. No, I'm just kidding, butI mean, realistically, that will
happen. And then we do it again,and we do it again, and we do it

(42:20):
again, and we do it again, likeI was saying it earlier, like 2%
is not enough, but it is double1% and then it's four, and then
it's eight, and then it's 16,and then it's 32 and I realize
that's higher than thepercentage of disabled people in
the world, but guess what? We'vegone this long without disabled
people being represented at all.Why not have more than the

(42:41):
population that's disabledrepresented in ads, you know?
And I realized that, like once,our whole thing is that we want
to influence culture so that wecan influence policy and
systems, right? Like, Iunderstand that making inclusive
ads is not going to immediatelychange issues like sub minimum

(43:02):
wage, or issues like, I mean, wedisabled people have seven times
higher the rates of sexualassault. Like, we can't change
those things with Justin add,but we can start to change
people's perceptions that whenwe start to raise the red flag
about these other issues thatare systemic issues, like, we
have a whole training on everyissue as a disability issue, but

(43:23):
people aren't even payingattention. It's like, you look
at the media and the news right,like they don't cover disability
issues. When we think about,like natural disasters disabled,
like, I'm just gonna talk aboutHurricane Katrina, like in the
United States, if you weredisabled and you were affected
by Hurricane Katrina, you wereover four times more likely to
die than non disabled people.But like when we talk about
issues like climate change, youdon't change, you don't talk
about how these issues affectpeople with disabilities. So we

(43:46):
want to get disability at theforefront of everyone's minds,
so that when societal issueshappen that are rooted in
systemic ableism, they start torethink those and say, what
systems can we put in place tobetter protect this community?
Because this community deservesprotecting.

Jeannette Campbell (44:00):
Yeah, you know, you bring up a really,
really good point there Kelsey.And there's an international
group that gets together thatwe're part of, and the last time
we were all together, they weretalking about the impacts of
things like climate change onthe disability community and the
lack of planning. And there wasa group out of New Zealand that

(44:20):
was using the white churchearthquake has as an example of
just how everything within us inthe space of 24 hours sort of
broke down, for anybody who waspart of a social service system,
because the social servicesystem broke down and it
becomes, you know, there's noall for one, one for all. It's

(44:44):
just every person for themselvesand and you know, so that
there's the fact that you knowyou're talking about it, there's
groups all around the world thatare talking about these things
that really, you know, I'm gladthat these conversations are
going on, because we do have. Totake a look at that change in
societal perception, because itis more than like you said, this

(45:05):
isn't just about an ad, and yougot to remember, we're Canadian,
so we don't see these amazingSuper Bowl ads that you're
referencing. They, for somereason, they don't let us have
as much fun. But you know, weI'm sure.

Kelsey Lindell (45:19):
Yeah, but you also didn't have Donald Trump as
your President.

Jeannette Campbell (45:23):
That's true. But you know, in so in 2023 you
gave a talk where you said thatsociety has seen disability as a
really bad thing for a reallylong time. So you know, how
confident are you that you'llsee a change in societal
perception of disability throughwhat you're doing. You know,

(45:45):
even if it's, is this going tobe the legacy? Is this going to
be your legacy?

Kelsey Lindell (45:51):
I think it will be my legacy. Yeah. I mean, I
The hardest thing I ever did wasmove back to the States. It was
not move internationally. It wasmove back. I love the work that
I was doing. I hated everythingabout leaving, but I knew in my
bones that, like, if I reallyloved disabled people and I
really loved the kids that I wasworking with, I would sacrifice

(46:11):
my comfort and the life I lovedthere to come back here. And
like being American, I can'tbelieve these words are about to
come on my mouth, because Ireally don't like American
culture, but being American is aprivilege, like having an
American passport is aprivilege, being able to be
here, like, you know, peopledream of coming here. I really
despise what our country isdoing in a lot of ways, but it

(46:32):
still is a privilege. And I hadaccess to that privilege that a
lot of people didn't. And so Iknew that if I wanted to really
double down and like the workthat I was doing, and invest my
time and my energy and myresources is making as big and
strategic of an impact on thisas possible. I had to move back.
And so I didn't move backlightly. I moved back because I

(46:53):
wanted to build a legacy. Iwanted to be like, No, this is
this. Is it. This is what I'mdoing with my life. This is it.
Now, to answer your question of,how confident Am I that I that
we're going to see change? Iwould divide that into two
categories. See, change 100%See, disabled people have the
full spectrum of their civil andhuman rights. I don't think it
will happen in my lifetime.Unfortunately, I think it'll be
a long, long thought in oneprocess. I do have hope that we

(47:18):
will get there as a society. Butlike, we were saying, like,
like, Judy human said it's, youfeel like you're making no
progress, and you look back andyou're like, wow, but Judy
human, like, we refer to her asthe god godmother of disability
rights, she didn't see it in herlifetime. Yeah, right. We're
building on each other'slegacies. And so what I hope to
do just like Judy human didn'tsee it in her lifetime, and I'm

(47:38):
not comparing myself to her likeJesus, like she is my angel, my
RBG, my guardian on my littleshoulder all the time. Like, I
think about her and I'm like,Cool. How can I create more
foundation for the nextgeneration of advocates to go
after Right? Like, how can webuild this so that we're not the
only you know, you know what Iwould love Jeanette someday is

(47:59):
that there's not a need formisfit media, because all
agencies have disabled people inthem, right? It's kind of like,
I we know that sped in, likespecial ed classrooms, students
who have disabilities and nondisabled students actually do
better when there's integratedinclusion, but there had to be

(48:19):
sped classes where disabledstudents could even go to school
before there could beintegration of school, right? So
that's kind of what I'm hopingto do here, is start, okay, I
guess we're the sped Class of,you know, disability marketing
in a way, right? Or marketing ina way. We're like, okay, cool.
Here's how you do this marketingthing that you do specifically

(48:40):
for people with disabilities.But eventually, I hope that
that's not necessary, becauseevery agency in every creative
team has so many badass disabledpeople on their creative teams
that they don't need me, thatit's just embedded in culture.
And you know, I hope we see, Ihope we see a lot of this in my
lifetime. I mean, Jesus, I willbe, I will retire a happy, happy

(49:00):
woman, if we see this in mylifetime. But I'm also being
realistic, you know, like, thereare ableist systems. Dei is
under attack in the UnitedStates. I'm not sure exactly
what it's like in Canada, but,like, it's, you know, there's a
lot of people that are pushingback on progress, which is
unfortunate.

Jeannette Campbell (49:16):
It is. I mean, it's unfortunate to hear
about that. And you know, again,looking at it from that sort of
Canadian and US perspective, youknow, America, as far as you
know, accessibility legislationand things like that, is still
decades out front of Canada. Andyou know, I think it was the 70s

(49:36):
for you, and it was only 2019Dean. I think that, yeah, that
things were actually ratifiedhere. So you think about that
like, we're talking like that's,you know, I'm not that old, but
that's like more than mylifetime. So far, the number of
years, that's just a huge amountof decades. And so you. Now we

(50:00):
get that concept of seeing thischange in its and it seems small
and incremental, and then all ofa sudden, you look back and
realize, okay, actually, therehas been progress, there has
been movement, but it's also,you know, speaking to just that
piece around understandingprivilege. And you know, America

(50:21):
is, is, is a country that peoplelook at. American culture is
something that you know is, isglorified sort of around the
world when you think abouttelevision and sitcoms and the
commercials and all of thosethings. So this has, you know,
if you, if we can get, if youcan get these things to happen

(50:44):
there with American culturebeing representative through
their advertising and creative,that that's going to go far
beyond your borders, right? It'sgoing to impact every country.
So absolutely.

Kelsey Lindell (51:00):
I mean, when we were just in South Africa, it
was funny. We went to the schoolthat I used to work at really
heavily, and we're hanging outthere. And the kids were askin
my husband. Do you know JustinBieber? And listen, if Justin
Bieber can make his influence inSouth Africa, why can't you're a
brand? That's when I say a lotlike, why not? Like, Justin

(51:22):
Bieber's influence culture? Whycan't your brand? You know, we
can absolutely influence notjust American culture, but the
world. Like American culture isvery, very dominant. People,
people follow what we do here.So, you know, as much as, yeah,
this country makes me want tobang my head against the wall,
I'm also like, okay, I guesswe're here for a reason?

Jeannette Campbell (51:41):
Um, no, it's, it's true. That's, it's
really true. And I guess, youknow, for me, the next question
then would be sort of, what'sthe most important message that
you want anybody who's involvedin advertising and marketing,
who's listening right now, youknow what? What do you want them
to take away from thisconversation?

Kelsey Lindell (52:00):
Um, I guess it would be a question, which is,
if we know that this is good foryour brand or your clients, and
we know that this will influenceculture, and you choose to not
do anything, what the heck areyou doing with your life, like I

(52:21):
if it will help people, and itwill give people. It'll help
people get their basic civil andhuman rights, which they
currently are do not have. Rightnow, it is legal to pay disabled
people less than minimum wage in27 states, as low as 33 cents in
some places per hour. Yes, thatis a real law that is in
existence right now in 2024 itis conservatorships like what

(52:46):
Britney Spears were under. Thoseare not uncommon. She just that
just was famous because she'sfamous, right there are people
with disabilities who are beingforcefully sterilized. There are
people with disabilities who aregetting sexually assaulted by
their caretakers. These are realbig issues, and the way that you
create content can influence us,and it will impress your boss
and get great ROI and if youchoose to just be like, You know

(53:07):
what? I think I'll just make arandom social media post and
don't take this to heart. Like,what are you doing? I don't
think people that don't takethis seriously should be in
positions of leadership, right?Just like, I don't think people
who create racist content shouldbe in places of leadership. I
don't think people who createsexist content to be in places
of leadership. Places ofleadership. The reality is there
is pressure to not do thosethings anymore, but there's not

(53:27):
pressure to the disabilitystuff. So I'm putting that
pressure on them. I'm saying,what are you going to do? So
that would be the firstquestion. And then I would also
say, if you're not the personthat can make decisions, you do
have the permission to be themosquito. I'm giving you
permission to be that mosquito,to be annoying, to be the little
pin in their ear. I mean, wecall them our internal advocates
all the time. We have meetingswith our internal advocates and

(53:50):
we say, okay, cool, what do youneed? How can we what content
can we create? Can we create foryou? What social content can we
create for you? What types ofblogs do you need in order to
convince your boss right? We'rehere for you be that mosquito,
and we're here for you like wehave a lot of content that can
help you. So those are kind ofthe two main things to walk away
with.

Dean Askin (54:10):
So if they're listening out there, and they do
get the message and they do someself reflection, how can
companies and agencies that wantto be among them as fit 100 do
that and get in touch with you.

Kelsey Lindell (54:23):
My email is Kelsey at Misfit Media
Agency.com. Has that ready? Um,no, they can. Misfit Media
Agency.com is our is ourwebsite? Um, they can contact me
on LinkedIn. Um, they can send acarrier pigeon. Um, they can no
any social media. I'm KelseyLindell. It's like the My Pillow
guy. But no, we're not related.They can contact me anyway. I

(54:48):
mean, my website, I don't I havea personal one just for, like,
public speaking in the moreadvocacy side, like some of the
societal issues, I'll stillspeak on that. But my company
website would be the one to goto, which is misfit media
agency.com i. Com. They can findus on Instagram. They can find
me on Instagram. Can find me onTiktok. They can find Yeah,
LinkedIn, anywhere. Get in touchwith me, and I will send you all

(55:10):
of the information that youneed. And the other thing that I
will say is that joining themisfit 100 is there is a fee.
It's not free, believe it ornot, my team actually has to pay
their rent. So we have to paythem. That's another thing. Is
we'll get offered gift cardssometimes, to speak. And I'm
like, I don't think youunderstand how this works, but
it is based on the size of yourcompany. So for instance, we

(55:33):
hope target joins, but if you'rea tiny little agency, we're not
going to charge you the sameprice for charging target,
right? We make things scalable.We make things really
accessible. So large team, smallteam, doesn't matter. We're here
and we'll make it work. So,yeah,

Dean Askin (55:47):
It's just been so fun talking with you and hearing
all these, these, theseinsights. I mean, I have to, I
have to, before we go, I have toask my signature trademark
question. You know, you'vebrought up a lot of great
points. We've talked about a lotof stuff. Have we covered all
the essentials? Is thereanything we haven't talked about

(56:07):
through all this that you thinkis important to mention before
we wrap

Jeannette Campbell (56:10):
up?

Kelsey Lindell (56:11):
I don't think so. I mean, I think my my
closing message is just always,if you're if you're a creative
that wants to this, I believe inyou, and I think a lot of people
need someone that believes inthem. And once upon a time, I
was basically a social worker,and now I win every award for
marketing. So like, like, it'spossible. Like, I believe in
you. I had mentors that believedin me, and were like, Okay, you

(56:34):
little crazy person will makethis happen, and I want to be
that person for you. I want tochampion you, can do this. And I
think, you know, I think you'regonna, you're gonna create an
Apple commercial someday. You'regonna create that Google
commercial someday, and we'regonna get you there. So that
would be my closing remark.Well,

Jeannette Campbell (56:50):
Kelsey, thanks for coming on the show
and talking about the misfit 100mission with us.

Kelsey Lindell (56:57):
Thank you for having me.

Jeannette Campbell (56:58):
Oh yeah, absolutely. And the nice thing
about this is you are coming andtalking with us now at the
start. So please, you're goingto have to come back and talk to
us at the end, after you'veaccomplished your mission.
Great. We, you know, maybe we'llmaybe Dean and I'll make a trip
down to New York and see thedigital billboards all in Times

(57:20):
Square, disability inclusiveads, yeah, that would be great.
And you know, for for peoplewanting to get in touch and
things like that, we'll makesure that we're going to put
some links into the show noteswhere people can learn more
about misfit media, more aboutthe Misfit 100 mission, and how
to how to get in touch with you,how to get involved, how to get

(57:43):
engaged.

Kelsey Lindell (57:45):
Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for
having me. It's been such ablast to chat with you, and
thank you for all the work youdo for the disability community.

Dean Askin (57:53):
Well, as I said, it's been fun talking. And you
know, I would love to make atrip to New York City to see all
those Times Square adbillboards, but there's a
certain person that I you know,that I'd have to convince to go
to New York with me, and shejust has no desire whatsoever to
see New York City. I would loveto see it once in my lifetime.

(58:14):
Anyway, that's, yep, that'll bea work trip. It'll be a work
there you go. It'll be a worktrip. And maybe I can get her to
come along

Kelsey Lindell (58:25):
Actually, that's works for me. Um, not that I'm
the decision making person here,but, uh,

Dean Askin (58:33):
Well, you know, if you're listening to this and
you're in the advertisingindustry in the US and Canada, I
mean, check out those links thatJeannette, Jeanette mentioned
we've put on the on in the shownotes, on the podcast website,
and especially the mass themaster class Video of the Misfit
100 Kelsey, you know, I have tosay, thanks again for getting
back so fast that day I messagedyou on LinkedIn about coming on

(58:55):
the show to talk about whatyou're doing with misfit media
and the misfit 100. This was agreat conversation about
disability representation in theadvertising sector. And, you
know, Jeanette, I'm kind ofthinking in this of this one
episode as a kind of companionepisode to episode 18 from last
season, when we talked aboutdisability representation in the
Canadian film, television andmodeling industry. If you're

(59:19):
listening, have a listen to thatepisode if you haven't yet. It's
one of our top 10 shows, and Ithink maybe this one episode, 26
will be too.

Jeannette Campbell (59:28):
And next month, Dean and I are going to
be speaking with three peoplewho have some deep personal
insights about the disabilityinclusive employment legacy of
and the impact made by the lateDavid C. Onley. He was the 28th
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario,the first one with a visible
disability. He was the firstworking television journalist in

(59:51):
Canada with a visibledisability, and he was a
lifelong, tireless, passionatedisability inclusion advocate.
So until. Dean. I'm JeanetteCampbell.

Dean Askin (01:00:01):
And I'm Dean Askin. Thanks again for listening
wherever, whenever and onwhatever podcast app you're
listening from, join us eachepisode as we have insightful
conversations like this one withKelsey Lindell and explore
disability inclusion in businessand in our communities from all
the angles you can't spellinclusion without a D is

(01:00:24):
produced in Toronto, Canada bythe Ontario Disability
Employment Network. All rightsreserved. Our podcast production
team, executive producer andhost Jeannette Campbell,
producer Sue Dafoe, associateproducer and host Dean Askin.
Audio editing and production byDean Askin. Our podcast theme is
last summer by Ikksen. If youhave feedback or comments about

(01:00:46):
an episode, contact us [e-mail] that's info
at o d, e, n, e, t, w, O, R,k.com, join us each episode for
insights from expert guests aswe explore the power of
inclusion, the business benefitsof inclusive hiring, and why
disability is an important partof the diversity, equity and

(01:01:07):
inclusion conversation. Listento You Can't Spell Inclusion
Without a D on Podbean orwherever you find your favorite
podcasts.