Addressing Daily Life Challenges with Revolutionary Tools: A Talk With Nadia Hamilton

Growing up alongside a sibling with autism can transform your life's blueprint in the most unexpected ways. in this episode, we're joined by the remarkable Nadia Hamilton, who shares the touching saga of her brother, Troy, and how his journey on the autism spectrum has awakened a legacy of empowerment and innovation. Nadia's candid recount of the joys and hurdles they faced together unfolds into the creation of a transformative tool - Magnus cards - that now aids individuals with autism and/or cognitive disabilities to navigate the complexities of daily life with greater independence. Our conversation is a celebration of sibling love and the spirit that can give rise to social entrepreneurship with a profound purpose.

As you tune in, you'll be captivated by stories that not only pull at the heartstrings, but also spotlight the monumental shifts in accessibility and inclusivity championed by visionaries like Nadia. Discover the compelling impact of the Magnus Mode app, designed to provide free, visual, step-by-step guides for those in the neurodiverse community, and learn how the Disability Experience training program is reshaping perspectives in corporate corridors. This isn't just an episode; it's a heartfelt tribute to Troy and others like him, who inspire a world that embraces every spectrum of human diversity with open arms and minds. Join us for an episode that weaves a narrative of hope, understanding, and the tangible change that comes from one sister's unwavering devotion.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to season six of the Not your Mama's Autism podcast, a podcast about neurodivergence told both through the eyes of our family, the Ollie's, and through the lens of the greater global neurodivergence community. I'm Lola Dada Ollie, we hope you enjoy this episode we have lined up for you. So, with that in mind, let's get started. Today we have an esteemed guest, nadia Hamilton. Her jobs have jobs serial entrepreneur, thought leader, very conscious in her choice of businesses to found and run with grace. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being on the podcast today.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So you and I have a thing in common we are both sibling of amazing people on the autism spectrum. So could you please tell me a little bit about Troy, your brother?

Speaker 2: 1:20

Troy. Well, we grew up calling him King Troy. So I've got four siblings, troy being one of them. But King Troy, being autistic, got most of the attention. If Troy wanted to do something, or if he wanted to go somewhere eat at a certain restaurant we were all going. So, as you probably are very familiar, you know Troy's autism is special, and I use that word intentionally because he's special to us. But he's special because of the ways that he thinks and the ways that he sees the world and his perspectives. Everything is different, everything is unique and it adds such color to our lives from the time that he was young. So, yeah, we called him King Troy.

Speaker 2: 2:15

He is my younger brother and he's directly below me in terms of the sibling chain and we're pretty much the closest, I think, of all of our siblings. I always looked out for him, he's always looked out for me. He's mostly nonverbal but he can communicate. He does communicate, obviously with many different ways that us siblings and his parents are very familiar with. He's very kind and he's very loving and he's so happy.

Speaker 2: 2:48

So he's always smiling and he loves to put together train sets and he's kind of obsessed with the White House, for some reason. We grew up, my dad was always watching CNN and I guess, like Troy, just has a fascination with the White House, so he's always building it and drawing it and he loves looking at it and, yeah, sometimes he stims, sometimes he jumps and leaps. He loves basketball. So he's as still as ever when he's watching any basketball game and he really is my inspiration for everything that I've done career-wise and honestly, knowing him and loving him and growing up with him has changed my life for the better and, through me, I think that Troy is leaving a legacy for others.

Speaker 1: 3:39

I think you and I can agree that our brothers are our greatest teachers.

Speaker 3: 3:45

Definitely.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And, with that in mind, tell us a little bit about how some handmade cards turned into a highly influential business.

Speaker 2: 4:02

When we are growing up, troy struggled with certain tasks that you and I might take for granted, like brushing teeth or whenever he was making a snack. He'd get overwhelmed with the steps of the process and he'd want one of us to prompt him through. So you know, step one, do this, step two, do this, don't forget to do this, and good job. And so without that, he was stuck. He would literally not want to do the activity or he'd stand there and wait for one of us to help him. We're a video gaming family. We play a lot of video games growing up, and I knew that in order for Troy to play the video games, he had to have the official strategy guide and that shows, like the visuals of how to get through each stage, and without that he wouldn't even touch the controller. And so I put two and two together and I have an artistic background as well. So I started drawing out step by step guides for brushing teeth, for getting dressed in the morning, for making your bed, for what to do when you come home from school, and I posted them to the walls of our apartment where we grew up in Toronto, canada. Troy would go into the bathroom and he'd look above the sink and he'd see. Step one get your toothbrush, so we'd get his toothbrush. Step two put the toothpaste on the toothbrush. So he'd do that. And he was able to follow along with these visuals, to do things without our help and with greater ease and less stress and anxiety. And so that was something that, literally, I transformed the walls of our apartment into like a veritable scrapbook, but it worked. It gave him the structure that he needed to do these things. And so when he graduated from high school years later, and it became painfully aware to both him and us that the world was not designed with the needs, with his needs, in mind. So you know, there's no pictures on the wall for taking the bus or getting a job, or going grocery shopping or anything that you have to do in this world to be an independent and participatory member of society. And so Troy graduated to the couch. He literally graduated and would sit on the couch and play his games every day.

Speaker 2: 6:21

And here I was facing a world of opportunity after I graduated from university, and in my mind it was the greatest injustice. I lost sleep, I would just think you know. Why does he? What does his life have to stop now. Why does his exploration of the world have to be cut off arbitrarily?

Speaker 2: 6:47

And so I started like really like racking my brain, like what can I do? Like what can I do? How can I help my brother? This is really the only thing I want to do after I graduated from university. I mean, I was thinking about joining the police force but and I'm passionate about service, but I'm more passionate about my family, my brother. I love him so much.

Speaker 2: 7:09

And so, around the time that I was like literally thinking through all these things, what can I do? What can I do? I opened my computer screen and in the corner on the internet it literally said social business opportunity, competition opportunity. Enter and you can win funding to start a social purpose business. I had no idea what a social purpose business was. I studied history and political science. I had no idea what business was, but I had an idea. I was like well, what if I was able to digitalize and Gamify that hand-drawn step-by-step paradigm that I knew worked with Troy? You know, I I was remiss to mention that I also worked with others in the community across the spectrum of ability, as a support worker throughout university, and I did the same thing for them too.

Speaker 2: 8:04

I drew out those guides so I knew providing people with visual, structured guidance could help mitigate the chaos and the the the overwhelming nature of many processes in the world and environments, and Prepare them before they even go into an environment. What can you expect? Are you? Is it going to be loud? Is it going to be? Is there going to be a lot of people? How can they prepare themselves to, you know, to be better equipped to navigate these spaces? And? And so I I knew I had the hand-drawn paradigm.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Technology was on the rise, everybody has a cell phone and so I was like, okay, let's combine the two. So I entered the competition and I won, and and that was the start of Magnus mode, the company. And Magnus cards was our first app, and that is the step-by-step visual, audio and text guides for day-to-day experiences at home and in the community, pretty much like the ultimate strategy guide for life. So, within 12 categories social, personal care, shopping, travel, money management, etc. You can collect digital step-by-step guides and and that that was the start of that, and from there it's just been a wild and crazy and fulfilling and exciting and scary at times, but ultimately impactful ride.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Yeah, we will get into some lessons learned shortly. But I mean, just where did Magnus mode, where did the name?

Speaker 2: 9:45

Just curious so, as I mentioned, we grew up playing a lot of video games. You know, we would all all the siblings gathering around. Even if one person is playing, we're watching eight top left, top left go down there. We're all kind of participating. And so, you know, I noticed that Troy really, you know he loved that time together and he really bonded with the characters in the game as well, so he would collect posters and stuff like that. And so with Magnus, who's our mascot, well, he's more of a sidekick, really he's a sidekick to the hero, which are the Troy's of the world His name came from.

Speaker 2: 10:23

You know, I wanted to create the ultimate Sidekick for people like my brother, somebody that would be there when I couldn't be, when my parents couldn't be, because we're not always Going to be there. I I don't even live in the same city anymore, so I go back often to visit. But you know, this is the question that's on a lot of caregivers minds is what is going to happen when I'm not there anymore, whether you're not in the room or or, you know, maybe you're not, you're no longer with us. And my dream, my vision, is to empower independence, empower agency and empower the day-to-day freedom of individuals but also enable caregivers to take a step back and independence means different things for different people but take a little bit of a step back and be able to feel that hope and that confidence that there's gonna be somebody there or something, some support there, because I you know, in Canada the cutoff point is usually after you graduate from high school. There's a lack of support after that, yeah, there's a term for that.

Speaker 1: 11:38

It's called the cliff right. So services.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Yeah yeah, wiley Coyote, or you know like running, running, running, and then you go out the cliff and then the service is very, very real. Yeah people.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Society loves to focus on children, as though People who are neurodivergent, people with disabilities, never grow up. I've never understood that, ever. But Clearly that's above my pay grade. I just have a little pop.

Speaker 2: 12:09

I think it's because people like they, like the cuteness of the kids and you know they focus on that, but you know it's unfortunate, so that's that's where Magnus came from, and so Magnus actually means great in Latin. I chose that name because Mega man was taken and and mode is way of doing things, so Magnus, mode.

Speaker 1: 12:30

So you I'm sure you have many testimonials, but to add context and add some richness to all that you have just said, walk us through what one of those categories would be like. So some type of life skill like using public transit, is that one of? Yeah so walk us through what that would look like and how caretakers can feel like they're treasured.

Speaker 2: 12:59

Family members are empowered okay, I've got it, actually an anecdote on that. So I worked with a young man, a teenager named Devin, and throughout my time at university I would go there and help him after school with you know, life skills and whatnot. And this was around the time when I was first developing the alpha version of the app. So I was nearing my end of university days. I was like, what am I going to do next? Enter the competition one? And then I continued to work with people while I was testing the assumptions of the app and whatnot and building it. And one of the things I worked with with Devin was taking public transit. So every single time I would go and we would you know I would I would have a really big role in, you know, helping him to pay, helping him to board the bus, helping him to get off where he needs to get off, etc. Etc. So then, when Magnus cars was developed, now, instead of me leading the way in activities, etc, devin can open up the app, go to the transit or travel category, open up a card deck so they're called card decks because they're shaped like a baseball card and you've got the visual, the audio and the text on the on the card and then you just swipe through and follow the step by step instructions for each activity so Devin can open the boarding a bus in Toronto card deck, which is sponsored by the TTC and I guess we'll talk about the business model in a bit and then just follow along with the visuals, the audio, so you can have his headphones on on the on the bus, or the text and be able to take more agency in the situation.

Speaker 2: 14:52

So one day before, magnus cards and I wasn't with him at the time, but Devin's mom called me and she was in a panic and she said Devin was taking the bus with his class. However, or sorry, the train, it was the train taking the train with the class, but they got off and they left him and they forgot about him and he's, he's gone, he's. We don't know where he is. I got in my car, I'm scouring the streets where the subways come up, etc. An hour went by. Nobody knows where Devin is. I am having a panic attack. His mom is getting grey hair every single second that's going by. Finally somebody is able to spot him and he's on the train. But you know what he's doing he's on his phone and he's so focused on his phone, that he didn't. He didn't notice his, his classmates leave. But then he did notice and he got stressed and he was, you know, somebody noticed that he was rocking back and forth in his chair, etc. And then they were able to alert the security. But his mom said to me, if we had Magnus at that point because Devin can look at, he can see where he's at in the instruction and he could see what the next step is Magnus even provides how to get help.

Speaker 2: 16:02

How to get help if you're not in the right place, and you know what I mean. I mean I'm not in the right place. I'm not in the right place. I'm not in the right place. I'm not in the right place. I'm not in the right place.

Speaker 2: 16:16

So how to get help if you're in this, if you're lost or if you're stuck at a certain point? Anything could have mitigated the risk around him never being found again. Anything could have happened, and and so what we are doing with Magnus cars is not only providing the steps to guide someone through the situation, but we're mitigating the risks of that could happen when somebody is on their own. You know when, when something doesn't go according to plan as well. So you get help. And how, how can you, you know, how can you, as a caregiver, have that greater peace of mind? And that's by giving them whatever tool that you can give them to to mitigate those disaster, emergency situations.

Speaker 2: 17:00

So that's just one example, but I'm telling you my heart nearly, I nearly had a heart attack and I was like 21, so like yeah, so anyway, that's, that's one example, but you know, we have people are writing in and calling us and and all of this stuff, saying you know, usually I have to lead my child by the arm and I have to drag them through the museum, I have to, you know, show them how to brush their teeth and all of this stuff.

Speaker 2: 17:30

And now, with Magnus, they're leading the way. And we had an event actually at a at a museum, which was fantastic. We, we worked with a local autism organization in Columbus, ohio. We had over 200 people come out and they were using Magnus cards to follow along to go through the dyno tour, to go through this and do all sorts of activities at the museum, because those card decks were in the app and the parents were telling me that the individuals are usually the ones following along with their group of siblings. But now they're leading their group of siblings and they're saying, okay, now we have to do this now we have to do this.

Speaker 2: 18:13

So that change, according to one parent, was literally priceless and it brought tears to her eyes because now I can see the path from dependency to independence, from boredom and isolation to, you know, being included and part of society and part of groups and just making friends and doing things that neurotypical people do.

Speaker 1: 18:42

What I love about your product, just based on what you've described and just what I've read about it, is your client base is mixed of both individuals as well as businesses, because I think businesses are starting to wake up to the idea that you should apply neuroscience to business practices. That actually incorporate neuroscience into business practices is the business. So your client base from a business perspective to is quite impressive. Craft Heinz, toronto Zoo, world Pool, trader Joe's tell us how you moved from individuals to businesses and how you kind of carry the two.

Speaker 2: 19:37

Yeah, so this is really something very unique about Magnus cards and it happened almost completely. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was meant to be, I don't know, but I, like I said I won the social business competition. I outsourced the development of the first version of the app to China, so I had developers in China build a prototype and then tested it with autism organizations in schools iterated, tested, iterated, tested, iterated, tested, launched. I was out of money, like we had no funding, and then people were saying this is great, but we need this feature and this feature and this feature and this and this and this. And I'm like, okay, I want to keep going with this, but we need a model here that enables us to fund development and maintenance, because it's super, super expensive to maintain. You know I started down the grant route, but that's very time consuming.

Speaker 2: 20:39

And I remember I was on a talk show and it was it's called the Agenda with Steve Pakin. It's a Canadian talk show because we did start in Canada before expanding into the US and now the US is probably going to overtake Canada in terms of our user base and clients. But I was on the talk show. I got a call after the talk show from a local mental health hospital, a museum and CIBC, the bank, and they said we saw you on the show and we're looking for ways to better serve neurodiverse customers. At the time, actually, they said autism because neurodiverse was still a term that was not quite as popular as today. So they said autistic and others with cognitive disabilities. And I said you know, I'm looking for ways to map out different environments and make your services more accessible.

Speaker 2: 21:42

And then it came to me like a light bulb over my head I have to create these card decks. And we were creating them like pretty much like just doing it, like literally taking the photos, putting the text in there and just mapping out different places on our own and activities. And I said well, why don't we work together? You're the subject matter of banking, subject matter expert of banking, we're the subject matter experts of autism and neurodiversity, so we can take your customer experience and translate it into digestible steps for this community that are specific to the needs, the learning needs of this community. And so that's how the business model was born.

Speaker 2: 22:28

And so you know, within each of these 12 life skills categories that we have in the app Whirlpool, you know transit, subways, airports, airlines, grocery stores all of the places that we need to interact with on a daily basis. They are like markers on a map. They have that we need to know how to navigate these places and to interact with, with the people in the services, and they need to know how to interact with us, and so, by working with banks and restaurants and other organizations to build card decks that walk people through their services, it's a transformative experience for the organization itself. They are becoming aware of the barriers to inclusion that exist when banking, when going to the grocery store. On the top down the CEO down everybody is becoming aware, through our partnership and through the existence of these, of this support tool, and so our model is B2B2C the companies sponsor the development of the card decks and then the users, the heroes and their caregivers, access the program for free.

Speaker 2: 23:47

And, lola, I was hell bent, determined on making this app free for people in my community and when I say my community, I just mean anybody who is a user of the app in the autistic and neurodectors or even beyond that community. Anybody that that thrives with visual, step-by-step guides can use the app, and so I wanted to make it free, because I grew up in a autism family. One parent was working, one parent was not, and I know how hard it is to have to choose sometimes between a meal or other, or clothing and a support tool for your loved one, and so I wanted to make this free. It's gonna be free forever for users, and this business model enables us to to to do that.

Speaker 1: 24:40

I my transition. I don't even know where to go from here after you said what you just said it was so poignant, it was so it almost needed a pause. It needed not just a pause like a pregnant pause, you know, like a Because. As though Magnus Mode is not enough, you thought but wait, there's more. Another product offering you now have is the disability experience, which is complementary to Magnus Mode. So, tell our viewers and listeners what that is all about.

Speaker 2: 25:23

Well, this whole thing, this whole journey has been, you know, all of a sudden I'll have a really strong feeling, and then it's like an eye-opening moment when I'm like, wait, we need to do this too. And so, with empathy training, I remember I went to and I won't name the store because, but it was a video game store and I went with Troy and Troy being nonverbal, he was trying to see a game behind the counter and the person who was working behind the counter didn't like that. Here's a six foot I think he's six foot one, my brother, he's a bigger guy, he's a black man and he's trying to get behind the counter. And I'm not saying that those things are the reason the store person was triggered, but for whatever reason, he started to overreact and say you can't come back here.

Speaker 2: 26:24

What are you doing, man? You can't come back here. I was at the other edge of the store and I came running over because Troy, like I said, he doesn't. He can understand when someone's being aggressive towards him, but he can't explain what he was trying to do and how he had completely innocent intent. And so I ran over there and I said whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's autistic, he wants to see a game, he's pointing and yet. And then Troy started covering his ears and I explained why he was covering his ears because some music came on that disturbed him.

Speaker 2: 27:03

And so I started to educate this person and I realized in that moment that I've played that role throughout Troy's entire life. I've been the person, sandra. I know that it's an empathy training course that companies can use. It fits into existing learning management systems and it takes this personal experience of myself, but also of others who are directly impacted by disability, both if they have a disability themselves or if they're a caregiver. And we tell our stories, we tell our experiences and we are opening people's eyes in a way that you, as a sibling, would have growing and learning and loving and living with as close to as possible. I mean, it's never going to be the same, but we want people. You know. It popped in my mind. I said to myself imagine if everybody saw Troy the way I see him, imagine if everybody understood him the way that I do.

Speaker 2: 28:27

And so that is what disability experience is.

Speaker 2: 28:30

It is a personal empathy, training experience fueled by storytelling, fueled by the point of view of the community, and so we feature people telling what it's like.

Speaker 2: 28:45

You know what sensory overload can be like, how different disabilities experience the world and the barriers to inclusion that create disability and the lens of seeing ability in disability as well, and the shifting perspective of people in the disability community, how we're reclaiming disability, we're reclaiming autism as a strength, and it has all of that. It's 20 minutes and it's pretty brief, but it also mentions Magnus cards and how you can support customers coming through with that. But it really took off. I mean, it was just developed about six or seven months ago and launched, and it's mandatory training at the giant company Harry Reid International Airport and other organizations. We're talking 20,000, 30,000 staff members getting trained on how to engage, support, respond, understand and build awareness around people who are different, whether they are disability is apparent or not, and at how to be a better citizen of the world and have a heartfelt service attitude. And you can only do that, I think, by having true empathy.

Speaker 1: 30:07

I feel like a very strong vehicle to bring home empathy is storytelling, because it helps, hopefully, when done well. But one in another shoes, though, yeah. What do you love most about where you are now and where the company is now? What do you love most about what you do every day?

Speaker 2: 30:33

Well, we've got over 65 inclusion partners we call them inclusion partners the banks, the restaurants and all the organizations across North America. So we've got some. We're working with some of the biggest companies in the world. We've got over 150,000 users heroes in our platform. We've got people all over the world signing up, so we are focused on North America, but I we could see the users in Italy, kenya and Romania, and it's my favorite thing, though.

Speaker 2: 31:13

All of that is amazing and I can't believe it. It's mind blowing. My favorite thing is that to see my brother reach for the phone, open up Magnus cards because he's where it all started and seeing the impact that it has, not only in his life but in other lives. But my favorite thing is that I'm building his legacy in years to come, maybe when we're no longer here. I hate crying when we're no longer here. People are going to live differently, live better, and so we're creating impact for years to come. We're sowing the seeds today to change what somebody like my mom, a parent who perhaps has a child and the doctor tells them that their child is disabled or has autism changes their mindset and gives them more hope. Yeah, that's my favorite part. I think it's the hope that we're bringing to people, and the fact that I can do that by utilizing my love for my brother is a God's end and something I'm very grateful for. So that's it.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I talk about this in speeches. I get the importance of developing a generational mindset, and I think that's why you and I just connected right off the bat, because of just thinking generationally and realizing that it's just not always just about you. It's about what other thing can you do on this earth that makes life a little bit easier for somebody else? Exactly, and it's sometimes it's hard in this eccentric world we live in, but people like you are proof that you know not all is lost, that is for sure.

Speaker 2: 33:27

That's exactly how I feel and I see, whenever I go out and I spot someone, I'm like, okay, I know that guy has autism, I know that kid has autism. Just because I know, I'm just like. I see them, I see an extension of my own family, and can you imagine if everybody saw everybody as an extension of their family? There would be no wars or anything like that. And this is what we're here for. We're here to serve each other and so you know we were created to serve, I believe, and so this is just something that comes naturally to me and it feels good and I want to leave this world knowing that I served it, served people within it.

Speaker 1: 34:14

There's a reason why one of the key tools to division is to otherize the other person, is to find as many things different. That's right and it's possible. So that you can stand less of yourself in that other person. That's right, and you're not the only one that does that. Whatever we will be out and about and we'll see somebody who we suspect is autistic, I'll turn to my husband and my husband will turn from me and say, oh, he or she, they're one of our tribes.

Speaker 1: 34:45

That's exactly how we say, oh, they're part of our tribe. They're part of our tribe, and so I get it. I get it. So we're still at the start of the year, we're still in. As we're recording this, we're in January 2024. So how do you envision 2024 through the lens of both Magnus Cards and disability experience?

Speaker 2: 35:10

So I want to bring both to every company that we can. So Magnus Cards is already with 65 plus companies. Let's get that other piece. The other piece brings it all together the empathy. So we're empowering customers, but we're empowering people to respond to customers as well, and just growing that out with as many companies as we can. We've got some focus areas in terms of the categories that we are approaching, but we've got some really lofty goals, lots of work to do, expanding perhaps beyond North America and officially, yeah, just continuing to build the impact and that impact measurement piece as well.

Speaker 1: 35:56

So, miss Socially Conscious Tech Entrepreneur with, just a few years ago, political science but not a tech diagram?

Speaker 2: 36:08

And history.

Speaker 1: 36:13

So for people who want to know more about you, your story, your company, how they can connect with you, your mission, where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 36:24

So you can find Magnus Mode and you can reach out to us through MagnusModecom. You can download the Magnus Cards app for free, as I mentioned, in the Apple or Android stores, and you know, if you Google Nadia Hamilton, you'll find me, and my email is nadia at magnusmodecom. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 36:47

Thank you and people will know here that more about you as time goes on, thank you. Thank you for being you and thank you for making time today.

Speaker 3: 36:56

Thank you, I'm not sure. Mom is off to some podcast written and produced by my mom, lola Thada Ali, and is occasionally produced by me, fela Ali. My dad and sister also contribute sometimes. Big thanks to Annalee Ackerman for her audio and video editing support. Until next time, everyone, see you soon.