All Things Autism – Oliver Reece-Woods, Believe in Yourself.mp3
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Speaker 1
00:00 – 00:44
Hello this is Anna Kennedy, we’re talking all things autism and it’s a bit of a dull day today compared to last week, it was so hot, it was so humid, wasn’t coping too well with the humidity at night. Just a few things to share before I introduce my guest Oliver and just to let you know our autism expo is going to be on the 17th and 18th of July We had to postpone it in March and that was because of the lockdown. So instead of doing it at Brunel University, we’re thinking out the box and we’re going to be doing it online. And I’m so pleased that all the speakers that were going to be speaking with us at Brunel University are going to be joining us online.

Speaker 1
00:44 – 01:13
So we’re going to have half of them on the 17th of July and then half of them on the 18th of July so if you check out the charity website basically you can book your ticket and then you can join us so I’m really looking forward to that. Just to let you know as well and remind you that we had to postpone our Autism’s Got Talent I’m sure. So now it’s going to be May the 8th next year, but we’re thinking of other things that we can do online. So keep watching out on the charity website on our events page.

Speaker 1
01:13 – 01:24
So really looking forward to that. We’ve extended our cake and bake competition. We’ve had so many adult entries, but not hardly any children’s entries. So that’s under 18s.

Speaker 1
01:24 – 01:52
So I’m sure there must be some fantastic bakers out there that can create a creation of either a cake a cookie or a brownie that represents autism to them. Again, check out the charity website. Our judges are Richard Mylan from Richard and Jacko. We have Ionica Adriana, who is known as the singing baker, and Casey Ainsworth, who’s an actress from Grantchester and also used to play a little more on EastEnders.

Speaker 1
01:52 – 02:43
She’s been one of my ambassadors for quite some time now. Her son is on the spectrum and also her husband. also keep checking out born anxious t-shirts and i’m proud to be ambassador as is my son angelo and they are organic t-shirts that are label free some really positive messages on there and some of our t-shirts are going to be actually donating to the NHS charity and also our charity Anna Kennedy Online just to remind you www.annakennedyonline.com So Oliver today who is Oliver Rees-Woods and he is the founder of Oliver Jude Clothing I’ve got one of their t-shirts amazing and the t-shirt company or the clothing company was set up in December 2018 and Oliver’s passion

Speaker 1
02:43 – 02:56
is spreading positivity across the globe. He was diagnosed with autism in October 2016 when his whole life changed. I won’t share any more. I’m going to give that to Oliver for him to share.

Speaker 1
02:56 – 02:59
So, welcome, Oliver. Thank you for coming on my show.

Speaker 2
02:59 – 03:05
Hi, Anna. Thank you very much for inviting me on. It’s a pleasure to be on and speaking with you.

Speaker 1
03:05 – 03:11
Oh, thank you so much. So, let’s start at the beginning. Who is Oliver and where are you from?

Speaker 2
03:12 – 03:38
So, I’m Oliver, also known as Ollie. I’m originally from St Helens, which is a small town between Liverpool and Manchester. I’ve lived there My entire life I’ve been surrounded by the most amazing family and the most amazing people and friends growing up from small age. From primary age all the way to high school I’ve had the most amazing support I could ever ask for.

Speaker 2
03:38 – 03:40
Okay, that’s good.

Speaker 1
03:41 – 03:43
Have you seen some of the football results?

Speaker 2
03:44 – 04:03
Well, I’m not a follower of football. OK, I just thought I’d check just in case. Yeah, not my kind of thing. I mean, it’s a strange one, really, because obviously from what I do now, I’m friends with footballers’ wives and footballers, but I don’t follow the sport.

Speaker 2
04:03 – 04:27
So it’s a bit of a strange one, but I go with the flow. All right, then. So, yeah, so from Prime, you know, I was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome. maybe in year four, maybe age six, eight, yeah, which I got, you know, I got picked on and bullied for really, you know, from the small tics of being just different.

Speaker 2
04:28 – 04:41
Yeah, so I was picked on quite a lot for that, which… It must have been tough for you. Yeah, you know, from obviously from being in primary and not knowing what the world was like, yeah, it was hard. Did you tell your mum?

Speaker 2
04:42 – 05:04
Yes, so my mum and my dad and my family were aware of it because they went into school, you know, to kind of educate the kids on what it was and, you know, why it happens and what different things kind of come with Tourette’s.

Speaker 1
05:05 – 05:12
For people listening in that might not have heard of Tourette’s, could you explain just a little bit about how it affected you or what it entailed for you?

Speaker 2
05:13 – 05:49
So for me it was just more of small things so maybe it’d be a movement of the neck that obviously when I’m wearing a tie with a metal clip-on tie you know it’d kind of scratch my neck and it could be anything from a nose movement to moving your nose constantly, it could be an arm movement that’s a kind of a sudden arm movement which comes to a surprise to other people. The Tourette Syndrome symptoms, kind of the different things that come with it is huge. You know, there’s many different things.

Speaker 2
05:49 – 06:06
It goes kind of similar to autism. It goes from, you know, small minor things that aren’t maybe noticeable to kind of, you know, it is noticeable. But for me, it was kind of small things, you know, people were like, oh, why does he do that? But never really thought much of it.

Speaker 2
06:07 – 06:11
But obviously the people that did kind of chose that as an advantage to kind of pick on me.

Speaker 1
06:12 – 06:13
Do you think it’s to do with anxiety?

Speaker 2
06:16 – 06:40
Yeah, do you know what? Maybe, yeah. Obviously being in an unknown environment, obviously anxiety builds and then obviously the tics get worse and more noticeable and more kind of sudden, more happens. So yeah, I do think there is a degree of anxiety that relates to what happens.

Speaker 2
06:40 – 06:42
Yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 1
06:42 – 06:48
Okay, and what did you think about lessons? Did you find them hard or were you getting on okay with your schoolwork?

Speaker 2
06:49 – 07:41
Yes, so I’ve always been, you know, a kind of top-of-the-class, really intelligent, really does-well-in-school kind of person. But for me, I kind of struggled with the routine and the structure, so I’ve obviously now, being just left school, I’ve always found school really hard to kind of deal with because for me the way I see school is it’s kind of wasting my time. I can be doing other things that are more productive out of school or within that time. So obviously when I was in primary when I was getting picked on you know I did have the classroom assistance then which you know, I really got on well with because it was kind of that person I could go to, you know, just to have a conversation, to

Speaker 2
07:41 – 08:00
kind of let my emotions, to speak to that person that guides me in a way. So she did help me a lot through kind of the different changes of things. And then obviously the hardest move that I did was moving to high school.

Speaker 1
08:01 – 08:02
Right.

Speaker 2
08:02 – 08:06
Did you do it in Sam’s? Say it again.

Speaker 1
08:06 – 08:07
Did you do any exams?

Speaker 2
08:10 – 08:42
I did my GCSE mock exams, which took place just after Christmas really, but obviously with the current lockdown, my exams got postponed. So everything for exams is taken from my mock results and my work in school. So what subjects did you choose? So in, obviously you’ve got standard maths and English, I then did BTEC Media, I did history and RE.

Speaker 2
08:43 – 09:13
And obviously you do science as well. But I loved the kind of lessons I picked and what I chose to do, absolutely loved it. You know, for me, history was, I’m always keen to learn and kind of discover something new, learn something new, find out information or if I was given something that I wasn’t kind of too sure about, I don’t, I’m going to Google it or I’m going to have a research of it and find kind of some more background information on things.

Speaker 2
09:13 – 09:16
So for me, RE and history go together.

Speaker 1
09:16 – 09:26
So if actual information works better for you, because obviously it’s something tangible and it’s something that doesn’t change, do you think that’s why you chose those two subjects?

Speaker 2
09:26 – 09:47
Yeah. And I think as well, it’s because, because it, because like you’ve just said, it’s factual. Yeah. For me, English lit or English slang, the poems, I massively struggled with because, you know, the poems, it was like, why do I need to remember 30 poems when in the exam they’re going to do one?

Speaker 2
09:47 – 09:56
Why do I need to learn these? I don’t understand them. They’re written in, you know, completely different language to today. And that really kind of threw me off that.

Speaker 2
09:57 – 10:00
And I lost interest.

Speaker 1
10:00 – 10:11
Well, I’ve spoken to quite a few adults that when they were in schools, they found the break times difficult to deal with because obviously they’re the more social time. So how was that for you?

Speaker 2
10:12 – 10:34
So for me, social time, I did and I didn’t struggle with. It was more of the canteen kind of, you know, dinner room that I struggled with because of the amount of people in one room at once. It’s so noisy, so loud, there’s so many people, there’s so much going on. I just found the whole thing really overwhelming.

Speaker 2
10:35 – 10:59
But to the kind of thing, the point of interacting with other people, yeah, you know, I avoided people, but I also had that group of friends that I was with, you know, that kind of supported me and I got on really well. So in terms of socialising, I did have, you know, kind of a good friendship group at the time. So I got on really well with that.

Speaker 1
10:59 – 11:11
So you had some struggles and then you said when you went to high school obviously that was a little bit more difficult for you so if you don’t mind can you tell me why that was more difficult for you?

Speaker 2
11:11 – 12:10
Yeah so when moving to high school obviously primary school you have you stay kind of in the same classroom for every lesson then obviously moving to high school things become you become a lot more independent yeah so you’re kind of the school relies on you to, you know, to turn up to your lessons on time, turn up with the right equipment, things like that, you know, making sure you’re smart and stuff. But for me, I found that a massive struggle to kind of, I love the independence to it, but I kind of struggled with the older people and the other people that was kind of surrounded me because obviously they were older, they were kind of a lot new, a lot more than I did, which obviously I found year six quite easy because I was at the top, you know, I was, I kind of, kind of knew things more than other people.

Speaker 2
12:10 – 12:20
So, you know, it kind of gave me that, I don’t know, that sense of relief maybe. And then obviously going to high school and going straight back down to the bottom, you know, I did struggle with.

Speaker 1
12:21 – 12:28
Okay. So let’s talk about your clothing company. So why did you start a clothing company and when did you start a clothing company?

Speaker 2
12:29 – 12:58
So in October 2016, I was diagnosed with autism. So before that, before I was diagnosed, my high school didn’t know how to support me. Obviously, we knew the diagnosis was going through and we just didn’t know when we were going to get the diagnosis. So when when I kind of got it, one thing I get asked a lot is, well, did you ever kind of feel a disbelief when you got it?

Speaker 2
12:58 – 13:10
And I said, no, I kind of more felt a relief that I got diagnosis because I knew that I could get support and get the help that I needed to get with the diagnosis.

Speaker 1
13:10 – 13:11
Did you have to wait long?

Speaker 2
13:12 – 13:30
It did take, you know, a few years to kind of get my diagnosis. Okay. which was hard, obviously, because then you can’t apply for funding for one-to-one support. You can’t access certain things without diagnosis.

Speaker 2
13:30 – 13:52
So it was hard before I got the diagnosis, really hard. But then when my high school did receive my autism diagnosis in October 2016, they didn’t know what to do. They kind of paused. on everything, they kind of was surprised that it come.

Speaker 2
13:53 – 14:14
They just didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know how to support me. I was actually labeled as a health and safety risk to the school, which obviously is a powerful thing to kind of label a child. Yeah, so they just didn’t want anything to do with me at the end of the day.

Speaker 2
14:14 – 14:39
They shut the door on me. That was it. they was kind of done with me and I was me and my mum and dad were a bit like oh you know is this really happening yeah because you don’t you kind of don’t expect that previously they kind of they was very supportive in the way that when the diagnosis comes they’re going to guarantee this and then when it did come it was like oh so none of it’s actually going to happen.

Speaker 1
14:40 – 14:41
So you did did you appeal?

Speaker 2
14:42 – 15:30
Yeah, so when, well, no, so when I got the diagnosis and they kind of shut the door on me, we was just in a, we was just like, oh, you know, what do we do now? And I remember in February, the 27th of February 2017 was my year eight parents evening. And I remember I actually got assaulted by a parent in the corridor, which they, when we, when me and my mum went and told one of, you know, the, my, head of house it was at the time she was just like you’re lying you know it never happened and we was just like is this really happening you know my mum was kind of distraught the fact that her son has just been assaulted by parents you know by another parent of a student and now you’re telling us that we’re lying about it.

Speaker 2
15:30 – 15:50
Oh dear, not very supportive. Well yeah I know so then we got took into a side office by one of the heads and the deputy heads and they basically just said your time’s done here we don’t want anything to do with you and you know don’t return to the school and we got exported out the back door of the school and that was that.

Speaker 1
15:51 – 16:02
Oh my word okay all right then so moving on from there doesn’t sound like a very nice experience for either you or for your mum so how did you overcome what happened?

Speaker 2
16:03 – 16:45
So I obviously at the time kind of went through a really bad place with my mental health you know, didn’t trust anybody, didn’t want to interact with people, kind of just put myself in a box, shut the lid, sellotaped it, stayed there for like two years. So going, when the school kind of, you know, they shut the door on me, I was put into Minerva centres, which is basically a place where naughty kids go. And when going there, I went to two different schools in St Helens, that they supported me massively. They didn’t see the reputation that the school was giving me.

Speaker 2
16:46 – 17:15
They didn’t see that because it wasn’t true basically. So they absolutely loved me and now to this day I’m really good friends with them both. The two ladies that led each of the Minervas, I’m really good friends with them and they love what I do. Obviously seeing me from what I was like before where I wouldn’t even have a conversation with them because I didn’t I didn’t know what to say and, you know, I just found that really hard mental health wise.

Speaker 2
17:17 – 17:53
Yeah, and I did struggle a lot, but then going through the process of moving schools took even longer. You know, it was a good four to six month process of finding a new school, which was four to six months of losing out on education. But also within that time, technically I’d lost out on a full two years worth of education because I spent most of my time in an isolation booth, which is basically a box that’s as wide as your chair and from the wall to your back kind of thing, a grey box.

Speaker 2
17:53 – 18:00
You weren’t allowed to move, you weren’t allowed to talk, you had to eat there. It was the most horrible place.

Speaker 1
18:01 – 18:07
You must have been feeling every morning knowing that you’d have to go to this place.

Speaker 2
18:08 – 18:42
horrible, like horrible and you know to this day I kind of want to go back and kind of help the people that are in them places because I do know that there’s kids out there that are still going through the same and still going through what I went through which I think is so wrong but I feel like I need to do something about it. So when I Going back to when I moved to Rainford, when they kind of, you know, we went round the whole of St. Helens and was like, can I move to your school, basically?

Speaker 2
18:43 – 19:04
They was like, no, no, no, the school’s given you this reputation, we don’t want anything to do with you. So at that point, I just felt mass rejection from everyone. You know, no one wanted me, no one wanted to kind of interact with me. And then Rainford come along, and Rainford were like, we want to know why you’ve been treated like this, we want to know how we can support you.

Speaker 2
19:06 – 19:29
With them, if I did something wrong, you know, I was a child at the end of the day, so we all made mistakes. But with them, it was kind of, you’ve done this wrong, you know, this is your punishment, but this is how we’re going to move on and improve on your mistake. So they supported me more in depth of, you know, of the general issue. But whereas my old girl, it was, there’s what you’ve done wrong, there’s your punishment, see you later.

Speaker 2
19:30 – 19:38
No support. I went to Rainford, they just took me on and I just blossomed. It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever been through.

Speaker 1
19:39 – 19:42
So is that where you had the idea of the clothing company then, at Rainford?

Speaker 2
19:42 – 20:10
Yeah, so obviously when I was going through a bad phase of my mental health, it was always told positive things, you need to be positive, you need to see the better side of things. And then when I got to Rainford and I started doing well, I started being accepted for who I am and getting the support. I was like, right now, I want to do something that is going to help other people. And one thing that I was struggling with was finding a way to kind of spread the positivity.

Speaker 2
20:10 – 20:25
I thought, I’ve been given positivity, now I want to give positivity to the people that were in my position. And I struggled to find a way to do that. Then I was like, well, what do you see every day and what do you do every day? I was like, right, well, you wear clothes every day.

Speaker 2
20:26 – 20:38
so why a clothing company why not put positive messages on clothing that other people can see and get a full team of people around the world that can help spread positivity and that’s actually what I did.

Speaker 1
20:39 – 20:40
Okay so was it scary?

Speaker 2
20:43 – 21:24
At first yeah because when I started the business and kind of you know first opened up about my experiences in school and what I’d been through I had a lot and I mean I had hundreds of parents messaging me that their child was going through the same so I was like I was like an emotional wreck going through the whole first three to six months of starting my business because I just had all these people opening up to me of their experiences and what their child’s going through asking for advice asking for help you know a contact help move schools and I was totally overwhelmed by it, I didn’t know what to do.

Speaker 1
21:24 – 21:29
I could totally understand that, so with your clothing company was it just you or did you have someone that helped you?

Speaker 2
21:30 – 22:02
No, it was at the very start it was just me and then through working with, through going to Rainford, with what was a company called at the time was MD Productions, you know and a big thank you to Miguel who owns MD, it’s now MD Creatives but he’s worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Beyonce, he’s been on Britain’s Got Talent multiple times. He’s got a huge, huge client base internationally. I’ve been to Abu Dhabi with him and the team have performed out there.

Speaker 2
22:02 – 22:37
I did all the admin for him. When I started working with him, he gave me a big booster, a big energy booster to get me back on track, get me focused, you know, point me in the right direction, point me to the right people. And then from there, you know, it was then I got my first press article in my local newspaper. I started meeting hundreds and hundreds of people, you know, through networking events.

Speaker 1
22:37 – 22:44
And I just… What was the first message that you had on your t-shirt? What was the first message?

Speaker 2
22:44 – 22:51
first ever one I had was Believe in Yourself. It was the one thing I was always told to do. Come on Ollie, you can do it. Believe in yourself.

Speaker 2
22:52 – 22:54
So that was the first thing I was like, right, that’s what I need to put on a t-shirt.

Speaker 1
22:55 – 22:57
Okay. And how did it feel when you saw it?

Speaker 2
22:59 – 23:09
Well, when I first got them, I was just in shock. I was like, wow. I was like, wow, I’ve really done it. Yeah.

Speaker 2
23:10 – 23:17
Because I was kind of like, say it again. Did you put one on straight away? Yeah, definitely. And when I first got it, I was like, I need to get it on.

Speaker 2
23:18 – 23:34
But it was weird because obviously after having lots of people that kind of didn’t believe in me and had disbelief in me and didn’t want anything to do with me, when I got them, I was like, wow, I’ve proved you wrong. Like, look what I’m doing now. You know, look at me. This is the person that you never believed in.

Speaker 2
23:34 – 23:42
And now I’ve got a company. You know, if you would have believed in me, you know what you could have been doing with me and supporting me.

Speaker 1
23:42 – 24:03
Yeah I’ve been part of so but no you’ve got something to be proud of there so you’ve got your company so was it a difficult process to start the company because I’m thinking there’s people who are listening in that might think wow I’d like to do that you know I was it is it a difficult process setting up something like a clothing company?

Speaker 2
24:04 – 24:35
Yeah I mean obviously starting up a company kind of becomes a big responsibility And a lot of people do think it’s really scary. Now for me, I was like, oh my God, it’s going to be the worst thing I’ve ever done. It’s going to be the worst decision of my life. But when I kind of started off and started just putting little things out there of what I’m doing and telling friends and family, once the support kind of comes with starting a company, it kind of becomes normal and easy.

Speaker 2
24:35 – 25:04
So when I first started, I was kind of in disbelief, you know, of myself. I was like, oh, I don’t know if this is going to be a good decision. But when my friends, my family kind of supported me, it was like, oh, right, OK, you know, I now need to make a difference. So for people that are listening, that are thinking of starting up a company, you know, you will feel kind of nervous, anxious at first because, you know, kind of disbelief.

Speaker 2
25:04 – 25:32
But when you get support from people and help, It makes things so much more easier. So when I very first started, I got in touch, well, a lady called Laura from a company called Status Education in St Helens. She come to my school to do an assembly. And then it was a few months after, I was like, you know what?

Speaker 2
25:32 – 25:38
She said she can help people. So I’m going to get in touch. So I sent her an email and was like, listen, this is what I’m doing. Can you help in any way?

Speaker 2
25:38 – 26:02
And she was like, yeah, we absolutely love what you’re doing. You know, we’re over the moon that you’ve come to us to ask for help. And she basically gave me a hundred pound grant to go and get some T-shirts and sell them. And then we did, you know, we did a photo and an article and I was in the Educate magazine, which was amazing to see.

Speaker 2
26:02 – 26:34
I was in a magazine and then When I got the £100, I went to my local supplier and was like, listen, this is what I’m doing. I’ve got £100, what can we do? And John, the owner of Elite Supplies in St Helens, he just absolutely loved what I did and ended up giving me about £200 worth of stock and was like, mate, you need to do this. You need to get yourself out there and you need to spread lots and lots of positivity.

Speaker 2
26:35 – 26:46
So I was amazed. I was like, oh my God, this is more people that are wanting to support me. Like what on earth is going on? So I was totally, you know, in shock.

Speaker 2
26:46 – 26:55
And that’s when kind of things got booming then and things, you know, things went to celebrities and then built up my client base and things really went bigger then.

Speaker 1
26:55 – 27:06
So with you being diagnosed on the spectrum, is there certain difficulties that you had setting up a company and how did you overcome them?

Speaker 2
27:08 – 27:51
So for me it was, I was always very independent, so I was always wanting to do things by myself, you know, kind of didn’t want help from people or didn’t want to accept that I needed help. Okay. So obviously being autistic people kind of question you, you know, on, you know, obviously I’m different, so people question you on why you want to do this, why you want to make that decision, why you want to buy that. So people were very kind of sceptical around what I was doing and didn’t know how to take it because it was like, oh, this is basically this kid that has autism that wants to do something like this.

Speaker 2
27:51 – 27:57
It’s like, oh, you know, that’s a bit different. So people were having questions.

Speaker 1
27:57 – 28:20
So people were questioning you because of your diagnosis. So the process itself for you, you found it fairly easy and you ran with it. And obviously one of your designs, I think it was just one of the designs, it might have been a couple, you actually saw them on the runway at London Fashion Week. So that is obviously amazing thing to happen in such a short space of time.

Speaker 1
28:21 – 28:24
So how did that happen and how did you feel?

Speaker 2
28:25 – 28:49
Yeah, so obviously back in February this year, I was given the most amazing opportunity by Helen and the team at Buzz Talent in London. They are a talent management group and they basically started to follow me on Instagram and I was a bit like, oh, that’s interesting. And basically she rang me and was like, Ollie, listen, I’ve got this. We love what you do.

Speaker 2
28:49 – 28:58
We’ve been watching you for quite a while. Do you want to do it? And I was like, oh, Oh, wow. You know, I was totally overwhelmed by it.

Speaker 2
28:59 – 29:12
And this, you know, it started just before Christmas of the whole process. And then we ended up going down to London for a meeting. And then and then it was kind of the big thing. The big day came, you know, in the Connaught Rooms in London.

Speaker 2
29:12 – 29:35
I know. Yeah. So it was so strange to see, you know, it was all about models of diversity, so I had a majority of models that were different. Some had one arm, one leg, proper, giving them the confidence and the ability to do such an amazing opportunity.

Speaker 2
29:36 – 29:43
And then to see them with empowering messages on T-shirts, I was like, oh my God, this is amazing to see.

Speaker 1
29:44 – 29:46
Oh, I bet your mum was proud.

Speaker 2
29:47 – 30:07
Yeah, both my mum and dad were overwhelmed as well with seeing what I was doing. Obviously they’ve seen me from a young age going through what I went through. Now to see me doing London Fashion Week, it was just like wow, how has he got to this point?

Speaker 1
30:07 – 30:56
There was just one thing I wanted to share with people in case they get messages and sometimes I get messages from various different people and sometimes you’ve got to be careful don’t you Ollie. because sometimes people say to you certain things and then they don’t follow through with what they say or they’re not who they appear to be so you always have to be wary and always sort of get confirmation wherever you can and get things in writing as well so I just wanted to point that out for people that are listening in. I just wanted to share something about I’ve got a new ambassador called Ethan so Ethan Kamalo, so he’s one of my new ambassadors which was announced last week, an amazing young man, he’s 17 years old, he’s autistic, a dancer and a lyricist and he performs grime rap music,

Speaker 1
30:56 – 31:22
so if you want to check out more information about Ethan, he’s got a rap there on YouTube and he gave a speech and he’s just He received one of our Pineapple Performing Arts Scholarship at Covent Garden. He’s been on Autumn’s Got Talent a couple of times for me. So if you want to check him out, check out our charity website on all of our ambassadors, all of our charity champions and all of my patrons. They’re all fantastic role models.

Speaker 1
31:23 – 31:47
I just wanted to share about Ethan. And one more thing I’d like to share is a book that I was asked to read. and also to be on the front cover of Reaffirmation. So it’s coming to terms with an autism diagnosis and it’s about Rhys Finlay and I’ve written on the front, Rhys is clever, witty and shares his story in such a creative way.

Speaker 1
31:47 – 32:13
So Rhys makes the art that most people say that they will do one day a stunning reality. His insistence on giving unselfishly of himself and surrendering his walls rewards us with a rarely seen, brutally honest self-assessment that is life-affirming in every way. So he’s 25 and it’s the life of a comic book artist. Rhys Finlay was turned upside down when he was diagnosed as autistic.

Speaker 1
32:14 – 32:47
Left isolated, confused and defeated, Rhys sets out to dissect who he is. what happened and how to return to his perceived former glory in a groundbreaking combination of a comic book and novella with the occasional rant. with your book. So going back to Oliver today, Ollie, with Oliver Jude Clothing.

Speaker 1
32:47 – 32:55
So you received the Young Community Star Award at the Pride of St Helens 2019. So how was that?

Speaker 2
32:56 – 33:19
I certainly did. It was, you know, again, another amazing opportunity and achievement to have, you know, behind my company. you know, to this day, I still don’t know who nominated me. But when, you know, when you had your name read out that you’d won, I was just like, oh my God, has this really happened?

Speaker 2
33:19 – 33:55
And, you know, I was, again, just in total overwhelming and shocked that it was happened, you know, I was up against two amazing people as well. And when my name just got read out that I’d won, I was like, oh my God, I was like, no way, it’s me. Yeah, when I was on stage, you know, it was a guy, a presenter from Sky Sports who was presenting the awards, you know, and he was like, oh, do you mind staying on stage for like a few minutes to have a quick chat? So I was like, oh my God, I was like, okay, yeah, sure.

Speaker 2
33:56 – 34:25
So yeah, and then, you know, he was asking me questions about, you know, how I started my company, my story. And then when I’d finished, and kind of telling my story, the whole room stood up and applauded me, which kind of just set me off. I was like, oh my god, no way. And then after you’ve won the award you get to talk to a back room and there was a load of press there and people that want to meet you and there was rooms full of people.

Speaker 2
34:25 – 34:29
I was like, Oh my God. Okay. Chill. There’s people with cameras everywhere.

Speaker 2
34:29 – 34:33
There’s press everywhere. There’s people that want to meet me. I was like, Oh my God, I’m like a celebrity.

Speaker 1
34:34 – 34:53
So how do you cope with that? Cause obviously some people on the spectrum would find that a little bit overwhelming and they, they probably wouldn’t like it, but then you’ve obviously got people like yourself that they take it within their stride. So have you got any tips and advice for people, obviously when meeting new people in social situations, how do you handle it and how do you keep yourself calm?

Speaker 2
34:54 – 35:41
Yeah, so for me, obviously, when going, even going shopping and, you know, having a shopping building full of people, yeah, it is very overwhelming, but one thing I always do is think of who I am, think of why I’m here, and I’m a very organised person, so I’m like, okay, we need to go to this place, this specific time, everything’s done to the minute, you know, So for people that are listening out there that kind of struggle with anxiety of meeting people, I would say that take a deep breath, count to five, shut your eyes, count to five, open your eyes, smile and go smash it.

Speaker 1
35:42 – 36:28
so you know you say you like things to the minute so sometimes things don’t work to the minute because that’s not the way the world works so how would you deal with so say for example they say right at ten past two we’re going to ask you to come on stage Ollie and this is when we’re going to give you the award and we’d like to give you a speech so it goes past ten past two it’s quarter past two it’s half past two and it still hasn’t happened how do you deal with that because I’ve spoken to some young performers or whatever it is that they’re going to do and they find it really difficult to deal with and sometimes they may think I can’t do this so how do you help yourself keep calm so you’re looking at it it’s not it’s not the time that they said that it was going to happen so how do you deal with it?

Speaker 2
36:29 – 37:05
So for me communication is a big thing so that you know things like that do happen especially I you know attend a lot of a lot of events so a lot of them things happen a lot of the time which, you know, like you said, I do find it very kind of hard to deal with sudden changes and things aren’t going to time. But for me, it would be just make sure communication is there. So go and speak to the people that are running the event, the people that are kind of, you know, telling you these times, speak to them and say, you know, why aren’t things going to time?

Speaker 2
37:05 – 37:25
You know, can I have an estimated time? you know, between 10 and 15 minutes or can I have another slot of time that I can kind of prepare myself because anxiety becomes a big thing of it. Yeah. So if, for me, if I’m not told things, my anxiety is like through the roof, I’m like, oh my God, I can’t do this.

Speaker 2
37:26 – 37:44
I need, you know, I want to go home. I don’t want to do this anymore. But if communication is there with events management teams or people that you kind of eased into a later time, you know, give yourself something to distract yourself for it, make sure just one, you know, the key thing is make sure that communication is there.

Speaker 1
37:45 – 38:20
I think you need to find a point of contact as well, don’t you? So maybe before you go to the event and just say can I have someone who’s a point of contact, can I speak to only them if possible and also maybe it might be worth asking before you go to an event, if I find it a little bit overwhelming is there somewhere quiet that I can go where I can just take stock of myself and then basically come back out again and I feel that I’m ready so there are things that you can do but try and plan ahead before you get there just to make it a little bit more easier for you.

Speaker 1
38:20 – 38:29
So tell me about your YouTube series so what’s that all about and when did you start it and what do you want to achieve?

Speaker 2
38:29 – 38:51
So I got the idea the week before Mental Health Week, which was roughly five or six weeks ago. And I thought, you know what, I want to make a difference. I want to, I know that Mental Health Week is a big thing for some people. So I thought, OK, I’m going to start some YouTube.

Speaker 2
38:51 – 39:25
And the whole concept around my show is that I give a platform to people that want to spread their story, spread their message, tell the world who they are and just give them that kind of opportunity and chance to just tell the world what they’ve been through and how they got through things and give advice and help to other people. I’m now about 20 episodes in and I have got about another 10 to 12 more to go.

Speaker 1
39:25 – 39:32
So what types of people have you got on there, the children, adults, mixture, is it to do with disability, what is it?

Speaker 2
39:32 – 40:15
Yeah, I’ve had a whole mixture of people, I’ve had celebrities on from Les Seeley, the legend Les Seeley, his son Joe I’ve had on, his wife is on the Real Housewives of Cheshire, So I have had him on, I’ve had an actor called Marco Robinson, who’s a number one selling author. I’ve had him on, I’ve had people just from a student to a parent, people from all backgrounds, all, you know, all backgrounds, all ethnics, the whole thing. I’ve had a variety of people on.

Speaker 2
40:15 – 40:57
okay so people want to check you out and they want to check out your website your t-shirts your youtube channel where will they find you can you share that with me please so they can find me at oliverjudeclothing.com that is my website so it’s jude j u d e yeah no gas you think just all of you know that’s all one oliverjudeclothing.com okay social media facebook and instagram is both oliverjudeclothing twitter is oliverjudecloth because it was too long, so it’s C L O T H at the end of my Twitter. YouTube is Mr Oliver Jude and my Instagram for the show is underscore the OJ show.

Speaker 1
40:57 – 41:05
Okay, so is there any tips that you would give to people that are trying to promote their company on social media? Is there anything, any do’s and don’ts?

Speaker 2
41:06 – 42:06
So for me, do’s is find a strategy, find a something that people will take interest in. So for me, a social media template, you know, making sure that when you click on that person’s Instagram or that person’s Facebook or Twitter, make sure it looks interesting, you know, certain things with colours, find your colour scheme or your palette. And one thing that massively helped me is influencers and celebrities, you know, so I’ve met a huge amount of celebrities that helped me and still support me and you know most of them have become really good friends of mine and so reaching out to people and PR companies that have links with people just reach out and ask and say listen this is what I’m doing can you help me in any way and nine times out of ten they will turn around and go you know what we love it we’re going to help you so I

Speaker 2
42:06 – 42:28
think people that want to get their company out on social media, make a big, you know, a big do for me is just find the right connections, find the right people that want, that really want, you know, that genuinely want to support you and not just want to follow you because you need following. For me, it’s not about following, it’s about what people are going to make a difference with me and going to support me.

Speaker 1
42:28 – 42:30
Yeah, mine is if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Speaker 2
42:31 – 42:52
Yeah, I totally agree with that. I totally agree. You know, for me, you know, again, meeting some of the huge celebrities you know they must think you know I go oh can I send you this and you do post for me and they’ll go absolutely 100% because I love what you do and so yeah you know if yeah I agree if you don’t ask you don’t get it.

Speaker 1
42:52 – 42:56
Okay where can you see your company in five or ten years time because you’re only 16 now?

Speaker 2
42:57 – 43:51
Yeah so I am launching a whole new collection in September this year which I’m hoping to kind of, again, kick things off out of lockdown. But five years, for me, I’m at a time now where I kind of just want to get on with my life, with my company. So, you know, I’ve always wanted to be at the top, always wanted to be a millionaire, have lots of money, have everything that I want in life. So for me, in the next five years, I see myself to you know, be turning over like, you know, a million pounds a year, having a huge amount of stock that can really spread more positivity and have, you know, a massive kind of customer base and client base

Speaker 2
43:51 – 43:55
of people that will spread positivity with me.

Speaker 1
43:55 – 44:01
Okay. So can I ask you, why do you, why do you want to make a lot of money? Why do you want to be a millionaire?

Speaker 2
44:02 – 44:39
So for me, Growing up, there’s always been a struggle financially. So for me, being brought up in a home that doesn’t have a lot of money and kind of doesn’t have a big income like other people do and some of my friends do. So for me, I’m like, I’m always want to kind of pay back. So everything that I do, I’m like, you know, I want to make lots of money because I don’t want to be having that kind of financial restriction on my life to kind of stop me from doing the things that I want to do.

Speaker 2
44:41 – 45:06
You know, so from being, you know, like say three, four years ago where I was in a position where, you know, I felt like I had to take some responsibility on for finances within the house, which was a big thing and a big struggle. But now I’m at a point now where I’m like, you know, I want to make lots of money because I don’t want to be in that position. I want to kind of just be able to have the financial freedom.

Speaker 1
45:06 – 45:09
Okay and do you have an accountant to help you with your business?

Speaker 2
45:10 – 45:16
No so I do all my accounts myself and do everything all the finances and everything I do it all myself.

Speaker 1
45:17 – 45:45
Okay so that’s something else that’s obviously an added pressure so talking about pressure and because we’re a show about mental health and well-being What do you do to relax? How do you relax so that you can focus with, how can I say, a fresh memory and, you know, keep going with your company? Because obviously it’s hard and it can be draining. And obviously, I want to talk to you about Covid as well and how lockdown has affected you.

Speaker 1
45:46 – 45:54
So let’s talk about, let’s talk, let’s actually let’s talk about lockdown. How has that affected you and has it had an impact on your business?

Speaker 2
45:54 – 46:10
So at the beginning of lockdown, obviously, I think the whole of the country was just in shock. You know, we totally didn’t know what was going on. Obviously, the government themselves didn’t have a clue what was going on. Well, yeah, they’re still struggling a bit, aren’t they?

Speaker 2
46:10 – 46:42
Yeah. So, yeah, so for the business, things were kind of just easing off a bit because obviously everyone was so unsure of what was happening. So I felt the whole world just come to a kind of a standstill because there was this crazy virus that was like taking over the whole world, which it did. So lockdown business-wise, things come to a halt and things slowly stopped because people didn’t know what was going to happen.

Speaker 2
46:43 – 47:12
But when the whole furlough system come in, I was like, okay, I need to jump on the bandwagon because there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to be ordering online. My company is an online business. So I was kind of, you know, really pushing on things which didn’t go, you know, it didn’t get picked up on because obviously furlough is a 20% pay cut at the end of the day. So people were bringing in an income less than what they usually would.

Speaker 2
47:14 – 47:41
So people were struggling financially and still are. So for me I was like okay so I know how it feels to be in that position of having that financial restriction so I’m just going to pause and not push on things and I’m just going to go back to just putting out positive things on social media and using social media to make people happy and not push on my business because it would be wrong.

Speaker 1
47:41 – 47:45
Is it just t-shirts you sell? Do you sell anything else other than t-shirts?

Speaker 2
47:45 – 48:03
Yes, so just before Christmas I did hoodies, so t-shirts and hoodies and cups but at the moment I’ve kind of took everything back and just gone back to t-shirts. Right. But from September there will be the whole shebang of things which is to come.

Speaker 1
48:04 – 48:06
Okay, is that for children and adults or just adults?

Speaker 2
48:07 – 48:38
Yeah, so just adults for now. With me, I want to go into children’s clothing But it’s just financing and stock, you know, and kind of getting my audience right of, is there going to be more kids buying my clothes than adults? And from what I’ve saw since starting the businesses, there’s a lot more adults that want to support me because they kind of understand what I’ve been through and why my story is what it is. So yeah.

Speaker 1
48:38 – 48:51
Have you been working with them Bionanxia? So Kelly’s obviously one of my friends and she has been supporting the charity and I’m proud to be ambassador as is Angelo. So have you been working with Kelly and how did you meet Kelly?

Speaker 2
48:52 – 49:27
Yeah so we know each other through mutual friends so she knows a friend of mine who he showed an article to Kelly about me and she just absolutely loved it and started following me and But I was obviously, I didn’t kind of know anything about what my friend Al had done. So after Kelly started following me, I was like, all right, okay, just another person that wants to help support me. And then we just kind of got chatting and she was very, very supportive because she totally understood me and what I’d been through.

Speaker 2
49:28 – 49:38
And then we was like, oh, let’s collab. So we ended up bringing out a Believe in Yourself t-shirt as a collab to get the positivity out there even more.

Speaker 1
49:40 – 50:48
So that’s brilliant because her t-shirts are obviously label free because a lot of young people and adults on the spectrum find the labels inside t-shirts very irritating so there’s no labels inside the fabric itself is very very soft organic cotton and washes really well too so I’m proud to be ambassador and obviously we’ve got the thank you t-shirts and a percentage of the profits goes to the NHS Million charity and also our own charity Anna Kennedy Online. Just to remind you it’s www.annakennedyonline.com and on social media I’m at Anna Kennedy One on Twitter, Anna Kennedy Online on Facebook and at Anna Kennedy OBE on Instagram and if you need any support or you just want to have a rant or you just want to have a chat with someone please contact us via the charity website there’s a contact form on there and keep checking out our events lots of things going on to obviously we can’t do the events as in you know, the expo building at Brunel University or at, you know, various different

Speaker 1
50:48 – 50:58
locations. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed that that’s going to be happening again soon. It’s just taking one day at a time. I know it’s really difficult.

Speaker 1
50:58 – 51:16
My son Patrick, you know, he’s still on furlough. He’s been off since March and I can just so see that he just so needs to go back to work soon. So we’re just taking it a day at a time. Angelo’s finding it a little bit difficult too, but you know, we can only do what we can do and we just got to try and support each other.

Speaker 1
51:17 – 51:26
Less of the negativity as well that I’ve been seeing on social media. I can’t bear it. You know, there’s a lot of tough stuff going on around the world at the moment. We all need to be supporting each other.

Speaker 1
51:26 – 51:43
One of my charity ambassadors, Phil Wills, he’s written an article on the charity website. So he’s got positive things to share. So his son Josh is 19, autistic. When he was 12, he was hospitalized in Birmingham, many miles away from his home and here in Cornwall.

Speaker 1
51:43 – 52:18
He stayed there until after his 15th birthday. Phil fought so very hard and very public campaign to get him the care he now has. so obviously couldn’t see him during a lockdown but he went to visit him a couple of weeks ago and it was such an amazing as the photographs are so lovely and so if you want to see some of the photographs you want to hear some of the stuff that Phil’s been doing with his son please check out the charity website on our latest news lots of stuff on there lots of stuff as well on the resources page So if there’s anything there that you feel that you might need help with, we’ve got some stuff on

Speaker 1
52:18 – 52:28
the resources page. If you want to add to our resources page and you see that something that you think, oh, it should be on there. It’s great information. It’s great advice to share with the autism community.

Speaker 1
52:29 – 52:45
Please let us know and we will upload it to the resources page. So, Oliver, you’ve got a very, very inspiring story here and I’m really excited to see how you’re going to progress with it. Have you got any siblings, by the way? I didn’t ask you that.

Speaker 2
52:46 – 52:54
Yes, I’ve got an older sister. She’s 18. Right, and how do you get on? We struggle with teenagers.

Speaker 2
52:55 – 53:10
We’re both going through a time where it’s we kind of want our own space, we don’t want anything to do with each other. Yeah, so it’s, you know, the kind of stereotypical teenager thing that you can think of.

Speaker 1
53:10 – 53:13
Do you think it’s to do with lockdown as well because it’s difficult and stressful?

Speaker 2
53:14 – 53:24
Yeah, I mean, yeah, lockdown has made things a lot more difficult because obviously same household and things like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1
53:25 – 53:52
How about just going shopping because I find the whole shopping thing a bit stressful myself so I tend to sort of go to smaller supermarkets that are attached to petrol stations if you like because they’re easier to navigate and then if I want to buy anything as in clothes wise not that anyone’s got anywhere to go now that I tend to get it off eBay or whatever or you know sites that I’m used to so how about finding the whole going into the town thing?

Speaker 2
53:53 – 54:39
For me, I am not the biggest fan of shopping as it is, you know, because obviously I find the whole thing quite overwhelming. So for me, if I’m going to go shopping, I’m going to go, sounds a bit strange, but I’m going to go somewhere big because if I go somewhere big, then there will be more space for people. So obviously I now live in Manchester, so the Trafford Centre is around the corner from where I live. So for me, I would rather go to the Trafford Centre because I know there will be a place where I can either step aside in the corridor and go into a kind of a corner and just have a minute or I can, the shops are a lot bigger

Speaker 2
54:39 – 55:22
and for people with autism, they kind of like the smaller spaces. But for me, all my experience with the shopping is the smaller space tends to be a lot more people there or it feels like there’s a lot more people there. So if I was to go somewhere bigger, so you know for me Manchester City Centre is the Arndale for example. So for me that’s a big place but there’s a lot of things in that place at once which again I find quite overwhelming but somewhere like the Trafford Centre it’s so big and so huge although there’s a lot going on I I can always take the opportunity and

Speaker 2
55:22 – 55:31
chance to take myself aside and have a minute or go back to the car park and just have five minutes in the car.

Speaker 1
55:31 – 55:34
How are you finding wearing a mask? Are you wearing a mask?

Speaker 2
55:34 – 56:01
I find it hard. I wear glasses, so my face and glasses constantly steam up, which I find really hard because obviously I then struggle to see. But for me, I find it really claustrophobic. I find having a mask on, I find it really claustrophobic and struggle to breathe with things so I do find it hard but at the end of the day I have to try my best.

Speaker 1
56:01 – 56:23
As far as you have been there, create something with a logo on it? Well it might be soon to come. And also, are people social distancing where you are? Because I find that now, the longer we are in lockdown or, you know, I think people have sort of stopped social distancing.

Speaker 1
56:23 – 56:32
It just seems that, I can’t believe, like, the beaches and, like, obviously Liverpool 1, there was definitely no social distancing going on there when they were celebrating.

Speaker 2
56:32 – 56:46
Totally agree. Totally agree. I think people are just, they just don’t care, if I’m going to be totally honest. You know, I think at the end of the day, we’ve been in lockdown for over 12 weeks.

Speaker 1
56:46 – 56:46
Yeah.

Speaker 2
56:47 – 57:02
And they’ve been 12 very hard weeks. And at the beginning, everyone was trying so hard. And then, you know, not to kind of call Boris out, but when Boris and the government come on and was like, right, OK, we’re going to try something different. And it didn’t work.

Speaker 2
57:02 – 57:07
Everyone was like, right, we don’t care anymore. You don’t know what to do. We’re just going to carry on doing what we want to do.

Speaker 1
57:07 – 57:24
I think his instructions were not clear, they were very confusing, so yeah, it’s just like I said, he should speak to people as if he’s speaking to the autism community, then maybe the message would be a little bit more clear, concise, you know.

Speaker 2
57:25 – 57:47
Yeah, because at the end of the day, I find things that would rather be clear, you know, not beat around the bush, straight to the point. straight to what his point is, why he’s doing it, and that’s it. No bringing in other things, another this, another that, and the daily press conferences. It’s like, mate, you’re wasting time.

Speaker 2
57:47 – 57:52
We need to just get to the point.

Speaker 1
57:52 – 58:07
Most definitely. So we’re nearly coming to the end. We’ve got a couple of minutes to go. So is there any tips and advice that you would give to people that are in your position that might have just set up a company?

Speaker 1
58:07 – 58:17
Because I feel sorry for people who just set up a company at the beginning of the lockdown. And then obviously this happened. So any tips and advice that you can share with people? People are always looking for tips and advice.

Speaker 1
58:17 – 58:20
Any tips and advice that you can share just in a minute?

Speaker 2
58:21 – 58:36
Yeah, so one of my good friends has just started a company in lockdown called Zoombox UK. She basically does a box full of goodies, loads of different ones. And it’s boomed because everyone’s at home. They’re all like, oh, let’s order this box.

Speaker 2
58:36 – 58:50
And it comes with loads of gifts and surprises. So that’s Steph Ladigo, who owns Go PR, who started the company, which is amazing. And it’s helped me a lot. But for me, tips and advice would be take advantage of the time you’ve got.

Speaker 2
58:50 – 59:10
Because when your business starts to become such a big thing, you will realise how precious time is. And the thing for me would be is to Yeah, take advantage of the time and just enjoy the moment.

Speaker 1
59:11 – 59:22
All right, well that’s fantastic advice. I want to say thank you so much for coming to talk to me. It’s a shame we couldn’t meet at Covent Garden but hey-ho, these are the times that we’re in. I just want to say thanks so much.

Speaker 1
59:22 – 59:44
I want to wish you all the luck in the world. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Positive messages, that’s what I love. I think we need more of that and I’m going to look out for your new range that’s coming out in September so I’m going to see what all that’s about that sounds very exciting so again thank you so much and if people want to find you it is

Speaker 1
59:44 – 59:59
at www.oliverjudeclothing.com and obviously you’re on social media so you’re on Instagram you’re on Twitter you’re on Facebook so again thank you so much Oliver and all the best stay safe