Episode 238: Down syndrome advocacy – Matthew Schwab Speaks

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Carolyn Kiel: On today’s episode, I’m speaking with Matthew Schwab, a 27-year-old North Carolina native who’s working towards the goal of living independently. Matthew graduated from high school in June, 2017 with an occupational course of study diploma, and in May, 2019, he completed Project Search, an internship based educational program at Wake Technical Community College.

In addition to being an actor and public speaker, Matthew works as a host at Townhall Grill in Chapel Hill. Matthew also serves on the Board of Directors for GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh: a Down Syndrome Achievement Center, and First in Families of North Carolina.

Matthew loves doing things with his family and friends and spending time with his fiancée. He’s passionate about raising awareness about Down syndrome and the entire community of people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, or IDDs. In 2019, he gave a TEDx talk about the importance of employing those with IDD. Matthew hopes to help change the way the world sees Down syndrome. Matthew, welcome to the podcast.

Matthew Schwab: Thank you very much!

Carolyn Kiel: I am so excited to learn about your life and all of the really cool things that you do these days. So to start out, what was your childhood like for you growing up with Down Syndrome?

Matthew Schwab: It felt normal to me because I did not pay attention to my diagnosis. Only thing is when I was younger that I, I did notice was that school was harder than my brothers. I mean harder for me. And I had all these therapies at, at the time, I had all, all kinds of therapies from occupational therapy, feeding therapy, and physical therapy, and hippotherapy through therapeutic horseback riding. And I got to go to special events because at that time, just when I was born, my mom, Michelle Schwab and my fiancée’s mom, Maria Romano and and other moms started the North Carolina Down Syndrome Alliance, which was then the Triangle Down Syndrome network. We all started GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh in June of 2016.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. So you’ve been, you’ve been very busy your whole life between school and when you were younger, all of the different therapies, and starting your Down syndrome advocacy with your, your mom and your fiancée’s mom pretty early on. So you’ve always been very active in the community.

Matthew Schwab: Thanks.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, and you know, you, you do many things now as an adult, but one of the things, and I think the thing that helped me find you, is that you are a public speaker.

You’ve given a TEDx talk, and you speak pretty regularly about Down syndrome advocacy and the importance of employing people with Down Syndrome. How did you first realize that you enjoyed public speaking?

Matthew Schwab: So it, it is kind of a, a funny story. Because in middle school, we had to do those science presentations and, and I, I chose mine on Down syndrome. I had a basic knowledge of what Down Syndrome was at at the time. But it, it wasn’t until years later in 2014 for World Down Syndrome Day and, and I, loved it. It was just a, a blast, which kind of feeds into the next thing, which is the speaking journey.

Carolyn Kiel: So you discovered in middle school that you know, Hey, I really like public speaking. So how did you decide like, yeah, I wanna do more of this. Like how did you become a public speaker and advocate for people with Down Syndrome?

Matthew Schwab: Well, so, officially, it kind of goes as far as four years after the first speaking, first public speaking engagement in 2018 when my mom, Michelle Schwab pushed me the idea of going about entrepreneurially, creating a business around it. And it was then that my, my mom, Michelle, and I were creating the business Matthew Schwab Speaks. Because there was an event with the North Carolina Down Syndrome Alliance, I think at that time it, it was still Triangle Down Syndrome Network: their annual Buddy Walk in October of 2019. So in anticipation for that, we were creating the business and an app. Buddy Walk came around, which was October of 2019. That’s when I started officially, Matthew Schwab Speaks.

My TED talk, TEDx talk happened just a couple months after the establishment of my business. And then I started to get national inquiries shortly after my TED Talk, but, but it was kind of poor timing because it was during COVID. So the, so it, it ended up being a, a lot being virtual speaking engagements. And, and two them were kind of national, with the initial plan of being there in person, but now virtual because of COVID, I spoke to US Customs and Border Protection and Coca-Cola.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow.

Matthew Schwab: Yes. And, and then, and then when my business was slowly picking up because due to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was starting to get a lot more regular speaking engagements. That’s when I started to speak nationally officially.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow.

Matthew Schwab: I’ve, I’ve flown all over the, the country. Well, not all 50 states, but, but all over from different coasts, like from the south coast, east, northeastern coast, like New Orleans, New Hampshire, Texas. And a lot of them I already visited before in my young age with, with family. But a good handful of them I have not been to before my business. I just love the experience of going to places that I’d never been before.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s so cool. And you, so you live in North Carolina now, so you’ve, you’ve gotten to travel all over the United States. That is, that’s awesome. And get to see new places. That sounds like fun.

Matthew Schwab: Yes, it is.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. And so what are your favorite topics to speak about?

Matthew Schwab: Well, I, I love to talk about myself. And with my business, I’m, I’m able to speak on any topic that they want me to speak about. But the highest in demand is the importance of employment for individuals with Down syndrome and the importance of inclusivity. And I integrate that with my life as one of the examples of many lives that would come.

Carolyn Kiel: You have your public speaking business, you spend a lot of time public speaking, but you do a lot of other things as well. So what other things do you like to do when you’re not giving speeches?

Matthew Schwab: With my business technically, so I don’t just do speaking engagements, I’m able to do all forms of advocacy and all forms of spreading my message. I have t-shirts on my website for sale. And I also have done two podcast things. One audio version and, and one video version, which is Matthew Schwab Listens, which you can visit on my website, where I interviewed cool people that are doing great things in community that I’ve known.

And also through my business, Matthew Schwab Speaks, I’m not just booked for all speaking engagements. I also can be booked for exhibitor booths, where I have my own table handing out my business cards. That’s the more awareness aspect of my, my business. And I have a strong social media presence. My strongest social media is Instagram, over 30,000 followers.

But outside of my business, I love watching TV, doing stuff on my computer. I love doing sports like I, I just now in Special Olympics for Orange County in Chapel Hill, which is, I I love that. So far this season I’ve, I’ve done a whole season long of tennis. Whole season long of basketball, one off pickleball clinics and a season long pickleball clinic.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun!

Matthew Schwab: Yeah, and I did Special Olympics before in with Wood count County, when I did equestrian horseback riding.

I love walking. I love spending time with family and friends and family, including my, my fiancée and her family. Ballroom dancing with my fiancée Lucia. I, I love volunteering and I love acting.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm. That’s awesome. Yeah. I saw on your Instagram that you and Lucia have been doing a lot of ballroom dancing lately. How did you two get interested in that?

Matthew Schwab: And so just by happy mistake on my end because Lucia has been wanting to do Dancing With the Stars for years, ever since we were boyfriend and girlfriend. And I said, well, I’m not so sure about that. But on my end and, and then I, something slipped inside my head like, oh, I could do it! And then we found Fred Astaire Dance Studio franchise. And they have a location which is very convenient for us.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm. That’s awesome.

Matthew Schwab: We’ve been doing it for four years and counting.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Oh, that’s really cool.

And I wanted to ask you about your job. We, you know, mentioned it in your bio and I know you talk about how important it is for people with Down Syndrome to have opportunities to have jobs. Can you tell me a little bit about your current job and what you like about it?

Matthew Schwab: Yes. So aside from my business, I have technically three jobs with my, my volunteering. So I’ll start with my, my paid, my actual job job, Townhall Grill, which is conveniently located in Southern Village, in Chapel Hill. And, I’m a host. I’ve been doing the same job in the same industry, food service for ever since I started my very first job at Chick-fil-A when I was 16 years old.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And that’s great that it’s convenient and near where you live, and it sounds like a great, it sounds like a great match for your skills. You’ve been doing it for so long.

You also mentioned that you like to do acting, which is just amazing. I, I’ve seen your post that you’ve been in a couple of tv movies and movies, things like that. How did you, how did you get into acting?

Matthew Schwab: Well, so it actually goes as far back when I was young because I’m, I’m, I’m more established in the other end of the spectrum of acting: the, the theater, community theater, high school theater, I’ve done that ever since I was little and I loved it.

And, and then in high school I had opportunity to do tech for some productions. Like I, I did, WIzard of Oz was my upbringing to acting. And then I did that as an usher, handed out the playbills freshman year. And then sophomore year was Peter Pan, and I, I was on props crew. Then junior year was James and Giant Peach, I was on costumes crew for that. And my senior year, I’m class of 2017 from Holly Springs High School, I did Phantom of the Opera my senior year on props crew, and I loved teching! And I still love teching, but I’ve not actively done teching.

And then my mom kind of forcefully advised me for professional acting, so I just had to thank my mom for that. I’m, I’m, I’ve, I’m in that, I’m new in that journey. I’ve been in that journey for like maybe about a year and a half now. And, and it’s great. I I love the journey. I, I did TurboTax, my first gig for their March Madness commercial as an extra, and I did one for Ameriprise Financial, which was after my movie, which is Horsegirls, which is actually coming out June 9th of this year. It’s premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, that’s so cool. Wow. And is Horsegirls your first, that’s your first movie?

Matthew Schwab: Yes. First movie but officially second gig because it was the first commercial and then the movie, and then the next commercial.

Carolyn Kiel: Ah, I got it. Okay. Wow, that’s really awesome. I’m glad it’s, it’s so much fun and, and so enjoyable for you. That’s, that’s really cool. Yeah. I’m very excited for your movie.

Matthew Schwab: Thanks.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, so, you know, I wanna get back to your work as an advocate for people with Down Syndrome and the types of things you talk about. What are some of the biggest stereotypes about people with Down Syndrome that you wanna challenge?

Matthew Schwab: There are a lot of misconceptions. And some of them is that “people with Down syndrome can’t work,” which can feed into the 80 20, which is 80% of of individuals with a disability are unemployed. And of the 20% that are employed, most of that 20% are underemployed. And I want to directly challenge that.

And “people with disabilities and Down syndrome can’t drive.” Well, we can actually drive. Because my fiancée Lucia, like a select few people with Down syndrome, my fiancée has a full license. Which is awesome.

And another misperception is ” people with disabilities can’t get married.” Which obviously it’s not true because you, you seen all the stuff on, like the TV show Born This Way and on YouTube. And Lucia and I have been engaged for just over, fairly over a year and a half and we are planning to get married next year. We have not done anything with the planning process yet. We are more focused on our independent living together.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s great. And I’ve seen, yeah, I’ve seen on your Instagram that you and Lucia like cooking together and, you know, just starting to build your life together and that, that’s really awesome. And it’s so great to see you as, as examples and really showing that people with Down syndrome don’t automatically have limits to their life. It’s really up to each individual and, and what their goals are and what kind of supports they can get to achieve what they want in their lives.

Matthew Schwab: Yes, I, I agree with that.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. So Matthew, it’s been really great talking with you. How can people get in touch with you if they wanna learn more about your public speaking, your acting, like all of the cool things that you do?

Matthew Schwab: There’s multiple ways to contact me. Officially through my business, Matthew Schwab Speaks. My website is Matthew with the two ts, Matthew Schwab, S-C-H-W-A-B Speaks, S-P-E-A-K-S dot com. And from there you’ll see all my social media platforms. You can follow me on my social media platforms, either Facebook or Instagram.

You can find the Max Schwab Listens YouTube playlist on the website as well, along with the t-shirts and a way to contact me, my business. And we will get to you in one business day, so just contact my business.

If you want to book me for Exhibitor booths or speaking engagements, or if you have a Matthew Schwab Speaks business card already, you can either do it yourself or you can pass it along to someone else that may want, want me. Either way, your help is appreciated. And so that’s, that’s how you can reach out to me. And my official email business email address, either through the website or directly through info at matthewschwabspeaks dot com.

Carolyn Kiel: Okay, perfect. I’ll put a link to your website in the show notes description of this show so people can click on it and go right there from here when they’re listening or watching, so that’s awesome. Yeah. Matthew, it’s great talking with you. Is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Matthew Schwab: Oh, so I have advice, which is: Be strong, be patient. Work hard and tear down old narratives, like narratives that, that I was subject to. I was born in like late 97. So the old narratives, tear them down and make your own narrative. Make your own story because your story is unwritten. It is your job to write your own story.

It’s harder, I admit, it is harder to write your own story if you or a loved one, a child or a relative who has a disability, it’s harder to write your own story, but cherish every moment, no matter how big or how small, and make your own story. And hopefully you, you can share your own story. Either anywhere you want locally, nationally, or internationally.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow, that’s really powerful. Yeah. Thank you Matthew, for those words. That’s really important advice that anyone can take and it’s something that, we often forget. But yeah, our stories are powerful. And thank you so much for sharing your story on my show and all around the nation as, as a speaker and just being a, such a great example in the community and a role model for people with Down syndrome and and really everyone.

So, yeah. Thanks Matthew. It was great talking with you today.

Matthew Schwab: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at Beyond6seconds.net. Until next time.