Embracing Individuality and Overcoming Obstacles with Matthew Kenslow

Matthew Kenslow, a name that symbolizes triumph and tenacity, joins us on the Heart of Show business podcast to share his extraordinary life's tapestry woven with threads of resilience and unique abilities. Living on the autism spectrum, Matthew's narrative is nothing short of uplifting—a beacon of hope that illuminates the endless possibilities of embracing one's individuality. As we traverse his life story, from the depths of bullying to the peaks of best-selling authorship and sought-after teaching, you'll feel the undercurrent of his message. Every hurdle is a stepping stone towards a purpose waiting to be fulfilled.

In a world where we are often told to keep all balls in the air, Matthew flips the script, teaching us that it's okay to drop a ball as long as we pick it back up. His juggling analogy isn't just a party trick; it's a philosophy to live by, and he's eager to spread this message in more schools and churches. His debut book, "Juggling the Issues," is a testament to his life philosophy, and our heartfelt discussion will leave you contemplating the juggling act of your own life. After spending time with Matthew, you can't help but look forward to a future filled with his impactful insights as he continues to share his unique perspective on overcoming life's challenges with grace and tenacity.

Buy Matthew's Books
https://amzn.to/3PseJDu

https://amzn.to/3TqV7R9

Follow Matthew
https://www.instagram.com/matthew_kenslow/?hl=en

Special Thanks to The Eden Magazine
https://www.theedenmagazine.com


About your Host- Alexia Melocchi

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to the Heart of Show business. I am your host, alexia Melochi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works. We will cover dreams come true, the road, less travel, journey beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between. I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll sound and action. Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the Heart of Show business podcast.

Speaker 1 1:05

I always like to highlight people with really, really special skills and special motivations, and in this case I have somebody wonderful who is a best-selling author. His name is Matthew Kenslow and he has written two books. One is called Juggling the Issues and his latest book is called Unstoppable. Matthew has an incredible following on social media and he is on the spectrum, as we call it in today's terminology, and by having this form of autism, he has, regardless of anything got in a teaching degree. He's teaching, he's writing books, he's playing the piano, he's juggling, he's doing it all. So thank you so much for being on my show, matthew.

Speaker 2 1:56

Thank you, alexia, for having me. It's going to be a pleasure.

Speaker 1 1:59

It's going to be a pleasure to have this conversation and I have to say I was really engrossed reading your latest book that you sent me. Unstoppable, because you're talking a little bit about your journey and what I've seen as an emerging pattern is that you never give up. You never give up. You just always find a way to navigate whatever obstacle gets thrown in your way, and you also have a strong connection to your faith which I'm also very connected to my faith and you also have a supporting family that's supporting you through all this process. So what is driving you to speak for autism, for speak for people on the spectrum, to make it look like, to make to give the message that you're just like anyone else? You just have special talents and special skills and special personality, right? So yeah, so tell me.

Speaker 2 3:04

Well, what drives me is, in great part, is rooted in my faith, and I also believe that anybody could do whatever they said the heart to mind to do, that everyone has a purpose, a reason to be here, disability or not, and that we could take what we have and not let it limit us. And what I've done in my life is I learned not to go around things, but learn to go through things, and I feel that made me stronger. I believe that I should pay it forward to help other people understand.

Speaker 1 3:37

And what an inspiration you are. Matthew, you're reminding me of a previous guest that I had on past season. He's a very well known actor. His name is Sam Humphrey and he's a little person and he was in the greatest showman on earth. He plays Tom Thumb and he was talking exactly about that, because he says I don't want people to be talking about a disability, it's not a disability, it's special abilities, and it feels to me that you are just channeling your gifts in a different way, but you still have the gifts right.

Speaker 2 4:17

Right, yeah.

Speaker 1 4:18

Yeah, that's wonderful. So why did you choose to be a teacher? What inspired you to want to teach and math of all things, which I am so bad at, by the way so you can teach a few things?

Speaker 2 4:35

Yeah, I could teach all about the quadratic formula and everything. Okay, well, I mean, I've always loved teaching and math. I didn't always love science. That came easy to me later in life, but I would say I got the passion when I was around seven years old. Give or take. I would come home from school, starting around first or second grade and years following, and pretend to be the teacher teaching what I was taught at school. My students were stuffed animals which later morphed to invisible people, and it was just a passion of mine.

Speaker 1 5:12

Wow, that's amazing. You see, everyone has a calling, even when you are young. I always feel that between the time you're born and by the time you're six or eight, somehow you are manifesting, through your games, you know, and through what you're doing as a child, what you are meant and truly you know, intending to be. I also wanted to touch upon the fact that you said in your book at some point that you were bullied in school. Can you talk a little bit more about that and how? How did that make you feel and how you overcame that?

Speaker 2 5:47

Yes, and it started in kindergarten, I would say. And when I was in kindergarten a couple of my classmates started to yell at me by the swing set, saying go away, matthew, you're not their friend. And in that same academic year another student said almost the same thing, telling me to go away, you're not playing with us. And I didn't necessarily understand it at the time. I later got mainstreamed into another elementary school and I continued to make more friends there too.

Speaker 2 6:15

But at the same time there were students that kind of picked on me for, I guess, standing out, maybe, the way I walked, the way I talked, I did have a speech impediment. When I was younger. The worst thing that I remember was just having a handball checked at my face and the other things were just name calling and such. By the time I entered middle school and since I continued to make a lot more friends, but the amount of teasing did go down at that point. But I feel that that's given me some empathy on other people, for other people. It helped me kind of feel what they're going through and tried to do my part in encouraging others so that they could not have that mindset to bully others.

Speaker 1 7:01

Yeah, yeah, that is so important and I have to tell you, just so, that there are so many people and kids that are bullied, and this is unfortunately a plague of our society, where, if you're different, whatever your difference is, whether it's being on the spectrum, maybe you're a foreigner I was bullied because I was a foreigner or maybe you are too short, or maybe you're too thin there's always something to something. You're too smart, you're too weird, you're too this, and it's amazing that through that, you learn to develop the empathy to understand that this is something that you have been going through, but also other people go through, and by having gone through it yourself, you're able to inspire others on how to persist and persevere. Now your faith is something that came through your family, or did you look for it?

Speaker 2 7:59

It came through my family.

Speaker 1 8:01

Okay, and so you started going to parish and you started going to church. Were you having special conversations with God? What do you do when you speak to God?

Speaker 2 8:18

I just pray. I believe prayer is just conversation. I read the Bible and I believe that's God speaking to me. I love it and I just pray for the discernment and just that I could go out and then shine the light out to my community.

Speaker 1 8:36

Yeah, you certainly do shine the light and you're so incredibly well-spoken and you're so you have such a calm presence about you, you know. So I think that nobody's you're never going to be liked by everyone, right? You know? We all know that. I mean, even in today's world, we all are striving so hard to be liked and if we continue to do so, we could, you know, drive ourselves crazy. You know, and constantly being like you're saying that sometimes we hear the voice of self judgment and criticism and everything. Do you go to prayer when you're hearing the judgment voice and the criticism voice?

Speaker 2 9:17

Absolutely yes. Do you help like guide me through that? And then, of course, I pray for those people who just attack me.

Speaker 1 9:26

Yeah, yeah, and do you feel that? What do you think about social media, matthew? Because obviously it's a good way to reach a broader audience. Was social media a way for you to make new friends, to connect, to share your world? Like which one was it? Or was it all of them?

Speaker 2 9:48

I'd say it was all of the above to an extent. I started with Facebook, but I didn't start to do like public social media until like 2017, when I uploaded my first YouTube video and then I didn't know what to expect. After that, I just wanted to share what I believe, the talents I was given, and then from there I started to not just upload like piano videos but also autism awareness videos, and so I started to post a lot of autism awareness throughout social media later Twitter, which is now called X, and Instagram, and just thought, Sharon, it did build a camaraderie. A lot of people supporting me for who I am, a lot of people telling me that I have encouraged them.

Speaker 1 10:35

Oh, that's so beautiful. So what do you like to do most? Do you like the juggling or the piano playing? Which one is your go to?

Speaker 2 10:42

That's hard to choose. I started both in elementary school. I love piano playing, even when I'm just practicing by myself, because it's such a catharsis for me, and then juggling has its flow to it.

Speaker 1 10:56

Wow, that's an interesting way of talking about the juggling. I play the piano myself and it's interesting because I have the same feelings when I'm playing the piano. It almost puts me in the zone, and I love being able to create notes wherever they go, and it's just a very, very soothing and I don't know how to do. You may have to teach me that as well. That's going to be hard. I mean to have your attention on everything, which must be making you a very focused person in spite of everything, right.

Speaker 2 11:32

Right, I believe so that hand-eye coordination.

Speaker 1 11:36

Yes, yes, that's amazing. So the book just came out unstoppable and from what I've obviously read it and it's a little bit of a memoir of your journey and how you became unstoppable. What's coming up next for you, matthew? What are you wanting to do with everything you've done so far? What's the next level for you? What's the next?

Speaker 2 12:01

level for you. Well in well, immediately in May I'm going to get a master's of art and education from my university. In the meantime I'm planning on continuing to sub, possibly for the next year or so, and while I do that I'm trying to get in all the schools, public and private, in Orange County, california, that I can, because I do my volunteer assemblies in which I juggle and do like magic not real magic. I tell them that and science demonstration and, and in the assemblies I talk about my journey through autism and how to be a friend, how to include others and such, and I keep them engaged with, you know, the juggling and all that. So that's kind of it like the next steps and then after that maybe be start the careers of middle school math teacher.

Speaker 1 12:48

Wow, that's wonderful. And what do you think about? What do you think about Hollywood? Because obviously my podcast is very movie and TV driven, as you know, and you know we're we featured during the Eden magazine and that's that's really exciting because you know the audience is going to be so inspired by reading your story. But what do you do you think that Hollywood? I don't know if you're watching a lot of movies or TV shows.

Speaker 1 13:14

Sorry, there is a we got a post, as they say, right. Do you think that Hollywood is portraying the, the people on the spectrum right now, in a correct way, or do you think that more can be done about it?

Speaker 2 13:36

I honestly don't watch as much movies as I did back when I was a child, but from what I've seen lately, here and there, I haven't watched too much, but it seems to be portraying autism better.

Speaker 1 13:52

Yeah, yeah, well, it's definitely. I think you know we are in an era where acceptance has become a necessity for everyone because there's so much going on in the world and we all come to realize that we are all special in our own way, and I love that you are giving that message. Do you ever get private messages from the parents of autistic kids as far as, like you, getting on a phone call with them and guiding them through it, or that never happens?

Speaker 2 14:27

I have. I've received like public comments, like on YouTube videos, and I have received direct messages like on Instagram of like the encouragements that I've given. There's a parent in Scotland that says that I'm helping her understand her son better.

Juggling Life's Challenges

Speaker 1 14:44

Oh, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Are you wanting to be a speaker in the near future and speak on stage about what you do?

Speaker 2 14:54

Yes, that too, I've considered that. I mean, I've spoken in many schools and I'm hoping to do so at many other schools and churches.

Speaker 1 15:02

That's beautiful, and will you be putting in the juggling in this? Of course you are.

Speaker 2 15:09

Yeah, that's part of my message. An analogy I have a juggling analogy. Like that's one of my analogies Like I'm up here juggling and if anything drops in life and I literally dropped one on purpose what do you do now? Do you like give up if you make a mistake? No, you bend down, pick it up, keep going and from there you could do more amazing things. And from there I literally pick it up and do advanced tricks.

Speaker 1 15:34

Wow, that is such a beautiful thing, which obviously it's the reason why you call juggling the issues in your first book. Right, right, that's beautiful. Well, what a lovely conversation, matthew, and it's been truly a delight to have a chat with you. I'm going to be dropping in the show notes all the links of your Instagram and your YouTube and everything for people to follow you and if they have any questions, and please keep persisting. What you're doing is admirable and I think that you'll go far. You know you've already gone very far, so I can't wait and I'm very excited to see where you're going to juggle next. As they say, not co-cop, but what you're going to juggle next.

Speaker 2 16:21

Yeah well, thank you, alexia, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1 16:24

Oh, it's been so lovely and if you like this episode and you have comments you want to subscribe, review and share. Please do so. This is Alexia Malofi, the Heart of Show Business, over and out.