We recently connected with Oliver James and have shared our conversation below.

Oliver , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

For most of my life I couldn’t read. Yes, I went to school and I even graduated. But I still could not read. I was functionally illiterate which is a technical term for what I called “I can’t read.” I navigated through my life not being able to read most things: street signs, menus, job applications, paperwork, food packages, etc. I don’t have to tell you the huge disadvantage facing those who can not read. But what you may not know is there is also a huge shame. I would basically admit to any deepest darkest secret but I would not admit that I could not read. The stigma behind not being able to read was so great that I lived in fear of being found out.

Fast forward to the pandemic when I decided to do a number of things to better my life. I think many people experienced this: clean up your diet, cut out alcohol, work on mental health. But all the while I knew the greatest thing I needed to improve my life was to learn how to read. After confiding in my partner that I wanted to learn how to read, she encouraged me to share my story. So I went to social media and made a post. It started, “What’s up, I can’t read.” And as they say, the rest is history, Being so public with my struggle helped me to discover resources, it held me accountable, and it created a community of support.

Now my mission is to share my story with others and to help motivate them to conquer the hard things in their lives. I work to draw attention to the millions of people in our country who struggle with reading. I talk about the benefits of literacy and how reading affected my life. But I also talk about stigmas. The biggest stigma is the stigma of failure. And no matter what you are trying to accomplish, whether it be learning how to read or climbing Mount Everest, the stigma of failure is always present. My mission is to encourage and motivate others to overcome their stigma of failure and accomplish their goals.

Oliver , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, I’m Oliver James. I am a TikTok sensation and motivational speaker. In my TikTok videos, I often introduce myself by saying “I’m a 35-year-old man who struggles with reading.” However, it wasn’t long ago that I would say “I can’t read.”

In my posts I open up about many deep struggles I have gone through with learning to read as an adult, my challenges, triumphs and my mental health. My story has been so inspiring that I ended up being interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America, the Jennifer Hudson Show, NPR, and other major outlets. I was also recently featured in People magazine. Last October, I was awarded the 2023 National Literacy Honors Award by the Barbara Bush Foundation for the light my story has shed on being functionally illiterate. Currently I work as a motivational speaker going to schools, libraries, and anywhere where I can share my story with students and educators.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As I discussed before, I did not confide in many people that I was illiterate. It was a source of great shame and embarrassment. Part of what went along with not being able to read was needing help with many things. However, I couldn’t ask for this help because then I’d have to admit I couldn’t read. So I would try my best to get help wherever I could without admitting that I needed to help. I was basically manipulating people for help. So for example, I might ask someone to help me fill out a job application or paperwork but say it was because it wasn’t working on my phone not because I couldn’t read it. Instead of admitting I hadn’t read training materials for a job, I might just make up what I thought they were about and when questioned on it I would say that they just “didn’t get me and my point of view.” You can imagine this was pretty toxic.

When I first started making a name for myself online, I had a number of conferences and libraries reach out to have me speak to their audiences. I had always wanted to be a motivational speaker so this was a dream come true. However, at this point I had to admit that there were many things about the technical side of speaking that I could not yet do. I couldn’t read contracts or make power points. I couldn’t even book my airline tickets to the venue! So I had to make a choice. I could continue down my same toxic path or I could unlearn those behaviors and ask for help. And I chose to ask for help. I asked my partner to help me, I networked with some other professionals, I reached out to my online community, and I even admitted to the clients when there was something that I might struggle with. And you know what? It worked. People came to my aid and I was able to launch my motivational speaking career.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This is a simple one. My online presence helped me to build my reputation within my market. I chose to showcase myself in an honest and authentic way. I could have made my reading journey look picture perfect, but I didn’t. I kept it real. There were books I tried to read that I had to quit. People saw me mispronounce words, misspell words, and break down at times. And this allowed my market to know that I was going to keep it real with them. I am always going to be me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oliverjamesspeaks.com/
• Instagram: @oliverspeaks1
• Linkedin: Oliver James
• Twitter: @oliverspeaks1
• Youtube: @oliverspeaks1
• Other: TikTok: @oliverspeaks1

Image Credits

Personal photo was taken by BuildOn, an organization that I spoke to.