Autism On Shift

This week, Sarah Herrero from Bach Prep Tutors explains how autism makes her an effective tutor. We also talk about her journey to becoming self-employed and how she has become a successful entrepreneur.

Clara takes us on a journey of discovery. She finds all the pieces she needs to get to her dream job of translating dog training materials into her native language, Spanish, making information accessible to Spanish speakers.

Erin loves her job as she manages her company’s look and feel. Her boss and coworker are autistic, too, so we get a good look at how different (and nice) that environment can be.

Tink re-imagines how we access support services. And she does it with flair and an army behind her! You can find her website for AUsome Supports here: ausomesupports.com.au and her Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/AUsomeSupports/

Marina McAdam tells us about the exciting life of a divorce coach and how she found herself doing it. She has a unique set of skills that make her great at it. She also teaches us about the importance of balance in life. You can find her at https://www.marinamcadam.com/ and her Facebook group is here.

We have a great time with Elise, who saves animals with numbers! We love it when our guests can mix their special interests and passions together at work.

Kim tells us about her journey to discovering what work works and what work doesn’t. And what it’s like spending 10 years in management at Microsoft.

Barb shares her excitement for chemistry with us. How she dealt with the sensory experience of a forensics lab and how she’s using her skills now.

We have a blast learning about Andrea’s job as a Project Manager and her journey to becoming one. She outlines some amazing accommodation requests and leaves us with some great advice. Transcript Today we are talking to Andrea. Andrea is an IT Project Manager. And we are looking forward to chatting with her about her job. Hi Andrea, welcome. 00:14 Hello. Good morning. How are you guys? 00:15 Good morning, we’re doing great. 00:17 Good. Awesome, I’m excited to be here. Virtually. 00:21 Thank you, us too yeah. Alright, so Andrea tell us what an IT project manager does and what kind of what a day looks like for you. 00:30 OK sure, so an IT project manager, kind of in the generic sense, would help all the different technical teams and the business teams get on the same page about what we’re trying to do, what the goals are, and then work with each person and group to figure out the tasks. And then the project manager will literally put them all in order and figure out what has to happen in a certain order. And then the important thing is to figure out the super critical things that can’t be late, or the whole project’s in danger, 01:06 OK. 01:06 so that’s that’s called the critical path. So 01:09 Oh 01:09 it’s basically organizing a whole bunch of people and helping them not be stressed about what we’re trying to get done, ’cause we you know, breaking it down into bite size pieces. 01:19 OK, so you take the stress so everybody else can 01:25 do their part, right? 01:27 It doesn’t stress me out though 01:29 No? 01:29 because I like making order out of chaos 01:33 Yes. 01:33 so. So I I love it and I and I like UM when people feel relieved because now everybody is on the same page, so they count on me to bring up difficult topics. And you know, force conversations and get us to get to a common understanding so people 01:54 Yeah. 01:54 will tell me things outside of the meeting. And then I’m the one that brings it up and makes us get to a solution so. 02:01 That’s interesting, I like that. That’s awesome. What kind of projects do you guys work on? 02:08 Oh gosh, uhm. Well, I would say that I’m a project management generalist, 02:15 OK. 02:15 so any widget I could manage a project, so anything from like building a house to, like moving all of those things. But for work lately we’ve done some pretty big things like, we did we had to replace 24,000 computers for the Windows 7 to 10 migration. 02:38 Oh wow. 02:40 And so, uhm. I’m a senior program manager. Is my official title, so it’s a little bit different than a regular project manager because I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I actually design a whole system of communication and process 02:57 i 02:57 flow so that project was originally estimated to take two years and then I got involved and I helped us figure out ways to get it done in less than a year. 03:08 Wow fabulous. 03:09 So it’s basically that big systems thinking and seeing way more data points than most people can see. 03:17 Yeah. 03:17 And then my brain organizes it and I figure out how to communicate it and we do it. So that’s one example. Also, did we moved to a new building so I didn’t manage the construction part, but

We were wowed by the wisdom and wit of the wonderful Julian. He tells us about running his business and the autistic strengths that got him there.

Adam and Thora goof off while apologizing for not having a full episode today. A quick peek into what being a guest is like and a request for you to join us on the show. Transcript Hey everyone welcome. Hi there! To Autism On Shift I’m Thora. Interrupting Adam. Moo. 00:13 So today is a little different. We unfortunately do not have an episode and we apologize for that. Sorry. Yeah, we have some technical difficulties. I’ve been trying to piece together and out takes episode and yeah, I failed. Thora got put in jail, is what really happened and so she hasn’t been able to do it. It’s just a lot of editing and it’s going to take a lot of time. But the thing is we do need some more guests. We have a few people. Lined up, but the more the merrier because we want to get some episodes out there for you peoples. Yeah, we want to be consistent. We want to make sure that we’re always here for you every Thursday morning. Uhm? I imagine some of you might hesitate a tiny bit. It’s not uncommon for us to have anxiety. I don’t know nothing about that. But I want to assuage your fears a little bit. The experience of the interview, like our interviews, are about 40 minutes each, but they usually take an hour to an hour and a half and we cut out all of the- mostly we cut out all the stupid shit I say. 01:23 It’s not true. We all you know. The thing is we all kind of, you know, it’s a casual conversation and and we talk a little bit before the show. We get to know people. We kind of just hang out and make everyone feel comfortable and hopefully people are a little bit more comfortable and some people want to run away when they meet me. Uhm, I know I did. You had a really strong rope. 01:47 I’m just kidding. I’m so tired. This is my bedtime, so pardon me for taking a minute for everything you say. 01:57 I’m supposed to be surprised? No. Our listeners are. They’re so surprised because I’m always such on the ball and never- So we mess up and there’s all kinds of stuff that goes on. But the point is, is that you know what you hear is edited. You know, we’ve, we’ve, we take it up with the best stuff that people say. And you know, basically trying to make ourselves look awesome. Yeah, and we do the same for you. No, I don’t mind looking like an ass. You do such a good job at it. We don’t want to take that away from you. Totally, totally not. But you know, as as it relates to our guests, we want we want you to feel good about your experience. We’re going to take out anything that might embarrass you. That’s not going to go in the show. Right. Anything I mean, just you know? I mean, we’re just hanging out, and if you say what’s on your mind and you feel like you don’t want that in the show, you can always just say, oh, hey, scratch that or hey cut that or you know whatever like not not an issue we’ve had people say, oh hey I want to answer your question but you can’t put it in the show because it’s because I’m talking about a certain person or whatever and that gets cut. We completely want to validate your experience, we want you to feel comfortable to be open and just be yourself and not have to worry. And we want you to be on the show. That too. You know the whole point of letting you guys know is because we imagine, as I imagined for myself, being for a different podcast, or when people ask for a volunteer for something. You know I’m like, I’m nervous, you know, and- Oh, you know, it’s funny in the outtakes episode that I’m trying to edit. You actually say that at one point, and I wanted to put it in. Oh, really, yeah, you say I was terrified when Thora asked me to do this. And Oh my God, I would neve

Chris Bradburn gives us the inside scoop into England’s film industry. He’s got great achievements and even greater goals. You can find his work at his website here and his YouTube Channel here.

This week Scott has us laughing with his adventures as an IT Specialist for a government agency. It’s hard work, but Scott’s up to the task! He lets us in on his experience having ADHD, as well.

This week we talk to ourselves! Thora discusses her role as an employment consultant helping the autistic community and how fun she finds job hunting. We are actively seeking guests! Please click here and fill out the quick form at the top of the page to be on the show.

This is part 2 of our chat with Will where he tells us about starting his community interest company (CIC), an amazing organization to benefit people with hidden disabilities and help them transfer into independent work. Be sure to catch the part 1 by listening to the episode titled Carpenter. Also, check out the organizations we talk about, Atypical Support CIC and The Bank, Chopwell.

We have a great time with Will while he discusses his love for carpentry, how he got into doing it, and who’s helped him along the way. His amazing work can be found at www.ir8bespoke.com, his Facebook and YouTube.

Carly’s official title is Tasting Bar Associate and she explains the exciting world of wine pairings and talks about how she manages her needs in a customer facing role. Writing is Carly’s passion and we learn about how it has gotten her through the pandemic.

Kelly works hard at an Environmental Institute for a university. She shares the experiences of her work, her diagnosis and her amazing Mind Palace!

We learn lots about how US National Cemeteries function and how Chucky works hard to make it all come together.

We get to learn about designing users’ digital experiences from artist and speaker, Christoph Foulger. He has big dreams and even bigger accomplishments!

We learn a lot about the ultra running world from Jennifer DiCiesare. Her amazing spirit and impressive work ethic take her far as a running coach. Check her out here: www.TrailAndUltraWomen.com and Instagram & Facebook with @trailandultrawomen

In this episode, we get to learn about Lashley’s exciting transition into running her own business.

We had fun talking to Kelsey about teaching autistic kids and her dreams for the future.

Nicky Collins gives us the scoop on creating her own business and helping other autistic folks. Find her at www.theautismcoach.co.uk Shout out to her favorite marketing guy, Richard Pond at www.richardpondmarketing.co.uk

Steven tells us about being a dog groomer, a podcaster and an early diagnosed autistic guy. He hosts the Ballistic Autistic podcast on all platforms. Some popular places to find it are Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Rachel Houghton talks to us about her job, her awesome boss and what it’s like to work in software. Transcript Adam 00:00:06 Oh, my God Thora just hit me in the face! Hi, this is Adam. Thora And this is Thora Adam And I like to make her laugh. This is autism on shift where Thora we talk to other autistic folks about what we do at work. Adam Let’s dive in it. It'll be fun Thora Today. We are talking to Rachel Houghton. Did I say that right, Rachel? Rachel Yes. Thora Houghton. Awesome. I got it. Okay. And Rachel is, uh, officially your official title is product owner, correct? Rachel Yes. Thora And you work in software, tell us what that’s like and what that all means. Rachel 00:00:46 So I do work in software. Um, I am not myself, a software engineer. Well, yet. I’m hoping to one day. Um, but I work with a team of software engineers and test engineers. Uh, and we basically, we take a bunch of work that I have kind of put together, um, geared towards, you know, new enhancements to the product that we have. Um, or maybe even small tweaks to, you know, fix certain issues that seem very buggy or bugs themselves cause they happen. It’s software. Um, so I take that work to my team and, you know, we, we work together to just, you know, get things done. Thora 00:01:38 Awesome. So can I ask what kind of software like Rachel 00:01:42 Yeah, so I work at a company called Vector Solutions and we’re transitioning into a solutions company. Um, we have many different types of platforms. Our primary platform is a learning management system, uh, where we do online learning, online based education, uh, courses, um, in many different fields, everything from the general, you know, sexual harassment and, you know, bullying in the workplace kind of courses that, you know, most companies require their people to take, um, to things like crane safety, um, or other courses that would be for someone who is, say a contractor who needs to get their continuing education credits to get their license renewed. Um, so it’s, uh, it’s a whole spectrum of types of courses for online learning. Yeah. You saw what I did there. So yeah, that, that, that is primarily what we do, but, but, you know, we do have also other products like incident management software, uh, which is, you know, if you are in a warehouse situation and, you know, there’s an oil spill and, you know, somebody slips and falls, you can, you know, log the incident and it kind of takes the incident all the way through the, you know, the, the insurance system and everything like that. So we’re kind of trying to integrate all of those different platforms into a single solution at the moment. Thora 00:03:15 How cool! Okay, so as a product owner, do you have just like one specific, um, Adam 00:03:22 Do you mean like one project at a time or, Thora 00:03:25 I mean, could you call it a project or I, um, I’m sorry to sound so ignorant. I just don’t know. Rachel 00:03:31 That's okay. It’s okay. So the, the product that I work on has many different, we call them services, so many different things that it does. And so my team, my group has like a subset of those services. Um, there are multiple teams on that product in general. So if there are in special enhancements for any of those specific services or

Tara DuVal talks about life as a Service Dog trainer. You can find her services on https://www.pulsek9.com/ Her Facebook business page is https://www.facebook.com/PulseK9 And you can join either of her Facebook groups for tips here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pulsek9tipsandtricks for pets and https://www.facebook.com/groups/479039953069376 for service dog information. For more information regarding how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) governs service dogs and the laws about them, visit https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm Transcript: Adam 00:00:11 Hi, this is Adam. This is Thora, this is Autism On Shift.Thora 00:00:15 Where we talk to other autistics about what we do for work, where you work homie?Adam 00:00:21 And we talk about other stuff too, but that’s the base outline. Join us.Thora 00:00:26 All right. Today we are talking to Tara DuVal and Tara is not just a dog trainer, not any kind of dog trainer. She is a trainer for service dogs. Is that correct? That isAdam 00:00:40 Sweet. Tell us about that. Cool!Tara 00:00:43 Cool. So, um, I’m, I’m making the shift right now. So I’ve worked with a couple of service dogs in the past few years, but it’s been mostly pets because that’s what everybody has. Right. But now I’m, I’m making an effort to work more and more with service dogs. Cause there are plenty of people who need them and want them that takes a lot of time. Um, and it’s hard to do both at once because of the time commitments that each thing would need. So pets, pets versus service dogs. So just kind of throwing out some of the pets, looking for more service dogs,Thora 00:01:19 Like some of us want to do. I mean, no, I love my dog.Adam 00:01:25 He works with the mailman every day afterwards. Get that training. That’s right. Yeah.Thora 00:01:34 Okay. So from my understanding, and I am completely not educated in this, but a service dog training is kind of like a 24/7 deal. Is that, is that right?Tara 00:01:44 So it can be, um, and whoever has the dog, yes. Is doing it 24/7. Um, but the same is kind of true of pet dogs. So there’s a lot of similarities. It’s just how much training the service dog needs in comparison to a pet dog. So like a pet dog, you’ve got whatever is comfortable for your lifestyle and whatever issues you have. We can fix that more often than not. And then you’re good to go service dogs. You need to have all the good behaviors you need to have all of the tasks specifically trained to mitigate your disability. They need to be able to do that in your house. They need to be able to do that outside of your home, around all these different distractions. So it’s, it takes a lot longer to get them there.Adam 00:02:33 I find if there’s problems, um, since we have a beagle, I just feed him and uh, although he’s fixed it. So it’s amazing.Tara 00:02:41 That’s actually most of the solutions yes. Using food to fix it.Adam 00:02:47 I wonder if that works on Thora. It absolutely does

Jessica St Pierre tells us what it’s like to be an Executive Assistant. Jess is also an Autistic Advocate. You can connect with her on Instagram here. And here is her art page. Transcript: Thora: 00:00:11 Hi, and welcome. Adam: Welcome. You’re listening to Autism On Shift. Thora: I am Thora Adam: I’m Adam. Thora: What we do here is we talk to autistic folks about what we do for work. So they’re on shift. Get it? But we also want to shift the way we think about what people with autism are capable of. Exactly. Yep. Thora: So today we are talking to Jessica St. Pierre, Jessica has been, um, actually we’ve spoken to Jessica once before. Adam: We have, so welcome back. Thora: Yes, welcome back. Adam: Thank you so much for joining us again again, right. Thora: We totally didn’t mean to waste your time, but, um, for the listeners, Jessica so graciously agreed to hang out with us again, because she was our very first interview and we completely sucked as hosts. Jess: 00:01:09 That’s not true. Um, I don’t think that’s true, but I didn’t listen to the recordings of, I'll believe you guys, but I’m glad to be here again. Adam: Thank you. And you’re very kind. Thora: 00:01:17 Thank you. We appreciate it. Um, so Jess is an Executive Assistant and she’s going to tell us all about what that means, and then we’re going to ask her some seriously personal questions. Adam: Yeah! Jess: Should I be scared? Thora: No, no, they’re not personal. We’re talking about work. Adam: How many teeth do you have? Jess: Even I don’t know the answer to that. Adam: See, that's the right answer. That was correct. We need some sound effects. Thora: Uh, okay. So, um, so tell us about the life of an executive assistant. What does your day-to-day look like? Jess: 00:01:57 Um, my day-to-day consists of a bunch of different tasks that are not necessarily related to each other. Um, as the, uh, the word assistant says I’m, I’m there to help an executive in this case. Um, it’s my boss. So she’s the owner of the company I work for. It is a, um, doula agency. So basically, yeah, it’s really exciting. It’s actually really fun. So basically my boss has this team of doulas who she sends, uh, to customers who need help with prenatal and postnatal, help, whatever. So I help her out with, uh, creating systems or, you know, helping the doulas, get in touch with the clients, but also, you know, making appointments for her. You know, it’s a bunch of little tasks, there’s a lot of administrative, uh, paperwork as well that I help her with. So yeah, my work is kind of all over the place. Adam 00:03:08 That’s great though. You don’t want to get bored and doing one thing over and over again, although some people do like that. Jess: 00:03:15 Yeah. I do enjoy some of my tasks more than others, but, um, for me it really keeps it fresh and I was, uh, kind of explaining to you guys the last time I do, I do fee

Adam & Thora introduce the show and tell their origin stories. Enjoy! Socials: Twitter & Facebook Transcript: Adam: 00:00:08 Hello! And welcome to the Adam show. Adam: 00:00:10 It’s not the Adam show. You said it was all about me. You said if I joined you, it would be all about me. Just kidding. Welcome people. Thora: 00:00:19 This is Autism On Shift. Uh, today we’re just going to tell you about our show. Uh, introduce ourselves. Adam: I’m obviously Adam. Thora: I'm Thora. We are your hosts. We’re married and we run the show for funsies. Adam: We run the show. Thora: So the title of the show is Autism On Shift. So we are actually talking to autistic people at work about, yeah, well, not at work, they’re usually not at work when they’re talking to us. Adam: 00:00:47 It’s better than being on Facebook. We know you people out there. Thora: 00:00:51 Me. I’m on Facebook. Adam: At work? Thora: Oh no! Adam: Well. Don’t listen…. Dave Thora: So basically we talk to autistic people about their jobs, what they do for work. What is fun about it? Um, and how being autistic, uh, makes a difference at work. Adam: 00:01:13 Yep. Hence “on shift”. Also on shift is sort of the wordplay, you know, where we want to change the perspective that, uh, anybody can do anything. There’s a staggering statistic that Thora: 00:01:29 84% of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed. Adam: 00:01:35 Right. And so we want to, uh, we want to change the employer’s idea of what people can do. We want to, um, on a lot of the, uh, sites you go on, people are always asking, uh, Thora: 00:01:47 Yeah, what do you do for work? What can I do? What am I capable of? And it’s a, it’s a huge conversation in the autistic community. Adam: 00:01:53 Right. So we thought we’d talked to some people and, and just put it out there and, and, and answer those questions Thora: 00:01:59 And make a shift in that social conversation, uh, you know, about what, uh, autistic people are capable of. So that’s why we’re here. Adam: So we’re witty. Thora: I don’t know about all that. Adam: I’m sure we are. Thora: Uh, so I’m Thora T H O R A Thora like the thunder god, but within an A. Adam: The A is for Adam. Thora: So my story is, I was late diagnosed. I was diagnosed almost two years ago at age 42. And I’m sure, like many of you, it had me kind of looking back at my life and understanding more things. Adam: 00:02:43 I’m not so weird. Thora: 00:02:46 Yeah. Well, I am weird of course I'm weird. Adam: That's what I like about ya. Thora: But that, there’s a reason for it as opposed to just, um, Adam: So