Every parent's journey comes with its unique milestones and hurdles, but when you're raising a child on the autism spectrum, those experiences can redefine the very essence of resilience and discovery. Join me as I sit down with Lynne, the Awesomism Mom, who opens up about the rollercoaster ride parenting her son Peyton has been. From recognizing the early signs of autism to the evolution of "Awesomism," Lynne's story is one of unwavering love, adaptation, and the pursuit of a life where her son's abilities are not just acknowledged but celebrated.
The conversation takes a hopeful turn as we explore the groundbreaking strides of Team Awesomism, the virtual academy Lynne pioneered to champion the cause of autistic adults. The academy is more than a learning platform; it's a beacon of empowerment, illuminating paths to essential life skills, employment, and independence. Lynne shares how Peyton's unique learning journey inspired the academy's ethos, and we delve into their mission to equip these adults for a world that often overlooks their potential.
As we wrap up our heartfelt dialogue, we confront the broader issues that touch the lives of those on the autism spectrum, such as the pressing concern of housing. Lynne's activism in advocating for appropriate living solutions for autistic adults paints a vivid picture of the challenges and the need for systemic change. Our discussion serves as a clarion call to embrace a "Why Not Me" mindset, to not just listen but to join the fight for awareness, acceptance, and real-world solutions that uplift and integrate the autistic community into every facet of society.
https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Every parent's journey comes with its unique milestones and hurdles, but when you're raising a child on the autism spectrum, those experiences can redefine the very essence of resilience and discovery. Join me as I sit down with Lynne, the Awesomism Mom, who opens up about the rollercoaster ride parenting her son Peyton has been. From recognizing the early signs of autism to the evolution of "Awesomism," Lynne's story is one of unwavering love, adaptation, and the pursuit of a life where her son's abilities are not just acknowledged but celebrated.
The conversation takes a hopeful turn as we explore the groundbreaking strides of Team Awesomism, the virtual academy Lynne pioneered to champion the cause of autistic adults. The academy is more than a learning platform; it's a beacon of empowerment, illuminating paths to essential life skills, employment, and independence. Lynne shares how Peyton's unique learning journey inspired the academy's ethos, and we delve into their mission to equip these adults for a world that often overlooks their potential.
As we wrap up our heartfelt dialogue, we confront the broader issues that touch the lives of those on the autism spectrum, such as the pressing concern of housing. Lynne's activism in advocating for appropriate living solutions for autistic adults paints a vivid picture of the challenges and the need for systemic change. Our discussion serves as a clarion call to embrace a "Why Not Me" mindset, to not just listen but to join the fight for awareness, acceptance, and real-world solutions that uplift and integrate the autistic community into every facet of society.
https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Speaker 1:
Welcome to why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City USA, nashville, tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, some will make you feel like people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world. Hopefully, you gain more awareness, acceptance and a better understanding for autism around the world Music. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to why Not Me the World?
Speaker 1:
Today's guest is Lynn and she's known as Awesomism Mom. Her story is just so great. She's got so many stories, so let's get into this. Thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:
Hi, listen, I'm super excited about this.
Speaker 1:
Yes, me too. It's always great to have good conversations. So you have an autistic child, correct?
Speaker 2:
Yes, I have a 24-year-old son who's autistic.
Speaker 1:
So what led you to believe that he might be autistic?
Speaker 2:
Okay, so when Peyton was born, he was my youngest of four.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
He was very different than my other children. He didn't have the connectivity to me that my other kids you know. They usually are very comforted by your voice because they hear you the whole time. They're in the womb, the close cuddling that my other children wanted. He didn't want and he would only sleep in a swing. Wow, I started seeing things and I went to my pediatrician. There's something wrong with Peyton.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
Now you've got to remember this. 24 years ago, before we were really talking about this, okay, right, and she said there's nothing wrong with him. We all have something wrong. He's just different. Okay, and right there. That helped me because I no longer looked at it as oh my God, you know what I mean. Sure, she said well, tell me, she is legitimately one of the best pediatricians on this planet. She's still in business, and my oldest is almost 40. Okay, that's how long she's been a pediatrician.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that's good.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and she sat me down and she said look, let's go by that he is autistic, because at the time they would not test him till he was four.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
And she said this is what's going to happen. She said, if you go by that he's autistic. But she said no one will ever tell me that a mother's instincts aren't the best. Because, she said, you guys can always. You know she's a mother herself, right? She said you always feel things and she knew I was very in tune with my children. So she said, let's, I want you to go by that he is. And if he isn't, she said you will never get up in the morning and say why did not I should have? Oh, if only I had. You will say I am so glad I did.
Speaker 1:
That was great advice.
Speaker 2:
Wasn't it, and especially 24 years ago.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
And so and I just saw her a few months ago and I talked to her about that and she really hugged me and I said you were such a game changer for me because had you said well, you know, and kind of put your hands up and you know, and acted all stress and didn't give me that advice when I got the diagnosis, I would have gone to bed for six months crying and saying what do I do? Instead, it was just a blow, and he was, because when you started to walk to I saw him go on the balls of his feet. You know he was doing all those things and his speech was delayed and other people wouldn't say to me well, maybe the speech is delayed because he has three older siblings and you, when you all, you guys all speak for him. And then when he started talking, he had his own language and only my third child could understand him.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
So we would always say Preston my third child's name is Preston Preston, tell us what Peyton is saying. So he would come and tell us what Peyton was saying and Peyton would look at us like how do you not know what I'm saying? Because the Peyton said he was telling us.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 2:
But there were things like he couldn't say Apple, but he could get on a computer and figure out how to find a bunny to color and print it right right okay, and so it was like I realized his brain was working differently okay and Rather than discourage that, I encouraged it, and I've told Peyton that he has Awesomism, not autism, because I told him God made him the awesome one and the rest of us are the same.
Speaker 2:
I knew that society was going to treat him differently. I wanted him to go into it with a positive view of himself.
Speaker 2:
That's definitely a great way to look at it and then I went through a horrific divorce, long time Custody battle and I ended up getting remarried and I was still in my custody battle and my husband now Said to me listen, I think you should start vlogging, even if nobody but one parent reads it, just to feel what you felt being a parent Homeschooled all their children, because I was a strong homeschooling activists for years.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
I was homeschooling before anybody was talking about homeschool. Like I said, my eldest is almost 40.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
He said give your Viewpoint on things, and if it just helps one person because one Peyton was little there wasn't anywhere near the conversation About autism that there is now right so he said maybe it'll help one parent.
Speaker 2:
Well it, my blog blew up. The founders of flipboard found my blog. They flew us out to Pella well toe to talk to the tech giants. And it was just. I was overwhelmed. I'm like why is anybody reading my blog? All I'm literally doing is chatting like I'm having a cup of coffee with somebody. Right, people took to it. I have always taken the approach of I'm an autism parent. This is my autistic child. He has a voice. I have a voice. His siblings, his father have a voice. But we're gonna tell you what we've experienced. That doesn't mean that what you've experienced is the same thing, and it doesn't mean we're right, you're wrong. It means let me tell you what worked for us. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't, at least maybe I have given you a little bit of comfort that we've all are on this journey Together.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's good. That's kind of what my podcast is about people telling their stories. You can ask the same question to five different people and get five different answers, which is good, because that way the listeners can hear those five different answers and hopefully one of them might help them get Through something they might be going through at that point exactly like with Peyton.
Speaker 2:
We had the hardest time getting him to read and we I bought everything there was. I bought him every one of the little Electronic things back then leapfrog, you name it. Okay, we would put pictures up on the refrigerator with a big a. In a picture of an apple we put an a next to the apple. I always had an apple basket and we'd say apple, a Apple, nothing. One day we're driving at the time I looked outside of DC and we're driving to Wegmans grocery store and he's reading signs and I thought, okay, he's memorized. He memorized these signs.
Speaker 2:
Okay so it's me and my daughter in the car and we get to the grocery store and I said, peyton, what does that say? And he reads it and I'm like, well, you couldn't memorize that because we've never bought that. So we figured out he would always put the closed captioning on All the TV shows that he would watch and we would get frustrated because he always had the co-caps. But he was listening and reading, all listening and reading. To be taught himself to read through the closed captioning.
Speaker 1:
Interesting, that's, that's good.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so yeah, I've had a couple other parents come to me because they've heard me tell that story or read my blog. It said we tried it, it worked, thank you. And I'm like you know, if I just have one other parent not go to bed at night, balling their head off, and one other Autistic have a little bit easier life, then that's what we do, and so I did the awesome as a mom and I've, you know, like this past. Last April I went to Dubai, spoke at I can. They picked 70 top autism activists from around the world. Temple Grandin was the keynote, dr Kerry magra was at a Tom Island. All those guys are very famous Autistics, right, and I was honored to be asked to speak.
Speaker 1:
Wow and.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I was really honored and they wanted me to talk about team awesome ism, because we have put together a virtual Academy that is basically just for autistic adults and it's to help them with life skills, social skills, soft skills, fun Skills, because a lot of them get very stressed, they get nervous. So we have some videos on there that are just funny, so that they relax and we help them with everything. And they're on videos Because, let's say, they're doing, we're doing a cooking video. If they mess up, it's live. Sometimes they hyper focus on the fact that they missed a part of it and then they miss the whole thing and give up. They can stop the video, they can loop it, they can run it a hundred times, they can do what they need to do to learn from it. And so we did that. And what I found that so many people didn't really understand our concept because I invented this concept in. The reason why this all came about was I Met a young man oh, he's now 45 a few years ago, sweetest, kindest, gentlest person.
Speaker 2:
He's autistic, blinded one eye, deaf one ear. Wow. He got on Twitter one day and said I need to set up a go fund me for ten thousand dollars. So I called him. I said what's going on? He said my mom has to go to court and I'm afraid we're gonna lose what little we have. His dad had died and so this was a step dad. Long story short, they basically, through no fault of their own, ended up in a very bad situation. They won their case, but their house got destroyed. They were in a mobile home.
Speaker 2:
That's such a sad thing to hear so me and some other people stepped up. We bought them a home. Wow, they bought him a brand new home. Was mother Unfortunately died during this time. Oh no and so I noticed he was regressing some because he didn't have his mom there every day.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 2:
And I started thinking about it, because autistics can regress if they're not positively Stimulated. Okay, I said, boy, I would want to do something like an online academy with videos where they can watch them if they want to watch them, at 3 in the morning or whenever, and just have everything music on their calming, you name it. My husband's like, yeah, and that would be awesome. I said I wouldn't even know how to do that. Two months later, my son, who is autistic, says come here, I want to show you something. And he built the entire academy.
Speaker 1:
Wow.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we did that and then when I went to Dubai I became very good friends with the company that does apps and other high-end technology in the special needs world and they offer to build us a state of the art, custom design, custom-built app that they're doing right now.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:
This will be the most amazing and what we will have on it is it will be called the teammates. It's going to be team awesome as a teammates program that People will subscribe will have three different levels of subscription. They will subscribe to that and that will fund the academy. So, because I will never, ever, ever charge an autistic adult to be on the academy, because those who can afford it at the least can need it the most, and I want to do that. So I decided to take this way bigger and we're gonna have round tables Chris was actually on our first round table. We're gonna have round tables where we have every Discussion you can think of. We're gonna have doctors on there, we're gonna have lawyers, we're gonna have people who have hired autistic adults. We're gonna have you name it.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that's just so great.
Speaker 2:
We will have extremely important topics like should I set up a special needs trust? We'll bring on an autistic adult, a parent, a couple of attorneys and a finance guy, but we'll do four of those round tables so that you like your podcast. Which is what's so great about your podcast is you get many different viewpoints, because so often you go like to one attorney and they go this is what you need to do, but maybe that doesn't fit you right, so we will have this. We're also gonna have podcasts on there. We're gonna have logs on there. We're gonna have music on there. I've got some cut. I'm a massive country music fan. I eat, sleep and drink country music, even though I'm from Chicago.
Speaker 2:
Okay so I've got a couple of country music artists who let us use their music, though their music will be on there nice my goal is this we traveled the country, and this makes me emotional. We traveled the country for five and a half months. Okay this past year from June to October the end of October and we spoke to so many families and Autistic adults in their families. Suicide rate is very high.
Speaker 2:
Yes, it's very high very high and we had one young woman we had on our autism shirts, me and my son and my husband, and we were in a bakery and she came up to me and said you work in autism? And I said yeah. She said I have a brother, he's 27 and he sat me down a couple months ago and told me when mom dies, I'm killing myself because society doesn't accept me. And she said please help me, I don't want to lose my brother.
Speaker 1:
That's tough.
Speaker 2:
It's very tough and I'm gonna. Mom grab me in the hotel lobby. She saw my shirt and she just started balling and said my son killed himself this summer because he felt so out of it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I just did an interview the guy that tried to commit suicide. He failed. Thank goodness now he's on the other side of it and he can actually talk about it. So we talked about what led him to get to that point, how he is After that point. The one thing that he told me and he goes it's a daily struggle. That's their minds trying to cope with what's going on and still be able to live from day to day Without thinking of contemplating ending their life. So it's very, very tough. A lot of people don't know this, but it's the second most cause of death amongst autistic people around the world.
Speaker 1:
Yes, that I know it's really something we have to address.
Speaker 2:
I completely agree, and that's part of the reason why we have team Awesomism and we're excited about the app as well.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I like that.
Speaker 2:
Thank you. I want to make a community where they get and they come in and feel like they are awesome. We do care. You struggle with this. You can go and find a round table and every single round table we plan to do 15 of one and every single round table we do will have an autistic adult at that round table. Because I Want autistic adults to know that there are people out there like you, like me, who want to hear their voice, that we respect what they're saying, that we Appreciate what they're saying, because I have legitimately had people stand with me at an event with my son standing right there. He's high functioning, he's totally verbal Okay and talk like he doesn't exist.
Speaker 2:
Wow and I've said he's right here. Speak to him. Why are you talking to me?
Speaker 1:
Last fall I had Sam Huber on my podcast. He told me about his autism and how he got to do public speaking. I've had people come up to me and say I didn't realize autistic people could have kids. This is what people don't get. So this is the beauty of people being able to talk about things, because they can open up, they can tell their stories and then hopefully other people can hear those same stories, kind of like what you're doing, and hopefully you hear other people that's gone through the same things that they're going through or possibly going through. It can maybe ease that pain or Stress a little bit.
Speaker 2:
Oh, a hundred percent. And you know it's a funny. I had somebody say to me one day Well, what are you gonna do as somebody else kind of copies your you know idea? I go, I'm gonna clap, I'm gonna do back flips and I'm gonna thank the Lord above that they did, because you know what? There's eight to ten million of them that we know of. Okay, cuz they're a lot of them as adults are getting diagnosed as adults. Right, there's no way I I can reach all eight to ten million. So if there's a hundred of us like you're with your podcast, us with our stuff, we're not competition, we're like standing hand-to-hand going. We're out here fighting this together.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I had the same thing said to me because, from what I gather, I'm the only podcast out there this like my podcast. When I started deciding that I was gonna do this, I started listening to some podcasts out there that was about autism and as a burgers and all that I was listening to it. I knew nothing about what they were talking about and it was way over my head and I'm going, if I'm a Parent right now just finding out that my son or daughter is autistic and I'm listening to this podcast, I'm more confused than I was before I started. So I decided that this had to be a Podcast that people tell their stories and then, if they're telling their stories, other people will hear it and then, if they can kind of See similarities, that it might help them.
Speaker 2:
I love it. See, and that's what we need, because I can tell you guys, as a parent who found out their child was autistic, when you can't find something or someone, I had a mom come to me the other day. I had moms all the time of little ones come into my DMs and say and Sometimes I don't even know they have an autistic child. They follow me on social media and all of a sudden they've been following me for two or three years and they'll come into my DMs and they'll say I just want to thank you. And I had one the other day and I literally sat in my bed in tears. I woke up in the morning to a long text from her and she said I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 2:
You make autism an everyday thing. You show how it's a lifestyle. It's every part of your life, whether you're cooking, you're cleaning, you're at a sporting event. Autism doesn't come and go, it doesn't stop at 18. And you talk to us like you're having a cup of coffee with me and she said you have given me hope because of Peyton and the way that you have approached it. And I thought that's all I'm trying to do, because I see too many people.
Speaker 2:
I saw an autism mom of a five year old and this really angered me. She put out a post one day and said if you're not doing this and this with your child, you're not doing what's right for your child. But I had to read that like five times before it really sunk in how horrible that was and I thought how dare you tell other autism parents that if they don't raise their child the way you're raising your doors? First of all, you haven't even begun on this cycle yet of dealing with them when they're in their 12, 13, 14, 15 year old stage or their 18 year old stage, or their friends are driving and they can't drive, or they're afraid to drive, like Peyton's afraid to drive, or some of them don't want to ride bikes. How dare you tell other autism parents this? That's why the stories are important.
Speaker 1:
I just interviewed a lady that's a special needs teacher that has an autistic child, and she talked about how she thought she was going to be this awesome mom. She goes and until you're a mother of autistic person, you don't realize, even though you teach them. And I always ask at the end you have any final thoughts? And the one thing that she said that will resonate with just what you said is that don't listen to other people, because they're always going to try and tell you what you're doing wrong and you know your child better than anyone.
Speaker 2:
Exactly right. She is 100%, and that's what we try to do with team awesomeism, too, is offer a wide variety. We try to show. That's why, like, we had the round table that Chris was on and Peyton was on and a young man by name of Martin who's awesome. He's an autistic adult. I love Martin. It's a great podcast interview to Martin. And then two women Okay, we had two women. All of them were autistic adults. All five of them had complete different stories. All five of them had complete different life experiences and I love that because we were showing the world here's my autistic adults, and every single one of them approaches things differently. Every single one of them has had different experiences. Stop trying to put it in this tiny little box that they're all rain bad. That was one of the things we heard when we were on the road trip was from autistic adults. Stop calling us rain man.
Speaker 1:
Yes, now my slogan for my podcast is autism awareness, acceptance and understanding, because that was another part of the research I did is I saw that they have autism awareness and acceptance month, but I'm going. The more I started getting into this, the more I started understanding and being able to carry on conversations with people about it, and I'm going. They left out an important word in that phrase, so I put that in mind. That's kind of what I try and do is bring better understanding to other listeners and other people about what autistic people and their families have to go through in just day to day living.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, that's exactly right and that's why, too, I always hashtag autism acceptance and autism activism, because when I speak at, one of the things that I always talk about is I always tell this story. If I'm sitting at my desk and I see an elderly person fall on their bike and that person is hurt and I just sit there, I'm aware that they fell and that they're hurt.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
I'm not helping. If I accept that they're hurt and I accept that I should do something, I actively get up, I go out there, I call 911 and I help them. So we have to get past this awareness and stop just saying autism awareness and keep talking about like I love your word understanding. When people understand that autism is a spectrum, that they all have a very different life story, that they all come from different walks of life, right Then they will understand how to address autistic adults.
Speaker 2:
I mean I had a woman, peyton, and I ran the event, and there was a woman and she was representing one of these newer type senior 55 plus communities, indoor apartment complex type thing, where they have the big joint area that they can eat breakfast together and stuff. I went up there and I said I was wondering if you have any autistic adults that live in your building and she said, oh, we don't take autistic adults. I said I'm not talking about low function, I'm talking about high function. I said, because she said we're not nursing home, I said I'm not talking about ones that you have to cope for and clean and do those kinds of things I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:
And I said, like my son here, she completely ignores my son and she starts saying, well, we don't really want them because they can't cook. I said my son cooks, he cooks, he makes his own recipes. He's actually the brand ambassador for a barbecue seasoning company. Yes, he knows how to cook and she's just still ignoring them. She says, well, they never drive. I said, actually they do. And she just kept giving me all these stereotypes.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I finally said to her just curious, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Elon Musk? Just gonna throw that name out there.
Speaker 1:
Right right.
Speaker 2:
And she goes. Of course he's the richest man in the world. And I go and he's autistic. He could buy your company 150 times over and he's autistic. And then I walked away because I was so mad and I would throw home white knuckle, dangry Patents like calm down, she just doesn't get it. And I'm thinking how sad is this that he's so used to that behavior? Right? So we get home, I tell my husband and I said I'm so mad I feel like going on social media and just absolutely lambasting that company. And he said no, that's not going to do any good. He said what you need to do sign down who owns that company, call their corporate, have a conversation with them and tell them this is not right. So, long story short, we did.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
And they had me come and speak to them about it. And guess what? They had autistics living there. They didn't even know it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know, and that's one of the big things that I haven't tackled yet, even though we've talked about it in my episodes I've got a lady here in Nashville that runs a place and it's basically for autistic people and special needs and that's housing. That's a big issue across the country for autistic people is housing, because they just don't have it out there yet.
Speaker 2:
No, they don't. And I'll tell you part of what we do with the virtual academy, and we will raise the awareness on the app. But what we do with the virtual academy is this we teach cooking on there and we show them to that if they're afraid it was stove or an oven because not all would want to get used to stove or oven you can use an air fryer, you can use a crack pot, you can use the microwave. We teach them how to clean Like we have a video just about cleaning the toilet, how to organize your closet, and this is something that I say everywhere I go.
Speaker 2:
If I'm going to put my child because people will tell me that have no connection to autism, well, they can go live in an assisted living. My dad lived in an assisted living. He can afford it. And rather than argue with people, I say well, yeah, how long does your dad live there? Well, he'll probably be there five years.
Speaker 2:
Okay, now let's look at this from the autistic standpoint. Right, I'm 63,. My son is 24,. He's the youngest of four children. If I die at 85, which is a ripe old age, my son is still going to be in his late 40s, right? Okay? So if he lives to 75, he has to live for 30 years. Now I'm lucky I have three other children who fight overtaking him, but let's say I didn't. Okay, if he goes into an assisted living and those are five to 12,000 dollars a month, right, the parent leaves them a half a million dollars because the parent has had to live off of their retirement and everything too. Okay, you leave me half a million dollars. I get social security. If they have to cover the difference between what they get in Social Security and living there, 5,000 a month, that's $60,000 a year, not counting medicine, not counting their clothing, not counting everything. Okay, so they're out of money in 10 years. Yeah, if they're 35, when they go in there at 45, who's taking care of them?
Speaker 1:
And that's a huge thing that comes up in a lot of my episodes. They are so concerned on what happens to my child if I'm not here.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, and this is one of the biggest reasons why we did the Team Ostomism Virtual Academy. If I could take some of them, teach them how to cook, how to take care of themselves better, how to groom, how to shower, how to do these kind of things, then if they go live in an apartment with another one or two other autistic adults. We work with the therapy dogs. We work with a woman by the name of AJ Cullen. She's one of the best dog therapists out there. You have a dog or two, so you have the therapy and service dog, the technology, and then they can live there and guess what? That $500,000 now has them taken care of for 50 years. They can stay there.
Speaker 2:
This is one of my biggest things with the Virtual Academy is every skill set that we can teach them. Every time. We can show them that they don't need to be overly stressed. They don't have to have the anxiety that they are, that they can do things Because you know what? Then the ones who can't take care of themselves. There's way more beds for them, so to speak, because if we put them all in there, there's not even enough for my age group in nursing homes. In my age group.
Speaker 1:
So how do people get in touch with you? People are going to hear this and some that might need some help. How do people get in touch with you so that they can go over some of the things that you do?
Speaker 2:
Okay, you can go to our website, TeamAwesomeism, and it's awsomismcom. You can go to that. You can follow us. We're on all social media. Or you can email me at linawesomeismmomcom. You can go to that website. I am always available to people if they need help. If they want to sponsor an autism family for the app, we have all the stuff on there. If they want to be a sponsor, if there's a small business or an individual and they want to be a sponsor on the app, part of what we'll have on the app is also going to be listing all of the autism-friendly businesses. Your podcast will be listed on there. It'll be in the podcast area so that you have even more of a group to listen to your podcast, Because what you do is exactly what we want. If I could stand on my roof every day and just scream at people and say all you have to do is give one hour a month to help someone in the autism world, would you do it? I guarantee you most people would. They just don't know what to do.
Speaker 1:
That is so true. People don't understand it. They talk with all these people and they don't realize that all you have to do is just talk to this person. Now, granted, there's a huge spectrum on autism. It's like the old saying you met one person with autism, you met one person with autism. It's the same in the neurotypical world because we're all different. Get to know them, understand them, find out what they're about, and then you might have a little more empathy for them, because you're understanding what they're going through.
Speaker 2:
Exactly. And the other thing too is we have a 75-85% unemployment rate among autistic adults. This is completely unacceptable and I also feel like once people use your word understanding or my word of activism. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 2:
We had a gentleman come over and look at our water heater and he was an independent plumber super nice guy, really good guy. And we were sitting there talking and said now we start talking about autism. And he said oh. He said John, I was in special needs learning when I was growing up. He said I was a very slow reader. And he said I'm older, I'm in my late 40s, and he said I've always kind of my parents started homeschooling me because I couldn't keep up.
Speaker 2:
And I said well, can I ask you something? I said would you consider? And I was talking about team autism and what we're doing, and I said would you consider maybe interning an autistic adult? He said 100%. He said I totally understand that. He said they probably would actually focus on what we're doing. He said I can't hire people. People don't want to go under the trades People. Everybody wants to go work in a business and be the billionaire the next week and they don't want to. You know. He said they don't want to do all these things. He said I'd hire someone in a heartbeat and it got me thinking good, here's another thing we're going to do on roundtables. Here's another thing we're going to do with team optimism. We're going to teach trades. I'm going to bring experts in trades in.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that is, that is really good. I really appreciate you coming on. This has been great. I mean just a really good conversation.
Speaker 2:
I love it. Listen, I love your practice. I love your concept of it. I love everything you're doing. I think it's phenomenal and you can count on me to be one of your biggest fans in promoting it.
Speaker 1:
Thanks. I really appreciate that and, I have to say, I really truly enjoy what you're doing as well. So thanks again.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much. It was such an honor to be on here and I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:
It was my pleasure and thanks again. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today. We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you know anyone that would like to tell us their story, send them to TonyMantorcom Contact Then they can give us their information so one day they may be a guest on our show. One more thing we ask tell everyone everywhere about why not me, the world, the conversations we're having and the inspiration our guests give to everyone everywhere that you are not alone in this world.