Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Employment_ Awesome Autistic Work Life (NEED TO SEE)

Transcript

Autism Employment_ Awesome Autistic Work Life (NEED TO SEE) · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:00
  Guys then look back to another podcast live episode.
• 0:02
  Again, these are recorded live, but they're not going out live.
• 0:05
  So please don't come and expect me to be here right now.
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  But if you do have anything to say, copy the comment down
• 0:09
  below. I will always respond.
• 0:11
  OK, so I am back with another episode and this creator, my
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  guest today, Taylor Heaton. She is better known as mum on
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  the spectrum. If you come across YouTube that
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  you know and seen her on there and I definitely have and This
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  is why I'm excited to introduce Taylor to you guys today.
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  So, Taylor, what's going on? Hey, I'm excited to be here.
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  I'm having a little bit of a fangirl moment, honestly.
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  Like feel like I'm coming full circle because I used to listen
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  to you before I got my diagnosis so.
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  Yeah, away. You know, I didn't actually.
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  I didn't send you my book. Did I send you my book?
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  Did you get? My no, you, you messaged me and
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  I was out of town and I don't have my business address
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  memorized. So I was like, I'll get back to
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  you. And so I missed when you were
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  sending it out, but I want to copy.
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  And congratulations on your book.
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  That's huge. As soon as you finish this,
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  e-mail me or message me on Instagram some of your address.
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  I will send you a book straight out.
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  Like I literally I have like tons going out to people with my
• 1:03
  friends and stuff. So yeah, let me know.
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  Give that dress. You'll go.
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  OK, Go here behind me. Boo, Boo, Boo.
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  Yeah, I see it. It's actually currently sold out
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  in the in the European Union. Like you can't get it right now.
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  So the win. Congrats.
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  That's that's really exciting. Thanks to you, man.
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  It's it's crazy, but yes fun going Oh my goodness yeah bad
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  girl goodness me. I know.
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  Do you know what? It's funny, like I feel like I'm
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  the autism YouTube autism influencer dinosaur.
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  Like I've been on this platform in 1010 or 11 years, right?
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  So it's kind of like. Yeah.
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  Yeah. Yeah, you've figured it out.
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  Yeah, do you know what? It's funny because like I when I
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  first started, there was nobody doing it.
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  So I was like, I was like, God, nobody's did it.
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  So I thought I'd just test the wars and put some information
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  out because I felt like it needed to happen.
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  So that's, that's actually how I started.
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  But yes, here I am, you know, like 250 Subs later, you know?
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  Yeah, Well, I'm so glad. I'm so glad you did, because
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  that's part of why I'm here. So I appreciate the work that
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  you're doing. Oh, it's amazing.
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  Thank you so much. And a blessed circle to come
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  around because I've seen your stuff and I love it too.
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  So tell us a bit about you. So the audience who's listening
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  and watching, you know, who is Taylor Heaton?
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  What's the mom on the spectrum? Tell us a little bit about that.
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  Yeah, so I'm 34 now, but I I received my autism diagnosis
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  when I was 31. And one of my friends was
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  diagnosed and she told me the kind of the domino for her that
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  led to everything was this term called copy and paste behaviors.
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  And I just instinctively understood what that meant.
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  I was like, you know, copying and pasting social behaviors.
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  Doesn't everybody do that? You know?
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  And this friend in particular, I was like, if she's autistic,
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  then maybe I don't really understand what autism is
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  because she was really socially skilled and like, we were music
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  majors together and like we just had a lot of similarities.
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  So that led into my like black hole research for autism where I
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  was just like, I'm going to read the entire Internet.
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  And that's when I came across your podcast a few years ago.
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  And so I started learning more about it at the same time that I
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  was researching for my son, I was reading a book called The
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  Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aaron.
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  So at the same time was kind of being funneled into autism
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  through the lens of highly sensitive person and getting
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  that vocabulary. And so it all kind of came
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  together during the pandemic. That's when I received my
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  official diagnosis. And it, it just really felt like
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  coming home in a way that I felt like I could finally quit
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  running on the hamster wheel of like trying to understand my
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  brain and trying to feel like I could make sense of my life.
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  And I, I just knew I'm like, I have to start talking about how
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  this has changed my life. And so I just got my camera out
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  and just started shooting and I uploaded it to YouTube.
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  And that's how Mom on the Spectrum was born.
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  Amazing. And so how so you did you start
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  going online like did you start like posting videos since 2020
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  or how long have you been online for now?
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  2021 so like 2 years now. Cool.
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  And how are you finding it? How are you finding the the
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  space, the community? Like how do you find it putting
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  content out rather than digesting the content?
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  You know, I, I actually love it and people ask me, I don't know
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  if you found this to be true, but I actually find that a large
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  majority of the feedback is positive and uplifting.
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  I, you know, obviously there's going to be haters and trolls,
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  but like, for the most part, I've found the autistic
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  community to again, just be like coming home.
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  I love it. They're my people.
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  I feel like I have finally found where I belong, so I'm I'm all
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  about it. Yeah, that's awesome if you
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  found any negativity within the community because there's a lot
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  of controversial topics and I cover all of them because I
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  don't care. But I see I feel like no in in
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  the in the terms of like I, I'm, I'm quite thick skinned.
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  So I'll talk about Asperger syndrome.
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  I'll talk about people who say high functioning, low
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  functioning, because those things, I have AI have an
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  interesting view on those things and I have a very logical
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  scientific view on those things. But I feel like there's a lot of
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  people who kind of like, you know, you, you get bashed about
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  if you say like, I have autism or a person with autism, you
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  know, they, we'll say like autistic person first, you know,
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  And it's kind of like annoys me a little bit because I feel like
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  you can't impose how somebody wants to identify, you know what
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  I mean? So it's like forcing pronouns
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  and so on. You can't really force a pronoun
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  and so on. Someone says like, hey, I
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  identify as they them. You say, OK, well, cool.
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  I'll address you as they them. You don't say no, no, no, you're
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  a female to me. You know, you can't say that.
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  So you can't just say you have to put autistic person first
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  because it's not how someone wants to.
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  But because of that, because of my views on those, because I
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  want people to be accepted into a community.
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  And you know, Asperger's syndrome was a was a clinical
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  diagnosis right up until 2013. So you have thousands and
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  hundreds of thousands of people diagnosed with that.
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  So it's kind of like I'm accepting of those people.
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  Have you found any backlash like that in the community that's
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  negative? Yeah, there's, you know, it
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  depends on where you're looking, but yeah, it's definitely there.
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  And, and lately I've gotten some backlash, you know, people
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  saying, thinking that I'm kind of drowning out the voices of
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  people with higher support needs because they can't communicate
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  as well. And so that, you know, it's
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  interesting to me because it's like, I feel like the, the
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  higher functioning I'm using, you know, airport higher
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  functioning autistic people, like we have so many unseen
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  challenges. And I tell people like you're
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  seeing like you're seeing like an edited version of myself
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  online and you don't see so much like obviously I want people
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  that have higher support needs to be represented, obviously.
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  But I'm one person, you know, I'm one person.
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  I'm sharing my story and I don't want to share the story of other
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  people that I haven't lived that experience.
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  So that's the thing recently that's come up the most as
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  people. I've had a couple people say I'm
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  like drowning out other people's voices, which I'm like, I'm just
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  using my voice and you know, I'm not going to be able to to speak
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  for everybody. I don't want to speak for
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  everybody. You know what, like you know, I
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  people like that like to me, I always go back to the devil
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  makes work for idle hands, right?
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  So those people are very bored and they're very they have stuff
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  going on in their lives. So I always have to reach out
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  with compassion. So it gives me like, you know,
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  internally if we have a intro hate, I always say like, look, I
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  know what's going on in your life, but I, I hope it's OK.
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  And I'm always here to help because I am, you know, if
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  somebody gets me like you're an asshole or, hey, I said like,
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  you can't use Asperger's. I'm like, OK, whatever.
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  But then they were like, oh, I'm stuck.
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  I need to help. I'll be like, yeah, dude, like
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  100%. Like, forget all the other
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  stuff, you know, it doesn't matter.
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  Are you using the ANO fidget gadget?
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  Is that what you're using? We have so many similarities
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  over here dude. That's crazy.
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  I have, yeah. By the way, guys, we have the
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  same computer. We're using the same kind of
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  like Apple keyboard and mouse with a IMAX that matches this
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  mint green colour, which is lovely.
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  Yeah, it's funny. And are you using a Blue Yeti
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  microphone? Yeah.
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  Yeah, I used to have a blue Yeti.
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  Well, I do have a blue Yeti microphone.
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  I've upgraded to this sure podcasting rate, which is great
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  because a little fancy schmancy now.
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  Yeah, Yeah. You know, it's interesting,
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  like, you know, if we, if autistic individuals like
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  yourself and myself, who are able to verbally articulate our
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  needs and, and, and issues, then if we didn't have those people,
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  then you wouldn't have anybody looking into the people with
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  like higher support needs, right?
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  You definitely need a bigger voice.
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  And I think, like, for me, it's always like, look, if we're not
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  doing it, nobody's going to do it.
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  You know what I mean? And, and who better to do it
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  than people within the community themselves?
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  But it's sad. It's sad that people find the
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  find issues with people just trying to help.
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  Like nothing that we do is sinister.
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  Like anything, anything I do, my entire business, my ethos, my,
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  my, my team ethos is we want to help as many people as possible
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  as quickly as possible. That's it.
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  There's nothing else in my business like ethos like that.
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  That's it. And so, you know, when you come
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  to a place like that and everybody who works for me, they
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  come in and we say like, that's it.
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  We're we're, I'm coming from a place of help.
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  So for people to just kind of get snotty about it, really,
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  they really don't understand how maybe it's bad messaging for my
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  behalf. They really don't have the
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  ideas, but you know. No, I mean, and I think you, I
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  like your approach in that like everybody's going through
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  something and that's the lens that they're coming to you from,
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  you know, so it's like people who ask those types of questions
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  or something else behind it, it's hardly ever about you, you
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  know, it's more so it's an issue that they're trying to work
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  through. And so I think that's one
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  interesting thing, especially, you know, we could talk about
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  rejection sensitive dysphoria, but like that's one challenge
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  being being an online content creator is that there's just
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  that there's never, even though most of the support and feedback
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  has been positive, like, you know, the negative ones come and
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  it's hard, it can be tricky to deal with.
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  So you have to kind of develop a mindset around it.
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  Yeah, yeah, 100%, dude. And you kind of just get a
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  developer and you do develop a thick skin because you're just
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  like, oh, do you know what? Like it's marginal.
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  And these people are just obviously like people who had
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  hugged as much as children or whatever, you know?
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  So it's like you just need to kind of give them that actual
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  love that they didn't get, right.
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  So how, how have my, how have you found like navigating doing
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  something that's quite online intensive, like creating videos
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  as in text, right. So I put out 100 pieces of
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  content a day through the ESP world and we're on every
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  associated platform going for 100 pieces of content a day.
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  We're running 5 or 6 different websites.
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  I can, you know, we do a lot of things, OK, I have a team, it's
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  only a small team. Like we have two editing teams,
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  have an assistant, I have a graphics person and a website
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  guy. So you know, and a customer is a
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  populism. So there's a very small team of
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  people, but like in terms of getting that much content and I
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  am the sole content creator, right?
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  So I have to grow content and it does kicks my ass.
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  But luckily I have ADHD and so I'm able to just like get on it,
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  right. How do you find, you know,
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  navigating life as a mum, as a wife, as a, as a, as a human in
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  you know what I mean? Like how do you find that?
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  Well, it's really difficult. I mean, this past year, I don't
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  know if you saw this is I'm doing well, but I went through a
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  divorce this past year. And so, so sorry.
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  This was Yeah, it's OK to mean to.
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  Say the wife thing then I'm so sorry.
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  No, no, there's no, no, I'm happy to talk about it and
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  honestly, I'm so much better on this side of it.
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  But like, it's been a blessing and a curse with my business
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  because, you know, I, I can take off whatever I want, you know,
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  but it's, it's hard because when you're going through a tough
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  time, there's nobody there to hold your hand and say, like,
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  you need to do this. Because I'm, it's just me right
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  now, Like I'm just a soul team of myself.
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  So it's, it, there's been a lot of flexibility to where I can
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  take time off and, and just like take care of myself.
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  But it definitely, I've had so much burnout this year and, and
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  that's been hard to manage because, you know, trying to
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  create new content when you're burnout is it's like just
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  scraping from the bottom of the barrel.
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  It's really, really difficult. So yeah, I, I really love the
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  flexibility of it, but when I'm in periods of burnout, it's
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  really difficult to like, find a path forward.
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  Interesting. And I, I definitely feel that.
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  I mean, what I, what I do to do that is I batch film content.
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  So I'll spend a couple of weeks filming, you know, hundreds of
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  pieces of content and then put it onto the drive.
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  And then like, obviously we're having team edited.
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  But you know, but the thing about it is like you have a
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  backup log of videos that just go up, you know, whenever you
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  want to see. So if you are in a burnout
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  stage, you're like, it's OK, because I've been in burnout now
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  for like 4 weeks. I just had a baby 10 weeks ago.
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  So it was OK, thank you. And then it just hit like kind
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  of like about 3 or 4 weeks ago I was like, like, I can't do this,
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  you know, I can't wait. So I've been busy behind the
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  scenes, like building different products and stuff like that to
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  keep myself actively helping the community.
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  But also most of the videos are going out now are videos that I
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  filmed like a year ago or so, which is, which is good.
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  And it's, it's helpful. So maybe maybe that's something
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  to, to kind of look at maybe batch production, you know,
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  yeah, what, what's the future of, of, of the spectrum that you
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  know, more on the spectrum and, and Taylor Heaton, like what,
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  what's your, what's your vision for the future?
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  What's your goals? What are you going to do?
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  What's the juicy stuff? OK So what I love like what's
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  transformed my life the most is connecting to a community who
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  gets it. Like whenever I interact with
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  the autistic community, I'm always learning more vocabulary
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  to explain my experiences. I feel more validated.
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  I feel more like more of an authentic representation of
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  myself. I'm learning how to unmask.
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  And so my goal is just creating more and more community
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  opportunity use for the for the autistic adults of the world.
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  And my like, my big long term goal is, and I need all of like
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  the feedback from the community. Like I want to create like
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  regional conferences where we can all get together in a
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  sensory friendly way with like all kinds of fun, you know, like
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  fidgets and like let's wear pajamas and let's, you know,
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  different people present on their special interests.
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  And I just just like an autistic free for all, but like in a fun
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  sensory friendly way. So my long term goal is to have
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  like little regional conferences where we can get together in a
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  safe community format that works for people of all different
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  needs. So I would I that's where I'm
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  headed and I'm really excited about it.
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  Dude, that's like that's super. Would you ever be interested in
• 13:30
  collaborating on something like that?
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  Because I, I have a business I started called Austin Social
• 13:35
  Summit. So we're putting on our first
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  ever event in Canada in 2024 in April, but we're branching out
• 13:41
  to United States and Australia. And so we have sponsors like
• 13:45
  Facebook and YouTube. So it would be interesting if
• 13:48
  you're interested, we could talk about, you know, collaborating
• 13:50
  on those things and we could make your realities come to
• 13:52
  light. Yeah, absolutely.
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  I mean, I don't really care. Like it doesn't have to be under
• 13:57
  my name. Like I just want, it's so
• 13:59
  healing for myself and just others in the community.
• 14:01
  Like that's been the most transformative part of my
• 14:04
  journey of seeing autistic people connect with each other.
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  And I know that there's so many hindrances for us who have
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  social differences. And I'm, I'm here, I'm like, I
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  want to help people figure out how to connect.
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  And so like, whatever format that happens in it, I'm happy to
• 14:19
  offer my services. Would love to collaborate.
• 14:21
  Oh, 100%. Let's let Well, yeah, we'll get
• 14:23
  down with that. Right, 100% OK, that's perfect.
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  So here's so my closing question to you is what would you like
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  anybody to know who was in your position back in 2020 or before
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  2020 before you got diagnosed? What would what would you advice
• 14:36
  me to anybody who was in a position like you, especially
• 14:39
  women, if that's OK? Yeah, OK, So especially for
• 14:42
  women, I my advice lately that I'm giving is trust your
• 14:46
  intuition. You are not too sensitive, trust
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  your experiences. One thing that I've found, I
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  don't know if you found this as well, but autistic people tend
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  to be in close proximity to some pretty controlling personality
• 15:00
  types sometimes. And so I think that it's, yeah,
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  I think it's really important, especially for women to trust
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  your voice. Start speaking up.
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  It can be really scary. I know a lot of us are people
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  pleasers and we tend to kind of like try to take care of other
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  people's feelings first. But really lean into your
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  experience. Don't talk yourself out of what
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  you're thinking, you're feeling. Ask all the questions.
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  Trust you into intuition and like part of trusting your
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  intuition when you've, when you've gotten away from doing
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  that for so long, especially if you're late diagnosed and you're
• 15:33
  not aware of your tendencies, it can take a while to like relearn
• 15:37
  how to trust your intuition and how to use flex that muscle.
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  So just baby steps like I, I tell people try, you know,
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  choosing a different cereal at the grocery store, like just
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  little things that feel good, taking small steps towards like
• 15:52
  identifying your wants and your needs.
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  And that will help you slowly start unmasking, starting to
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  feel like a more authentic representation of yourself, more
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  comfortable in your skin. But definitely, at the end of
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  the day, trust your experience, trust your intuition, and lean
• 16:06
  into that as much as you can. I love that.
• 16:08
  It's beautiful. So Taylor, how can people find
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  you on the web? Where?
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  Where do they go? So my website is Mom on the
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  Spectrum dot Life, and I'm mostly on YouTube.
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  You can go to youtube.com/mom on the Spectrum, but you can find
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  all my resources. Mom on the Spectrum dot life, my
• 16:22
  community events. I have downloadable resources.
• 16:25
  One thing I'm really proud of is the big autistic Resource guide.
• 16:29
  So that's about like 50 pages. Now, it's free to be featured in
• 16:32
  if you have an autistic business product, service, social media
• 16:35
  account. And I try to put that out
• 16:37
  quarterly so you can find all different types.
• 16:40
  Like my idea is that there's so many autistic people out there
• 16:43
  that if we could have a hub of like all of our products and
• 16:46
  services, we could keep each other in business.
• 16:49
  Yeah. Am I on that list?
• 16:51
  Yeah, I'm sure you are. I mean, there's some pretty sure
• 16:54
  you. Yeah, I'm sure.
• 16:55
  You are, yeah. So yeah, and people like people
• 16:58
  submit stuff all the time, so I'm sure people have submitted
• 17:01
  you as well. But but yeah, it's just an ever
• 17:03
  growing list that you can download for free.
• 17:05
  You can be featured in for free. And it's all at Mom on the
• 17:08
  Spectrum, not life. Amazing stuff guys, you heard
• 17:11
  it. I'll link everything down below
• 17:12
  that Taylor has just mentioned. And yeah, any questions
• 17:15
  wherever, reach out to me in the comments and I'll pass them on
• 17:17
  to Taylor. I'm sure that your DMS are maybe
• 17:20
  open, but if I'm not, you can also comment on your stuff, I'm
• 17:22
  guessing. And if you do comment, I'm
• 17:23
  guessing you're going to comment back.
• 17:25
  Guys, as always, it's been an absolute pleasure.
• 17:27
  And thank you so much, Taylor. It's been, it's been amazing
• 17:29
  getting to getting to know a bit more about who who you are and
• 17:32
  what you do. So thank you so much for coming
• 17:33
  on the show. Thank you.
• 17:35
  Thank you for the work you do for the community.
• 17:36
  It's much appreciated. Ah, it's my life work, it's my
• 17:39
  goal, it's my mission from God, if you will.
• 17:41
  So that's what I believe. I yes, me too.
• 17:44
  I'm here for it. Awesome.