Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:09 This is Adam, your name is, this is Thora. She has a short-term memory problem, sort of sad. This is autism on shift. We are talking,
Speaker 1 00:00:25 I think, to other autistic people about what we do for work, as long as we're not paying our pants. Oh my God. What are you doing over there today? We are talking to Lashley. Lashley is an office specialist with a background in a lot of fun stuff. So we're going to have a really good time talking to her. Hi Lashley. How are you? Hi, I'm good. Thanks. Welcome to our show.
Speaker 0 00:00:51 Welcome. Thanks for being here with us. I'm very happy to be here with you guys. I'll go on.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 Okay. You're darling. You're my darlings.
Speaker 0 00:01:00 I love it.
Speaker 1 00:01:08 That sounds like you. Yeah. Uh, so let's start with your work. What is it that you are doing right now? And, um,
Speaker 0 00:01:19 Yeah, it was kind of a transition, right? So, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:01:22 I'm transitioning. Um, so actually let's start, let's back up a little bit, what I'm conditioning from? Sure. Rewind. So while I'm transitioning from was I was a childcare provider for 18 years. Wow. And then I looked at my only child at the time and went well, if I only get one of you and I want to come home and be with you. So I switched to overnight baking yay. Multiple hobbies. Right. And then now I'm actually working and interning really as a financial services, I'm doing taxes and accounting and bookkeeping and all sorts of office type things. So I have lots of background in different areas and that's what kind of prompted me to move.
Speaker 0 00:02:01 Sorry. I apologize. Are you going to be able to do that kind of stuff from home or are you going to still have to,
Speaker 1 00:02:07 That's actually the beauty of it, um, who I'm currently interning for is actually my grandfather, um, do not take that to mean he is easy on me. He believes in his business and I am held to the business standard. Nice. He's got a lot of years in the business and he demands that I hold up that standard and I'm happy with that, but I know he's actually helping me transition into, um, doing it, work from home and possibly taking over the business myself and work from home as well. Very good. Awesome. Already kind of pre set up. I just have to finish getting my certifications and learning everything he knows, which is a lot.
Speaker 0 00:02:42 So that'll only take a what? 40, 50 years you'll be set.
Speaker 1 00:02:46 Yeah. Something like that. He's from 76 soon and he still can outrun me. So I got a lot to go.
Speaker 0 00:02:54 Oh, so maybe 70 years he didn't do anything. It was for six years.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 So what do you like about it? What's fun and exciting.
Speaker 1 00:03:03 Um, honestly it's not exciting per se, because I really like, like my favorite part is the fact that it's, uh, immediate gratification. I can't remember correct words. I'm sorry. But the fact that I filed my paperwork and it's done, I opened the next file. I do my work. I filed my paperwork. It's like continuously having that happy moment of put away it's in its place. It's accomplished, but it's also put away and done and I don't touch it again. And it's neatly on its shelf. Can I come work with you? I love that feeling of ah, and no one's gonna touch it actually for me it does. It does get kind of fun because I see it as a brain game where, okay, I have this tax return, I'm doing, Hmm they're self-employed and they are a partnership and this other business and they have their personal taxes.
Speaker 1 00:03:58 Let's see how much of a deduction I can get them. Where are the, where are the discounts they're missing? What, what, what did they not put in last year that they changed this year? What's the maximum amount of what I can help them with. Um, same thing with bookkeeping and stuff like that. How can I streamline this? Where the other side has the easiest time keeping up with their finances, working for small business owners, they don't have time. They don't have the ability to do all of this stuff. And if they do, they don't have the time to do it. So I want to find the most efficient way to get it done. And that's kind of the fun part for me is, okay, how do I streamline this? How do I tweak it? What can I do today to make myself slightly faster, slightly more effective. Nice, awesome.
Speaker 2 00:04:39 I get that. I definitely get that. I, uh, aside from the work I'm assigned on my hourly job, I keep a spreadsheet so that I can track my time and see how effective and how F how fast I'm getting basically and how much money I'm saving my boss. And I can see, I can see how much money per, you know, uh, you know, per item that comes through how much I can save him. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:05:04 But it's marketing. Like you've a little bit of marketing in there cause you're a pro you're your own business. Um, so I'm learning, I already have a little bit of marketing. I'm actually working on a bachelor's degree in business management currently on top of everything else. Yeah. Um, and part of it for me is the fun of, okay, how do I word this? How do I convince you to come over to us? How can I help you? Because I have an issue with sales. If you're not honest, I have a big honesty issue. So how can I be honest, but also get the sales and things I want and improve my relationships with my clients.
Speaker 0 00:05:36 Yep. Pop those numbers in. What did I? Yep. That's huge.
Speaker 2 00:05:42 Okay. So D okay, let me ask you this. You used, you did say that your, your it's, your grandfather's business, right. Did he, did you actually have to interview?
Speaker 1 00:05:53 Um, I did not have to interview per se. At least I didn't realize I was interviewing. And the sad part is this is actually typical. This has happened more than once. Okay. Um, I go to help someone like when I was working as a school teacher and I went in and I was working as a priest in the preschool room, and I want a story classroom as an aid, and they needed an aid for three to six rooms. So they just sent me over there to help that day. And then the next day, and then the next day. And apparently they asked me and over the PA over a week of me going over there for a couple hours a day, they asked me all the same questions. I would get asked in an interview and slowly just integrating into the classroom. So I accidentally got hired.
Speaker 1 00:06:35 That's very interesting. And then my grandfather did the same thing over the first week or two of me just filing paperwork and helping out. And I wasn't getting paid or anything. He just, his office will be a bomb, had gone off. I'm like, Papa, let me come help. I can file paperwork. I have 12 years of clinical experience. I think I know what I'm doing. So I go over there and I start filing paperwork and stuff, and he starts asking me, Hey, what do you think of this problem here? And how would you handle this, this over here? And what do you think of this new of this modern issue we're dealing with? And he would just keep asking me these interview type questions and looking back, I see what he was doing, but yeah. At the time I was literally completely clueless.
Speaker 0 00:07:12 No, that is funny. Cause I, and I wonder if it's clearly we, you know, we talked before we started, um, you know, hitting record and it's, it's clear that, uh, you know, you seem to be, you know, uh, I can't use my words today. Uh, w I'm like, well, minded, you know, well-rounded and, you know, you seem intelligent. And so it occurs to me that, you know, going over and just trying to be helpful, you know, somewhere along the line, you know, you're really good at what you do, whatever you do I imagine. And someone says, Hm, you know, they start to wonder like, can, can you stick around? Like for a long time,
Speaker 1 00:07:48 I've had multiple babysitting jobs that way that, like I said, that's how I got the upgrade from one classroom to another classroom at a school I was working at. That's how I got hired to intern with my grandfather. I'm really funny. As I spent the first year telling him, I don't want this job, I will not be taking over the family business. No, this is not happening. Find a different successor. And his response was, you know, it's a really great job for work from home and it's really difficult. And he basically just spent an entire year going along with me and realizing I was slowly falling down the rabbit hole. And I'm like, all right, fine.
Speaker 0 00:08:24 You got me
Speaker 1 00:08:28 My looking at my cousins and my siblings. I'm like eeny meeny me. Yep.
Speaker 0 00:08:35 Well, now I can't listen to this.
Speaker 1 00:08:40 Okay. So let's
Speaker 0 00:08:41 Talk about your history in, um, your special ed
Speaker 1 00:08:44 And training. So, cause I was looking at the outline as well, trying to kind of, kind of help a little bit here and helpful.
Speaker 0 00:08:54 We'll answer your questions,
Speaker 1 00:08:57 The most artistic thing out there. I can be
Speaker 0 00:08:59 Helpful.
Speaker 1 00:09:02 I know how to helpful. I don't really do anything else, but I can helpful.
Speaker 0 00:09:05 We actually set it up that way just to make you feel good. Yeah. That was the ticket.
Speaker 1 00:09:13 Absolutely. I will. I will totally pretend I'm going along with it.
Speaker 0 00:09:16 Thank you man.
Speaker 1 00:09:20 With me actually, with the special education and stuff, um, for baking, I was raised with a K ticker in the house and everything else. So switching to that, as that interim job I had, I actually spent two months up in New York at worldwide Bible Institute. And I was a Baker there for the summer where I was making bread and cookies and everything else. And that really gave me the experience I needed to get a job at Walmart when I came home and to retail baking, which then turned into gee, I hate retail. I love teaching, which is funny for a homeschooled kid. Um, and so I went ahead and started working on getting my degree in early childhood education and working for schools and stuff. The other funny part that the Walmart job ties in is I became friends with someone at a different department whose wife worked at the local Montessori school, which I just happened to have a bunch of certifications and things, or, you know, I was starting to, I was starting to build myself into being a Montessori teacher at the time, didn't know much about it, but I liked the idea and that's how I actually wound up working at a school was by networking with people at my job.
Speaker 1 00:10:23 So I became friends with her and I started working at the school and stuff and I have a degree. Um, it's a general AA with a couple extra specialized classes in education, but I also have several certificates in doing special ed and, uh, movement, curriculum, different things for different kids. Basically I was, I was also a paraprofessional at another school. Um, a little while down the road, I was trying to find a school that fit with me and my family's lifestyle then realized it doesn't.
Speaker 1 00:10:51 And so when I was a paraprofessional, I was kind of the problem solver. I would go into a classroom where we had a kid, um, parents didn't want an IEP. They didn't want the child labeled, okay. Your child has obvious learning disabilities. Yeah. We can't give them anything legally without a doctor's note telling us what we can do for them. So how can we fix this problem in classrooms so that your child isn't falling further behind? Yeah. So what we would do is we would do things like, um, well, my favorite tricks is if you think a child has dyslexia, you give them color pencils, dyslexics naturally, right? When different colors for different subjects. So if you get them a color pencil, they'll switch even during sentences sometimes. But those are usually switch colors for different subjects and things like that. It was kind of a, I'm not diagnosing you, but Hey, look, you actually managed to remember your math homework versus your English homework today because it's colored because the color coding helps them to memorize facts because the writing and everything and the phonics don't really fit into their mind properly. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:49 We don't care about the labels. As long as we have a solution, that's going to you. That's all that really matters.
Speaker 1 00:11:54 Exactly. Um, ADHD kids, I would have a stretchy bands. Like you exercise with them. I have time to one chair, time to the other chair with them, kick the band while they did their homework.
Speaker 0 00:12:02 Did you say you're tied them to the chair?
Speaker 1 00:12:06 Well, I wouldn't tie them to the chair and tend the stretchy van to the chair. And then they could take that chair to wherever they were going. But there were days I'm looking at him going, I let's go outside a lot or you're gonna drive everyone else in this room. Insane.
Speaker 0 00:12:21 I remember in high school they let someone actually run around the building a couple of times and once a day.
Speaker 1 00:12:26 Yep. Actually, that was one thing that I found when I was working with special education children. So I was in that classroom as well, a lot, um, not just the regular classroom. So I was actually paraprofessional for the special education classrooms. There would be that my kids would go out and one of the courtyards and run up and down it three or four times every time they start to get unfocused and then they'd come back in and they would focus really well because a lot of them had those issues or they're running in nature. So I know with us, you know, that's, what's around the assistant spectrum. It really helps ground us a little bit. If we can just go outside and touch a tree, of course I didn't breathe some fresh air kind of get that space. So depending on what, where they were with their own issues would be whether they were running around screaming, back and forth in this courtyard or sitting in a quiet corner, touching trees. I didn't care. You had five.
Speaker 0 00:13:12 Nice, awesome.
Speaker 1 00:13:16 So, um, but yeah, so it was kind of like break. I, I do believe you need some sort of specialized information and education to deal with special education children, as far as being a tax preparer and things like that. It's called there's. You kind of become an accountant, which requires a degree, which I'm not going to do. Um, or you can take an enrolled agent exam, which basically makes you a little mini IRS agent. You can do taxes and prepare them for people and stuff. Then book keeping, I've taken a couple of QuickBooks classes and stuff, but I've basically just been kind of taught how to do it. Most of my life, people needed help with something. So I learned a skill and that's kind of how I feel about this sort of thing. I'm also doing medical billing for midwives. I'm currently in a class for that actually
Speaker 0 00:13:57 Interesting, wow.
Speaker 1 00:14:00 Financial office services business that I'm trying to build here. That's a whole range of insanity right there, but that's definitely something where you need to have those classes. Um, the medical billing, you have to take a class and you have to get certified. You have to know what you're doing, but it's also for the safety of your clients. They need to know that you know what you're doing and to trust you. So I find that to be really important.
Speaker 0 00:14:24 No, that's wise to be able to see the difference. Sure.
Speaker 1 00:14:32 I know you're usually the one barrel pink compliments to here.
Speaker 0 00:14:36 This feels weird.
Speaker 1 00:14:38 It's just so easy to pay you. Compliments, darling. I mean like, I love your hair today,
Speaker 0 00:14:43 But you didn't see it yesterday. No daily hair check, you know, I don't even see, uh, I don't see my hair when I wake up and go to work. I don't know what I look like. Like that. Yeah. It's a scary, no, I don't think I did anything with my hair today. It's just what it looks like.
Speaker 1 00:15:08 Now. I will say the differences for me between working from home or doing this kind of working with my grandfather and stuff in the back. He does work from home. Yeah. That kind of brings you in with the autism, autism and stuff. Obviously I'm at home. It's not as big of a deal versus working in an actual structured environment. Right. Um, noises have always been a really big trigger for me. And so as far as physically, I've always, um, every time I've ever been employed, I've had a safe word with my employer and I've always been up front in my interviews. I've lost several jobs because of that, because they're like, well, we can't accommodate you. Well, I'm sorry. You can't accommodate. Give, letting me walk out of the room for five minutes. When I get overwhelmed, that's on you. I've also found a better candidate really?
Speaker 1 00:15:57 Cause I was the only one who interviewed. Um, so I have dealt with some challenges there with previous jobs and things. And that's another reason why I wonder the work from home is because it is safer. It can provide me the mental and physical stability to provide for my children. Yeah. Which for me actually, and I'm gonna throw this out there as well. Um, is doubly important. My husband is a type one diabetic. Okay. Now a lot of time, 40% type one diabetics die by the age of 40. Oh wow. So he's 32 and we have managed so far. We've been together 11, 12 years, a very long time. Now we've been married for six years. So for me, if anything were to happen to him or if he had to go on full disability or anything like that, I have to be able to be employable. Yeah. I can't. I have to find ways to work around my autism. I have found ways to work on my ADHD. I have to be able to do this and it's not an option. Yeah. Yeah. So that's another reason why I want to do the work from home and everything. So I can run my own business and we can be safe. So
Speaker 0 00:17:03 With those interviews, with the accommodations where they're talking about ADHD or autism in general, do you think,
Speaker 1 00:17:09 Um, it was more that I would lay out what accommodations I needed. So I would say, I usually tell them I made the HD because they immediately assumed as I was something you grow out of or it's a hype word or things like that. They don't really take it seriously. So I usually actually leave the ADHD out of most interviews. Um, and with the autism, I point out that, look, I am going to be, if it's really loud, or if there's an intermittent noise, say a timer goes off or something like that, it may take me longer to get accustomed to it. Or I may need to walk out of the room. I may need certain ways to handle that. Also you can't sneak up on me because I will hear keys jangling, and I will know where you are at all times if that weird do out, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 00:17:54 I've had, I had one coworker who was really weirded out by that once I got hired, because I would always know where she was because she had a big key ring and I would always hear it jingling and it kind of drove me insane, but it was kind of comforting because I knew where she was. Cause people sneaking up on me kind of bothers me too. Just cause then they touch you and please, please don't touch me without asking first. And yeah, again, working with children, that's not physically possible to ask them. So I would usually have my back to a wall or something like that. So I would point out to the employer. I may be stepping back. I may be more hesitant in certain situations. I may not give my ideas out loud to the group. Um, when I was working at a certain preschool, they actually held me in for a write-up because I was thinking too loudly. And if some parents aren't as aggressive and for me it was no, I can't control my volume. Well, I, when I'm consciously thinking about it and really paying attention, I can, but it's hard for me to control my volume and my rate of speech. So I understand how that can come off. So I've had to point that out in interviews to have occasionally I may sound a certain way it's because I can't hear my internal. I can't hear my voice, my own voice very well. It's just part of how it is.
Speaker 3 00:19:11 I'm not sure that I ever really consider too much of like you were talking about, like with the keys, jangling and stuff and knowing where people are and her being weirded out, you know, those kinds of things. I, you know, I'm not sure I ever considered how other people react to what, you know, I just I'm like, Oh, I just get that. You think I'm weird, but I never really considered why, because I'm like, I'm just me. And if you have a problem with it, you can go eat.
Speaker 1 00:19:34 I'll be honest. One of the reasons it actually started occurring to me of how other people would react to it is I had a student who was three years old and diagnosed on the spectrum and a couple other issues. And at three that means you are, it's pretty obvious what's causing you to be diagnosed that way. Um, very similar to me, absolutely. One of my heart's children. I love that child to death. And my main teacher asked me what is wrong with that hit? Like she was just having a moment where she could not get him figured out at all that day. She's like, what is up with him? What is wrong with him today? And my response was I feel the exact same way. The only reason I'm not acting like that child right now is because I lose my job. Yeah. And she went and I said, and because I know how that affects the people around me and her response was, thank you.
Speaker 1 00:20:25 I said, you're not welcome. You're not welcome that I'm having to bottle in everything because it was a really loud, crazy day. Kids were running around everywhere. It was a really hard day for those of us on spectrum. And we couldn't leave the room because it was raining outside really badly. So me and the other kids, cause they were like three other kids in there that were kind of on spectrum as, um, me and the two, uh, three kids. And we're all kind of sitting there. And one of the corners trying desperately to find some sort of sanity in this
Speaker 3 00:20:59 Overwhelming
Speaker 1 00:20:59 Day. Like even now I can feel my shoulders tensing and memory of it, but she was like so surprised by that. You're not welcome. And it's also another thing of being a woman and having autism or ADHD is we're bossy. We're not assertive. We're aggressive. It's not, they don't really give us many positive personality traits when we're too big, too loud, too much.
Speaker 3 00:21:23 What's the other ones. Cause I hear that constantly. And it really is annoying because I've been with Thor 19 years and I, you know, I know that's not what it is, but I hear those things all the time, uh, from women and you know, for, you know, towards 30, over the years and, and, and you know, at this point in our lives, I mean, I think we you're like, we're just handling it, but I really do think that we, you know, through this, we got to come up with some of those good, positive, you know, ways of saying the same thing
Speaker 1 00:21:51 Where I'm at. When I say, no, I'm not being aggressive. I may be speaking in a tone, you find aggressive or that you are having an issue with. And that's really putting it back on them. And it's not very polite way to put back on them. So I wouldn't put my boss that way. If I have spoken to my coworkers that way going, I am not meaning for it to be this way. But if you are taking it that way, maybe we need to have a bigger talk.
Speaker 3 00:22:14 Right. And I think, I think that's a very interesting, uh, there's people don't speak the same language, you know? It's like when you speak that language you're being, um, uh, what's the, what's that word? I'm not assertive. No, no. Come on, man. Come on. Where are you at? Uh, you're you're you're saying what there is to say yes, authentic you're being authentic and, and that kind of language people don't seem to take very well, which is so interesting because, uh, but we have to be able to speak the same language and it's like, you're speaking two different languages and that's, that's always an issue because we do the same thing we say, you know, um, I'm sorry that happened to you, you know, instead of, you know, sort of,
Speaker 1 00:22:58 Yeah. It's something I've found that helps us. I'm using, I think it's called, it's not called non-aggressive communication, but that's what I was taught it as. And where you say, instead of saying, you know, when you, I don't like it when you play video games all night, I feel lonely. When you're playing video games all night, you have to take responsibility for it. And I've found that when people are first defensive and really put that shield up, when you use those words, they then turn around and are much more likely to listen to you in a professional environment, because you can say, I am trying to work. I, I need space for five minutes because I am currently feeling overwhelmed. I will be back in five minutes. And like I set alarms on my phone. They're always vibrate alarms. I have been teased on for, by everyone I know on an almost daily basis because my phone will never ring.
Speaker 1 00:23:50 I cannot take my phone ringing nine times out of 10. It disrupts my entire mode. Everything is thrown off key. It drives me insane, but then it's on vibrate all the time I can handle vibrate. So it's another way I kind of cope while I'm at work. And things is to have that alarm set for tasks I need to get done or anything else. I've done that since way back when I first started back in Walmart and everything else was making sure that if an audible alarm was going to go off, I might set a vibrate alarm for two minutes before it did. So. So I would have that early warning to expect it to happen.
Speaker 3 00:24:24 I think I'm going to steal that I have is a fantastic idea.
Speaker 1 00:24:28 It works really well for certain things like them. When I had to put my children down for naps and things like that. And I have an alarm for me, that's not audible that reminds me to go make lunch and I have an alarm for them that is audible that reminds them to eat it and go to bed.
Speaker 3 00:24:40 That's fantastic, honestly. And I think I, you know, I, I have an alarm set for when I wake up and whenever I'm looking through sounds for like some other alarm and that sound comes up. I instantly, um, my, my anxiety goes through the roof. When I hear that sound. I mean, it could be Saturday, you know, I'm not going to work. And I hear that, Oh, it's awful. So, Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:25:03 She's very careful what alarms I set because I trained myself to them. And if I hear that one alarm, I do the same thing. I'm like, ah, it's time for XYZ. And I'm like, no, no, turn that off. Turn that off. Now I am not putting up with this right now. That's the only way I've learned to cope those by setting those alarms. And then I usually use, cause my phone has a little notes you can attach to the alarm. And before then I had an app that would pop a little note up on my screen or my Google calendar would do so. And that would again, tell me what the alarm is for so that I could then do that task. And there's always, I'd be looking going, what is this? Why is my phone making noise? I don't like noise. Why is it doing this?
Speaker 3 00:25:42 We're doing a lot more of, uh, the calendar lately. And I think we're going to probably have to, because we have our calendars together, but we might have to separate them because we don't get the notifications. If Thor said something, I don't get the notification. If I set something, she doesn't get the notification. So, but we need that notification to just that pop up, you know, like, uh, visually, you know, without the sound, you know, so we might have to separate just so we can have that
Speaker 1 00:26:04 And minor crazy. I have mindset. I need, I need 24 hours before it happens. Tell me, and then two hours before it happens, tell me, and then 30 minutes before it happens, tell me. And then sometimes it's like three days before, remind me that in three days
Speaker 3 00:26:19 And see I'm different. So that's, uh, that's a hard part cause we need to be able to connect on the calendar together because our lives are very intertwined, but I don't need 13 reminders, but thorn clearly does. So
Speaker 1 00:26:30 Actually you can go into your individual settings and change it because my husband does not have the issues I do. So he does not appreciate the continuous reminders either, but yeah, there's a spot in, um, I'm pretty sure in the Google settings for your calendar where you can, who gets, which reminders and things, and what we actually have is our calendar has all of our bills on it, how to pay them and how much they are. Nice. So it sends me an alert of pay your bills and stuff. Cause it's kind of an anxiety thing for me is to make sure where the money is and stuff. And that's, again, that ties back into the needing to have control over my area and what I'm doing. And I know it's a very big autism story. True is I need to have control over what I can control. Yeah. So having that calendar there and the thing too is if anything were to happen to me, my husband, or if something would happen, both of us, my children, whoever has them will know this is the phone bill. This is how you pay the phone bill. This is how much it is.
Speaker 3 00:27:24 So we aren't, we I'm like that with, uh, we have to have a budget and uh, it's I do, we do it like twice a month. We do one the budget at the beginning of the month. And then a couple of weeks in that's when we pay all the bills and update it and put all the receipts in and stuff like that. But I am, uh, just, you know, once the budget is set and we have it in writing and we did it together, I feel great. And then about a week after I start to get, I start to get anxious and anxious until we go back in.
Speaker 2 00:27:52 If he gets snappy, I'm like, do we need to sit down and put the receipt?
Speaker 3 00:27:56 Yes we do. I'm sorry. I actually don't use
Speaker 1 00:27:59 Seats because having miscellaneous pieces of paper and clutter around drives me insane. Well, we have a file cabinet for that. Yeah. I love filing cabinets. Mine is usually hiding under baby clothing right now. But beyond that, no, it actually is just really stressful for me to have all those little piece of paper floating around. Yeah. And again, part of my job is to take all those pieces of paper and digitize them and put them away and make sure they don't, they don't ever come back. So what I do for us personally, as it's a running budget, I have mentally, and that's why we have the calendar is here's the bills that are already paid. If it's past the due date, you know, it's been paid. If it's before the due date, you know, it has not been paid. It will be paid exactly on its due date.
Speaker 1 00:28:39 Every time I am like that, I have the receipts for all the bills get emailed to him. And then I actually have, um, I check the bank account every morning. I see the transaction records and that's how I keep track of the money. But I actually, um, thanks Dave, the ADHD can run multiple tracks at a time. So every minute, every second of my day I have the mental budget going. He could spend a dollar 25 and I would know exactly how much money is in the account because I would deduct a dollar 25 mentally.
Speaker 2 00:29:06 See that's how Adam used to be. But like the longer he would do that, the more anxious he would get. And we finally figured out what it was is that he had this, this constant, um, conversation about money going on in his head and he could not get away from it. And I was just, I think this was forever ago before the kids were born. We were like, you know, let's write it all down, seriously, get it out of your head and put it on.
Speaker 3 00:29:30 Yeah. And once it was out of my head, then I didn't have to do cause you know, I'm similar to you, but I wouldn't, I don't have to check every morning and you know, do that calculation. But once it's written down, I know we don't spend money outside of, you know, and if we go to spend something, we look at our budget and said, you know, where do we take it from? You know,
Speaker 1 00:29:48 No worries. And I can check every morning is because I love my husband, but him and the vending machine are good friends. No, it's actually partially because he's diabetic. Ms. Laura departure is a snack or breakfast apparently was not quite enough carbs today because he spent a little bit, his body just used more than you thought it would. Or, you know, there's 1,001 reasons where his health comes up and he's like, I needed a snack bar. I'm like, that is fine. Matter of fact, the budget actually has a snack bar fund. Vending machine has its own part of the budget because I know these things are gonna happen. And honestly, there's also a cushion built into the budget because I know that it's not going
Speaker 3 00:30:29 To
Speaker 1 00:30:34 Him. And the vending machine are good friends some days. Um,
Speaker 3 00:30:39 I think it's from vending machines. I think it's a very important thing for everyone to do.
Speaker 1 00:30:45 Guess what Adam does for work? Huh? I said, guess what Adam does for work vending machines.
Speaker 3 00:30:53 I worked for a vending company. I don't actually feel vending machines right now, but I did fill up vending machines for a very long time. So
Speaker 1 00:31:00 Yeah. Well the only vending machines I have a problem with are the ones that sell sandwiches and college cafeterias, because I'm always questioning whether I should ever actually touch those or not Really slowly. Well, I went to a very rinky-dink college in the middle of nowhere. So it was always slightly the Deuteronomy this week.
Speaker 3 00:31:20 That's funny,
Speaker 1 00:31:21 But I also have a partially identic memory for what I read. If I focus really hard, I can memorize things. What I then do is talk myself through questionnaires like that and build my responses to it in my head. I can't do it out loud. I don't say it out loud. It's gone. I have an idea. I'm trying to do that. I'm glad I succeeded this time. Yeah, it's awesome. And I'm usually, and I'm the same way as you, if I have a, an intention to remember something, particularly if it's written words, I will. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 00:31:54 I have an identic memory as well, but it's only for visual stuff. Like I can, I don't have, I don't run vending machines. I have markets. So it kind of looks like a Sheetz or seven 11 or whatever inside of like Mark large manufacturing places. And so like, I can actually look at the whole entire market. And if I didn't, if I did an inventory, uh, my manager can call me a couple hours later and say, Hey, you know, this something looks wrong. And it says, you have 200 of those. And I say, Nope, I had 23, you know, or whatever. And I can tell them exactly how many it was at the time
Speaker 1 00:32:24 That actually has proven really in my favor with favor with accounting is because we'll have bank statements and sometimes people will print out multiple versions. So they'll still give you all the receipts and they'll give you the bank statement for the year, but it's like broken down, but then also give you the monthly. So you have freedom versions of the same data. So if I memorize a number for a particular month, like, wait, they spent $23 in December and it's not a thing for $23 in December. Let's double check that real quick. I don't track the transaction record or whatever. I'm like. Hmm. Yeah, no, you want me to get one of those? Well, it's usually completely unintentional. They're just sending me receipt. They're like, here's everything financially. Oh, then I'm like, figure it out. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:33:06 I want to circle back around because with Adam's visual memory, uh it's that puts like, that gives him the same kind of thing. Like you were talking about earlier where people are kind of creeped out that you know where they are. Oh yeah. He does this thing. Like he knows when anything changes in the house. So he's like this like unintentional detective he's like, I know you ate such and such for breakfast and you had blah, blah, blah. And he'll like outline my entire day simply by the visual things that have moved in the space. And it's not creepy to me, but I imagine most people would probably find it super creepy.
Speaker 1 00:33:38 One part of that too, is you ever get accused of lying because of it?
Speaker 3 00:33:42 I, not to my face, but I guarantee, uh, people, uh, constantly don't believe me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:50 Yeah. I've been accused of it to my face multiple times, even sometimes. How did that really happen? Because I have a really high visual acuity and also at again, memorizing my surroundings and stuff. So I'll be looking around the house or whatever, or I'll be outside and I'll be like, yeah, there are 23 ducks and you count them that fast. I memorized the picture.
Speaker 3 00:34:07 Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. See, that's the thing. If, if there's like a photo taken and I see those photos, I can say, you know, exactly like people that are not in the photo, I can say where we were, what I, you know, what was going on? Like people in the background, you know, w w what was on her shirt was talking, yes.
Speaker 1 00:34:25 What do you call the, know it all a lot too, because I'm the same issue with the, um, child with a special needs. Everything else turned around and kept losing her keys. And she always left her keys and she always lost them in the top five spots. So my brain memorized her top five spots, then walk around the room and find them every single time. Why aren't you a know it all? No, no. I just never raised your habits of behavior because I'm around you eight hours a day. And the only thing I have to pay attention to,
Speaker 3 00:34:54 I've definitely gotten to that point where I masked things. I, and I, and I was thinking about this last night, I was, I constantly pretend I'm dumb so I can fit in. And I'm like, I'm not actually dumb. I just pretend I just play one on TV. You know, it's the same reason
Speaker 1 00:35:10 I like that. I just play one on TV. I might use that and be like, I'm not actually done my character sheets just written badly today.
Speaker 2 00:35:17 That's right. All right. So, so we're talking about your future being self-employed right. Taking over the family business, um, doing your own thing. Do you see that, um, growing, I mean, I guess you've mentioned it growing, right? Like you're talking about medical billing and some other things. Um, do you see that growing in terms of employees? Um, that's
Speaker 1 00:35:38 150 50 right now. I'm probably will do what my grandfather did and wait for the perfect candidate to walk in. Okay. Um, and then things with it too, is, I'm not sure how stable a business it's going to be right now. The healthcare industry and financials and everything else in America is kind of interesting. Um, if everything were to switch to universal healthcare, would we still need medical billing? Would this still be a thing? So that's kind of something where I need to see what happens with my personal business in the next five years and make more, make more educated decisions then. Yeah. But what it likes to see this grow and maybe become something for other stay at home moms. Yes. Please stay at home dads too. My husband actually stayed home with I'm sorry. No problem. Are you done?
Speaker 0 00:36:29 Yeah. Babies. It happens. Allow it.
Speaker 1 00:36:32 No, she wants to be part of the conversation. Yeah. She's just not very good at it.
Speaker 0 00:36:37 Um,
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Honestly my husband said,
Speaker 0 00:36:41 How was that again? I said like, the rest of us are any good at it. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 00:36:47 No, but yeah, he stayed home with my older daughter for a year. He was working evenings at Amazon doing the warehouse work and everything. And I was working 13 hour days as a teacher. And so stay at home. Mom, stay at home. Dad. I would love this to be an option. Um, I actually have a friend who has cerebral palsy. She can stay home and do this kind of work. That would be a great option for her to get off of disability and be able to live and work on her own. And that's what she wants. And so for me, if I could make the business grow, yes, that would be absolutely amazing to be able to offer that opportunity to other people and really give them the ability to take care of themselves.
Speaker 0 00:37:28 I love it. That's amazing the right attitude. Now, if that, if, if that comes to fruition, um, and you do it, you do end up hiring. How has your interview going to differ from the standard corporate interview?
Speaker 1 00:37:42 Well, I would probably do it, um, via zoom. All right. And I also don't really believe in the three interview process, um, because of my ability to memorize and, um, also the notations I take and everything else, I would probably stick to two interviews. As in interview. One is I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. Interview two is hot. You got the job. Let's just make sure we're completely clear on whether you still want this job. Here's the breakdown, everything else. Um, I know a lot of places don't discuss salary and they don't discuss benefits or anything else as a mom and as a worker, especially someone with a disabled husband, as I mentioned earlier, or someone with a disability he's actually disabled. Thank you. Every little being in the universal
Speaker 0 00:38:28 Now, um, it's
Speaker 1 00:38:30 A long, hard road some days. Um, it definitely means that I would want to put those up front first. I agree. Those are important considerations, how much you're getting paid. What is expected of you? You wouldn't take a freelance writing job if you didn't know the subject or what the payout was going to be. Why should any other job be different? So I know for me, my first interview with someone would be, this is the list of everything I need done. This is what we do with ourselves. How do you see yourself accomplishing those tasks? How do you see yourself meeting? Does that meet your expectations as much as mine?
Speaker 0 00:39:04 Yeah. You know, you're, you're very well thought out the way you think. And I think it absolutely you'll be successful, you know? Yeah. All right. Lastly, that is our time for today, but let's leave our audience with a lasting impression.
Speaker 1 00:39:20 Honestly, I would say that it's a fake it till you make it. A lot of the time we're going to have to mask. We're going to have to fake it. We're going to have to do these things. But the one thing we need to really take into account is we are successful. We are standing here being successful, having kids, having families, having jobs lives and doing all these amazing things and reach out to parents of autistic kids. Because a lot of them are standing here wondering if their kid's going to make it and go, Hey, I'm here and I am making it.
Speaker 0 00:39:52 Absolutely love it. Thank you so much Lashley. We appreciate your help and your time. That was fun. It was fun. If you want to have fun with us, feel free to drop us a line on our website, carved resumes.com, go to the contact form, fill out your info and tell us about your job. You don't have to go into detail. You could literally just say I am a soda, but yeah, we want you on the show. Fill out the contact form and let us know. Thanks. Bye. Now <inaudible>.
