Episode 6: This Black Friday, Shop Autistic-Owned Businesses

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This Black Friday, Mom Autism Money makes it easy for you to support Autistic-owned businesses and businesses owned by parents of Autistic children. Be sure to listen to find exclusive sales and promo codes — just for Mom Autism Money listeners. Support the community as you shop for the holidays this year!

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Show Notes

Episode Transcript

Brynne: All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Mom Autism Money. We have a very special episode this week. We are going to be talking about Autistic-owned businesses and businesses owned by autism parents. And we’re going to be highlighting a lot of them that are running Black Friday sales.

Joyce: This episode is special to me because I feel like we should support and encourage, you know, Autistic businesses and parents of Autistic children who own a business to support them.

We were just talking about it and we feel like if you own a business, if you want us to do a shout out, you don’t have to have a sale in order for us to support it. And we will have businesses that do not have a sale, a promotional sale, Black Friday. And we were talking, I felt like maybe people feel obligated to have a sale or promotion and a small business world.

And I don’t want you guys to feel that. So if we’re doing this again and you own a business, let us know and we’ll talk about it.

Brynne: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And a huge reason that we wanted to do this was because autistic people face huge employment gaps and that’s because of disability discrimination. And even when people are able to secure employment, again, that discrimination often keeps the pay extremely low.

So for these businesses that are run by autistic business owners, we really want to get them out in front of you. And have you consider them while you’re doing your holiday shopping.

And then to a much lesser extent, Moms of autistic kids, we do face a big pay gap. It’s not as big as the ones that our children will face, but it’s bigger than parents of kids with other disabilities.

And so for these businesses that are owned by autism moms, too, we want to kind of help you guys build your family’s wealth. So if you own a business and you have an autistic child, let us know, we would love to share what you’re doing and kind of get you out in front of more people. And today we are going to share some of those businesses with you.

A lot of the ones that we’re sharing today are owned by Autistic business owners directly. Now, Joyce, we are autism moms. Are you running any Black Friday sales this year that people should know about?

Joyce: I am currently having a 50% off sale on my printable shop, cash envelope templates and everything on the site. It’s 50% off.

You can use promo code HALFOFF and head over to mystayathomeadventures.com/BlackFriday.

Brynne: That’s 50% off. That is huge. And Joyce you’re so good at all of the budgeting things like I’m really excited about that with the cash envelope template.

Joyce: Yeah, cash envelopes, planners. A little bit of meal planning sheets. Things like that things that I use personally every day.

Do you have anything going on this year? Any sales?

Brynne: Kind of. So, one thing that I do a lot during the holiday season is I’llll run different gift guides. I usually try to base it…on Femme Frugality. My site is femmefrugality.com. That’s my  origin site before we started Mom Autism Money.

And so I’ll run gift guides for that, just based on whatever my readers have shown the most interest in that year. This year it’s weirdly enough been Irish sayings, like people really like my posts about Irish sayings about money. And so we’re going to be featuring a bunch of artists from Etsy, who’ve incorporated some of these sayings into their work and their art.

There is a Black Friday sale on Etsy through December 1st. And it does help me out personally, if you shop through my links on Femme Frugality. So if you want to check that out, that would be awesome.

I also have The Feminist Financial Handbook. I don’t really, I’m not super in charge of the sales on that.

That’s more my publisher and Amazon that are in charge, but it would be super great if you purchased a copy, it’s something that’s under 20 bucks, easy to give and can help the reader with their money. But yeah, you can find The Feminist Financial Handbook on Amazon. So first we’re going to hear from a bunch of business owners themselves, we were lucky they left us voice messages.

And so they’re going to tell you a little bit about their businesses, the story behind their business. And then if they’re running a specific Black Friday sale, they’ll share that, too. Some of these businesses are service-based businesses, which means you’re going to go to them and they provide you with the service.

Others of them have super cool products. You can check out and some of them have even set up Black Friday sales exclusively for this audience. So exclusively for you guys here as a listener at Mom Autism Money. We want to thank those businesses, first of all, because they’re discounting their services and products and they are worth it at full price. These are deals you’re not going to find anywhere else.

And just a big shout out to them for making things a little bit cheaper and easier for you guys this Black Friday.

Joyce: I was going to say. Where do we find the links for everything?

Brynne: So a lot of the business owners are going to share their links in their voice messages. If you miss it in the voice message, don’t freak out because we’re also going to include all of the promo codes, all of the links, everything down in the show notes.

So after the episode’s over, if you want to check it out, it should just be as easy as clicking and copying the promo code.

Joyce: If you want to go back and check on the links. The post will be up in MomAutismMoney.com. So you can go back and check and click the links.

Brynne: Absolutely. And guys, when we get to the outro, people start tuning out and that’s okay.

I get that. The episode’s over and you’ve heard what you needed to hear, but today I want to just super encourage you to listen through all the way to the end of the outro, because we have even more businesses to tell you about than. So just don’t tune out that couple minutes early today because you’re going to want to catch that because there’s even more awesome businesses to check out.

We want to kick things off today. Our sponsor Safety Sleeper — you’ve probably heard about them throughout the season – they are actually a business owned by an autism mom.

(chime sound)

Nondescript voice: And now a word from our sponsors.

Brynne: If you have a child who wanders at night, you probably wish there was a bed enclosure that could keep them safe so everyone could sleep.

Good news. Another autism mom has already been there and created it for you. Rose Morris of Abram’s Nation created the Safety Sleeper for her own son, Abram. At just two years old, his sole goal was to get outside. She lived in constant terror that he’d succeed and neither of them ever slept. But his Safety sleeper became his refuge.

He slept and she didn’t worry anymore. It changed their lives. The Safety Sleeper zips around a standard mattress. Some people say it looks like a tent: a metal frame, padding, canvas fabric and zippers make it sturdy and comfortable. If sleep and nighttime security are an issue you face,  The Safety Sleeper is likely to change your life.

To log on to safetysleeper.com/MAM. That mam is short for Mom Autism Money. That’s safetysleeper.com/MAM for more information.

(chime sound)

Brynne: All right, everyone, let’s get into our voice messages.

(beep)

Miss. Natasha: Hello, everyone. I hope you’re doing well. My name is Miss. Natasha of Natasha Connects. And I’m here to talk to you about Tosha’s Tees. I self identify as being authentically autistic among other things. My website is www.ToshasTees.com. That’s T O S H a S T E  E S.

Dot com. And this upcoming Black Friday, I’m asking if you can use the code PINKONFRIDAY for your entry into ToshasTees.com. I hope that you all have a wonderful wonderful month, and I hope to see you all soon on www.ToshasTees.com. Thank you.

Brynne: Hey, everyone. We love the designs on Tosha’s Tees. Now, you can use that code PINKONFRIDAY this Friday, Black Friday through Sunday, and it will get you 10% off.

Happy shopping!

(beep)

Rebecca Barnett: Hey there. My name is Rebecca Barnett and I am an autistic indigenous woman, and I run the Taking One Step Etsy page. I started my Etsy because I was getting into my indigenous family history. I am Shoshone Paiute, and I also have a lot of heritage that is Basque, Celtic and Scandinavian.

And as I work to reconnect with all those parts of my identity, I dove into making beaded artwork in the traditional Native American style. Since then, I have had a lot of products that I’ve made with very little to do with them. So I started selling them, just started up an Etsy page and I named it after my blog on medium.

The blog is named after the quote that says, you know, you take life one step at a time, or a journey starts with a single step because a lot of my life has been focusing on everything one day at a time. Because I’m autistic and also struggle with ADHD, severe depression and anxiety of multiple forms as well as physical health challenges like chronic pain, there are very many things in my life that I have to do just one day at a time.

And sometimes it’s one minute at a time or one second at a time I worked at an elementary school and there are days where I’m like, okay, if I can get through this section of time, then I can probably make it at other sections.

So focus on getting through this section right now. And that’s often, how my store is run as well. I do my bead work when I can, but because of my health challenges, I can’t always get to it. And I really want to share what I make with other people and share that joy that I find when I am healthy enough or when I am in a good place to make those.

It’s also been quite an awesome kind of therapy for me to be able to have that creative outlet, to avoid the dangers of depression and self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Those kinds of hobbies that are a creative outlet have really gotten me out of a huge rut that I used to be in.

Being autistic, I love to create things and find that I have a very differently creative mind than a lot of other people out there.

A lot of indigenous beaters stick to very traditional patterns and often use a lot of other people’s patterns and giving them credit. But everything I make in my store is my own design, my own work and all of my own marketing. I run my shop on my own. I bead and create all of the products in it on my own.

I design all the products on my own. And I mean, let me tell you it’s rough. I enjoy it a lot, but it’s been really hard because beadwork does cost a lot and because it’s a handmade product, it, you can’t get the quickness that you can get from a factory made product. The time and the money and the skill that goes into every single earring or every single bracelet, key chain or necklace that I make takes days and years of practice and teaching and supplies.

It costs a lot of money. And so oftentimes I don’t get many sales because people don’t want to invest that much money in something when they can get a cheap replica elsewhere. So I am incredibly excited to have a Black Friday sale to try to get more of my work out there for a cheaper price. So this Black Friday through the weekend and on Cyber Monday, I am going to do free shipping.

For all customers across the board, whether you listen to the podcast here or not. Um, but if you listened to the podcast, you can use the code MOMAUTISM10, when you message me and get an extra $10 off of any purchase of $40 or more. So if you buy two products, They add up to over $40 I’ll take $10 off plus the free shipping, or if you buy a $40 product, I will also take off $10 because I really would love your guys to support.

Please get the word out. Thank you all so much for this opportunity. And for letting me take this time to talk to you all. I’m excited to see what, what comes to this. And I hope you guys have an amazing Thanksgiving weekend and an awesome Black Friday.

(beep)

Rebekah Connatser: My name is Rebekah Connatser. I’m autistic and I own Mythic Books.

I published my partner’s book back in March this year, and I decided I wanted to bind him a special edition copy. I taught myself to design covers and bind books. I have hand-sewn journals and sketchbooks and a print on demand selection in my shop on Etsy, as well as journals and planners on Amazon and Barnes and noble.

I have a sale currently running on my Etsy shop where select items are between 10% to 20% off with free US shipping. Hand-sewn items are US only, and the sale ends on December 15th. You can find my Etsy shop in the show notes, or by going to Etsy and searching for Mythic Books.

(beep)

Blake: Hi, my name is Blake Bowman and I have Asperger’s.

I have two young adults who also have Asperger’s as well. And then my youngest son who’s 16 has ADHD and dyslexia. And so we have a home full of neuro-diversity and I started my business ASPIE-R three years ago with a focus on helping young ASD with level one autism spectrum disorder also known as Asperger’s to launch into life successfully.

And I also work with teens transitioning into adulthood as well. And the reason I started my business is I read a report from the Department of Health and Human Services for Congress. I believe it was back sometime in 2017 and it was titled Young Adults and Transitioning Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the information in there, and the stats just really took my breath away.

And so they were very scary if you’re a parent. And when I I’ll share just three real quick is number one is that they said 76% of our children will never really have any friends because of the communication challenges that they have. And so they’re going to be destined to kind of live this lonely life.

And number two was 15% of young ASD adults gain full-time employment. And the ones that do gain full-time only make $9 per hour. So that means 85% of our kids won’t ever work full-time. And at nine bucks an hour, they’re never going to be independent. And then the last stat that really just did me in was that individuals on the spectrum die average of 16 years sooner and are nine times more likely to commit suicide.

And I just, I said that is not going to happen to my kids. And if I can help it, it’s not going to happen to anybody else’s. And so I started researching autism and I started researching the support out there. And I found that, you know, basically after high school, there really isn’t a lot of support. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to try to put in a coaching program that could help these young adults really unleash their genius so that they can live an extraordinary life.

And when I look back in my life in my early twenties, I was probably one of those stats and I was just dropped out of college because it was too much for me. I was depressed, but I made a complete 180 shift that led me to, you know, radically transforming my life and becoming a business executive.

Being married, becoming a father and now an entrepreneur. And so I develop my coaching program using the shifts that I discovered and I started with my own kids. And basically what it was is it was helped them to really discover their passions, help them tap into their strengths, build a future that really excites them, that has goals so that they can see short-term victories and then learn the key, social and communication skills, and then actually develop the confidence to help them take that action to achieve it all.

And so I use these same strategies with other young adults that I started coaching and it helped them go from being locked in the room, playing video games to working, helped them go from saying they would never drive to now driving for the last several years from being in bad relationships where they were getting walked all over to now being in healthy relationships where they’re respected and going into a work environment where they typically struggle to now seeing, you know, them thriving in that same environment.

And so what I wanted to do is for the Mom Autism Money podcast, you know, I wanted to offer a Black Friday special. I’ve never offered any kind of specials before any kind of discounts. And so this is going to be a first. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to offer you a 25% discount off my coaching program.

And so, because I’ve never offered this before, you’re not going to see it advertised anywhere. But the way you’ll take advantage of it is you’ll go to my website and my website is ASPIE-R.com, but it’s spelled uniquely. And hopefully you can appreciate this. It’s spelled a S P as in Paul I e-r.com. So ASPIE-R.com.

(sounds like ‘aspire’)

And on there, there’s going to be a contact us now page. And if you will go to that, you’ll input your contact information, and then there will be a place for you to put a message. And if you’ll just type in the words, Mom Autism Money Podcast, you’ll have the ability to get that discount. If you choose to want to use me as a coach for your team, that’s transitioning or your young adult.

And I would just want to really tell you, thank you for all you do. When I think about all my life and what was the person that made the difference in my life, it was my mom. And so she was my difference maker, and I know you will be your difference maker for your children as well. And so I look forward to having the opportunity to serve you if you need a coach.

And, uh, just want to tell you, thank you again for everything you do.

Bye.

(beep)

Ashley: My name is Ashley Lauren Spencer. I am the owner creator and author behind The Autistic Innovator. I was diagnosed autistic late in life. My business started as a website to provide resources for autistic adults. And I expanded it this year into an online store for autistic adults to provide the products we need.

I wanted to create a store meant just for us. The Autistic Innovator offers a collection of fun stim toys, beautiful stim jewelry, durable chew necklaces, comforting home items and mugs perfect for your morning coffee. I also sell the softest t-shirts and hoodies. They’re so soothing. I wear them every day.

In addition to these awesome products, my store has a custom made organization printable made just for artistic minds and an ebook called Resources for Autistic Adults Volume One written by me.

This Black Friday, get 10% off the entire store with the code BlackFriday21. The prices are already as low as I can get them.

So an extra 10% off is a fantastic deal.

Visit shop.AutisticInnovator.com before November 30th to get the steal before it ends. See you soon!

(beep)

Tiffany: Hi, my name is Tiffany Landry and I’m a certified trauma resolution coach. I work with both LGBTQIA plus clients, as well as neurodivergent clients on a variety of things like body-based trauma resolution, post-traumatic growth in all areas of their lives.

As well as coming home to themselves. So I work with a lot of clients on shedding, any masks or ways of being that aren’t supportive to them and really coming home to their true, authentic selves and creating a life that allows them to thrive and feel really, really good. And I wanted to share a few ways that I am supporting my clients in the winter months.

So I both am opening enrollment for my six month homecoming program, as well as my winter promo, which consists of four sessions between sessions, practices, and support as well as support and coaching between sessions via Voxer, which is a really cool walkie talk application. If you’d like to know more, please go to the link and if you’d like to connect or have any questions, definitely feel free to send me a message.

Thank you.

(beep)

(chime)

Nondescript voice: And now a word from our sponsor.

Brynne: Do you struggle with sleep at night because your little one won’t or can’t sleep? Do you worry your child is unsafe during the night because they aren’t sleeping?

Have you ever found your

child wandering in the middle of the night when you thought they were safe in

bed? If you answered yes to any of these, we’d like to introduce you to the

Safety Sleeper by Abram’s Nation. Created by a mom of a young child on the

spectrum, the Safety Sleeper is an enclosed bed system designed to keep your

loved ones safe at night.

The Safety Sleeper zips

around a standard mattress. Some people say it looks like a tent: A metal

frame, padding, canvas fabric, and zippers make it sturdy and comfortable. You

can zip your child into bed and they are safe, secure, and prevented from

eloping. Because it was created by a mom, the Safety Sleeper is not only

durable medical equipment, but it’s also stylish, customizable, and completely

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Our friends at Abram’s

Nation want to help you get that rested sleep you’ve been missing. They’re also

running an exclusive giveaway just for Mom Autism Money listeners, allowing you

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safetysleeper.com/MAM. That’s short for Mom Autism Money.

Again, that’s

safetysleeper.com/MAM

(chime)

Brynne: As promised we have a few more Autistic owned businesses to share with you. Joyce, let’s start with Shalese, The Autistic Travel Goddess. You can find her by searching The Autistic Travel Goddess on Instagram and YouTube. So, Shalese, I just love her business. She focuses on like lifestyle and travel and also like a good bit of personal finance.

One way that you can connect with her is through one of her consultations.

Joyce: And I think also that it’s so good. And I’m so like, love when moms and females find a way to earn money and to make a living doing something that they love. Her YouTube channel, I would just been watching her stuff because I enjoy it.

It has a great personality. And so if you’re wanting to support someone, it’s not always purchasing or donating, but if you watch a video. You are helping her channel and her income by watching her videos. So head over to Shalese’s channel and support her, please. She is doing good work.

Brynne: Absolutely.

Absolutely. Now our next business owner is Thredd, and Thredd, they run a really, really cool Etsy shop called PillJoy. And what the shop is decorative pillboxes. So like if you’re taking medication every day, or even if you have kids and you like organizing like your beads and stuff for art projects, Thredd has just so many, so many cool options here.

Like there’s these adorable, where’s the sea turtle ones? I wanted to show you…here they are. You guys can’t see this, but I’m showing Joyce anyways, because they’re just super cute.

Joyce: Those are good for vitamins, too.

Brynne: Oh, yeah, they’re awesome for vitamins.

Joyce: They’re cute.

Brynne: This is one of those shops that we’ll pick out our favorites for you guys throughout the week.

So make sure you’re in the Facebook group. All right. And then our last one that we wanted to mention and bring to your guys’ attention is JR’s Java and more. And if you go to the website, J R S for like juniors, so JRS java And spelled out a N D more so JrsJavaAndMore.com. Junior has all this coffee and he has it, not just the beans or the bags.

You can buy it ground there’s even K cups in here. It’s really, I am a coffee fiend, so I’m super excited to check out some of these flavors. All right guys. So just one last quick reminder to check the show notes today, for all the links, all the coupon codes, plus make sure you join the Facebook community to check out some of our picks from each shop throughout the week.

Joyce: Alright. Thank you! Bye!

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