Autism Advantage

Hello and welcome to the Autism Advantage Podcast where we sit down with some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs dedicated to proving how capable people with autism really are. Our team believes that individuals with autism are an incredible untapped resource for many businesses and this show is dedicated to proving that it is not only possible to employ people with autism, but in doing so you can create a business with real competitive advantages. The Autism Advantage Podcast will not only inspire you to see the possibilities but will also help teach how you can join the autism entrepreneurship movement.

Lessons From the Trenches – A Follow up conversation with Brewability Labs 01/20/2018

Lessons From the Trenches – A Follow up conversation with Brewability Labs Brewability Lab has been open for just over a year. Tiffany’s employees have experienced incredible growth since then, thanks in large part to the systems she has set up to facilitate the process. For example, there are braille labels on the bar taps so that a bartender who is blind can function at his best. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170147

Diversifying Impact – A Follow up conversation with the Chocolate Spectrum 01/20/2018

Diversifying Impact – A Follow up conversation with the Chocolate Spectrum Since our last conversation, there has been a huge change in the training side of things. Valerie Herskowitz explains that she has mostly just gone with the flow with the business, following the opportunities that presented themselves, instead of having a huge long-term master plan. She explains in this conversation that it occurred to her that they should see if the coffee industry could possibly be something that would work for individuals with autism. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170143

Growing Smart – A Follow up conversation with Katie’s Snack Cart 01/20/2018

Growing Smart – A Follow up conversation with Katie’s Snack Cart Tom D. sits back down with Wendy Kohman, the founder of Katie’s Snack Cart. Wendy talks about how she’s taken what started out as a side business for her daughter Katie, to a business that has grown to employing 6 total staff, across 9 clients. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170140

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing 01/20/2018

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing One important thing we’ve noticed that we’re lacking is continually engaging with our community and customers, and telling our story. We realized that, while many of our customers understand exactly what our company does, there are quite a few who had no idea. This was our fault for not being clear and outgoing enough with communicating our story. We decided to do this through digital marketing instead of opting for standard car wash marketing techniques, such as door hangers or printouts. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170137

Typical Staffing Needs – Recruiting Training Deploying 01/20/2018

Typical Staffing Needs – Recruiting Training Deploying Now, moving into the second half of the season, we’re ready to talk about the other 20% of our staff -- the employees who don’t have autism. These employees are incredibly important to the overall structure of the organization. They navigate the communication, explain the service, and set expectations. While they’re vital to our organization, it can be challenging to find typical people who want to work at a car wash and see the work as an opportunity to grow and have impact. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170134

2nd Store Open – Frontlines from 1st week 01/20/2018

2nd Store Open – Frontlines from 1st week Now that we’ve finished up the first week of operations with both stores running, we’re ready to talk about how things went! Instead of putting all the new employees in the new location, we knew it was vital to have a mix of experience levels. We moved about half of our experienced employees to the new location, so each of the two locations is now staffed by half experienced employees and half new employees. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170131

Hired! - Integrating Candidates into Live Shifts 01/20/2018

Hired! - Integrating Candidates into Live Shifts So far this season, we’ve talked about some of our plans for the second location, our big day full of dozens of interviews, and our pre-training process. In that process, as we discussed in the last episode, candidates needed to successfully complete a specific task three times in a row with a time limit. Those who were successful moved onto the next step: being offered a job! /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170126

Almost Employed - Passing Pre-Training 01/20/2018

Almost Employed - Passing Pre-Training We recently hosted our big day of interviews. We had close to a hundred candidates show up. Twenty of these didn’t have autism, and four were unsuccessful in the interview process for various reasons, but we ended up with over 50 qualified candidates who moved onto the next step, our pre-training process. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170114

Goal 80% Employees with Autism - Post Interview Results 01/20/2018

Goal 80% Employees with Autism - Post Interview Results We are preparing for a big event: a day of hosting around a hundred candidates in the search for the perfect people to increase our staff and allow us to open our new location. In this episode, we’ll talk about how that interview process went. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170107

Doubling in Size – The Pre-Recruiting Plan 01/20/2018

Doubling in Size – The Pre-Recruiting Plan We run Rising Tide Car Wash, which employs several dozen fantastic people with autism. This isn’t a charity, though; we encourage independence and growth by expecting everyone who applies to be able to pull their weight, and we’ve seen great success already. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/6170104

010 - Creating a Culture of Empowerment 12/31/2016

010 - Creating a Culture of Empowerment Randy Lewis is a true legend in the autism employment world. Randy is the visionary behind the Walgreens Disability Employment Program, which is one of the most well-established disability employment programs in the corporate world. He’s also the father of a young man with autism. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4952603

009 - Will It Work? How to Test Your Business Idea 12/30/2016

009 - Will It Work? How to Test Your Business Idea Paige Morrow is the managing director of Extraordinary Ventures. She has managed college students in the past, and explains in our conversation that people with autism are a far more dedicated workforce because they want to work and appreciate the opportunity. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4950417

008 - The Business Advantages of Autism Employment 12/23/2016

008 - The Business Advantages of Autism Employment Bill Morris founded Blue Star Recyclers, which employs people with autism and was named Colorado’s 2016 Social Venture of the Year. After he was laid off from his job when he was in his 50s, Bill began working at a disability services center with no relevant experience other than having a developmentally disabled older brother. There, he encountered four young men with incredible innate skill for electronics. Each of them turned out to have autism. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4935423

007 - Setting Up Shop & Crowdfunding 12/16/2016

007 - Setting Up Shop & Crowdfunding Tiffany Fixter is the founder of Brewability Lab. At the time we recorded this conversation, it was still in the preparation phases and wasn’t yet up and running thanks to bureaucratic and governmental red tape. Now, though, I’m thrilled to say that Brewability Lab is fully operational and you can visit them (and enjoy some great beers) in Denver, Colorado! /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4917787

006 - How to Create Autism Jobs While Keeping Your Own 12/12/2016

006 - How to Create Autism Jobs While Keeping Your Own James Emmett is one of the world’s leading disability employment consultants. James is and has been the driving force behind many large corporate programs for people with autism and other disabilities at major companies such as TIAA-CREF, Best Buy, Walgreens, Pepsi, and Office Depot. He was also instrumental in helping us at Rising Tide Car Wash get off the ground. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4906434

005 - The Reality of Starting a Business 12/02/2016

005 - The Reality of Starting a Business Valerie Herskowitz is one of my fellow South Florida autism entrepreneurs and the founder of The Chocolate Spectrum Cafe and Academy. So far, the cafe only employs adults with autism or developmental disabilities, and Val has been learning to do just about every aspect of running the business herself. While this is complicated in the early stages, it’s a strength in that she’ll be intimately familiar with every facet of the business. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4877026

004 - The Poppin Joe’s Story: Building a Business on a Shoestring Budget 11/25/2016

004 - The Poppin Joe’s Story: Building a Business on a Shoestring Budget Ray Steffey, along with his son Joe, founded Poppin’ Joe’s Gourmet Kettle Korn. We’ve had the opportunity to share Ray’s story quite a bit in our Awakening the Autism Entrepreneur workshops, and the reason behind the company really resonates with the people who have come. The company’s story begins when Joe was in high school. Ray was told that Joe has no attention span, can’t say on task, would probably never hold a job, and would likely live in a group home for his whole life. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4860868

003 - Starting Small: What to Do If You’re Not an Entrepreneur 11/18/2016

003 - Starting Small: What to Do If You’re Not an Entrepreneur Wendy Kohman is one of our favorite Awakening the Autism Entrepreneur workshop participants! We did a series of ten workshops across the country in partnership with the University of Miami to inspire people to start businesses supporting people with autism. Wendy had already founded the incredible Katie’s Snack Cart, but participated in the workshops anyway, and we were delighted to have her there! /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4841500

002 - How a Mom Turned Biscotti into a Business that Employs Her Son with Autism 11/18/2016

002 - How a Mom Turned Biscotti into a Business that Employs Her Son with Autism Denise Resnik has had a truly remarkable entrepreneurial background and has been in business as a marketing communications consultant for 30 years. Her projects include the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC), First Place AZ, DRA Collective, and, most importantly for today’s conversation, the remarkable SMILE Biscotti. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4841482

001 - The Autism Advantage: Lessons from Building a Successful Autism Enterprise 08/12/2016

001 - The Autism Advantage: Lessons from Building a Successful Autism Enterprise Welcome to the Autism Advantage podcast! I’m your host, Tom D’Eri, the COO and co-founder of Rising Tide Car Wash. In case you’re not familiar with what we do, we employ a fantastic team of individuals with autism, allowing us to empower our staff while offering a fantastic experience to customers. We believe that individuals with autism are an incredible untapped resource for many business, and this show is dedicated to proving that employing these people can create real competitive advantages. /episode/index/show/theautismadvantage/id/4587575

Autism Advantage

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