Episode 330-Autistic Techie at Work: Self-Advocacy, AI, and Real-Life Boundaries with Shea Belsky

What if the most powerful support is simply letting people try? That’s the thread we follow with guest Shea Belsky—autistic self-advocate, software engineering tech lead, and host of Autistic Techie—through a candid tour of early supports, hard-won boundaries, and the everyday tactics that make work and life more humane.

We start with the shift from “I’m uncomfortable” to “I’m uncomfortable because… and here’s what might help.” Shea breaks down how that language unlocks practical choices: time-limited social plans, exit strategies, and shared expectations with partners, friends, and managers. The Cornell party story says it all: one environment was a no, the next was a maybe—data that later shaped decisions about events, capacity, and recovery. We talk about the danger of comparisons, why safe-to-fail experiences matter, and how growth comes from calibrated challenges rather than blanket protection.

On the career front, Shea lays out a model for transparent communication at work: explain autism traits that might be misread, define the few accommodations that matter, and tie it all to outcomes. We unpack resume strategy for neurodivergent candidates (impact-first bullet points, clean formats, controlled info-dumping) and how managers can turn inclusion into shared agreements, not slogans. Then we dive into AI as a practical tool—drafting emails, structuring thoughts, practicing interviews—paired with guardrails around privacy, fact-checking, and critical thinking. Used wisely, AI reduces cognitive load; used blindly, it creates new risks.

We close with Autistic Techie’s mission: the overlooked overlap of neurodiversity and the workplace. If you care about autistic expression, accessible leadership, and the everyday systems that either amplify or silence people, you’ll find tools you can use today. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review—what boundary are you going to set this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Season Setup
• 0:40 Meet Shay Belsky
• 2:25 Early Diagnosis and Supports
• 4:40 Finding Language for Discomfort
• 7:37 Individual Journeys vs Comparisons
• 10:25 Letting Autistic People Try and Learn
• 13:50 Cornell Parties and Sensory Barometer
• 17:15 Boundaries, Capacity, and Relationships
• 21:25 Late Diagnoses and Family Stories
• 26:10 Communication at Work and Expectations
• 30:00 Self-Advocacy and Media Stereotypes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

The SJ Child Show is backwards, 13th season, joint their backfurt, and the SJ Child Show team as they explore the world of art and share sports, health, and inspiration. This season, we're excited to bring you more office and summit featuring experts and advocates from around the world. Go to SJCilds.org to donate and to get more information. Congratulations to 2024 2000 downloads of 300 episodes.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

Hello, we are back for another wonderful episode. I'm very excited today to start this conversation. I know it's going to be great, a lot of energy, and want to welcome Shay Belski. I hope I pronounced the last name right. Pretty phonetic. It's so nice to have you here. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_03: 0:55

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

Yes. Tell us a little bit about yourself and introduction, and then we'll get started.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01

Yeah. So my name is Shay Belski. I am an autistic self-advocate. I currently work uh as a tech lead to a software engineering tech lead at HubSpot. They're a Boston Cambridge-based company out in the Northeast. Uh I've my tech journey has kind of been all over the place. I was a startup CTO for a while at a company called Mentra. Might be familiar to you or some of your listeners. Um, I was at HubSpot once before. I've been at other big tech companies. I was at Wayfair for a little bit, Google, IBM. My tech career and journey has been kind of interesting, having a blend of both leadership and individual contributor roles, all while trying to be really conscious and self-aware of my neurodiversity and how my manager thinks about it, how my team thinks about it. And I'm just happy to talk about that and my career.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48

I love that. And I'm so excited to hear about all that. And I'll tell you about all that later why I'm excited because I don't want to share too much right now. But I didn't know you did all that stuff. So that's cool. I mean, I looked at your website. I actually have it ready to share with everybody right here. So just in case. But let's start kind of at the beginning because that's where a lot of people's story starts. And tell us where your um autism journey started, if you will, about your diagnosis and kind of that process. And then we'll jump into today's life and and how we're how we're doing.

SPEAKER_03: 2:25

I was diagnosed at age two with what we called Asperger's at the time. That was a diagnosis that they had. And for pretty much my early part of my life, I had every support you could really conceive of. My parents got me the support that I needed from a pretty early point. I had speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, had an IEP from early point. I'm pretty sure I did ABA. Um, I definitely did ABA, not even pretty sure. Um, and I had a lot of like one-on-one hands-on support elementary school and middle school. Um, and as time went on, I started to kind of like the pieces started to slowly click in in my brain as far as me being able to talk about me being autistic and talk about like dysregulation. I think the thing that I have really had the most reflection on over the last couple of years is being able to express like I'm uncomfortable, but then this is why. I think when I was much younger, it was harder for me to express that I was uncomfortable at all, and then be able to point to something and say, this is why. And only only recently, really, have I been able to fully articulate that and say, I am uncomfortable, and I can point to the cause and also follow up with what I can do about it, if anything. And I wish that I had been more self-aware of that as a kid, but also I don't think I could have really had the capacity to do so.

SPEAKER_01: 3:44

Yeah. Wow, that's fascinating too. My son was diagnosed at 16 months, and so he is now 15, almost 16. And I see kind of when you're talking about it, I see a little bit of that happening, these like pieces falling into place, and him being like a little bit more understanding that, oh, wait, I can't I can make friends too. Like I can go and do things that my sister does, and uh, and it's just so interesting and fascinating to see this new growth and this like personality that's growing and and with all parent hopes, of course, watching their child open and flourish and discover more about themselves, discover more about the sis about society that he never seemed to be interested in ever before. So it's this refreshing.

SPEAKER_03: 4:37

Yeah, like it's stressful. And I've had so many parents go up to me, and like they offer me as a comparison to their own kids, but I have to push back a little bit and say, like, my story is unique and my story is my own. Not that your child or children are not going to do this, but like the way that they get there is probably gonna look very different than it looked for me. Like they may have an easier time, they may have a harder time, or as as difficult of a time as it was for me. And I think people sometimes kind of see the end goal, they see where I am, but not everybody understands the steps that it took to get there. Like, I will not say that it was easy, I will definitely say that it came of a lot of difficulties and challenges, but I don't think that I would be as confident and articulate about it as I am right now had I not experienced what it means to self-advocate for myself, to have to talk about it with people, to be willing to be uncomfortable. And I think if you try to handle those things away or do it for autistic people or on their behalf, it reduces a lot of the meaning and the impact that those experiences present.

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

I love how you said that because letting a human have their own human experiences is ultimately, I think, what we're here for. So I think that it's it's so nice and it's an idea that we need to move into and be more okay with in the future, allowing more self-expression. And I think that that's happening a lot in community and society, but autistic expression and what society sees as self-expression are different, and I want there to be like this bridge where all expression is normal and okay, and it doesn't have to be like you know, um catered to, I suppose. It's so hard, isn't it? Because it's individual, it's every individual has their own support needs, and everyone has their own challenges, everyone has their own strengths.

SPEAKER_03: 6:41

The thing that I've had to realize, and also say to other people, is that not every autistic person will be good at everything, and sometimes the best way for them to realize that is to kind of put them through it in a way that's safe but still has the same evaluation. You could have one autistic person who has a really burning passion to work on a train or to work in a hotel or work in a kitchen. And maybe you, as the parent, maybe you as a supporter know that's a bad idea and you're trying to dissuade them from it, but maybe having an experience that for the first time for them to really see like is something that you actually want, and then maybe like, oh, actually, no, this is overwhelming for me. Actually, I can't do this for one reason or another. And sometimes that's what it takes to actually have that experience, or maybe the opposite happens. It's like, okay, maybe this was a little bit loud, but I can manage it because I I gain more benefit and enjoyment out of it than the cost of being here or what the pains are. And just allowing autistic people to have those experiences and to try those things out, to ride that proverbial bike for the first time and say, like, are they gonna make it? Are they gonna fall and scrape their knee? And if they do, will they learn what they did wrong and get back up and try again, or will that be enough? I think sometimes people are willing to hand wave those things away or not allow people to try because they're afraid of people getting hurt. And I don't want anybody to get hurt, but sometimes having that experience of falling and feeling what it does is the best teacher. It has the best experiences attached with it.

SPEAKER_01: 8:16

Do you have any memories that stick out for you particularly about those types of um uh opportunities?

SPEAKER_03: 8:26

Vivid one comes to my mind. My freshman year of college, I went to Cornell University, which was a big and scary place. And I didn't know anybody, I didn't know any, I didn't know much of anything, but I knew that I wanted to try to put myself out there a little bit more. I wanted to just try to see what would happen and get myself into a situation where if I wasn't comfortable, I could just bail out and I didn't lose anything. And so I tried to go to the fresh and frat party with my roommate. And as you can imagine, it was a very overwhelming and crazy experience for me. Like it was a lot of everything sound, light, taste, texture, etc. And as I was about to leave this one party, I'd gone with a group of people. And the other people, other people from this group were like, oh, let's go to a different party. And I'm like, do I really want to go for this all over again? And I'm like, well, let's just see. Like, let's just compare it. And the second party ended up being a lot less overwhelming, less noisy, less bright, less uh inundating. And I'm like, okay, like I can tolerate myself here. I'm still not in love with it. But I think if I had to do this sort of thing again, if I was like socially required to do this where somebody really wanted to, I could manage for a couple hours. So if I hadn't put myself out there in a situation, I would never have like set my barometer. I would never have understood this is my level of comfort, this is too much, and this is like maybe a little bit too much, but not like abort eject abort mission.

SPEAKER_01: 9:53

I love it, and you're right, that was a really good test measure, if you will, because you would be able to leave if you needed to. And nobody probably would have judged or cared that much. Um, but like you said, you found out that okay, there are other environments where it's not just because I hear the word party, I don't have to think of just this one party that had all of these things happening. It can be so many different levels and um and people, groups of people, cultures, they do things so differently. Um, I think that that's it.

SPEAKER_03: 10:28

Let me kind of establish like this is this kind of party, but this is upper kind of party. Just kind of give me like uh kind of a barometer of that.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

Yeah. Do you find that you um have an easier time with boundaries for yourself for relationships with your family? I don't we haven't really touched on that or anything, but what's that like for you?

SPEAKER_03: 10:52

Yes and no. I think I am I do still have the ability to be clear and articulate about my boundaries and say, like, I can do this or I can't do this. On the other hand, sometimes I'm still kind of stubborn with myself, and I try to push myself into situations what I shouldn't go to, and it ends up hurting me or being very uncomfortable. Like it's been really hot in our area, and like a week or so ago, I went on a hot run with my wife, and I'm on my mind, I'm like, I probably shouldn't do this. I didn't want her to go alone, and I didn't want to be at home by myself, so I'm like, I'm just gonna go and it'll be fine. And lo and behold, it was not fine, it was like 95 degrees. I was sweating, I twisted my ankle in the middle of the run. Like, it just ended up being really not great for me. Yeah, and I said to my wife, I'm like, I don't blame you for this because I should have like known that this was bad and like been more honest with myself and bailed out of it, but I stubbornly went anyway. So this is just the price that I have to pay for being a little bit too stubborn and trying to trying to tough it out and be a tough guy. But honestly, I was just doing myself at this service. But yeah, number situations with my wife, like I'm really clear about boundaries, I'm really clear about like what I have the capacity for and what I'm able to do. Like, if we do go somewhere out late at night and I'm kind of tired or like my brain isn't able to manage the sound or the light, I'll say, like, hey, like, I'm okay staying here for like 30 to 45 minutes, but after that, I might head out of here. And she's really great about that. Like, we compromise because like I have like a capacity past which point I can't really function that well. So we my wife and I really get a chance to talk about these things and find the right balance.

SPEAKER_01: 12:29

And is she autistic or neotypical?

SPEAKER_03: 12:32

Uh neurotypical.

SPEAKER_01: 12:33

Oh wow, okay, that's fantastic. My husband's autistic, and so when we both got our late diagnosis, and it was, you know, because we were well, for him, uh it was kind of funny because my son has these crazy like eating and sleeping habits and things that our you know society just does not like. And so I was like, wait a second, this husband over here, he's he does these things all the time. Like this was I know exactly why. Um, so that was kind of funny to kind of urge him into that. But then with the same thing with our daughter, um, she was like this brilliant little, we you know, we called her a grandma when she was like five. She would knit, she would like speak, you know, these full conversation sentences. It was like, Who are you? Like, are where did you what old soul are you? It's crazy. Um, and it reminded me and some other family members. They were like, You were kind of like this when you were little too, Sarah. And so I was like, Really? So when she got her diagnosis, I thought, oh my gosh. And my husband used to tease me, like, I would say, I don't know where I fit in. Like, I feel so like lost and confused, and I just don't understand why I don't like fit into anything. And he would always say, Well, here's my autism card, you can have it, and you feel like you belong. It would kind of tease me. Um, but then when I got my own, you know, and I was just like, gosh, this makes so much more sense, and it helps me so much with when I was a child having um a lot of hearing um sensory things, and I have little tiny ears, I already have like a physical outer, it's called outer ear my microcia. So it's already like this difference about me. I always just thought I was weird because of that, but it turns out no. Um, but yeah, it's been fascinating. And so I think when we were able to kind of see that and see each other for who we truly were. Oh my gosh, we are about to have our 21st or yeah, 21-year anniversary coming up.

SPEAKER_03: 14:38

Congratulations. Whoa.

unknown: 14:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 14:44

Yes, that's exciting. Hey, that's where you gotta start, you know? I love that.

unknown: 14:52

I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 14:52

We were a COVID relationship. We first started dating like February 2020, and then like a month and a half into dating, the whole world shut down, and that very quickly accelerated things for our relationship. Because we're like, do you want to like quarantine together for two weeks? And that really teaches you a lot about somebody when you're around them for two weeks, having known them less than two months. And I think that really did a lot for our relationship. We had a lot of those like very tough early conversations with each other because what else are you gonna talk about? There's not much else to do or not much else to see.

SPEAKER_01: 15:23

I love that. I think that that's a brilliant way. Yeah, my husband and I met as friends first, and we just became really, really close. And in that, we were able to kind of share all of the things that we may have held a little bit more discretion if we had thought we might have been dating that person. So out with all of it, you know, which was kind of refreshing and and good in overall because everything there was nothing to hide or nothing that could have been, you know, uncovered or whatever. So it was it was wonderful. But it's been a long journey, but it's one I he's my best friend, can't wait to see him every single day. So yeah, we just I think that I really hope everybody gets to find their special person the way I got to. And I'm an only child, so I grew up lonely and like wishing and hoping that I could someday have this, and now I'm like leaving living the dream, really. Like, true. I love that. So no complaints. Yay. Talk to us about work and how that, you know, how it started, any challenges with um boundaries with bosses or co-workers, things like that. What's that been like for you?

SPEAKER_03: 16:38

It's been an interesting journey because I think everyone's experience and understanding with autism is pretty different. We talk about it with different people. Some of them have an autistic family member or a loved one or a friend or someone else they know. So they're like their barometer or their understanding of autism really varies based on the person. So at work, I try to keep it really clear and explicit what about what they should expect from me. I say, like, I'm autistic. You should know is that the way that I communicate is kind of different, the way that I socialize is kind of different. Um, I might not make eye contact sometimes, I might have flexible hours. Um, this is something you should know about me. Like my work style is pretty much unchanged. Like, I'll wear headphones in the office. But in general, like this is kind of setting the standard for what you should know about it and try not to imagine or hallucinate too much beyond that because there's different autistic people out there who have different support needs. And it helps for me to kind of explain mine up front and make it very clear for people what I need and kind of what they get out of it, if it makes any sense. And the way the the clearer that I am with people, the easier it is for them to understand it, and then also advocate for me and work with me about it. And no one's ever given me a hard time over it. I think people ask verifying questions and they seek to understand, but nobody has ever pushed back against me because I think I make it very clear this is what I need to do my job, and they can really get behind that because we're all here to do a job, and if they can do something to help me do my job a little bit better, then they will, and that works two ways. If they need something to do a job that I can do, I'll help them with that thing too.

SPEAKER_01: 18:15

Yeah, and you clearly are good at your job, or they wouldn't, you know, be willing to do that too. So, congratulations on that. I think that that's fantastic, and I think that um there are a lot of other autistics that might be listening that will maybe gain something from this and being able to really put down clear intentional boundaries with your relationships, whether it is social or business or you know, anything like that. I think that everyone should learn how to do that. I mean, I'm actually taking the opportunity to teach my 13-year-old more about that than I am about like all of the math or whatever. So I'm like, no, you need to know how to talk to people, conflict resolute, ask for help, have clear boundaries, trust your intuition. These are life skills, these are real life skills.

SPEAKER_03: 19:18

I did a podcast episode on my own podcast recently about like being able to articulate and advocate for yourself because ultimately you are your own best advocate. Um, so I have my own show, Autistic Techie, where I talk about like this in regards to the workplace, but it all really kind of aligns with like stuff in life too. And if you aren't clear to people about your being autistic, about what you need, about resolving that in situations, people will hallucinate. Hallucinate is the wrong word. People will imagine things or they will pull them in from their own lives and associate their experiences with yours. Like people ask me somewhat frequently about love on the spectrum, and if I'm similar to those people, and I have to kind of like work to unwind that. Not that I think that love on the spectrum has harmful portrayals of autism, but they're just not accurate to me and who I am. So I just have to say, like, this is me, I'm different from these people. That doesn't mean that either one of our portrayals is wrong or negative, it's just different. They have different lives, different special interests, different strengths, different support needs. And so they're these two things are different, and neither one of us is wrong or invalid.

SPEAKER_01: 20:23

Yeah, no, and I think that that's something the world has yet to grasp. Um, hopefully, we'll be getting on that. It is is this correct, by the way, too? Did you say autistic techie?

SPEAKER_03: 20:35

Uh T T E C H I E. I will put it in the chat over here.

SPEAKER_01: 20:39

Okay, perfect, perfect. I just wanted to make sure I could put that up. So that's awesome. Great. I'm gonna save that. Whoops, now I'm on the wrong screen.

SPEAKER_03: 20:50

I had an episode come out today about uh reviewing your resumes. And in that episode, I talk about like this is resume tips specific to neurodivergent meal, because there's a million different guides that are pertinent to everybody. But I go into more detail about like info dumping if you're an autistic person, managing format and style stuff if you sometimes lack attention to detail, um, and trying to be really clear and honest about yourself, like being a little bit selfish, but not overly so, remembering to kind of embellish the details.

SPEAKER_01: 21:20

Yeah, no, I love that. I think that that's a beautiful way to help people understand because it you can fill out a good resume and things like that, and you you know, but it really needs to be fact-based more than like opinion-based, I guess, is what would you say? So, yeah. Um, tell what else about the podcast? Tell us a little bit more about that, like when it got started, what made you what made you start it?

SPEAKER_03: 21:50

Um, I was coming off my last job where I was CTO of Mentra. Part of that job involved me during a lot of speaking to corporations and companies about neurodiversity and autism. And in my current capacity with my current company, that's not a part of my day job. It's like just something I do on the side. I do that as a self-advocate. I do it because I care about it. And I wanted to continue that level of consistency and putting myself out there, but I didn't want to have to like chase people down and apply to a bazillion, jillion, trillion conferences like every single day. That's something is exhausting for me. I was trying to be like smart about this level of effort and do it in a way where I felt that it was meaningful. And I've been on podcasts for dozens and dozens of times. I'm like, this is perfect. Like, I'd love to do my own show because I have a really strong idea of who I want to talk with, what I want to talk about, the topics, these subject areas, and trying to create this niche that I think has been kind of underserved. There's lots of podcasts about autism neurodiversity, and there's a lot about like being in the workplace, being on the job and that job seeking process, but there's not a whole lot that's in that overlap. And uh part of the reason for the name is I had all the social media for autistic techie, I had the website, I had everything, so it worked out very well. And I liked I liked the rhyming behind it. My my brother said, like, I don't love the name autistic techie, it sounds autistic, and I'm like, Yeah, that's kind of the point. But also, like, I like the way that it sounds, it's alliterative. I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 23:16

I love it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 23:18

I just liked how it sounded like, you know, that makes sense, yeah. Um, but no, people are really supportive about it, and I've enjoyed doing it. We've been live since February, and at this point, I like the cadence that I have. It doesn't, it's not too taxing for me. I it's work, but not like an excessive, like soul draining amount of work.

SPEAKER_01: 23:38

Yeah, exactly. When you can really um procure it and like nurture it yourself in the way you want to. It's it's really based on all of your own uh you know self-entrepreneurship, basically. Like you can just do it all yourself, it's on nobody else's terms or time frames or anything. And so I kind of love that because I can just set my, you know, do my podcasts, do my recordings, then upload and schedule them out for weeks at a time, and then I don't have to go back in there and be like beating myself up all the time about it. And I know it's all pre-scheduled, so I've been exactly yeah, it's nice. Technology is uh it's definitely, I think, a huge asset um in my life, and it sounds like you are all you know, being in tech, you use it quite frequently and everything. Tell us about maybe some ideas that you have about how technology can really better assist the autistic community.

SPEAKER_03: 24:47

We're living in a world where the technology and AI landscape is changing on a daily basis. And I say this with with Mentra having been invested in by Sam Altman, the guy behind ChatGPT and OpenAI. So I've a no I've known about ChatGPT and OpenAI for a pretty long time, like longer than most, I would say. And when ChatGPT came out, it was such a huge life-changing thing. And it still is for a lot of people to have this tool in your back pocket to talk to it, to have it work through formatting of your resume with you, to act as kind of a coach. I think with autistic people, especially, there's a lot of concern and just some caution that needs to be had when using those tools. I'm not saying don't use Chat GPT. I'm saying be careful and thoughtful and critical about what you're putting into it and what we expect it to give back to you. Because these tools are by no means bulletproof. Um, there's still ways people can abuse them, unfortunately, and people can still sometimes rely on that information as gospel, as the word of truth, when in reality, there still has to be a level of critical thinking and scrutiny that is applied. But with all that being said, I do still think that they are good enough for a lot of use cases which directly pertain to autistic people. Like, help me make this email sound more professional. Um, help me talk through the situation that I'm having where maybe I'm going a little bit crazy or maybe I'm actually like in the wrong here. I think it is good to bounce back with people and provide them with some coaching and feedback. Um, and I think beyond that, there's still a lot of use cases there that directly pertain to autistic people. But I do still think there's work to be done to really emphasize that it's not like crystal clear perfect, but it's certainly getting there.

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I mean, I use Chat GPT all all day, but um it's it's just so helpful with my projects, and um, I even ask it about my gardening things, you know, like what do I need to do here? What I need to and I just it it's been it's been really nice too. Yeah, it's a lot of fun, and it's like my it's kind of funny because my daughter and my husband at first were just like no, no, and I was like dig diving deep, you know. I'm like, what? This is my bestie. What are you talking? Like, this is like I have this relationship going on, you know, and they're like, Oh my gosh, no, this is dangerous, you shouldn't be doing, and now they're kind of like seeing how much I'm producing and how much more um I mean really productive. And sorry to use the same word over again, but truly, like my days are so much more productive, and they see that now and they're like, Okay, keep going. Talk to your Betsy.

SPEAKER_03: 27:47

It's a it's a powerful tool. I think it I've just had to be careful about like making sure that I'm double checking things that it's coming back with. I found that it's very helpful for like doing deep research and doing deep homework on a topic when it's searching the web and compelling information versus imagining things on its own. If I say like go research a topic, go help me find something about this topic on the web, it does a great job of that because it does little wiggle room to hallucinate. But I think if I ask stuff on its own, that's where it's more likely to imagine something that isn't there.

SPEAKER_01: 28:18

Yep, yep. And I think you're right about the safety parameters and I guess maybe understanding what your intention is to be using it. Um mine is for I I all of my projects are heart-centered, so I feel fantastic about all of the things I'm doing because that's you know, it's all coming from the right place. Um, and I would never use it dangerously, but it's that that is the case. You're right about that, and that is a dangerous thing, and and but I am also not one to be like a fear thinker, so I just try to dispel those things when people bring them up. Not to be naive, but just to not like focus on it, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 29:07

I just encourage people to be careful, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 29:10

Exactly, exactly. It's been so nice getting to know you and chat with you today. Tell us about anything coming up, projects you might be working on, events, anything like that.

SPEAKER_03: 29:22

Uh, my podcast, AutoTic Techie, is out there. That's anywhere on the web you can find it. We're on all the podcast platforms that are there. I will be at the College Autism Summit in November if you are going to be at that conference for any reason. I I saw it as recently. I'm actually in the first block of breakout sessions after the Monday keynote. So come to my talk about neurodiversity and leadership and how to prepare folks for uh meaningful careers as leaders and decision makers. Um, I'm also going to be, if you're in the Northeast US for any reason, I'm gonna be at the uh Northeast Regional Higher Education Summit down in Rhode Island. So come see me. I read this places. And if you want to find me on the internet, my name is Shadow. There's only one of me. If you search for me on the web, you will find me. I promise.

SPEAKER_01: 30:13

I love it. Love it. Thank you so much for being my guest today. Um this has been a great conversation, and I look forward to staying in touch and you know, having you be my backup speaker for whenever the events coming up. And everybody listening to this might come out after August 31st. So you'll have to go to my YouTube channel and check out the one in 31 connection after that. But it's so great to have you on here today, Shay. Thank you so much for your time.

SPEAKER_03: 30:40

Thank you so much for having me, Sarah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:42

Yeah, I want to continue chatting. So please stay if you don't mind. We're gonna listen to this exciting song. And we'll be back next week.

SPEAKER_02: 31:09

She shining bright. Oh yeah, stories of love and courage all throughout the night. Her voice resonating, an anthem for all trials and tribes. She answers the call, mother and a fighter, breaking barriers and strides. Love as a guide, she'll never hide. She's changing the world for you. The heart is fits and strong. And both these melody. Journey we all belong. Followers together, let's start in the night. So right. 44,000 voices turned in the light. She stands for family. Advocates more. Movement of profession, ways for store. Podcast together, symphony on support, get in life, change the ball. Changing the world for you. The heart that's fitted strong. The bug deeds the melody. Jenny, we all belong to her eyes. The vision clear. Jenny fear It's in every heart. She plans the seed or standard love dearly me. With the heart that is fierce and strong, but these are melody.