Autistic Unemployment: Is Your Business Ignoring Top Talent?

[0:00]  when I the more parents I've been talking to this transition to adulthood is is not well supported in our social system and it is heavy on the heart of autistic and neurod Divergent parents I know so many parents who are creating dolls for their children they're opening bakeries and food trucks because like there no one's going to hire them because they need more support and no one has the patience so we're creating those opportunities and that is so beautiful for them to do that but it's also like hey time out we need to do better there is a an analy I used to use of like depositing and withdrawing into the bank right like when you deposit the good the whole the the light then when

[0:50]  you get into these rough spot you build your bank account that when you have to withdraw it not it doesn't break the bank but if you don't have those opportunities in those moments when you are depositing into this Bank of of light that when you was draw you just go negative and you going to like a dark place all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of the hard and hustle podcast now today is going to be an amazing conversation because we're going to be sitting down with the founder and executive director of come as you are

[1:39]  AKA Kaa now Jennifer Brooks Kusa is joining us on the show today we're gonna be talking about not only her story and how she founded Kaa we're also going to talk about challenges that come along with innovation in the autism support space we're going to talk about um a entrepreneurship advocacy we're also going to talk about so many things that have made her journey so special and the inspiration behind her amazing organization as well Jen welcome to the show thanks so much so excited to be here so Jen if I had to ask you a simple question and maybe you don't get asked this all the time if you had to describe yourself but work was not involved in that description whatsoever how would you describe yourself uh I would say very empathetic uh fervent um in

[2:28]  leadershi and also did from here that I encounter every day um and hopeful hopeful that's a really powerful powerful thing to describe oursel as I always wonder why we choose to use those words I was having a conversation a little earlier today with another CEO of a organization called World reader and she said that her organization is focusing on being one word when it comes to being hopeful what does that mean to you it means that there's always enough another day that what we're doing right now is not how it has to be done forever and that there's never a mountain in that's too big for you to climb and that there's always an opportunity for things to influence things and to just do things differently I love that you know

[3:17]  what got us here isn't going to get us there and especially when it comes to you know how we tackle challenges the mindset that comes along with that the road that we often pick is not the road that we end up on and I think that's an awesome segue for us to kind of talk about your origin story so as the founder and executive director of Kaa I know that this is not where you started and I think it's really important that we let everybody know your history your past some of the other places that you've worked in and what makes this opportunity so special to you yeah and it's funny that you mentioned where we end up is not where you start because where I spent the last 20 years isn't even where I started so um I actually started off in the international relations and diplomacy SCH so very committed to our International Community

[4:07]  pce and different ways to get there um I intern for lawyers Without Borders I work um in lobbying in the EU and when I came back stateside um growing up in Boston Healthcare was something very easy to get into so I was like oh let me get into Healthcare while I figure out how to be a diplomat um so for the last for the last 20 years I've been in the healthc care industry medical devices long-term care uh and for over the last decade I've specifically been at with elevant health uh where I focused my career on serving the most vulnerable populations in both Medicaid and Medicare um I led our operation for our Virginia Medicaid Health Plan which I think really St for who I am today um

[4:56]  I've always been called the third in my heart and unfortunately being a provider was not in my skill set so getting into Healthcare and getting into manage care Medicaid specifically was really filled filled my cup in so many ways um I remember when we were working with our long-term care population getting in the car with P managers and driving to people's houses going to churches I remember going on the medium and the highway just trying to engage with the population to help them um so I did that for about five years and then for the last three years I went over to the Medicare side of business um where I led some strategy there and also um was responsible for a supplemental benefits and execution of those so when we think

[5:44]  about healthare and really only 10 to 20% happens in the healthare setting supplemental benefits are critically important so people have access to healthy food have transportation have can pay their utility bill so uh it's been it was a lot of fun to do that for the last three years at all the itself uh before I left uh at the end of May to start coming through off so let's talk about some of the lessons that we learned so early in 2014 I started my first business in healthcare we were a telea health company trying to increase access to things like Mental Health Services through things like video communication and SMS texts because one of the things that I recognized about the population specifically here in Nevada is large Medicaid population very transient often

[6:34]  don't have access to a ton of resources and I learned that there are so many individuals and pockets of people that are impacted by their social determinance of Health when it comes to being able to access a trusted resource having access to good education food Transportation all of these other type of things were huge elements that impact our populations but I didn't really see that when I thought of healthcare when you were kind of going down this path over the years did you learn some lessons and did you have some like aha moments about how vulnerable some of these populations were yeah I think it was absolutely and the Medicaid side and I think that Medicaid has been talking about social drivers of Health when it see social deter of Health for quite a long time um just based on the population so you know there's nothing more powerful than going

[7:23]  into a member home and what they have you know uh infectan for example they have um Bend bugs or they don't have any food in their in their cabinet and when we start thinking about members on very limited income when it comes to are you going to go to the doctors or are you going to your family the choice majority of the time is going to be I'm going to feed my family so being with the population you know is the only way you can really understand the population I believe uh very firmly so being with our members and seeing how they live and seeing you know see stuff between a rock and a hardplay choices that they were that they had to make um really open you know our eye to how do you how do you address a whole person how do we address how do

[8:12]  we wrap around the vulnerable population or they don't feel like they're alone and they're not making color choices and we're helping them live as healthy as possible I love that term the whole person because forever we always saw Healthcare kind of looking at mental health as an example your physical health access to resources is separate things but when we're trying to show up and have a holistic view if you will of trying to support an individual we have to account for all of those different things and I feel like it's so important to really kind of hit that um on today's episode because your biggest thing that we talked about in our previous kind of conversation was your version of creating Caya as a holistic support system for autistic individuals but you also said something about yourself which I think is important for you to identify and you said you know I am neurode

[9:02]  Divergent how do you think that's impacted your perspective of not only kind of how you've been able to navigate through Healthcare your roles but also why you created Caya in the first place yeah I a relatively recent um the theory for myself internally was how much I've been laughy for fil of my life and hearing like there was nothing wrong with me so for example in meeting I get very over stimulated if someone's talking to my right and someone's talking to my left I my brain shuts down I can't like focus and process any thought so when I started thinking of like what do I need what makes me feel comfortable being able to turn to someone and say hey I can't process what you're saying right now um has really

[9:50]  been powerful and what I found as I've started saying or sharing things about me like I asked a lot of questions or I need to write things down I don't process as well Auto auto audio audio I do if I'm reading or writing that you know to give me that Grace and I'm asking questions because I need to really understand every single ped for me to get the big picture can try to go from like a to 10 and then go to Z I'm not going to be able to follow that so it was really such a beautiful thing that I thought um within my theme and other themes as I was sharing um my neurode Divergent aspects and things that um work well for me or not work well for me I start seeing other people around me open up and one of the most important things about K and what really

[10:40]  makes us different is talk about community that we can't change we can't change by ourselves but the community needs to change and how do you find your belonging and you know don't retreat and isolation and don't have those negative thoughts like I've had of like what's wrong with me why why do I think this player why do I 10 different ways and not just one way um it really starts bringing people together and then be uncomfortable with there oh man in 2022 the Surgeon General came on to a national broadcast and said that the biggest challenge we face in society today is not another outbreak of a viral pandemic but an epidemic of isolation and loneliness and when I think about how we can combat some of those macro issues it's exactly what you just said showing up as the truest versions of

[11:28]  ourselves being vulnerable and authentic enough to say this is how I am and it's amazing to see how other people will find their story within yours so when you've started opening up about some of your you know characteristics and how you felt in certain situations I'm sure that it was scary but it had to feel incredibly ver like validating for everybody else to say I feel these type of things too and it kind of gave you a little bit more bravery to kind of continue to share and open up and then led to Kaaya I'm guessing yeah absolutely and it it kind of starts in in small pieces and then it just got bigger and bigger and you know being a senior leader at Fortune 20 company it can be scary to scare those things but starting off with at my team meeting offering fidget toys or asking people you know what their communication

[12:17]  reference this is how I prefer to communicate these are things that overwhelm me how can I help you like they started like snowballing and people yeah I remember one gentleman um breaking down in fears in my office saying I've never felt Fe before no one has ever asked me these questions and you know I of course start crying too because you know as a leader and I'm here I I truly believe that my calling is to help people find their place and that was just one of the most remarkable experiences just having that um connection with him this is the true definition of leadership right right is making other people feel safe feel seen and feel validated so they can truly be

[13:04]  their best self you know one of the things that I think is really interesting when you talk about being a leader in a fortune 20 system there's a lot of pressure that comes on you in those situations to act a certain way to be a certain way and I couldn't be more proud to sit across from somebody who recognized that if you were going to show up as your best self you had to show up as your whole self and you created opportunities for other people to find that inspiration as well and so I really think it's just important to kind of start off these conversations by sharing our personal stories because you never know who else is listening who feels the exact same way but hasn't had The Bravery or the opportunity to open up and be their true self yet so I just want to say Jen thank you for being that person for so many it really means a lot yeah absolutely and and the the name come as you are I think you know that in itself is a statement to the mission and

[13:52]  the you know what we value so you coming up showing up as you long your whole person front apolog ically this is who you are that is my that is my ask for everyone in this world and to know that with come as you are you are going to be embraced with acceptance and love and compassion and empathy because you're brave for showing up as you are and those masks that you know the autism Community wears a lot of us we the me the determent that has to your mental health and like you knowing your true self is is tremendous and there's a lot of faith in happening recently about Mass gate um and when I think about Kaa yes we're a nonprofit but I really see it as a movement and that's really how I

[14:39]  want it to be out there is world show that you are unapologetically um and would create the community that Embraces you for that let's talk a little bit about the transition from being a leader in a large Healthcare System to starting Caya now I know that you talked about you were I would say incredibly supported by the other leaders of your organization who are saying okay Jen we see that you're trying to do something for yourself often we don't get the support of people who come from a system like that so let's kind of talk about the transition some of the fears or the hesitancies that you might have had to kind of take this big leap and jump over the chasm to say I'm gonna own this movement yeah yeah so you you're exactly right the support I got from on alin's health was incredible um you know and

[15:27]  also on the board of directors the Autism Society chapor here um in my area so everyone that I worked with knew um how important autism is to me supporting the community and being involved into it so um there really wasn't stock that I was leaving to go do something in the oygen space there was a lot of stock that I was leaving you know calling it my retirement um but being very mindful that you know this is this is a step forward and you know I didn't realize at the moment um you know I was like I'm just I'm going to do this it's now or never and if not me who is really how I thought about it um and just the the compassion and the support and the theme

[16:15]  back of like I really admire your courage and that word courage never occurred to me when I was you know going through the really a year-long internal struggle of you know how are you going to make this world to better place if you I believe I'm I'm here to do something bigger than what I could ever imagine and while you know healthare gave me still a lot there was still more for me to do um and everyone around me just how can we help how can we support you and we have to see you go but like that's just amazing and that support is what really healed me because you as you can imagine there's lots of doubt and there's a lot of security working at you know an organization and say I'm stepping in a different direction to

[17:02]  find a different way to give back um it was met with this wonderful you're the definition of an authentic gangster you know somebody who had an opportunity and then took advantage of it because you felt like there was a bigger Mission which I feel like is so important I want to talk a little bit about Mission so one of the things that we know about Kaa is that your guys's mission is to empower Independence to the um autistic individuals through a holistic approach so what does that mean let's kind of Riff on that for a little bit sure so you know there's a lot of great organizations out there that are doing a ton of work working with employers about neur inclusive practices um accommodation and a lot of employers have been very open to that but when I was looking at like why do we still have 80% of the autistic adult population

[17:50]  under or unemployed why 80% of autistic adults would look a caregiver they we're clearly missing don't they and you know what I've learned in my time in healthcare is um having a person centered approach so when you have a person Center appro you're looking at everything you're looking at their social system you're looking at their mentors you know what are they good at what do what makes them uncomfortable like it nothing's done in a sto so what I saw missing from the current system is when like how are we supporting an individual and not saying hey here's the job the employer has great inclus neuro inclusive practices and they want to hire someone on the Spectrum we're just assuming that that individual is going

[18:37]  to be in good fit because they have autism when they really need to be supported so we take the case management like support so we build a what I'm calling an individual Independence plan uh where we put together thort goals medium turn goals long ter goals Milestone um and we talk about you know do you know how to ask for accommodations you have transportation to work do you know how to make meal for work how do you deal with workplace conflict so it's not just throwing it over the fence like on paper that looks like it could work but it's really holding a hand and supporting them that like for sustainability and not just get them through the interview process they make it but you know addressing the

[19:25]  long-term success so we can really see that pange and that's what it's all about it's not about creating an opportunity but creating a platform for sustainable success and this is where I think we really need to focus in a lot of our practices is just because we have a neuro inclusive environment or a policy does not mean that the individuals who are coming into the space have all the skill sets and all the tools that they need to succeed and one of the things I think is also really important for us to talk about here is the importance of Independence for people who have been diagnosed with autism or other neurode Divergent type of Tendencies and diagnosis right a lot of the leaders who I speak to on the podcast often talk about serving children right or serving younger populations but we need to recognize that statistically one in 36 children today are being diagnosed with

[20:13]  autism that means that one in 36 adults in the future are going to need platforms skill sets and environments that can enable them for Independence through holistic views like we're talking about why did we focus specifically in this area of service and support was it an opportunity that you saw was it personal experience why don't you let everybody know yeah so you there isn't such a bigp you know since 2000 um the statistics in autism went from like one to 200 one to 100 and now we're at 1 and 36 it by it's increased over 300% over the last 24 years um and there's been a great effort for early diagnosis um you know for for me in my situation um we start my son Charlie um

[21:02]  who's my inspiration for Kia he's on the Spectrum he was diagnosed at five and he was diagnosed through a very roundabout long process um he actually had a grand mouth um seizure at Disney when he was five which resulted in um the fu and starting neurology and it was two years of just speci and class until we finally got the diagnosed with that seven that he was um he had autism and you know it's been a hell of a journey and you know as soon as we got that diagnosis I was like okay I need to be know as much as I can get as involved as I can um and something that was a repeat focus of his the future so he

[21:52]  knows like I'm in school I'm advocating for him he has lots of therapies and support but he's always been worried about what the future looks like with him and it got worse with every every birthday because he knows that he's getting older that Mom's getting older with me Grandma's getting older and he knows death happened so he's been asking me for years mom I live with you forever and while at you know 12 years old you know as a mom that's very sweet and I would love that I want more and when I the more parents I've been talking to this transition to adulthood is is not well supported in our ultural system and it is heavy on the hearts of autistic and neurod Divergent parents I

[22:41]  know so many parents who are creating dolls for their children they're opening bakeries and food trucks because like there no one's going to hire them because they need more support then no one has the patient so we're creating those opportunities and that is so beautiful for them to do that but it's also like hey time out we need to do better we need to do something so you know Charlie he he falls into the the he fall into the class is what I call it because he's not enough of anything so he's not disabled enough to get Medicaid services but he's also rejected a lot from neurotypical mainstream because he his friends and people call him leard like he doesn't engage well in two way conversation he strugles with ey contact

[23:30]  so what do we do when you're not enough of anything so K and what I'm really focusing on and what we're focusing on is building these support that helps them that little extra let's take the car ride within to their first job so they get comfortable with their route let's give them a planner L um how do they adequate for themselves in the workforce so it's that's really where we're focusing because I think a lot of entrepreneur fail they try to do too much too quick and we're really focusing on the um minimal support population that they just need a little little extra or maybe a lot extra but they can do it they're capable um we just need to help them I want to reverse because you just said something incredibly important

[24:19]  for the viewers of today's episode and just in the podcast in general we have a lot of entrepreneurs we have a lot of Business Leaders a lot of people who are self-starters here you said a lot lot of entrepreneurs fail because they do too much or they try and do too much have you recognized this through some of your I would say historic business practices because you could have tried to Take On The World right when we were creating Kaya but you recognize that there was a single problem that you guys could become very good at solving why did you focus on that I really want you to kind of harp on that for a second because I think that's really important for the audience yeah I think you know you can't be great at everything and I want to be really great Essence this is such a such a need and there's tremendous work being done especially if you have Medicaid

[25:08]  coverage um by the at the state level but this specific population um has so much opportunity but not enough support so um you know iess you know the the larger Medicaid population that um there's a lot of programs on um but that's just not where I thought I could be most impactful and when I do something I I want to be the best out it and I want to make do the best work possible um and I just didn't think that was somewhere that we could really make the M path I'm inspired um because you have the focus that is necessary for sustainable success you know one of the things that we deal with a lot as entrepreneurs and

[25:56]  as Business Leaders is we always look for I would say instantaneous returns right but I've really been trying to focus on trying to build something that will withstand a test of time and will impact as many people as possible and I realize that when your energy is focused in so many different directions you can't be very good to solve this problem and that's something that I've really gone through as kind of a a maturity exercise is first thing pick one thing to be great at and you sound like you've done an amazing job of that but the second thing is extend your time Horizon that you're trying to accomplish this goal on because when you give yourself more flexibility by saying I'm going to be doing this for a long time there's not as much pressure to perform right now I see you nodding with this for

[26:44]  everybody who's not watching today why do you kind of not along with that idea um it just it rings true to me so much right now um as you know K is Bon thing and I'm working with some individuals and I've have so many plans of what does the future K look like you being able to give myself great uh and pent and you know kind of I have to flip the F right I was a a leader in a in a Healthcare company and you know I was able to drive a lot of work um and now it's it's not as simple at times to to get the work done and it's an incredibly humbling experience and to do K right I have to make sure that about the population things on during it right so

[27:32]  it's about a continuous feedback of you know I have a couple super users um who I I run a lot of things by and think does this program make sense you know I'm building a a 12-week workshop like do these topics make sense because I don't know everything and if I'm not serving the community I is not the comping what it's meant to be what you just said is one of the biggest indicators of long-term success but also perceived agency when you come across leaders and I'm just going to level set for everybody who's watching and listening today when you come across leaders who say I know everything oh yeah yeah yeah you know I've done that before like totally now you don't need to tell me about that you're missing one of the biggest opportunities to improve your value proposition your product and so leaning into Super users like Jen has done here to say does this make sense to

[28:19]  validate it by the people who are actually going to be using your tool is one of the best ways to perfect your value proposition and create the biggest impact that in itself is such a small little innuendo but I really wanted to kind of pause and emphasize that um you also said something about giving yourself Grace one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about as I continue to build my business I've been in business now for 10 plus years I started in July of 2014 now it's 2024 in August and that time flies by but the thing that I've recognized is not the accomplishments along the way but more so the trajectory that we are on and so one of the things that really been focusing on is even though I might have not accomplished everything by now if I give myself once again that long enough time Horizon and I combine that with an

[29:06]  appropriate trajectory where I'm continuing to climb this journey that you're on in building Kaa is going to be so fulfilling not only for yourself but all for everybody else who you engage with and I hope that you have enough time while you're doing everything right now to really focus on that because it's so important and I wish somebody would have told me that when I really got started by starting my organization yeah and it's um you know I I consider myself a POF organizer and um I think lots of my reviews have said that I have pacity so I I take that for the compliment but you know it's interesting when I talked to some of the when I was first building the idea of of p and talking to some other nonprofits and organizations in the autism community that you know that

[29:54]  could be really hard to do on your own you might want to like partner with with a different nonprofit like be a a special resource within the other nonprofit like or want do that I want I want to I want to own it all and I'm not afraid of things being tough we've all done a lot of tough things in our lives and you know having the business sense of my career and having the passion and awareness um you it is going to be hard but I'm not afraid of it and I was ready to do it what I think about when I hear people say I don't know why you'd want to take on that challenge that's just more validation for me to say that's exactly why we're going to do it because nobody else is going to take this Challenge on and it's almost like a pat on the back

[30:41]  that I need from the fact that you're standing up as a leader who's going to take on this challenge while everybody else kind of cowers away from it and I'm not speaking negatively about anybody but I hope that you get that sense of v indiction and validation that comes from you know you taking on this big hairy audacious goal because it's worth fighting for and more people really need to take that on I want to back up a little bit and talk about why you went with the structure of like a nonprofit specifically so out of all of your business Acumen and your experience why a nonprofit and how do you think you're going to be able to position that in the future great let say you know work being on the board of a nonprofit and ifree when we think about social impact and fed like nonprofit is the is a natural way to to though um and being a

[31:31]  nonprofit also opens up a lot of doors so once you have your 501c3 stattic there is a flora of opportunities there for you and um you know it's balancing running a business and a nonprofit so just because you're a nonprofit doesn't mean you're non-profitable it just means your money is going back into the business and the ministri and that you're here to to grve and support the business so I didn't really consider any other opportunity besides the nonprofit because that just F so nicely into really the myin and what I want to do with Ka and it is a continuous feedback and just a community back into the program um and I knew I can be successful at it and you know

[32:21]  when you start talking about Ben your back and all that like sometimes you can't or a lot of times you don't get a play by your own rules and someone dictating how how money spent how things happen and I feel so strongly about the direction of Kai and what needs to happen to make the same I didn't want to have to depend on convincing someone of why something's important I'd rather have the community tell me why I need to change and what needs to happen toward to be successful then someone who's GNA write it to I completely agree that was one of the early lessons that I learned from my father um when we started our first business we went out and we were thinking about raising capital and we came to the idea and the understanding that not all money is good money right

[33:08]  because when you give up control right often other people are going to be making decisions for your business and it very becomes the fact that the founder Jen right ends up being a long-term highly glorified tenured employee underneath somebody else's dictation and you can't really fulfill on the mission of what you're trying to experience and what you're trying to help other people experience I want to talk a little bit about Seasons so this is a topic that just popped into my mind while you were talking you've been through many seasons of your professional development right one of the things that I've leaned into is when you're trying to build something great you're going to go through seasons of sacrifice and that means work life balance is sometimes tough to accomplish I've been messing with the framework of work life integration right figuring out what that integration process looks like for you in your current season what is

[33:56]  your current season and what does work life integration at this point in time look like for you yeah I to be honest work like balance has been something I really struggled with for a long time and led to a lot of I think burnout and anxiety of you know of where I was previously and um now when my mend and my work are still closely tied for my personal life every every day I'm working if you're right you know every doctor's appointment I'm at or every time I'm talking to a neighbor every time I'm you know looking online or writing an email like it it just flowed it integrates to your coin into my every into my every day but that

[34:45]  fearing of having to be on all the crime which is what leads to burnout I don't feel that way anymore it's an exciting Journey that you know autism is a part of our everyday and you even before K we talk about autism all the time you know it's been important to me that Carli can advocate for himself if he can talk about autism and why when he gets a cup it feels like a 100 cups but when his brother gets one he doesn't even realize it right so I've already we've already integrated autis so much into our lives and to now to be it almost adds a new excitement to it because now I'm thinking about autism for the whole community and I'm seeing opportunities that I really couldn't focus on before so I had the capacity the state to really live this together versus having

[35:36]  to choose am I going to you know open my laptop at across practice or am I going to you know be focused on a doctor's appointment things like that it really becomes all in one without the burnout and this is the topic of burnout has been a large Conversation Over the recent Years A lot of people say you know I'm burnt out I don't like doing what I'm doing I just feel like I don't have a lot of agency in the things that I'm impacting and this is one of the Beauties but also it can be a double-edged sword of being an entrepreneur on a mission that is so integrated into our lives is there's a concept that I've been playing with called energy drainers and energy adders now energy drainers are the things that take energy away from us but the biggest focus when you're on a mission of sustainability in that longtime Horizon

[36:23]  is recognizing what are the energy adders that you can focus on in your life that fill you back up because it's very difficult to pour from an empty cup when you're spending time with your family when you can experience these things we can have these type of conversations and other people can pour admiration into the amazing mission that you're on those are all energy adders and I think it's very difficult to be burnt out when we have the good balance of energy adders in our lives that outweigh the energy depleters if that makes sense absolutely there is an analogy I used to use of like depositing and withdrawing into the bank right right like when you deposit the good the whole the law the light then when you get into these rough spots you fill your bank account that when you have to

[37:11]  withdraw it not it doesn't break the bank but if you don't have those opportunities in those moments when you are depositing into this Bank of of white that when you withdraw you just go negative and you going to like a dark place that is going to be an amazing clip for the episode I might even lead with that one so Jen you killed that one that was perfect I uh I want to talk a little bit about the idea of curiosity so I believe in our last conversation I talked about a leader who I admire his name is Gary vaynerchuk goes by Gary ve on social media in uh 2022 he released a book called 12 and a half it's called leveraging the emotional ingredients necessary for business success is subtitle of this book right for everybody who's not watching today now one of the key things that he talks about in this 12 and a half ingredients

[37:59]  is the the characteristic and the trait of curiosity how do you think you embody the trait of curiosity as the founder of CA and as the mom to an amazing kid how do you kind of embody that and how does that impact you every day I think I embody it because I never accept an answer for what it is so what we were talking about earlier is like aing with hope and I think curiosity and Hope s hand in hand so yes we've been doing it this way for a long time no we don't have any great you know state or local sephoria transission program but why why can't we why don't we can we do things differently they being curious enough so there isn't any hard yeses where there's

[38:47]  no hard NOS that opens up so many doors and what that gives us this hope and it gives us possibility you're a clip Factory today these are amazing I mean the the fact that we've been able to get this out of you has been absolutely amazing Jen I want to ask you a question now this is a little bit off the framework what have we not talked about here today that we should be talking about for our audience I really want the audience to understand how big of a how big of a challenge this is right I think hearing one in 36 children are diagnosed with autism um can be impactful but when we start thinking about our data our data is bad General we are don't start thinking about adulthood like who's talking about adult who's building these programs who's helping them figure out

[39:38]  you know what's next I mean they can go into an I meeting they're going to start talking about transitions at the AG or 14 but no are they talking about transitions in terms of this is how you apply to college this is how you evaluate schools this is how you think about what leaders you want or need C isn't a faith for you they we sto talking about our autism really we keep our autism conversations very Qui I leers and you and I just want everyone to know that we have this incredible Talent tool with they're had so many things and they're unap and they're really just need like I said just that that little something a little

[40:25]  support some direction um um in this world is going to benefit so much from including them in our work in our lives the way that they think about things and see things is just so beautiful um that we're missing out we're missing out by not opening ourselves to creating B for them in our life what would a piece of advice be to somebody who is on the edge of taking that jump that you did to start their Caya to be able to follow their passion Because deep down inside of them they know that they should be doing something that will serve not only themselves but a bigger Community what would your piece of advice be to somebody who's right on the edge of

[41:11]  trying to say I'm gonna make the jump but I just don't know what to do that you can't create Fai for something new without letting go of something old that's amazing well you know I just want to say Jen seriously for everything that you've done from sharing your story talking about The Inspirations talking about the gaps that we're filling but also taking a holistic approach on how we're going to be able to meet people where they are with the support that they need is truly an inspiration I want you to kind of share a little bit more about how we can find more information about Kaa how can we find more information about your story where can we follow along don't you use this next couple seconds as a little commercial yeah absolutely so uh we you can check us out at ww. apr.org we are on LinkedIn on as you are and on Instagram kaore

[42:00]  project um we are you know new and we're starting here so um you know lots more to come for sure um but there's resources on our website um you know we are like I said we're new so donations um more to come on the programs that we're launching um and you know I'm here with you today Ken um and we have some more um programs planned for sure so more to come for KA um but that's where you can find us right now that's amazing and the last thing that I want to ask you as part of our tradition is our last guest wanted to ask you a question now their question was in moments of Doubt who do you lean on for support and encouragement now they were asking this

[42:48]  in the frame of being a leader of an organization a Founder a CEO can sometimes feel lonely so in those moments of Doubt who do you lean on for support and encouragement uh it's my husband for sure he is uh just he fills me up when I doubt myself or I have questions and he's just my biggest career leader um so he he gives me so much hope and then the kid gives me all my safety so the C need to know from those two you go that's amazing well guys once again thank you for turning in to the heart and hustle podcast once once again Jen Brooks Kusa is an amazing leader leading Kaa filling gaps and doing everything that we need

[43:34]  to do in order to support the future generations of people who really need our support once again that's been a wrap of the episode catch you guys in the next one