My name is Ashley Lauren Spencer. Owner of The Autistic Innovator®. Supporting the autistic, ADHD and neurodivergent community since 2020. 0 trackers online store for our community. Also the owner of the autistics.life mastodon instance. #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #ADHD
Public Key
npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj Profile Code
nprofile1qqsvpjca98yndjp8akm65p7t3lc2ju4a0awj2vext6q6c0tjjaacwdgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds9jxxl4
Show more details
Published at
2026-08-17T03:18:38Z Event JSON
{
"id": "79f9b81e5caf3f12f5236d6eb991d87bf0205eb4fd5a5d0cff0b6c36ef404ad6" ,
"pubkey": "c0cb1d29c936c827edb7aa07cb8ff0a972bd7f5d2533265e81ac3d72977b8735" ,
"created_at": 1786936718 ,
"kind": 0 ,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://autistics.life/users/AutisticInnovator",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "{\"name\":\"The Autistic Innovator®\",\"about\":\"My name is Ashley Lauren Spencer. Owner of The Autistic Innovator®. Supporting the autistic, ADHD and neurodivergent community since 2020. 0 trackers online store for our community. Also the owner of the autistics.life mastodon instance. #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #ADHD\",\"picture\":\"https://autistics-life.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/accounts/avatars/113/954/161/711/283/358/original/12a3c650034c6b1b.png\",\"banner\":\"https://autistics-life.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/accounts/headers/113/954/161/711/283/358/original/1a49108079a5da42.jpg\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \",\"fields\":[[\"My Store\",\"https://autisticinnovator.com\"],[\"My instance since 2022\",\"https://autistics.life\"],[\"My personal website\",\"https://ashleylaurenspencer.com\"]]}" ,
"sig": "3da425d1090db14d23b3adc437942f8f5ed59ad2703d25ebb3374a046bee01ae1af0aeba92e5b4b6b9374d226625afa477493754e587577f16cece19746468cf"
}
Last Notes npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I have a strong aversion to Walmart brand food now after how sick it made me. All that processed food started giving me headaches, and now I have acne. I haven't had any acne in years, not since my regular diet was garbage food and energy drinks. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® My brain is a machine. All these ideas I've never thought of before are flooding into my mind like I'm channeling something. Feels like creative freedom. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Now that I know the chew industry’s secret that most are 3D printing chews, I’ve seen the code language on how they get around it. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I think why is half the industry, if not more, 3D printing their chews. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I’ve seen chew designs that have intricate detailed designs on the chew, and it’s baffled me how did they manufacture that chew. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® If you see a chew that is shiny, it’s not silicone it’s plastic. Silicone is dull and doesn’t shine. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…rtl5 My body too. I had to turn the AC up to 74 because I’m freezing, and I’m still cold. I have very little fat on my body. Lack of money because of business sabotage has hit me quite hard. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I thought my 1pm cognition crash was just my ADHD meds wearing off, but 2 days in a row I began the day early morning with a lot of calories, and my cognition was so clear and active. Today, I ran out of food, so now my cognition is shit. So this whole time my slow cognition was caused by nothing other than actual starvation. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® This is the most wtf price drop I’ve seen in this Walmart rollbacks list. That is some significant scamming Texas SNAP. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Now that in Texas SNAP can’t be used to buy soda and sugary drinks, the 12 pack brand name soda prices dropped from $9 to $5. Energy drink prices also dropped. Candy prices and fruit snacks have all dropped too now that no one can use SNAP to buy candy. I don’t know if chips were included in that SNAP law, but those also dropped. Bags of Lays chips went from $6.46 to $2.50. Family size boxes of brand name cereal went from $7.49 to $4.44. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I can see every time a scraper bot stops by to steal content from my website. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…rtl5 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…rtl5 The article you linked assumes Google analytics is connected to the website because pretty much every website on the internet, including government websites, uses Google Analytics, but I do not. I don’t have analytics at all to keep data harvesters out. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…rtl5 It’s because I don’t have a single Google product connected that can send that chrome interaction data back to Google. No Google analytics, no Google ads, no Google Merchant connected, no Google fonts, no Google Pay, no reCAPTCHA, absolutely every single Google product is banned from my website. Google can see the click from search but the visitor disappears into the abyss once the page loads because there is no data to send back to Google to analyze how Chrome users interact. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® This makes me very happy. I ran a PageSpeed Insights test on my Shop page. That “No Data” means I have successfully kept Google completely out of my website. Data harvesting Google and data harvesting competitors are getting absolutely nothing. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…rtl5 I feel like I should know what that acronym means but I do not. What is it? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I’m really liking WooCommerce. There are SO many plugins that don’t add trackers. Some do, but the Wordpress.org plugins site makes them disclose if they send data to their servers, and many do. It’s really easy to limit trackers. Shopify forced so many trackers. All their websites are slow because of how many trackers there are. I would have never been able to choose just only 1 website allowed to have a tracker. I also would have never been able to have a Shopify cookie banner telling everyone to reject cookies. I love how much I can control my website too. It feels great owning everything. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…m7l3 I think in their case they now see authenticity as profitable which is why they’ve hijacked my entire identity. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…m7l3 The one who is most obsessed with destroying me does that. They go into forums, Reddit, and Facebook groups pretending to be an autistic peer recommending their products. It’s obvious it’s actually someone with their brand because the “peer” recommendations sound like brand marketing speak, and no one talks like that. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…m7l3 Not even ads. They called it “200 supportive posts” they think being supportive is a marketing gimmick. Horrible. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I got a cold email from a company offering services to go into online forum spaces where neurodivergent people go to seek support amongst each other, and wanted me to pay them to interact with neurodivergent people’s posts and create posts to build brand awareness. That disgusts me. Their paid “service” is everything that is wrong with my industry and extremely predatory. I will not pay someone to turn me into the very thing I despise. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I finally took my Christmas tree down last night. I’ve been unable to have the energy and ability to force myself to take it down, so it just stood there. I had a 15 minute spurt of energy last night so I took it down while I had the opportunity. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I’m scary thin. All those months of sabotage had a very real physical cost. There is no fat around my collarbone, base of my neck, shoulder bones, shoulder joints, my rib cage shows through my chest, my spine sticks out, the screw in my pelvis sticks out, my legs are so thin. I don’t have a scale so I don’t know exactly how much I weigh, but I am at least 20lbs minimum underweight. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® The company I used to use for print on demand clothing back in the Shopify store is now integrating with Amazon Freight shipping. I’m so glad I decided print on demand is a security risk. Now Amazon gets to harvest customer data of everyone who orders something printed with that company. Fuck that. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I’m glad Mastodon exists. Especially this autistics.life server created in December 2022. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Dinah was non-stop screaming for 15 minutes. Then I gave her a long hug and she stopped screaming. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Dinah will not let me go into my office and work. She just screams like she's dying if she's not on my lap at all times. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I'm learning from how I feel right now that I need to slowly introduce food so his body doesn't go into shock like mine is. I ate 3 baked chicken tenderloins, and that was apparently way more pure protein at once than my body can process. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I'm in an unfortunate predicament. My legs are shaking so much I cannot stand, my broken foot where my big toe and the space in between my big toe are broken is all fucked up from having to walk on it so much yesterday. I need to pack orders and go to the post office because it's the last minute before Christmas. Yet my body won't cooperate. I could drop it off tomorrow it's just risky. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Apparently stealing packages in Texas is a state crime. Fewer than 10 packages can get you up to 1 year in jail and/or $4,000 fine. The more addresses a thief steals from the longer their jail sentence and thief's criminal charges level increases. If a thief steals packages from an elderly or disabled person their punishment is harsher and could lead to longer jail sentences. Interesting. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…ffqc Does your email host have an admin panel? I use Google and the admin there is a section under Spam where you can create an auto response and block lists for the auto response. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…ffqc Do you have a way to block email domains? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Someone didn't think that design through npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I see "tri sodium phosphate" in ingredient labels a lot. I got curious and went to the Home Depot website and searched "phosphates", and there it was, bags of tri sodium phosphate for treating dry wall to prepare for painting. There were also tri sodium phosphate substitutes marketed on the bag as safer for the environment and safer to use. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Do you like my kitten galaxy leggings? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® All over Meta networks there are so many ads for this "company" called Prosper that's selling cheap autism assessments for adults. I think this is the same person who was selling their $400 "autism assessments for adults" to a lot of vulnerable autistics on social media, but then she got caught as a grifter who isn't even licensed as a therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist nothing. It was all fake. She sold the autism assessments over tele-health and claimed she was licensed to do assessments in any state, meanwhile she wasn't licensed at all. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® This horrendous month is over and my paycheck is much less than my rent and $1,200 less than last month. If it weren't for my family member sending an odd specific amount of money for my birthday that happens to be the exact remaining amount I need so I can pay my rent, I'd either be setting up a payment plan for rent with management, or I'd lose everything and be out in the streets. The divine forces in the universe who kept me and my cats basic needs all met 4 dire months in a row has kept a roof over my head even in the very most dire circumstances. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I think masking is so hard for us because every time we do it, deep down it makes us feel like we're not good enough. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Every day with a cat is the best day. :blob_cat_heart: npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® My store traffic is really bad this month. 30% of my traffic is from countries that can't buy. I've been tracking the visits from only the 5 countries I sell to, and it's pathetic. The conversion rate for those visits is still good and a lot higher than it was in July before I made all the website updates, there's just barely anyone visiting the store. Can't make a sustainable living if there's barely any store visitors. Not sure how to generate a lot more traffic without ads. Autistic and neurodivergent people hate ads, there's no money for ads, I read over 200 million people use ad blockers... All I can think of is just be everywhere on all social media. It's the only way I can think of to generate a lot more traffic npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…gtf6 I reset the computer to factory settings 2 days ago. Nothing worked before I reset it. Even the Settings app wouldn't work. I can't download the Microsoft Calculator from the Microsoft Store either. Nothing will download. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® When the last Windows update crashed my computer and corrupted all the files and SSD, I happened to be logged into the security sensitive websites I use to run my business. I think when the computer corrupted and crashed, it blocked my PC from accessing those websites. I can't even write my weekly email because Klaviyo has blocked this computer's access to my account. It works on my tablet, so not my internet IP. Just this computer. I can't access Shopify analytics either. Quicken has also blocked this computer's access to my account. This is the only working computer I have. 😭 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Today is The Autistic Innovator's 4 year anniversary! npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I paid a 27% tariff on very small $59 order. Every time I order inventory it feels like I'm being beaten mercilessly by the government for the crime of needing products to sell. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…y3mz Banks charge the merchant (me in this case) a $15 chargeback fee, and when people file ridiculous claims, the bank withdraws the amount refunded + a chargeback fee from the customers bank account and returns both to me. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…y3mz Yep. Banks and PayPal penalize customers with fees for filing those kinds of chargebacks, but people do it anyway. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® There are people who think... npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I got a message through my store's contact form with an email domain that is a school district but ends in .us instead of .gov. The message said they want to place an order and need my w-9 to place the order. I forwarded the message to the IRS phishing department.[email protected] npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I spend too much time dragging myself down with "why did I do that I should have done __" npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Autism season 🍂 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® People were constantly complaining on a Meta network about Instagram's new live location map that shows your location to your friends anytime whether you like it or not. I told people stop sharing their location with Meta and any other app because it's used to track you everywhere you go, and if Meta doesn't know where you are then there's no map. Meta shadowbanned me and now I can't post lol npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…el4d It's been getting a lot worse lately. I've been getting a lot that aren't even related to online retail. Stuff like medical software for nurses and doctors, office building maintenance, one emailed saying "I can help you land 1-3 long term clients." Some about customer service agents offering phone support. Like what? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…el4d Ugh. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…el4d I hope they crash and burn and go out of business forever lol. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…el4d That would explain why I'm being flooded with cold emails about their ai. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I got this cold email today saying they did research on my business through Apollo lead research and it shows I have 5 employees. I think these lead research sites just make up shit. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I'm at the stage after months of stress starting when the tariffs hit where I'm developing physical illness symptoms. I don't get allergies. Now I'm congested and sneezing a lot. Dizzy. Pressure on the ear drums. Bit of vertigo. Entrepreneurship gets really f*ing rough sometimes. It was the turning hypomanic + depression at the same time that sent me over the edge into total exhaustion. Add on top of that my grandfather passing away and since I'm disabled and can't drive I can't attend the funeral. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Fellow #ActuallyAutistic / #neurodivergent : npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…jx7w Maybe just a human thing. There's also the all food I have at home needs to be cooked and I don't want to cook so guess I'll just starve or get takeout lol npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Now that my store is almost 4 years old, I'm getting harassed by brokers wanting me to sell my business to their clients. Never! The store is me and would fail instantly without me and the level of care and empathy I put into my store. It's also the only thing I know how to do and sell. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® In another instance of it seems like something is looking out for me... Last month I had to sacrifice a lot of my income paycheck to cover all the inventory I had to buy with cash or I'd have no income and every month would be like May. A few days before the 1st of July, I get an email from a county corrections and parole office saying they have a restitution check for me. I completely forgot about it. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…0qap I have a double opt-in email so if they forget to uncheck the subscribe box at checkout they get an email with an opt-in link to subscribe. They won't be subscribed unless they choose to click the link in the email. Does that help to not annoy people? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I asked this question on other sites, but I'll ask it here too: npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® The battery on my new Lenovo M11 tablet was draining fast and it didn't make any sense because the tablet and battery is brand new. It's supposed to last all day. Turns out it was the Facebook app running in the background nonstop spying on everything I'm doing on the tablet and using all the battery power. Deleted the app. Problem is fixed. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I did good with my business social media for 2 days in a row and one of my posts blew up on one network and got 72.5k impressions and 6.3k likes. I'm too tired to think of what to say now. I don't know how these influencers keep up with it. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® My store is having a very good week. Yesterday was like Christmas time! With amount of orders and daily profit, yesterday was the 2nd best day I've had all year. I've actually had to go to the post office every day this week to drop off orders. Last time I went to the post office every single day (Monday to Saturday) was December. I'm going later in the day now so I can get more orders dropped off same day. Makes happy customers. 😁 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn I used to live in a small town next to the river, and that is where they shot off fireworks. I was inside the house and it sounded like shrapnel was raining down on the roof. I was inside screaming and having a meltdown. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® When I was 12, I would not let myself watch a PG-13 movie because I was not 13 yet. I took the PG-13 rating very literally. My parents said it was okay but I said no I have to be 13. After my 13th birthday, I said okay now I can watch this movie. Somehow the autism was missed. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® :blob_cat_giggle: npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Me lol npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…zuzz I don't have the room for the 3D printer. My office is drowning in storage containers with inventory. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Now that I'm not dropshipping anymore, my store's returning customer rate went up 61%. Which means I'm getting a lot more repeat customers now that everything is USA shipped. Just got to focus on bringing back all the bestsellers I lost. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Just want to say I appreciate those who have stuck around and not given up on me. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® My autobiography has officially been published for 24 hours. In that time I've sold 4 ebooks and 3 audiobooks. I went into this with no expectations with no idea of whether people would want to read/listen to my life story or not, but wow! 7 book sales in 24 hours. 3 of those in the last 2 hours. I put myself out there all the time with no idea ever of what people think of me. I'm so happy people want to read/listen to me tell my life story 🥹 It means a lot to me! npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I wrote my (short) autobiography. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® This is the best news ever! npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…dyep I can't afford to pay anyone else to do it for me. It's either I do it or it doesn't get done. I'm on track to be homeless and credit tanked by next month if I don't do something and get these sales up. I don't even have a single dollar I can put towards food. I bought the cats food instead of buying myself food. I hope my business survives. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Looked at jobs and freelance sites. I have no job skills, don't have a bachelor's degree, and the only thing I know how to do (e-commerce) is a conflict of interest to employers. I have no other options than hustle my way through another month. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I'm the type of autistic who is bad at masking. I also can't read facial expressions and body language. No matter how hard I try to mask my real autistic self is too obvious. I was exhausting myself trying to mask and bad at guessing what people were thinking. Always socially lost. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I stopped doing my ADHD cleaning 10 minutes a day to get and keep my apartment clean. Backfired on me twice. What I put off for weeks took me only 30 minutes to clean up. It was an oh sh*t I need to get this place clean now or I'll get in trouble with apartment management. Suddenly I was motivated to clean. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Accurate 😄 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® It's much easier for me to get to know an autistic person. "What are your interests?" is my lead. Then finding interests in common. Followed by personal things. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I think what they are calling an increase in severe autism cases where young adults have to wear diapers, go on the floor, break their parents bones from how violent they get, extremely aggressive, etc, I really don't think that's autism. I think something else is probably happening, and these specialists all hate us so they are labeling it autism when it's actually something else. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Autism has been around since forever. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® All this autism controversy stuff has made my mind go down a rabbit hole of my early 20’s, and a lot of stuff is making sense. My dad never told me that he thought I’d never be able to take care of myself because of how autistic and ADHD I am. So many things my dad did to try to give me a good quality of life. I didn’t know it was because I can’t take care of myself. But I resented anyone and everyone who tried to take care of me. I wanted to take care of myself by myself. Life was over a decade of hellish disaster after I didn’t accept all the help. Makes me wonder what my life would have been like had I not been so stubborn. One of those it would have been really good to know way back then that I’m autistic. My life would have been very different, and a lot better, had I known. The disaster ride didn't end until I learned I'm autistic at 35. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® First handmade product arrived today. Made by The Fox's Burrow. They're mini weighted frog plushies. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® While RFK Jr was talking about profoundly autistic people who can't take care of themselves and will never do basic things, while I was never as severe, I wasn't that far above that. Schools told me I was dumb, failed 10th grade, dropped out in 11th grade, GPA of 2.5 in college, jobs all fired me for being slow and socially inept. I'll never be able to have a good paying career job and exist in the normal world. I'm too autistic and not smart enough. I was pushed to find a husband and get married because I had no hope of survival. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I wouldn't say that I'm feeling confident, but I'm feeling more hopeful now. China shipped was a third of my income. I'm facing a will I even make enough to pay my rent situation, and can my business survive after these tariffs. But I'm finding ways. Bulk ordered my bestselling China made fidgets and my top selling spinner ring all from US suppliers. Already sold a fidget that just got here a few hours ago. That's a sale I wouldn't have gotten if I didn't have it here. There's also handmade items arriving this week. There's no way to predict how this month will go. But maybe I'll pull off a miracle and it will all be okay. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Any small makers who makes spinner rings and/or other types of fidget jewelry? 3D printed spinner rings work too. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® Are there any small makers of fidget toys and fidget jewelry in the USA who would like to sell their fidgets in my online store for autistic & neurodivergent people? npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn I'm on there. We follow each other, I just don't use my account. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® I get up for 2 seconds and they take my spot on the couch. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn when I price author’s ebooks at $9.95 they don’t sell, but people buy a lot of them at $8.95. Your paperback is listed at $19.95 and there have been sales of that more than the ebook. In Autistic Bookshop your ebook sold often at $7.95 but not $8.95, but I guess since The Autistic Innovator is a different crowd, people don’t buy the ebook at $7.95, so will try $8.95 like everyone else’s books. I’m glad you said this because I owe you money. I sent the money to PayPal and then forgot. I’ll pay you when I get home from the post office. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn it’s just a lot of experimenting with price and changing it until people start buying it. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn It's a big guessing game to figure out what people think something is worth and what they are willing to pay. Like with the spinner ring I designed, I had it listed for $24.95 and 1.5 months later hadn't sold a single one. Then priced it at $19.95 and still no one bought it. Now it's at $22.95 and I've sold a lot of them at that price. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® My store is doing better this month than last month, thankfully! I had one day that was like christmas time with how many orders and the total sales for the day. Sales came from Google, email list, gift cards, some direct that I don't know where they came from. All in one day! 67% of what I've made this month comes from inventory, and that's the stuff I raised prices on. Probably why I'm doing better this month. 🙂 npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® It’s cold so I wrapped Nikita in a blanket. :comfy_blob_cat: npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® It took converting this video from 1080p to 480p, and then compressing the file 3 times to get this video to upload into Mastodon. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® @nprofile…85tn Sounds like money laundering to me. Fences do not cost $70,000. npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj The Autistic Innovator® They fell asleep like this on my lap. :blob_cat_aww:
