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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion
🎙️ Welcome to The SJ Childs Show Podcast! 🎉
Join Sara Bradford—better known as SJ Childs—as she bridges understanding and advocacy for the neurodivergent community. This podcast shines a light on autism awareness, empowering stories, expert insights, and practical resources for parents, educators, and individuals alike.
Brought to you by The SJ Childs Global Network, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting autistic individuals and their families worldwide, this show is your weekly dose of inspiration and actionable ideas. Visit sjchilds.org to learn more about our mission, find resources, and connect with our growing community.
Catch us on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Goodpods—or tune in Fridays at 8:30 AM EDT on the Helium Radio Network’s Life Improvement Radio (Channel 1). Together, let’s foster a brighter, more inclusive world! 🌟
Go here to download training materials!
https://sjchilds.myshopify.com/
THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion
Episode 313-Beyond the Mask: Discovering Your Patterns of Possibility with Coach Lee Hopkins
What if the key to meaningful connections isn't trying harder to fit in, but learning how to authentically stand out? Coach Lee Hopkins transforms this question into life-changing guidance for late-diagnosed autistic adults struggling with social connections.
Growing up watching sitcoms where problems resolved neatly in 30 minutes, Coach Lee assumed real relationships would follow the same pattern. Instead, he spent decades "destroying relationships" without understanding why. Through therapy, he discovered the foundation of connection—acknowledging that both he and others had feelings—but something was still missing. As an undiagnosed autistic person, his direct communication style clashed with neurotypical expectations, leaving him perpetually disconnected despite being surrounded by people.
Sarah Brafford shares similar experiences of feeling "like a unicorn in the horse and cow pasture," visible but fundamentally different. Both describe the exhaustion of masking—that survival strategy of nodding, smiling, and suppressing authentic responses to appear "normal." When they finally attempted to unmask, rejection often followed, creating a painful cycle that kept them isolated.
The conversation takes a powerful turn as Coach Lee reveals his transformative insight: "Rejection is redirection." Through his coaching practice, Patterns of Possibility, he guides clients to identify their values and seek connections in aligned environments. Rather than forcing yourself into spaces that require masking, he suggests finding communities where your authentic self naturally fits. The path requires vulnerability—something he teaches through practical, actionable steps rather than vague encouragements to "just be yourself."
Whether you're autistic, neurodivergent, or simply feeling disconnected, this episode offers hope through personal stories of finding genuine connection. Learn how small acts of recognition—like thanking the often-overlooked workers in our daily lives—can create ripples of positive change while building your connection muscles.
Ready to move from merely being invited to truly belonging? Visit PatternsOfPossibility.com for free resources, including a 7-minute guide on "How to be vulnerable without being overexposed" and information about joining the Trust and Thrive Tribe community.
The SJ Childs Show is Backford's 13th season. Join Sarah Brafford and the SJ Childs Show team as they explore the world of autism and share stories of hope and inspiration. This season we're excited to bring you more autism summits featuring experts and advocates from around the world.
Speaker 2:Go to sjchildsorg.
Speaker 3:Hi, thanks for joining the SG Child show today. You're in for a great conversation, so hope you're having a great day, afternoon, morning, whatever you're doing, if you're going for a jog or going to get some lunch or on a nice drive just enjoy this conversation and I know you'll learn something I always do, so excited to have Coach Lee Hopkins with me today. And today we're going to talk about some really passionate things that I resonate with, things that I know my listeners resonate with. So you're going to want to listen. You're going to want to make sure to get the website and socials after this so that you can go and follow. And yeah, hi, coach, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4:Sarah, I'm doing really good today. We're going to have a lot of fun talking connecting. Very excited to be here and to speak to your audience.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and I love the wall Is that? Are those vines?
Speaker 4:Yes, so I have some vines here on this. They're not real, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I want them to be real, but the ones on my right that are far behind me, those are real, I will I want my pothos, have lots of golden pothos and I want them to just fill up the space because I love that kind of energy I do too, as you can see, and I, I and I have a little fake guy way over in the corner underneath this guy to give it a little life or a little fill. So that's funny, but yeah.
Speaker 3:I love my plants Exactly. Oh gosh, it's so nice to have you here today and I know we're going to have a great conversation. Let's just kind of start at the beginning, I suppose. Give us an introduction, let us know a little bit about yourself and what brought you here today.
Speaker 4:Sure, I am Coach Lee Hopkins. I'm the social connections coach for the late diagnosed autistic adult, and I do this because I struggled with making meaningful relationships for my entire life. So social connections I mean friends, family, business, coworkers, whoever it was, you name it. I destroyed it and I just didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to create a relationship. I didn't know that my family it was a bit dysfunctional, we would say. People just weren't connecting, as I saw on TV.
Speaker 4:So I grew up in the 90s and I saw love and connection on TV, full House, family Matters, fresh Prince. All they do is just resolve issues in 30 minutes and everybody's happy to talk out their problems. And I thought you know what? Whatever's happening in my family life isn't happening with me. I mean, I don't want it to continue happening. So I'm going to go out there into the world and I'm going to find those relationships that I see on TV.
Speaker 4:And boy, I was wrong, sarah. I went out there into the world with no understanding of myself and how to make relationships and it just fell apart. I created the same disastrous kinds of relationships that I saw in my family members or in other people that I was connected with and I was like, oh, this is the worst, I don't know what I'm doing, I need some help and support with this. So I went to get some therapy to learn more about me and myself, and I learned that I had feelings. I had feelings and other people had feelings.
Speaker 4:So I didn't learn about autism yet I was in my thirties. I didn't learn about autism yet, I just learned. Other people had feelings and I had feelings, and that was the key to making relationships. And still, I was, like you know, going out there talking to people with my newfound feelings, acknowledging their feelings. There was just something off about me and about the connections that I was trying to make, the confusion that I had about how people talk to each other and, furthermore, people just wouldn't say exactly what they met or how they felt. And I started to realize that, well, everybody has feelings, but they're hiding them. They're hiding them and I, autistic I want to tell you exactly how I feel. I want you to tell me exactly how you feel. And I didn't realize this was something that was a trait of autism until fairly recently. So that's how I got to what I do today. It's an all personal life experience.
Speaker 3:I think that that's the best type of experience to learn from. Now, don't get me wrong. I think education is where it belongs, what it does for who it does it for. But living experience is so incredibly, um, important and valuable. It can bring so many lessons for people everywhere, um, who didn't even know sometimes that you know they were maybe not realizing that they had these feelings and I just I'm really love what you had said about that and the fact that you recognized this is looking different to me. I'm going to go find out why. Thank you, thank you for you know, showing up for yourself and saying, hey, this, maybe this could look different. You know, why does it? And, and I understand exactly what you're saying, and sometimes I really need clarification in conversations. Yes, and I'm not trying to be.
Speaker 3:You know, as a child, I would have, of course, been viewed as sassy and talking back and I would have never done that. I'm a generalist daughter, so. But you know, now I'm like I don't understand. Now I have a loving spouse who's also autistic, you know, late diagnosed. Now he and I, I can just say I don't understand. No, this is, this is not making sense to me, and I slow him down and I say wait, we gotta, we gotta we gotta start from the beginning, cause I don't understand this.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's so nice to have somebody on the same page, not that we are on the same page of our conversation, but in that.
Speaker 4:In the same sense that you really have to be able to have those tools to bridge the gap, because everyone is trying to be heard, understood, appreciated and accepted be heard, understood, appreciated and accepted. And the method or what they do to go about doing that is different from what you experience or what you're used to because of their own life experiences. So I've run into people who just don't want to share their feelings because it's never been safe for them and I'm like tell me everything. And they're like whoa, whoa, whoa, slow it down, slow it down. I don't want to tell you anything because I don't know how you're going to treat it and it doesn't feel safe to me. And I'm like wait a minute, you're not being forthcoming.
Speaker 4:Well, I have to have the tools to understand that they don't feel safe, know that it's not about me, and then also it's the same for me. I've not felt safe sharing my feelings with other people or even asking, like you and your husband have this ability to ask and to to receive information from each other. But you know, so many times I think especially this is true for a lot of people who haven't been diagnosed autistic, but they do have that question I just don't understand why everybody else has figured it out. What's wrong with you? And they're like oh, I don't think that I should ask that anymore, because every time I do I get in trouble for it, I get shamed for it or be called a little smarty pants. Because you're asking the obvious.
Speaker 3:Quotes the obvious the obvious quotes, the obvious yeah, oh no. It's fascinating and I think that there's not enough um education for everyone about the social constructs, of what needs to be held together to have, foster and, you know, continue having relationships with people. And I. It's interesting because I personally don't think it's been something that no, I take that back. It's been something that I've struggled with, more in secret, I suppose, than anything else. Like people would look at me and never think that, oh, you have a problem or you don't have a problem. You know, making friends or reaching people, but when I was growing up and I I've been quoted in so many podcasts saying this I literally felt like a unicorn in the horse and cow pasture, like I was not the same as those other people around me and I never fit in with the groups. I was friends with all of them, but I was never friends with all of them. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3:Like individually, but never in a group or as like I was never part of it. I could just like know them outside of whatever, but yeah, it was, I was never included, I suppose, and that's always, and you always look back at yourself and say you know what's wrong, Like I, I'm pretty sure I look like the rest of them, Like I don't understand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's. It's a feeling like you're invited but you're really not welcome there in this space, because you're going to say something weird or you're going to do something, or you're thinking of something or you're not sure about what to say. I don't know if that was your experience, but that was certainly my experience and I just wanted to avoid the group scene altogether when I was younger.
Speaker 4:But then I you know, I started masking and I'd be curious to know about your experience with masking. I've discovered it. I'm like well, this is it. You know no more asking dumb questions that are going to get me in the trouble. Just nod your head, smile and just laugh at what other people say. Just smile, just do what they do, because you're going to make the relationships work. If you come out of your shell and you start asking questions, they're not going to like you. So I've done that for so many years, probably for my teens, until I would say you know, 30s, mid 30s I'm early 40s now but I really started to take off that mask for after so many years decades even. We were so conditioned with that. I'd be curious to know about your experience because it was helpful, but also it was a lonely experience.
Speaker 3:So lonely and you know what. I'm glad that you asked and it's exciting that you did, because I don't know that anybody has really ever asked me about my masking experiences and I think that you know, kind of like you, I didn't even realize. You know, I got my diagnosis at 45. And so it was going back through my mind and all of the time. But who really saw it was my husband. We've been together for 21 years and so he really knows me better than anyone, than my parents. They'd been divorced for years, so they don't really know me because they only knew me a little bit because they lived in different states and I'm, you know. So truly this is the person who I've been with the longest in my lifetime. Truly, this is the person who I've been with the longest in my lifetime. And there was a point in which the fight and flight shut off and my husband said it was almost like I didn't lose hearing, but I was not hearing as much as I had used, like I was always on guard, I was always on.
Speaker 3:I was always kind of like high you know high anxiety, high energy, Um, and I think that that came from years of obviously being an only child to a military father, um, who was, you know, very strict and so kind of like you said, just um, do as you're told, like, show up and do what you're supposed to. And that's what you do, and that's what I did for show up and do what you're supposed to, and that's what you do, and that's what I did for.
Speaker 3:And then, when it was time for me to make my own decisions, I'd say I went a little off the rails for a while. It was like what decisions I can make? Them all the wrong ones.
Speaker 4:So now you shouldn't make those decisions. You'll make that decision Like well, I'm going to try it out because I'm done.
Speaker 3:following your rules. I'm going to do what.
Speaker 4:I want to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I'd say that now I feel like and it's so interesting because I started podcasting before I knew and so I could even probably look back at like the very beginning you know episodes and stuff and still see the tense version of myself or whatnot realizing, hey, like you're, you haven't you know, you've just been like a mom in sweatpants and a ponytail for so long that you haven't done anything for yourself. And now you're like putting dresses on and doing your hair and hey, you still look nice and you can still have friends and meet people and do this and it. I started realizing like, okay, I really have this like self love and like caretaker you know problem where I only care for others and I don't look and don't respect myself as the same.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's something that I experienced too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been huge for that to have changed and to I feel like I'm I've let go of that person. Not that I I'm not still an amazing caretaker for those I love, but I'm also really more balanced in what I need to, like the last six months even.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you have to be and that's what really creates the relationships. You know, I was a caretaker or a person who just gave and gave and gave a people pleaser because that was going to keep me safe. I recognize that if I give and I give my time, effort and energy to other people, that they're going to invite me to be around and just like they're going to invite me, but maybe I'm not welcome because I'm not showing up, I'm not going to share with you, I'm not going to tell you a little bit about who I am, because I was afraid to show you that, because I immediately believed that I would be attacked if I did it or if I'd ask a question or if I showed up in a way that just didn't match what they wanted, that felt good to me. I wouldn't do that and so as much as I thought that being there for other people or being a people pleaser was going to help me get closer to other people, it just never worked. It never worked because they really want authenticity and I was afraid of rejection of that authenticity and it was a wild thing to really discover. And you know, my autism allows me to catch these patterns, pattern recognition, seeking these patterns all over the place and recognizing that, okay, I understand, it's a pattern of me showing up not as myself. So now, when I take this mask off, let me show up as myself.
Speaker 4:And I got rejected. I would get rejected. I'm like, oh no, wait a minute. The universe is so cruel, wait a minute. I thought that this was the answer. And I get rejected. And I know that there are people out there who are having this exact experience where they're finally ready to stop people pleasing. They out there who are having this exact experience where they're finally ready to stop people pleasing, they're finally ready to stop giving up themselves for other people and they want to be known for themselves.
Speaker 4:But the problem that I found is that we just go to the same places. We go to the same places with the same kinds of people. Now, for me personally, I moved around the country. I moved from Ohio to California to Chicago and I finally thought well, you know, I moved around the country. I moved from Ohio to California to Chicago and I finally thought well, you know, I'm going to unmask and be my authentic self. And it just kept getting rejected because I kept going to the same kinds of places, even though I was in different states, I kept going to the same kinds of places and doing the same kinds of things around the people that I was familiar with and that didn't break the pattern. So I kept getting rejected.
Speaker 4:It's like no, lee, coach Lee, this is not the place for you to be, but, oh, I don't know where else to be. I don't want to be alone. We get stuck in that space, too, where we're just like I don't want to be alone. I want people to understand me right now, right now, and I get that pain. But there's a period of time where we have to reimagine, reinvent and become our authentic self.
Speaker 4:Be comfortable with facing rejection, because you may have lived decades avoiding it, and feeling it for the first time in several decades so intensely by showing your authentic self is going to make you crumble, it's going to make you scared and you're not going to want to go out there. But the truth is you need to prepare yourself for that, because rejection is redirection and everybody's going to understand you. You don't understand everybody. You don't want to know everybody either, but you want those people who are going to know your authentic self and it seems like you there, but you want those people who are going to know your authentic self and it seems like you, sarah, have this relationship with your husband where you do, you're able to unmask, and they're able to look at you and say, oh hey, I see that you're not taking care of yourself in this way. Let me see what's going on. Let's talk, let's be open with each other, and I think we're all looking for that, but the first hint of not getting it makes us run away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, especially if you have it, go for it I was gonna say I love that you said rejection is direct redirection, because we say rejection is protection yeah so it's very, you know, it's so so similar that we were like, and you know, while you were thinking I was like, you know I'm, yes, number one consider myself one of the luckiest humans on the earth that I've get emotional hair found like literally my soulmate, who I thought I didn't know what it was going to be like to not be lonely.
Speaker 3:I didn't. Sometimes I don't even remember what it's like and I don't ever want to remember again, you know, but that's how lucky that it's been for me and, um, I would, I'll never take it for granted and I think that that's something that people, that people possibly, you know, like you said, they really you have to come to a place where number one for me it started out as a friendship, which is where I was able to be my real self and really just raw and like, say all the bad things Cause this is somebody that I never had anticipated having a relationship with, and so all the raw, dirty garbage came out, and it was nice because it was somebody who you know, that we shared all of this crazy stuff with each other, and then we started to realize that we were spending so much time together. Maybe that had to be something with that and you're going to love this. We flipped a quarter. Whether we should date or not, heads we date tails.
Speaker 4:We don't Wow what happened. How did it go? Yeah right.
Speaker 3:We are here today. We still flip quarters for reasons sometimes you know, to really trust the universe put us on the right path to begin with, and now we have ultimate trust, I would say, in that we found so much work, but it's been mutual and it's all been. You know this teamwork and, yeah, it came with some amazing things because he had a sister with down syndrome that he grew up with and so he already had this like understanding of what it looked like to have a forever sister, a forever roommate, a forever person with you. And so when our son was diagnosed which was our kind of beginning of our journey at 16 months old, and we realized at that point this is our forever know roommate and kind of in his situation, and so it was so nice that he already had that heart, that he already had that, like you know that love for other people care of and support and nurture.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's so great, yeah, I mean it just so much easier. And then you know, we have two kids, are on our own and and he also has a daughter that's moved away and has her own family, and it's just crazy. It's crazy how much time can pass and how much things can change. But you know, yeah, there's never a day when I would go back to wanting to, yeah, to having to be scared and being alone again.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I understand it's awful to to be in that space and, you know, I think the worst part about it for me was to look at others and think that they had it all together and they're not alone and nobody understands what it feels like to be so alone. Well, hey, the pandemic really helped other people understand and I think that, yeah right, I mean, it's been five years since it and there's so many people out there who were just busy and pretending and really not connected. They were busy doing something with other people and not really connected. We're busy doing something with other people and not really connected. That's what I was doing. I was busy doing other things with other people. I was in clubs and organizations and commuting back and forth to work and I wasn't really connected with those people. I couldn't call anybody and tell them about my problems. I couldn't call anybody and tell them about the exciting things that I was going to do on the weekend. I couldn't do those things. I didn't have a real connection.
Speaker 4:And I found that during the pandemic, a lot of people got to spend time alone. And I spent some time alone and the universe really opened up to me and said look, lee, do you want what you have? I mean you have a nice job, you can order DoorDash every day. You never had to cook for yourself. If you want what you have I mean you have a nice job, you can order DoorDash every day. You never had to cook for yourself if you want, so you can do that, but you're sitting here alone and you're eating all day, all the time. Do you want this or do you want something else? And I chose the something else. I chose this the coaching, the helping people make more meaningful relationships, and it's what I do for myself too. Everything I like we talked about at the beginning everything I do is based on my own life experience, and so I tell my clients to go out there. And if you're struggling to meet people, because I work with people who are adults and who are people come to me usually 35 and plus 35 and older because they've already set a routine and now they're discovering that they need to unmask, in the first place, what it feels like facing that rejection and then discovering who they are. And so I tell them you have to go out there and go to places, and I know I just talked about how, if you go out there and you get rejected. It feels awful, I understand, but we start a whole new way to go out there. We talk about where you need to go and what you need to talk about specifically. And I'll share with you a personal anecdote.
Speaker 4:Last weekend I just went out to a charity event to help sort clothing, so it was more like a volunteering event. It sorted thrift clothing, sorting thrift clothing so it was more like a volunteering event sorting thrift clothing, and I loved it because it aligned with my values. I chose this place. It aligned with my values because I want to speak to people who believe in recycling, I want to talk to people who believe in giving back, and so I also love thrifting myself, and so all those things match my criteria. And when I say go out there to meet people and go to places, I'm not talking about going to clubs. I'm talking about going to places that align with your values.
Speaker 4:And if you don't know what your values are because you've masked for so long and you're afraid to talk to people because you don't know what to talk about, then this is the way to do it. You really have to spend some time figuring out yourself and then going out there to connect with people facing that rejection, and that's where I help my clients, help my clients through that process to discover, because I've been there, I know what it feels like it's awful to be alone. And if you stay at home and you think nobody understands me nobody, I wish somebody understands me You're going to be stuck there. There are plenty of people who understand you. I'm one of them. Sj is one of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were one of those people. We were those people and we found something greater. And you can too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's when you decided to do patterns of possibility. And for those who are listening, um, um, you can go check out patternsofpossibilitycom. Hopefully that is the correct website. That is correct and I love that. Earlier in our conversation, you had mentioned how you are able to see these patterns. So that's so wonderful that you came up with that name of it and everything. So that's so wonderful that you, you know, came up with that name of it and everything. How do you help people see their own patterns? Is there kind of any kind of you know, worksheets or what do you do as far as helping people? Do they need to start graphing themselves to see what they're doing?
Speaker 2:Maybe that's what I'm good at.
Speaker 3:I like to chart.
Speaker 4:You know, I, in my former life I was an analyst who worked with numbers to tell stories. So this is where my my superpowers of looking at patterns and telling stories come into play little data points.
Speaker 4:So I want you all to write down these data points for me. But, seriously, I have used that to help me and I recognize help people recognize the patterns from down to their self-talk and what they're saying to each other, or what they're saying to themselves, or where they're going, how they're behaving in those spaces and the results that they're getting from those spaces. Help them understand more about how they're showing up. I like to consider myself a shiny cosmic mirror, a shiny mirror who helps you understand who you are and what you see. We all are reflections of each other and I want to tell you what I'm experiencing with you so that you can understand what other people are experiencing with you, so that you can make different choices. And if you go to my website, I don't have any worksheets available for you just yet, actually, but I do have a really awesome seven minute video. If you're afraid of you know, making authentic connections, you're afraid of going out there and you don't want to open up to people. This video is called how to be vulnerable without being overexposed, because the key to connection really is being vulnerable. You really do have to open up, to show somebody something. You can't just do things for them. You can't just show up for them in ways that you hope that they would show up for you. You can't just do things for them. You can't just show up for them in ways that you hope that they would show up for you. You have to be able to give them a reason to show up. If they know you, if they care about you, if they like you for who you are, then they will show up for you.
Speaker 4:So in this video I talk for seven minutes. I break it down. I even have a little chart, I have a whiteboard that I go through the process with when I talk about it. Because we're autistic, right, we want actionable steps. It's not just get out there and do it. That's so much. And people would tell me that Just go do it. Just go be yourself. I can't. I don't know how. What do you mean I'm getting?
Speaker 3:rejected. I didn't even tell me, write it down help me.
Speaker 4:So this really gives you some actionable steps how to be vulnerable without being overexposed. So go watch the video. It's just seven minutes long. There's nothing you have to sign up for. If you love it, if you like it, if you learn something from it, leave a comment that's all I ask and share it with other people. If it was helpful for you and if you wanted to work with me, you can find opportunities to do that as well. I'll just share quickly that I am organizing a Trust and Thrive tribe, so it's to get people together to talk about their experiences so they feel less alone and go through some coaching to understand. This is where you get access to tons of resources to help you make meaningful connections and you get to talk to me as well. So you can sign up for the wait list and learn more about what the Trust and Thrive Tribe is at the PatternsOfPossibilitycom.
Speaker 3:I love that PatternsOfPossibilitycom for you listeners and viewers. Of course, you saw the website and can go ahead and copy and paste it right now, so excited to learn more about that. And there's there's one thing I love. It's connecting people and you know, I really found that early on in my journey. It was um a parent the my preschool at. He was only in preschool at the time, but the principal at the school said you know, I always see you talking to all the other parents out there, and that's something I've never been afraid of is talking to new people, to strangers. I've always had this um, I don't know, longing, I guess, if you will, to want to maybe make connections, and so I will put myself out there and I'm a risky person like that. I suppose I'll do it and I find that now you know you've learned what works and what doesn't.
Speaker 3:Doesn't I compliment especially the. I call them the thankless people, the people that don't. People don't stop to thank. I stop and thank the lady who's taking the garbage out in the hospital or the person who's, you know, sweeping outside the Home Depot or whatever, like. I always stop and thank those people and say I see your hard work and everything, because I think that, first of all, spreading kindness is the best way to you know, bring it back to yourself, and I love to watch people light up when they are just not feeling valued.
Speaker 3:maybe and you can see that in a lot of, just like you know, in a lot of people out in the world, and so I don't know maybe that's a superpower, just to be able to see where you can shine light. You know Absolutely.
Speaker 4:I think that's a beautiful way to look at it. I encourage people to go out there and shine your light, because in this world of darkness and people are constantly angry and frustrated if they just had a little bit of thank you, if they just had a little bit of light shed on them, if they just had someone to say, hey, I see you and I appreciate you, the world would be a better place.
Speaker 3:Yep, well, I'm out there doing it, yeah. So I challenge you, listening and viewing, to do the same Step up and do it right. Let's do this, let's make it happen. I think that it's a ripple effect and it can really create change. I love what you're doing and I'm really grateful for the services and the time that you're spending for the autistic community, especially the late diagnosed autistic community, and how important it is to, like you said, not only be invited but be welcome and belong in a place where you can feel safe and unmask and be yourself and always reach out to, like Coach Lee said himself, or myself, and we'd be happy to help you find resources if you are struggling to find them in your own community. So please let us know. It's been such a pleasure to get to know you today. Are there some other places that people can go and find you? Social medias, things like that?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. You can find me at patternsofpossibilitycom. Of course that's my website. And then I'm at Patterns of Possibility on all social media. That's YouTube, linkedin, facebook, tiktok. I'm out there, but most active. I'm most active, believe it or not, on LinkedIn I am. I also have a podcast. I should mention that. It's called the Patterns of Possibility Podcast. You can also find me there. I talk a moment. The structure of the podcast is I talk a bit about an issue that my clients are facing and I share some insight and then I answer a question on. I answer a user question or a write-in question about something that someone is struggling with with their relationships, friendships, coworkers, whatever it is, and I give them some insight and advice. So if you want to listen, if you want some insight and advice also, you can write me at patterns of possibility at gmailcom. You can connect with me via email too.
Speaker 3:That's fantastic. Thank you so so much. Those are wonderful resources. I'm a shareaholic, so you'll be seeing your stuff thrown about around and, yes, if I have a reference, I will be using it. So I love to, yeah, and there's oftentimes people asking, um uh, for coaches. So I love to have my list of my, you know, favorite coaches to recommend to people, and I think it's so important that we, you know, are able to kind of tailor and connect each person with the people that they would need the most. So thank you so much for bringing these wonderful resources to my audience and to myself, and I look forward to staying in touch because I think we're going to have some good conversations and some collaborations in the future.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Thank you so much, sarah aka SJ Childs, for having me here and being able to share your story with me and allowing me to share my story with your audience.
Speaker 3:It was a really great conversation. Thank you so much with your audience, that was a really great conversation. Thank you so much for your time. We'll be in touch In the heart of the city.
Speaker 2:She's shining bright. Oh yeah, stories of love and courage. All throughout the night, her voice resonating An anthem for all. Through the trials and the trials, she answers the call. A mother and a fighter, breaking barriers and strife. Love is her guide. She'll never hide. She's changing the world for you With a heart that speaks in strong Empathies, a melody. In her journey we all belong. Followers gather Like stars in the night. So bright, 44,000 voices sharing in the light. She stands for family, advocates for more, a movement of compassion. Ways we'll soar Podcasts together, symphony of support, getting life changing report. She's changing the world for you, thank you. And clear. Together we ride, shedding fears and every heart she plants the seed of understanding and love for dearly me. Thank you.
