Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host. Today's guest is Richard Schreiber, an IT and AI expert with over 25 years experience working for some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and mega law firms. But there were rocky moments in his life that became all part of a journey to bring him to his real calling in life through his devotion to his Lord Jesus Christ as an autism advocate. His deepest passions as the father of an autistic daughter have pushed him to found the New York City or NYC Autism Community Group in Manhattan to help parents with children on the spectrum to navigate the day to day challenges and the Autism Innovation Community foundation to promote more homeopathic innovative and tech AI autism solutions.
His best selling book Autism Care Revolution, along with other authors describes his story and how he had to pivot greatly to get the right care for his daughter. Enjoy the show.
Richard Schreiber, so good to see you my friend. Thanks for coming on.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Thank you, Drew. It's great to be here.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Ah, so it's a beautiful day outside and it is. You're my first call of the day.
First thing I want to do is I want to thank. I always thank the person or people who introduced me to my guests because there's always a reason why people think, hey, this would be a good idea to invite Richard and you know, introduced Richard and Drew. And I want to thank initially Karen Shaw a couple years ago introduced us and relatively recently Priscilla Lito. So thank you so much, you two, Karen and Priscilla, for introducing me to Richard. We have a beginning of a really cool relationship here.
So why did I ask Richard to be on this show? Richard, I asked you because, you know, and we got to get to know each other. We have a lot in common initially. You know, I always speak on this show about how when we're younger, we're taught that life is linear. We're told, and it's not malicious, that if we do the right things, A plus B plus C in a straight line, D is going to happen. And for the most part for us, life is linear until it's not. An external circumstance inevitably gets in our way and kind of derails our straight path in life to a more circuitous one. And there's always a defining moment that we finally wake up and realize we have more control than we do.
It's my firm belief that there's three different types of men out there. You have man number one who's got a ton of blind spots. He's on autopilot. He just does what he does because that's the way the world is pushing him. And he doesn't see anything in front of him and he just lives that life that's really non impactful. And then there's man number two. He's got a heightened self awareness. He notices that adversity that's hitting him, yet that adversity is happening to him. He's a victim. It's everybody else's fault. He's got no control on the path of his life and he just lets life push him where, where it goes. And on his deathbed, man, does he have a ton of regrets. We don't want to be like that on this show. I, I welcome on man number three, Richard's man number three. Man number three has an intense self awareness and when adversity hits, he gets to a point where he's like, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. This is not a barrier. I'm not a victim. This adversity is a challenge. It's an opportunity for me to become stronger and take it on head on. And I'm going to do that. And on the other side, I become a stronger man with that. Richard, I'd love for you to reach back as far as you need to when you had that defining moment, Whether it was the tap on the shoulder or the whisper in the ear or like I needed my 2 by 4 upside my head to shift you from whatever man you were to that man number three and how it's changed you and what you're doing now personally and professionally.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if there's any one situation, Drew. I'm a baby boomer. I've been hit over the head by a, with a two by four a number of times. My parents used to say, I'll beat it into you one way or the other.
But you know, it's interesting, I, I wonder if we all don't kind of cycle from man number one to two to three, because that certainly is the case. When I was dumb in my 20s and 30s, I was definitely kind of a, a wayward type.
I had skills and talents and abilities, but wasn't really focused too well. And, and you know, we'll talk about how to get a, how to recommend getting around that in today's society. I don't think, you know, us baby boomers there, there wasn't that kind of pressure to, to really toe the line as there is today. There just so much influence in media and AI and everything else going on out there that there's this heightened awareness of, of our surroundings.
But there was a period in life where I was man number two. I had a lot of success in my consulting practice in my 40s and 50s. And then all of a sudden, boom, I hit a brick wall.
The industries I worked in got terribly disrupted by, you know, disruptive factors like Uber and, and Lyft and Airbnb and, you know, all these so called gens, all these new software platforms that came out that just totally disrupted traditional stuff.
And yeah, for a while I was playing the blame game. You know, God was punishing me and all this and that. And you know, I've been a Christian for, for Dec.
Didn't realize. And didn't you talk about blind spots? Wow. We all have blind spots. It's what we don't know. We don't know.
But there have been a couple of watershed moments that really, I think, turned it around for me.
One of them relates to my daughter, who was diagnosed at age 7 with autism.
And our journey around finding her the right care started out as most parents, you know, it was getting over the shock of the diagnosis. And we were actually forced to have her evaluated because her school, the Board of Ed, sent us home a letter that basically said, you need to get your child evaluated.
She's disrupted in class.
In retrospect, while we were outraged at getting this cold letter from the school, we remembered now that it was her first grade teacher who had a PhD in special needs that really recognized in our daughter that, you know, she was different. Okay, so, so we got her evaluated and we kind of got drawn into what I now know as the mainstream autism services, which is typically, as, you know, drew pharmaceutical aid.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Our daughter was on Adderall for three years.
We signed her up for ABA Services. Behavioral analysis Services had some very mixed experiences with that. It's, you know, ABA Services, unfortunately, if they're not really customized for your child, is more about trying to convert an autistic child's behavior to neurotypical.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yes, yes, it's.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: But what we fail to realize is that you're asking a child to change its identity, change their identity of who they are, to be, to behave and be and act like someone they're not.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: And that's a pretty awful message when you think about it.
So.
And I mentioned the watershed moment was when our daughter graduated from elementary school. She was 10. I went there to pick her up. I was a stay at home dad, so I was generally the. The caregiver. And I saw her standing off to herself. She was crying.
And my daughter never cries. It was the last day of elementary school graduation. Should have been a happy time. Kids are signing yearbooks, you know, teachers are at hugging kids and that sort of thing. And my daughter's by herself. And I walked over to her and I leaned down next to her and I said, you know, karina, what's wrong? And she said, daddy, for six years at this school, nobody wanted to be my friend.
And whoa, those are words a father never wants to hear.
And I'll take them to the grave. But it was a wake up call, Drew, to me and my wife that what we were doing wasn't working.
And we took the call, we heeded the call. We took our daughter off Adderall. She actually asked us to. We found a combination of essential oils. My wife got specifically expert in, in essential oils, became a, became an agent with a company called Doterra, who have fantastic oils that or come from South America. They're organic and they happen to have a specific line that is for kids with ADHD and autism.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Did not know that.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: So she's been on this, on this combination of oils now for the better part of a decade, and it's really helped her regulate a number of the characteristics. And, but that, that, that was a moment that really kind of shook me to the core and made me realize that, you know, I was checking all the boxes. You know, Drew, as a, as a parent, you think you're doing everything you can and, but, but also, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist type, but, you know, in the modern medical space, you really have to be your own practitioner. You can't just go with the flow. You can't just go with what modern medicine tells you or people in the medical industry, especially with autism care, because it's still misdiagnosed and mistreated, miscategorized as a disability when it's not. It's a neurological condition.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: One that we all have. We are all unique in our neurological composition or a neuronetic. We're all snowflakes. We're all on the spectrum to some degree.
And, you know, we need to really look at autism as, as we're just different. You know, not we, but those who are on the spectrum, you know, they're just different. In fact, I, I just like using the term special needs. I use different needs.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Words do matter. And the labels that are placed on Individuals who are atypical is harmful. Right. It. Labels, Labels state that there's limitations and.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Labels and, you know, people with autism today. You know, I was speaking with a dear friend who travels the world. She just came back from Dubai and, and Ukraine where she speaks out on autism care. And around the rest of the world, there are countries, even first world countries, where people with autism have to be kept qu. Behind closed doors because it's just not culturally acceptable to have your child be outwardly on the spectrum. You know, and, you know, hopefully, hopefully organizations like my friends is trying to change the perception of people with autism. You know, one of the things I've heard, Drew, is that our, our different need kids are our autistic kids. They are the chosen ones. They are the ones who, who think outside the box. They're the ones who, you know, think about all the wonderful engineering, medical marvels that have happened. Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, you know, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, you know what, they all had autism.
Without them, we wouldn't be the country we are. Very true. And now multiply that about all those people out there and all the talent and all the abilities that they have that are just. We're throwing it away.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, there's many. I noticed that there's many entrepreneurs who are on the autistic spectrum because the mainstream corporate world world doesn't really provide what's necessary for people who are atypical like that. And, and they have unique capabilities and ideas and they flourish on the entrepreneur space. So.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Right where, where they can think outside the box. I remember my daughter's particularly good in math and when she was doing the common core thing where not only do you have to get the right answer, but you have to show how to get it.
You know, she would find on. She would find her own way to get to the answer because she's brilliant. She just is so unconventional. And they would look at, you know, how, how she arrived at the answer and say, wow, this is pretty cool.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, that's, That's a good point because you, at a growing age, the age your daughter was having, that first grade teacher who had the, the wisdom and the experience and the knowledge of, for, for autism. That was a blessing.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: It really was.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And you don't realize it at the time, like you said, you're like, offended because of the coldness of the letter. I would have been the same way.
But thank God for that individual who noticed. Noticed, did something about it. Right?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, subsequently, you know, we got over the outrage and I had a very nice conversation with her and I told her exactly that, you know, that we're a Christian family.
We were a little taken aback by the letter and we understand that's how it goes. But we're so grateful to you for being the nudge to get us because, yeah, we, we knew our daughter was different early on. She used to put on a CD when she was an 18 month old toddler and she would spin around like a top and after a while we noticed, wow, she's not getting dizzy.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: What's. What is that? Only to find out later on that that was a direct indicator. What did we, what did we know at the time? Right.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: That was 17 years ago. Your daughter now, she'll be 19 in about six weeks. Freshman in college. Yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Now is she able, able now to articulate why she would speak? Been. Was it helpful? Because there's a reason why I'm asking. I'll let you know. It's about my son. But was there.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: No, I don't know that she would know or even remember because it was mostly when she was about a toddler.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: But she still has energy spurts now where she'll go running back and forth in the apartment at like one in the morning and we have to say, whoa, whoa, time to take some oils and chill out for the rest of the night.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: I love it. Yeah. No, because my, my son's 23 now and he's on the spectrum. And when he was younger, when you could tell he was, he was thinking, but we didn't realize at the time he would run from corner to corner in the room.
And as he got older, when he was starting to be able to articulate emotions or behaviors because he was the one who always got in trouble in school because they would say, why did you do that? And he would say, I don't know. And he really meant it. I didn't know why. And he was, you know, marked as a troublemaker. Right. But when I asked him when he got older about the what when I goes, dad, when I need to be running like that, I think better when I'm running back and forth rather than just sitting still. Because when I sit still, my mind takes me to places I don't want to go.
Fascinating as heck to me. So that's why I asked, I wondered if your daughter knew. Because, you know, when you're a young parent and this is 23 years ago, I had no idea. I just thought he had energy, you know, you don't think you don't know what you don't know. Right. And if there's no one out there to help you with it, we didn't know where to go. So anyway, I, I sidetracked. But I mean, I was just.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's. I think, I think you're right. It's. It. They. Physical activity, like that is a good outlet for them. It, you know, obviously they, they spin around those different things and there's different ways that they can help themselves concentrate. I mean, my daughter used to doodle a lot and, and you know, she's an artist.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: But it all started when she was much younger where she would doodle.
Oftentimes the teachers would get annoyed by it. And every time they called her out, of course she was totally paying attention and always got the right answer. That kind of flummoxed them. And, you know, we had to kind of say, well, you know, for her, it's almost paradoxical. If she divides her concentration by doodling and focusing on what you're doing, she's actually able to be better than if she was just singularly focusing on what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. It's paradoxical.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: But, you know, my daughter has that unique ability, but sometimes she gets so overly engrossed that she needs to divert some of her attention on some. Some side light so that she's able to be present and to hear what she should be hearing.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Right, Absolutely.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: So. But. But again, it's something totally anathema to you and I.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Right. Absolutely. Thank God she's thriving now. 19. Where's she going to school?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: She goes to Borough Manhattan Community College and she's doing great. She actually was on elected to the 55 Theta Phi Theta Kappa, which is a. I guess a top tier.
Yeah. Educational group based on your grades.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: So good for her. Good for her.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: So. So this wake up call call and I notice. And for those of you watching on YouTube, I notice your backdrop. Sure. It says autism.
Can you.
What. What were you doing prior professionally, because you had mentioned disruptors in. In software with Uber and all that. What were you doing? Because I know, I know now you're. You're AI and an IT guy. So tell, Tell us, tell the audience what you were doing and then what. Where you are now and how your whole transformation occurred. Occurred.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I started in technology.
Kind of got into it organically or like most of us, by accident. Yeah. My degree is in college. Was actually in journalism.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: It still serves me because I. I blog, you know, pretty proficiently. Now and I think getting a degree in journalism when I did, you know, 50 years ago, no, not date myself too badly, but yeah, 40 odd years ago, you know, I studied the Walter Cronkites, the Dan Rathers, the Humpty Brinkley. You know, back when journalism, you know, obviously had a different resonance than it does today. It's become business. Today it's become more of a propaganda for either political party and, and really just more predicated on getting eyeballs and headlines and, and making money.
And it just doesn't serve the people. And that's why so many people are down on the media. It's because, you know, they kind of deserve it.
But you know, back when I was growing up, that was my interest and trust. But you know, most of us fall into doing other things. So I started in operations, worked for a company and then spun that off and formed a new company that I was doing for myself. We needed software to run the company so I joined forces with a brilliant programmer from Bell Labs while dating myself.
So we wrote about four software systems and then eventually I got headhunted to do a Y2K project for Goldman Sachs. It was so successful they invited us back to weblify it five years later. And that kind of kickstarted a whole line of corporate travel, booking and expense management systems. And for a while in New York city for about 10 years we were the largest shareholder of that. We had many of the major I banks and law firms on our platform. And then. Yeah, but towards the middle of the decade, that's when things kind of changed. And you know, now with AI, obviously disruption is, is even at a faster clip than, than ever before.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: But with that disruption of AI, you're now big into AI. Can you.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: Tell me how knowledgeable you were when you first heard about it and what made you be like a, an early acceptor of it and now somebody who's building some expertise.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, I started really, I was attracted to it like many of us, dating back to November 2022 when chat GPT3O was released. And I had a friend who was a brilliant guy named Peter Swain who runs, he's big in the Tony Robbins world and had won business Mastery three times in a row. Amazing, brilliant guy, digital marketer and he formed a mastermind around AI. And I joined that almost immediately and been there now for two and a half years really learning how to use AI effectively on so many levels. AI first and foremost should be regarded as a top tier strategic tool.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: To, to level up your Business and oh so many ways in your personal life it's just, but it takes discipline and it takes a lot of knowledge and, and use to refine it to, to get the value back that you really want.
There's no shortcuts. It's really a tremendous commitment and there's an awful lot of which you know, Drew me to, you know, I, I, the perhaps the book that you're mentioning behind me, Autism Care Revolution, which I. A best selling book. It came out last year. I wrote an entire chapter on how AI is leveling up autism care services and about to write a blog post about the top 10 AI products and services that really further and help people with autism.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: It's making, yeah. Autism AI is just, it is such a possibility, Drew, and such a capability to, to really level up things in healthcare and especially in special needs. It's really exciting.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: One of those things that in, in the right hands it's going to be phenomenal. In the wrong hands it could be dangerous.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, I'm, I'm with an organization that's trying to make sure that AI is used integrously, responsibly and, and with intention and, and you know, being a born again Christian, I, I actually wrote a book that kind of defines or it's a call to action really for people in technology and people in leadership to use AI responsibly.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: You know, in the corporate world we unfortunately hear about how many jobs are going to get replaced and lost. And you know, we've heard Walmart's already replacing 50,000 floor cleaner jobs with AI robots and stuff like that. And that's unfortunate.
But we should be thinking more about using AI to level up what we're doing with our current employees and people, but not, not looking to replace them.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: So it should be best way to use it as a compliment, not as a replacement.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah. But you know, people, there's a lot of resistance to AI and it's, it's here. It's definitely going to change the world and all of us would be in a better position if we get in front of it and, and learn and teach ourselves how to, how to use it, how to, how to do what we do best, better using AI because yeah, there's going to be a lot of changes and unfortunately given the way corporate America is focused on the next earnings period, yeah, there will be job losses, unfortunately, but hopefully those folks can be retrained for other things.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: Right. I mean there is a lot out there and there are people in the workforce who go into it for different reasons and there's passion they have that they're not really focusing on. So hopefully people can turn their passion into, into something they could make a living on. The entrepreneurship world, I mean, there's so much value in that.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: So tell me about. I know you are in the nonprofit sector that's, you know, we're. And obviously the autism nonprofit sector. Can you please talk about your foundation?
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Yeah, so our foundation was started 2023.
It's the autism Innovation Community foundation. And it's kind of. It became a spin off of. We created a local community group here in New York around 2018 called the NYC Autism Community. And before COVID we used to have small scale events where we invite parents to bring their kids in the spectrum and, you know, play Legos and watch movies and, you know, just hang out. And you know, it was an opportunity for the parents to come together and kind of get out, get out of themselves because. And our moniker became is we are Not Alone. Because it, it's just so important that, you know, we get out of our own heads, in our own space and, and talk to other parents and have our children, you know, relate and, and play with other kids.
So the, and then we had an event here in New York City in 2022, the Autism Tech Innovation and Career Expo. We had hundreds of people that attended to that. That was kind of ultimately what our, our foundation aspires to do is to put on events. We've been doing some smaller events with Priscilla, a dear friend and Mission Kids Success, which does such amazing work, and a friend, Steve, Steve Cohen, who's a autistic comedian. So we put on several shows locally in the area promoting comedy and it's wonderful role and not just with people with autism, but all of us really laugh and a laugh really hits us well and gets that good energy going. So, yeah, our foundation is really about, kind of an extension of what I wrote in the book. It's encouraging parents to, you know, adopt the right mind frame. You mentioned earlier, throw away the blame game, you know, step into, you know, every ch. Every child is a gift. But our children. I know sometimes it's hard to hear this, you know, that they are beyond gifts. You know, I've learned more from my daughter than any other human being on the planet.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: You know, and it's very humbling because as a baby boomer dad, I had to pivot quite a bit away from how I was raised to really understand and raise my daughter.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Right. Yeah, it's interesting Since I've, you know, really been focusing on what my son needs, I mean, really diving deep, I joined a couple, you know, Facebook groups on autism ones, Autism dads. And it's funny how. Not really funny, but some, some of the parents who have children who are non verbal or, or much more challenging than the. The. I hate to say higher functioning, but, you know, I guess what are they? What's the term that the higher on the different on the spectrum. I don't know. What do they even use?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Highly functional, I think is the. Yeah, that's what they use.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: That's where my son is. That's where your daughter is. But some of the comments from people who don't understand autism, just think of it as the higher functioning ones like your daughter and mine. But these other dads who have children who are on the other side of the spectrum, they're challenged, feeling like it's a gift and, and so to help them find the strengths in their child and, and celebrate those strengths. But it's. I feel for those parents who.
Where their child will not be able to speak and do certain things and.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: And well, one should never give up.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: That's the thing. Never give up because that gives limitations. So I want to help those caregivers realize that there, there is hope for the future. We're even. We're working on it.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, one of the things our foundation does, Drew, is we do survey, as I mentioned, you know, we, we recommend essential oils. You know, my wife, you know, by full disclosure, being a distributor, but we also promote several supplement products. One of the. One of them is called LifeVantage, a product called Triac Synergizer, which helps with oxygenated stress and mitochondrial decay and a whole bunch of characteristics that tend to affect people with autism.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you're talking about that because we need to hear more about some alternative tools to help our children aside from the pharmaceuticals. It's way too easy for the industry to just throw drugs at people. It's a lot more work deep to find out what the root cause is for the. And I love that you, you're involved. You and your wife are involved with, with. And it's funny, they're not really alternative medicine. That medicine's been around for a lot longer than the pharmaceuticals.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Oh, let me tell you, my, my wife's. My wife's mom is from Peru and they have over a hundred plants in Peru that they use for medicinal purposes.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's not alternative medicine. Basically. It was the marketing in our country with the pharmaceuticals that Mark started marketing, you know, the, the long time medicines as alternative, which is not the case. Pharmaceuticals are the alternative medicine as far as I'm concerned.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: The challenge with pharmaceuticals, Drew, is, you know, looking back, you know, when, when our daughter was like from 10 to 12, when she was on Adderall, during that span is, you know, the FDA has certain obviously requirements to study what the side effects are on drugs entering the marketplace. And you know, they obviously keep tabs on fatalities and all kinds of, you know, Harren, just side effects, but they don't really have studies on. Okay, but we gave our kid Adderall at age 10 for three years. What does that mean to her brain when she's 30? When she's 40? When she's 50? There's no such studies out there.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: There aren't studies.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: Long term studies and that we should be thinking about before we consider drugging our kids.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Yep, absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: And that's why we pivoted away. And the last product I wanted to mention is a product called Stem Active. You mentioned nonverbal autistic kids. But Stem Active is a product that just came out from a company called Healthy Homes. Again, full disclosure, we advocate for this product and support it.
It's made up of, I think eight or nine individual ingredients that are all organic that trigger the generation of stem. Of stem cells in the body through our, Through a natural process.
And it's. There have been, you know, studies that have shown that it's helped kids who are non verbal on the spectrum.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Actually break through and begin to become verbal.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Talk to you offline about that because I have a neighbor down the street who has got a daughter who's Nonverbal. She's around 10.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: So. Yeah, there's actually been.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Yeah, there's actually been instances where in groups where it's actually proved beneficial. And in general, for people with autism, you know, stem cells is a really good, it's kind of the, the wild card for regenerating and, and, and, and bettering the body in general. More so than anything else you're talking.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: About with the stem. Is it a patch? Is it liquid, is it a pill?
[00:33:45] Speaker B: It comes in either a gel or in or in or in capsules.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: So I love that because the gel would go right into the bloodstream and.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: It'S easier for kids than having to swallow pills. Yeah.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Versus the going into the gut and being digested.
All right, so we'll talk because when I say offline, I'll learn more and I'll let the Public know. But you, you, you know that, that kind of thing. I want to learn more and I want to learn more.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: For my friend down the street. So, so do you have something coming up, anything special you want to talk about that you're working on that you'd like more people to know about?
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Well, we probably have another event coming up in the fall.
I may have a couple, a couple events coming up in the fall. One possibly on the west coast with, with some friends. I also volunteer on the board of advisors for the Autism Research Project based in California. Some wonderful people who are looking to create a go to platform for people to find autism resources around the world. So they're just getting started and that's obviously a need that's really necessary. Yeah. Priscilla and I and we'll probably figure out something to do in the fall as well. Working together. Always great to support her wonderful charity and all that she does.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
Priscilla had the second annual Sip and Chill for Mission Kids success.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: So I got.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Unfortunately we were chilling in bed with the flu, but I know, I'm glad you're definitely.
Send some love and some dollars. Priscilla's wife.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Such a good cause.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Beautiful event for a great cause.
You know, I could talk to you all day, Richard, but the audience certainly has captured the essence of Richard Schreiber. So, guys, you're going to want to get in touch with Richard, especially if you have a child on the autism spectrum. Richard. If you're local on the Northeast.
Richard works with the New York City Autism Community. That's what he mentioned. He has a Facebook group. So go on to Facebook, look for NYC Autism Community to join that. And if you want to do stuff in person, keep in touch with Richard. Other ways to reach out to him is via email. I am going to look down at my paper because it's probably the longest email I've seen. And it's R Schreiber RSH R S C H R E I B E R at and here's the long stuff. It's Autism Innovation community foundation. Those four words together. Autism innovation community foundation.org and that will be. I will also put that in the show notes if that's okay. Richard, please, for the gang. I'll also put the link to your Facebook group in the show notes at the bottom.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: It's a closed Facebook group so you know, people's identities and whatnot are protected.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Wonderful, wonderful. All right, last two questions. All right, I'm going to give you the opportunity. You're sitting down with young 7 to 10 year old Richard and you want to give him advice about life. What are you going to tell him?
[00:36:56] Speaker B: I would say be your own person. Don't listen to anybody else.
If you're, if you're different, appreciate that in your identity.
Be proud of who you are and just be comfortable in, in your own space and let, let God guide you.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Absolutely love that, Richard. All right, switch hats.
You're now sitting down with young Richard, the young businessman, young entrepreneur, and you want to give him advice about business. What are you going to do?
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Is this the 7 to 10 year old or a little bit later on?
[00:37:33] Speaker A: Now you're older now, now however old, you're dabbling in IT and tech.
Yeah. And even, you know, those, those, those disruptors, what would you, what kind of advice would you give him, business wise?
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Well, the, the one advice I would give to me is never get comfortable. As a baby boomer, you were taught to kind of like get a career, stick by it, work there, be loyal and all this stuff and after getting downsized and right sized a couple of times and then obviously, as I mentioned, disrupted later on, be your own business person. Don't expect anyone else to have your back other than God Almighty.
Look for his strength, but be your own advocate.
And as you said earlier, look at, you know, I, I now have an entrepreneurial spirit. I, I kind of discovered I did not, you know, probably five years ago.
And it, and it took that transformation and ultimately becoming born again, I think, to really find my true identity.
And if you're able to, and you know, for, for, for most people, you probably already know what that is, so just stick by it. Don't give it up to somebody else. And once you find that identity, once you find your voice, your true authenticity, be present at how powerful that is and that's you, and just stay with who you are. Don't worry about what other people have to say. You know, Wayne Dwyer's, Wayne Dyer, the wonderful health, health and wellness guy, used to say, why would you let somebody else's opinion of you matter more than your own? Why would you give somebody that kind of power over you?
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Don't.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: That's great. That's, that's something to definitely think about. Absolutely. Well, Richard, I want to thank you for not just coming on, but coming into my life. My friend, keep being who you are.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: A real pleasure.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: You're doing some wonderful stuff. So again, keep doing what you're doing.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: A real pleasure. And I'm so grateful to you, Drew, for being in your world and being on this wonderful podcast that you do and how much you give back to the community as well. And God bless you and your son and and can't wait to catch up again soon.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. Thanks so much Richard everybody out there. Please take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question. Are you living the life the life you want to live, or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.prophetcompassion.com.
feel free to also email me at drewrophetcompassion.com I'd love to have a conversation with you. Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for.
