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Hey guys, welcome to Adulting with Autism, the podcast where we dive into the roller coaster of adulthood through a neurodiverse lens. I'm April Ratchford, your friendly occupational therapist mom, proudly on the spectrum and raising an amazing young adult son with autism. Join us as we share stories, tips, and laughs, offering a supportive space for anyone navigating life's twists and turns. Grab your drink of choice, no judgment, and let's embark on this journey together. This is Adulting with Autism.
Hey guys, hey. Happy Saturday. I know I've been MIA the last week and I need to catch up. It's been a rough sort of week for the last couple of weeks, and I've been overwhelmed and having some doubts, and it's been tough. It's been really, really tough. Just like some of you guys, I do have doubts, and just like your moms and dads and other parental units, I get extremely exhausted and tired and the lack of community is hard.
And this leads me to my next guest. Kevin Johnson not only helped take care of his brother, he took care of another son he has that is on the autism spectrum. Now, his brother has an intellectual disability. He primarily helped raise his brother with his mom while his father was away. I think in the military, he'll give you more of an insight, but that helped him when his son was born and he and his wife found out that his son had autism, prepare for the difficulties that they had to face with everything, preparing their son for the hardships that we have to prepare you guys for.
And one thing he did say is that it's not a sprint. It's a marathon. And parents, we are going to be exhausted. And. We need to be a community. And that's what I'm trying to form is a community for us to lean on one another because it is a marathon and there's no other way around it. It's not going to be a sprint and it's going to take a while for our kids to launch and to find the resources that they need to be on their own. And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.
And Kevin not only is raising his son with autism, he had two other sons while working, which is amazing and which all of us do. So we get exhausted. So kiddos, give us a break. Sometimes we zone out and it's only because we get exhausted as well. You got to remember, no matter how old you are, whether you're 18 or whether you're 25 or whether you're 30, we've been doing this your entire lives without a break. And we love you. We love you very much. But some of us are in our 40s. Some of us are heading into our 50s. Some of us may be heading into our 60s and it takes a toll. And we didn't plan for this and we thought we would always have a community and we didn't. So here I am trying to create a community so we can finish this marathon for you guys.
But let me tell you about Kevin. Kevin is the founder-in-chief, executive officer of the Johnson Leadership Group, LLC, and an independent certified coach, mentor, trainer, and speaker with the nationally recognized John Maxwell team, where he leads learning experiences that are tailored to meet the specific needs of the audience to help maximize efficiency, growth, awareness, and effectiveness. He's a native of Richmond, Virginia, and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. He earned a master's certification in government contracting from the George Washington
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