On Wednesday, February 8th, Custom Ink held the 18th Annual Inkademy Awards.
Every year for the past 18 years Custom Ink has asked Inkers to nominate others who truly are living examples of our Core Values of Golden Rule, Ownership, and Innovation.
I won the award for the Golden Rule core value for establishing safe spaces for Neurodiverse Inkers. It all started around September of 2021 when I was finally able to financially afford the psychological assessments necessary to receive an autism spectrum diagnosis as an adult. When I got my diagnosis, I also learned I had ADHD and a math learning disability. Later that year I would also discover I suffered from something called Maladaptive Daydreaming as a result of intense childhood trauma surrounding sexual abuse, childhood neglect, and bullying from peers that went well beyond the norm.
With the support of Inkers in my new chat space, I began the journey of healing 32-years of misinformation, miseducation, and trauma. I was able to help others who were struggling receive much needed support for their neurodiversity and mental health. In fact, our chat group now offers order assistance and coaching with a neurodiverse lens, which I am so stoked about.
I have a goal to use one of the treatments I used to heal my trauma to create an autism-informed and trauma-informed framework for sales training. The therapy system known as Internal Family Systems (IFS, or Parts Work) is extremely useful for healing wounds that people may have from micromanagement, or otherwise not feeling heard regarding their neurodiverse symptoms or now their brains work. I’ve begun modifying some aspects of this in my own coaching, and the results have been extraordinary. As a result of using the mindset shifts and learnings that an IFS-approach to sales training can provide, Inkers have:
✨ Improvements in overall accuracy
✨ Improvements in morale, motivation, and desire to work
✨ Improvements in call tone, pace, and call quality
✨ Improvements in receiving constructive criticism
Not only is it time for autistic workers to take charge of how they show up at work, it’s time for employees to recognize that not only is a kinder, gentler approach necessary for all neurodiverse individuals, it’s necessary for humanity.
#maladaptivedaydreaming #autismsupport #neurodiversityatwork #autistic #customink #lifeatcustomink #lifeatcustomink #proudinker #neurodiverse
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