ashleyspencer

ashleyspencer, 4 days ago to random

It's been like Christmas time with my store ever since I updated my logo to the "a store for autistic & neurodivergent adults" part.

Average order value is much higher, so people are spending more money. Google conversions are higher. Daily conversion rate doubled. Really genuinely did not expect that. I was just trying to do the right thing and stop excluding people.

I am super grateful for it.

ashleyspencer, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

The water conditioner I used to clean up my fish tank water when I first filled it up doesn't work.

So I put too much stuff in the tank trying to balance the water levels.

Now the water is gross.

So thinking... Do I empty the entire tank and start over with plants, or do I attempt to fix it.

My total lack of impulse control last month got me in this mess.

ashleyspencer, 4 days ago to random

The little girl that goes outside and screams in the courtyard for 3 hours every evening was finally disciplined by her mom.

She started screaming outside and her mom told her to stop. She refused to stop, so she lost her being outside privileges.

Then went up to her room and threw a screaming tantrum banging on the walls. I could hear the mom go mockingly, "Oh no I can't scream!" 😆

Hopefully this means I can go to sleep early now instead of being kept awake by her screaming outside.

ashleyspencer, 6 days ago to random

I deleted all social media apps from my phone except for Mastodon and Reddit.

Facebook is nothing but ads telling me to lose weight. Instagram went from telling me to become an influencer to literally showing my posts to no one. X boxed me into a brand and won’t let me get out of it.

The last few days I tried to be a real person + talk about business things I’m excited about, and I just watched all the algorithms suppress it.

So just going to see how well my business can do without it.

ashleyspencer, 6 days ago to random

I got a message today from someone who was google searching looking for info about self-publishing and it gave my store link in the search results. So yay! I emailed them and will discuss further tomorrow. Pretty neat that google is already bringing self-published authors to the store. It also brought some visitors today to the book collection of self-published authors.

ashleyspencer, 6 days ago to random

I gave myself the day off today and didn't do any work except for processing daily orders at 3pm.

Emotions and energy were all over the place since I messed with my meds.

I had fun chewing hard on my chew necklace for 4.5 hours almost nonstop. I feel more confident that it can last with a hard chewer.

But despite the emotional and energy ups and downs, I'm finishing off the day with my favorite chicken for dinner, so that's a daily win. :)

ashleyspencer, 6 days ago to random

I’m so hyper I’m trying not to rapid fire post on my business social media lol. There’s been some posting and deleting so the networks don’t think I’m spam haha.

It’s weird having energy. So rare lately.

ashleyspencer, 8 days ago to random

Every day this little girl goes to the courtyard and screams. She’s the reason I took something to make me fall asleep while she was screaming outside last night.

She’s playing with other kids that are yelling nonstop until 9pm.

Too much for my autistic ears 🙉

ashleyspencer, 9 days ago to random

Does anyone like keeping odd sleep hours?

I fall asleep between 6pm and 7:30pm every night and wake up between 2:30am to 4:30am.

Great thing about social media is that whatever time you are awake, there are always autistic and ND people around the world awake and online.

ashleyspencer, 10 days ago to random

How is this?

Says “autistic & neurodivergent” now

ashleyspencer, 9 days ago to random

I started cycling my aquarium tank yesterday. Threw some betta fish food in the tank and added some "Quick Start" liquid.

The test strips say my tank is safe to add fish, but I need to use the big Freshwater Master Kit to check.

Every morning I say good morning to my cats as I turn on all the lights, and soon I'll be saying good morning to a betta fish too! 😁

ashleyspencer, 10 days ago to random

Totally wasn’t expecting the new manufactured chew necklace samples to show up today, but yay!

This one has a lot more resistance than the first samples they made. Good for hard chewers like I wanted. :)

ashleyspencer, 10 days ago to random

Cats, cats, and more cats. Meow.

Add these to the long list of plushies in my office that I still need to add to the store.

ashleyspencer, 11 days ago to random

Much better logo update! Text is balanced out and both Autistic and Neurodivergent fit. There’s not enough space for the word “and” so it will have to do.

ashleyspencer, 11 days ago (edited 11 days ago) to random

I can contribute to #mosstodon :)

Added 3 little moss balls and 3 rocks with juniper moss to the fish tank for my future betta fish.

Once the new heater gets here I’ll start the cycle process.

ashleyspencer, 11 days ago to random

I spent about 4 hours today sending emails.

Went back and emailed everyone who submitted their work to Autistic Bookshop to ask if they'd like to transfer over to The Autistic Innovator.

Plus sent emails to new people who have put in submissions.

I'm worn out.

I think I'll still need an additional ADHD med, or higher dosage of Strattera, because it wears off at 1pm.

ashleyspencer, 12 days ago to random

My logo designer who made my store logo 3 years ago is updating the logo for me.

The most exclusionary part of my store is the logo. It’s the reason why many ADHD people have asked me if they can shop there. Neurodiverse pride products alone aren’t enough to make my store fully inclusive, so the logo is getting an update.

Changing “an online store for autistic adults” to “a store for neurodivergent adults”, and removing the “Shop” part too.

I’m doing all this from a place of love.

ashleyspencer, 12 days ago to random

Neurodivergent authors:

Are you looking to self-publish your books?

The Autistic Innovator is carrying on the mission of Autistic Bookshop (it's closed) and is open for self-publishing with ND authors.

My store has been open for almost 3 years, so author's books will get a lot more exposure to search engines and customers.

People can buy their fidget toys, t-shirts, etc., with a ND author's books.

It's a win-win for everyone.

#neurodivergent
#ActuallyAutistic

https://shop.autisticinnovator.com/pages/author-submission

ashleyspencer, 13 days ago to random

Would I be a horrible person if I shut down Autistic Bookshop? It’s costing me $1,200 to run this month and that’s money that could go towards taxes and my own bills + my rent is going up $300. It’s just such a gigantic money drain on a store that I am 100% certain will never be profitable. It will always be a money drain on The Autistic Innovator. My employee is so good at her job, but the store will never cover her wages. It’s bad business to spend $1,200 in a month at a loss.

ashleyspencer, 13 days ago to random

I’m still shaking my head a bit at myself because of what it took for me to realize I was excluding a whole group of people.

Despite many ADHD people asking me if they could shop at my store because it was making them feel like they couldn’t, still didn’t sink in.

Kind of sh*tty of me.

But I’m quickly righting my wrong and creating new inclusive stuff with the same love and compassion I built The Autistic Innovator with.

I’m evolving and learning.

ashleyspencer, 13 days ago to random

It was nice sitting at my desk today, even though it was just a couple of hours. I haven’t been able to do that in about 2 months. Guess the increased Strattera is slowly helping.

Got halfway done with a new project today. Will probably be done with it tomorrow, maybe. I’m making a second coloring book.

Came up with 3 new neurodiversity t-shirt ideas and sent them off to a graphic designer.

The Autistic Innovator will be more inclusive soon.

ashleyspencer, 13 days ago to actuallyautistic

Why do they do this.

#ActuallyAutistic
@actuallyautistic

ashleyspencer, 14 days ago to animals

Today is Nikita's adoption anniversary and birthday.

She's been with me 11 years and is now 13 years old. 😭

Our life together has been super rough and filled with stress for both of us, but now we are in the best place in life we've ever been in. She's a relaxed carefree kitty.

I gave the cats some delectables treat pouches, and gave Nikita lots of petting (and pet her while she ate).

Nikita is my kitty life partner. 😻

#CatsOfMastodon #caturday

ashleyspencer, 16 days ago to random

I updated my store's About Us page to be more inclusive of the neurodiverse communities.

My store was created and curated for autistic adults, but my customers come from all backgrounds, so I updated the about us page to reflect that. ❤️

https://shop.autisticinnovator.com/pages/about-us

ashleyspencer, 16 days ago to ADHD

The Awkward Yeti comic.

Sounds very #ADHD 😄