Mandy Ralston: Innovating Autism Care with Tech and Big Data | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast - Black Bridge Mindset

Episode Transcript
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CJ (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast
where culture, entrepreneurship,and business intersect to fuel
inspiration.
This podcast celebrates thepower of diverse voices shaping
the future of business.
So whether you're building abusiness, breaking barriers, or
just looking for some seriousinspiration, you're in the right
place.

(00:22):
The Black Bridge Mindset.
Podcast is hosted by your threefavorite best friends, Mike,
Ken, and CJ.
So now sit back, relax, andabsorb the gems being dropped on
you by today's special guest.

Mike (00:38):
Another Saturday morning eight.
It is 8:30 AM on a Saturdaymorning.
is, for some reason it's, we'resupposed to be having summer
weather, but here it is stillcold.
volleyball on the beach lastnight and took off my hoodie and
sweatpants to play, as soon aswe stopped, I had to throw them

(00:59):
right back on.

CJ (01:01):
I was gonna say, you should have left the sweatpants on if
nothing else.

Mike (01:04):
No.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
But it, it's freezing here andit's just crazy.
I was, I was thinking the otherday, like it's pride month and
typically like, you know, at NewYear's, seems so far away.
I.
For some reason this year, Idon't know if it's because of
everything that's been going on,but it seems like it was New
Year's.

(01:25):
blinked

CJ (01:26):
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:26):
June, like this year has gone by so fast.
It's crazy.

CJ (01:31):
Well,

Mike (01:32):
you guys that, but I, I just feel like it's,

CJ (01:34):
you have to look at it too.
We spend so much time gettingprepared and doing stuff for
this show and then, you know,recording and regular jobs.
The weeks go by quickly,

Mike (01:46):
Mm-hmm.
They do.
They do.
And I feel like typically bynow, I would've seen you two in
person multiple times, but Ithink I've only seen you two
like once or twice this year,which is crazy.
So, in any case.
I feel like people already knowlike what we do and our daily
schedule, but anything out ofthe ordinary for you?

Ken (02:07):
Nah, I'm excited to see you all next, next weekend.
I think that was two years agowhenever we were, wait, I don't
think so.

CJ (02:15):
The girls came.
I can't remember if you game ornot.

Ken (02:20):
Yeah.
No, I don't think so.
But it's, it's been at least, Ithink two years since we've all
been together,

CJ (02:26):
Yeah,

Ken (02:27):
forward to,

Mike (02:28):
big

Ken (02:29):
everybody.

Mike (02:30):
It's

Ken (02:30):
Right.

Mike (02:31):
gonna be a

Ken (02:31):
I will be

Mike (02:32):
for it.

CJ (02:33):
look, I guess I'm gonna have to break out the grill and sit
up and clean.
Pick and clean some greens, huh?

Ken (02:40):
For what?
Like I think

CJ (02:43):
Family reunion.

Ken (02:44):
I know, but you guys have set up a pretty good itinerary,
right?
for

CJ (02:48):
Yeah.

Ken (02:49):
and Sunday.
So

Mike (02:51):
Yeah, it's gonna be a good time.

Ken (02:52):
it'd be fun.
I'm looking forward

Mike (02:54):
so I'll, I'll bring the champagne and vodka and a couple
of

CJ (02:57):
Oh my God.

Mike (02:58):
be my contribution.

CJ (03:00):
Well, look, this would be the perfect time for us to sit
you in the kitchen with, a apronand an open notebook and teach
you how to cook.

Mike (03:08):
Okay.
And look, you are gonna turnaround a week later and find
that notebook still sitting inthe guest bedroom,

Ken (03:15):
with nothing in it.

Mike (03:17):
right?
With nothing but my name and thedate at the top of the page,

CJ (03:25):
Well, we'll start off slow.
We'll teach you how to cookgrits or something.
Then

Mike (03:30):
Okay.
Okay.
I'm okay with it.
But anyway, like I said, we'llkeep it short'cause I'm pretty
excited about, our guest today.
I was looking through, all ofher socials and everything, and
I'll be honest, CJ you mentionedthis before we started
recording, we were like, pleaseexplain this to us.
But she, she is, a smallbusiness owner, so that's why we

(03:52):
have her on here.
But, I'm gonna hand it over to,cj.
You go ahead and, theintroduction.

CJ (03:57):
I will have to start and say, small business is
exaggerated.
This is big, big business.
Like I mentioned to her andmentioned to you all, I did not
realize, I mean, I've known thisguest for a long time and I knew
that she was, a beast in herfield, but I didn't know just
how beastly she gets.
So, the person that we arespeaking of is Amanda.

(04:19):
Mandy Ralston is a queerneurodivergent, serial
entrepreneur with over 25 yearsof experience in behavior
analysis certified as a behavioranalyst.
Since 2002, Mandy has foundedand scaled two clinics that
delivered life-changing appliedbehavior analysis or a BA
services to hundreds offamilies, schools, and

(04:40):
individuals with autism andother developmental or
intellectual disabilities.
Her successful exit in 2019 tothe fourth largest a BA provided
in the US marked a significantmilestone in her career.
Mandy has recognizedinternationally, get that now
internationally.
As a thought leader in behavioranalysis, ethics, outcomes, and

(05:02):
practice.
She has served as a subjectmatter expert on global panels,
sharing her expertise to shapethe future of the field as a
dynamic and sought afterspeaker.
She addresses audiencesworldwide on topics including
autism spectrum issues and heracclaimed talk, it's not binary,
avoiding binary thinking in worklife and social media.

(05:24):
Her accolades include being atwo-time nominee for small
business person of the year, andshe's the 2023 recipient of the
prestigious Autism InnovationAward at the Autism Investor Sub
Summit, Mandy's latest venture,non-binary solutions pioneers
cutting edge data, analytics andtechnology, developing clinical

(05:46):
decision support systems toempower A, B, a providers and
stakeholders within theneurodiversity ecosystem.
Mandy is deeply committed toresha reshaping how the world
perceives autism and advancingthe field of behavior analysis.
Her work centers on fostering amore inclusive and equitable
society, driven by the beliefthat diverse perspectives are

(06:08):
essential to meaningful change.
And with those astoundingcredits and mouthful of
acronyms, I bring to you, to thetable, Ms.
Amanda, Mandy, Ralston.

Ken (06:20):
Welcome to the.

Mike (06:22):
Welcome, welcome.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston (06:24):
Thank you guys.
I really need to find a sortedbio.
That's too much.

CJ (06:28):
Well

Mike (06:29):
great.

CJ (06:30):
listen, the, the acronyms and, and the words are one
thing, but I need you to first,before we even get to any, into
any of this.
Can you please give the audiencea, a more down to earth,
description of exactly what itis you focus on, what you do.

Sure, I'll try.
So Applied behavior analysis isa offshoot of psychology.
And so is specificallyinterested in, measurable
behavior, right?
So this comes from, the sciencefrom BF Skinner, who was the,
father of behaviorism andSkinner did all of the

(07:13):
experiments, in the fifties,about, rats in a box, pigeons in
the cage, right?
You guys can imagine this and.
what those experiments did wasto help understand the concepts
of reinforcement and punishment.
Like how do organisms behaveunder certain schedules of
reinforcement and punishment,right?

(07:34):
of us sitting here care abouthow rats in a box or pigeons in
a cage behave, right?
But what we learned from thoseexperiments, we now have applied
to things that have socialsignificance.
So taking those same conceptsusing them to teach somebody to
tie their shoes or to, getsomebody to quit smoking or to

(07:55):
improve your athleticperformance, or to get
organizations to run moreefficiently.
so all of that science later inthe seventies started to be
applied towards individuals withautism and intellectual
disabilities.
And the science was used to helpthose individuals learn how to
communicate to reduce problembehavior, and to overall try to

(08:18):
live more independently andhappily.
So that's the shortest version Ithink I can get with,

CJ (08:24):
Okay.

Mike (08:25):
I got it.
I love it.
Well, to get us started, take usback.
How did you get into this field?

yeah.
I had a textbook in 1999 at myundergrad college center,
college here in Danville,Kentucky that told me two
paragraphs about autism.
And, one, it was one in every10,000 individuals at the time
were diagnosed with autism.
And two, that the gold standard,quote unquote, for treatment was
something called Appliedbehavior Analysis.

(08:53):
so I decided to write a researchpaper about it.
And I met seven families here inLexington that were flying a
consultant out from Californiaonce a quarter in order to
cobble together these a, BAprograms to teach their children
how to talk and how to functionmore, fluently in their
environment.
And I became one of the,technicians that work with those

(09:15):
seven families and those sevenkids.
And so that's how I startedlearning about this.
I just got hooked very early.
I love kids.
I'm very interested in science,obviously, and I got hooked on
the reinforcer for me wasgetting kids to talk, right?

Mike (09:31):
Hmm.

kids that had language delays that
weren't able to ask for thingsthat they want or weren't able
to say hello to people theywanted to talk to.
And so I got hooked very earlyon the power of the science.

CJ (09:42):
Wow.

Ken (09:43):
Can you tell us about how, you work with families to
determine if their kids areautistic or on the spectrum?
Like how, how does that work?
I can imagine the story that youhave, but if you could just kind
of give us a little backgroundgreat.

Yeah, again, I have grown with the
rate of the diagnosis of autism.
Back in 1999 it was one in every1000 individuals were diagnosed
with autism.
Today it's, I think one in every31 or something like that.
And, if anybody wants the longerversion of the story, I've
written a white paper about it.
It's on my website fornon-binary solutions.com.

(10:24):
Yeah, of things have beenhappening in the last 25 years
that are making people moreaware of autism, that is making
the diagnosis more accessible,that people are, you basically
can't talk to anybody thatdoesn't know somebody that's
affected by autism at thispoint,

Mike (10:39):
Mean.

It's oh, I have a friend or a coworker
that has a child, so on and soforth.
Then, so the greater awarenessis part of the contributing
factor to the rate of diagnosisincreasing, right?
And the fact that there's lessstigma around having a diagnosis
of autism at this point.
So doctors are more willing togive that diagnosis.
And so I think families arefinding each other thanks to the

(11:01):
information era and theinternet, and they're able to
say, Hey, your son sounds likemy son.
What is your son going through?
What kind of things are youdoing for him?
What is his diagnosis?
And so I think, yeah, thefamilies are able to find that
information more freely.
Now, the, there's still abottleneck in actually getting
diagnoses at this point.

(11:22):
There are waiting listseverywhere for families to get
into multidisciplinaryevaluations in order to actually
get a diagnosis of autism, andthen even after they get a
diagnosis of autism.
If that's the case, then there'sa bottleneck again and actually
getting services.
So the proliferation of thediagnosis is caused multiple,
bottlenecks at this point forpeople to access services.

CJ (11:44):
Wow.
So you, you know, you gained allof this knowledge from, serving
as a tech in the field.
You've worked with families,you've had the experience in
college.
At what point did you decide,okay, I.
I'm gonna take this knowledgeand apply this to the general

(12:04):
public and make this my career.
What, at what point did you havethat aha moment, and what steps
did you take to, to bringyourself to market to offer
these support systems?

Yeah, so we had this, those seven
families, and there was myselfand three other women here in

CJ (12:22):
I.

that were working with those seven
families.
And we realized that there was ademand, right?
There were all kinds of familieshere just in Lexington that
wanted these types of servicesthat weren't getting them.
so started to learn about, aconsultant named, Dr.
Vincent Carbon, who is a soundor a sort of forerunner for,

(12:43):
particular.
Off of applied behavior analysiscalled Verbal Behavior who was
going across the country anddoing workshops about how to
improve teaching procedureswithin these a BA programs and
so on and so forth.
So started following him.
I always say I was like lightlystalking him for the first
couple years of my career,trying to pick his brain as much
as possible.
And he taught us about, thecertification process that was

(13:06):
just getting started.
And so we went to Jacksonville,Florida.
I got 90 hours a week, or 90hours in two weeks of a boot ca
bootcamp type of training.
then spent the next year havinga supervision relationship with
him where I was sending VHStapes back and forth in the
mail, to demonstrate mycompetencies, and talking on a
landline phone in order to, getmy mentorship with him, and was

(13:30):
able to sit for my exam in 2001in Nashville, Tennessee with a
Scantron machine and a numbertwo pencil.
So that, that's how old I am inthis field, right?
We got CER or I got mycertification and we just, we
figured it out.
We figured out there was a, listof people that needed the, these
services.
We figured out a training systemto bring in more technicians,

(13:51):
hire people, train them.
We found, obscure funding sourcethat was gonna be able to cover
some of these services.
And this is way back in 2000,2001 before there was any
insurance coverage anywhere inthe United States.
none of us were, none of us werebusiness majors.
And so we made a lot ofmistakes.
But those mistakes informed mynext venture the next time,

(14:12):
right?
So it's like you learned a lotof things the hard way.
But that's part ofentrepreneurship, right?
Like you're gonna have to figureit out bit by bit.
When you're building somethingnobody else has done before,
you're gonna make mistakes,right?
And we had to wrap that companyup in 2003.
And then I spent the next fouryears driving all over Indiana,
Ohio, and Kentucky to anybodythat could pay out of pocket for

(14:34):
my services as a consultant.
And again, helping familiescobble together these programs
by using family members, highschool and college students as
technicians and 30 to 40 hours aweek of intensive one-on-one
teaching with these kids.
And so I, after the firstclinic, that first clinic we
scaled to 125 clients and 85employees in three years.

(14:58):
so again.
Really fast growth, which waspart of the mistakes that I
learned from Right.
And I spore that I would neverdo it again.
I was just gonna go off and be aconsultant and not do all this.
And then I got tired of the lackof quality control.
And so I begrudgingly anotherclinic in 2007 and grew that
much, much more slowly overtime.

(15:19):
So that was part of my learningsfrom the first clinic to the
second.

Mike (15:23):
Nice.
So from a high level in thebeginning, once you realized
that you had a passion for this,did you go about planning and
starting your business?
Like, did you do like a businessplan?
Did you have like a bigwhiteboard?
Did you consult a bunch ofpeople?
if someone else is listening andthey're like, I'm, I want to get

(15:44):
into healthcare and science, butI have no idea what my first
step should be, what would youradvice be to someone like that?

Hard for me to remember the beginnings of
the first and second clinic.
So I'll try to tie what I'velearned with this newest venture
with non-binary solutions, mytech startup and what I pieced
together.
So when I, after I got my clinicacquired in 2019, I spent three
years inside the largerorganization and just learning

(16:15):
about the problems that I'msolving for right now with this,
with tech solution.
And so when I left thatorganization and I started
non-binary solutions, one of thefirst things that I did is I got
involved with, an acceleratorprogram here in Kentucky called
Launch Blue.
the accelerator is designed tohelp you learn about startup

(16:36):
culture.
Like everything from the.
Languages to the investorprocess, to the fundraising,
what the different levels offundraising look like.
Use something called a, a LeanStartup Canvas as a business
plan.
So for my second clinic, I had avery detailed and long business
plan, with a startup.

(16:57):
The idea of moving into a lean,startup canvas is that you're
gonna be moving so quickly thatit doesn't make sense
necessarily to have a 30 pagebusiness plan, right?
But you do have to have sort ofyour major bullets outlined to
understand what your goals are,how you're gonna talk to your
investors about what you'redoing, so on and so forth.
One of the other things that Idid right off the bat, my, my

(17:18):
first.
Co-founder that I brought onboard was a chief financial
officer, and he's fractional,meaning that, he's not
full-time.
He works with multiple differentbusinesses in his capacity as a
financial, expert.
but I knew that was one of myweaker areas in my
entrepreneurial journey based onmy first two areas or

(17:39):
adventures.
And so I wanted somebody else tohandle all that.
You take care of thespreadsheets, you take care of
the accounting, and all thedifferent compliance aspects of
what we're gonna be doing overhere.
And that way I can focus myvision on the big picture.
I'm the visionary.
I'm the one that's got the bigpicture thinking.
I don't want to be dragged downwith the details.

(18:00):
That's where I get bored.
That's where I get distracted.
So that, that was one of thefirst things that I brought in.
And my second co-founder, whichis essential to what I'm doing,
was a technical co-founder.
So again, I'm a clinician.
I don't write code, but I dohave the architecture of what
I'm building in mind.
And so Robert Beer, who is my,CTO, is the translator of my

(18:24):
tech or my clinical brain intotechnical code.
So he is the intermediarybetween how I think and how to
translate that to our team ofdevelopers who are actually in,
Ukraine.
So that's, does that answer yourquestion?
I feel like

Mike (18:39):
No, it, it, it does.
And, and I was, I was takingnotes and I, and I think, I
think what you just did wasgreat because on a lot of our
other podcasts, people have saidthe exact same thing in the
outline.
And I, I just put it in bulletpoints.
First you went and you workedsomewhere, or you, you know,
you, you got some experiencefirst, right?
That's what a lot of people say.

(19:00):
Go get experience, work in thefield, make sure you really like
it.
Second you start, you went to astartup program to get educated
on how to build a business, and,and that's what a lot of other
people said.
You know, I went to.
X, y, z startup program.
They showed me how to write abusiness plan, how to do
financials and everything else.
third step was to put it down onpaper.

(19:21):
You said, you didn't necessarilycreate a huge business plan, but
you outlined what your thoughtswere.
Put it down on paper so that youhad, a, a north star and you
knew where you were going.
And then fourth, you started tocreate a support team because
you, you can't do everythingyourself.
You don't know everything.
So you started to bring in thepeople who are smarter than you.
And that's what most CEOs do,right?

(19:43):
They, they're not the smartestperson in the room, but they
have a team of people who aresmarter than them and help them
on.
So you, you actually wentthrough the same process that
I've heard over and over again.
So, I, I think that's prettypowerful for people to
understand that, you know, youcan't just sit there and just
randomly do things.
There, there is a process thatactually works and people are
doing it all the time.

(20:03):
And you see people becomesuccessful when they go through
that process.
So yes, you did answer myquestion.

And and part of, the startup process is,
is pitching, right?
You have to pitch to investors,so in contrast to the clinics
that I built those clinics veryorganically over time.
I use the profits from thebusinesses itself to grow and
scale.
with a tech startup, it's theopposite is the process.
You have to go raise money firstso you can build a product,

(20:31):
right?
And so I.
Part of that process withpitching is having a pitch deck,
right?
So a PowerPoint deck thatexplains what is the problem
that you're solving, what is thesolution?
What is your moat?
I don't know if you guys haveheard this term yet, but the
moat is like, what, is betweenyou and your competition, right?
What is the differentiator abouthow you're operating that

(20:54):
somebody wouldn't be able tocome in and swoop in and steal
your shit and go on and do theirown thing, right?
and so this pitch process is,exhilarating and exhausting.
Let's put it that way, because Ihave gotten so much effing
feedback.
I, have iterated this deck noless than 150 times,

Mike (21:16):
Mm-hmm.

just in a year and a half process.
So yeah, you, the concept ofbeing lean and being coachable
and being open to feedback andto constantly be shifting and
changing and moving so thatyou're, the North star's there,
but

Mike (21:31):
Mm-hmm.

the place,

Mike (21:32):
Right.

it's,

Mike (21:34):
And let, lemme guess, everyone you pitch this to is
saying yes.

oh God, yeah.
No, I've got boatloads of moneyover here.
Things are going swell.
Oh, no.
And it's super fun being me, asa queer female founder, with a
company named Non-BinarySolutions because I bet you can
imagine the overall demographicof the folks that I'm pitching
to.
Yeah, there are a lot of olderwhite men, right?

(22:02):
And so they have oodle offeedback for me about the name
of my company and how I talkabout things.
Noise.
And so here's a fun fact for youguys.
2% of all venture capital, I'msorry, 3% of all venture capital
have gone to female founders inthe last three years.
And that's, an improvement,

CJ (22:22):
Not surprised.

that's if you're white, right?

Mike (22:25):
And there's so much money out there,

Oh my God.
And do you think it'sstatistically probable that only
3% of good ideas came fromfemale founders, or do you think
that's bias?

Mike (22:35):
right?

Yeah.
Yeah.

Ken (22:38):
Do, do you specifically look, do you look for specific
investors or you kind of just,you kind of open that up to
anybody who is kind ofinterested in the work that you
do?

It's a stage that I am at right now,
which is still pre-seed, meaningthat, we've got a MVB product,
but we're not at the growthstage yet.
We're not ready to scale yet.
a lot of that money is fairlyagnostic, in terms of their
investment thesis.
It's so early, like most of whatyou're coming up with is
conjecture at this point.

(23:14):
when we get to the stage of seedinvestments, that's where you're
really gonna have a, a group ofinvestors are going to
potentially want a seat on yourboard.
They're gonna want to have moreinfluence on your decision
making, et cetera.
So at that point, it reallybecomes more important.
Have a values alignment with whoyou're taking money from,

(23:37):
Because they're gonna be in yourbusiness, right?
And you're gonna really want tobe careful about you, what
energy you're bringing in,right?
And yeah, at that point, I thinkyou get a little more choosy,
but this early on, peopleunderstand within the investment
world that it's a bet, right?
You're

Mike (23:55):
Mm-hmm.

founder, you're eval evaluating the team,
you're evaluating an ideabecause again, you don't have
product market fit yet at thisstage in pre-seed.
And so people are using theirown analysis to determine
whether or not they feel likethis is a good bet.
But they're also doing itbecause is how innovation is
done, right?
You have to bet early in orderto get some new ideas into the

(24:17):
world and see what actuallysticks.

CJ (24:21):
I.

Mike (24:22):
you touched on the name a little bit.
Can you explain to peopleexactly what the name entails?
Like what, what does it mean?

So there's lots of different
reasons.
I named the company non-BinarySolutions.
One, first and foremost, it's atongue in cheek play on the fact
that I'm building atechnological solution that is
quote unquote non-binary when infact code is binary.
So a little double entendrethere, but also.
Three main reasons, and I namedthe company Non-binary

(24:53):
solutions.
One, people are not and white,right?
They're not ones and zeros.
They are not the sum of just onecategory or the other.
They are intersectional.
And so in order to appropriatelytreat people or support people,
you have to see the fullamplitude of their humanity,
right?
They're not just their race.
They're not just their sex,their gender, their religion,

(25:13):
their socioeconomic background.
They are not just theirdiagnosis, right?
So that's, it's not binary,right?
It's all the things all at once.
two, Steve Jobs and SteveWozniak, the founders of Apple,
purportedly got into an argumentat some point in their history.
And Wozniak said, jobs, it's notbinary.
You can be both decent andbrilliant at the same time.

(25:33):
'cause apparently jobs was alittle persnickety to work for,
here and there.
And third, and most importantly,I get to speak internationally.
I get to be on all kinds ofplatforms and doing these pitch
competitions.
And so I get to educate peopleby saying, did you know that
people on the spectrum are sixtimes more likely to not
identify with the gender theywere assigned at birth?

(25:54):
So now, if you care aboutindividuals on the spectrum, you
also now have to care aboutnon-binary and trans people,
right?
Because there's a vent overlapthere.
So I create empathy througheducation.
Hopefully,

CJ (26:06):
Very thoughtful.
So you were speaking about your,your team that, that, that is
behind the scenes, you know,helping you with your, your
vision.
What criteria, do you have inplace when you just, you know,
you pick these individuals thatyou want to bring aboard?
Like, is is there some formula?

(26:27):
Is there some, I don't know,something about the background.
Is there something about thethought process?
Like what, what draws you tothem?

Amanda "Mandy" Ralsto (26:37):
Honestly, the process for me in this
venture is chemistry.
Tim, my CFO, I've just knownhere locally and I've known
people that know him, I know himin the community.
And we just had very gooddiscussions with each other and
said, Hey, maybe we should beable to work with each other.
Robert, I was introduced to,from somebody else within the

(26:59):
social network here of theentrepreneur community.
And he was a project manager foranother tech startup called
Smart Farm, which was designing,remote irrigation software for
farmers.
And so one of the people that Italked to, said, Hey, you should
meet Robert.

(27:19):
He might be somebody worthtalking to.
And Robert and I just hit itoff, right?
Got excited about what we weredoing.
He started to understand theproblem.
He saw the scalability of it.
He's got an entrepreneurialbackground and he's just, he's
so smart.
He's transparent.
He communicates really well.
And yeah, we just have greatchemistry.
Then the development team that Imet, I always say that this

(27:41):
whole entrepreneurial process, Isay it's like jumping from lily
pad to lily pad until you hit orland, right?
Like you're just hopping nonstopand you don't know when the next
lily pad's gonna come up.
But you gotta keep moving thewhole time, right?
So the development team I metfrom a founder get this Chris
that moved from Seattle,Washington to Paducah, Kentucky

(28:05):
because he got his first$50,000check on the fact that he moved
to Paducah.
And so when I met Dr.
Stevens Baum, that's his name,asked him if he had any
recommendations for developershe introduced me to the team of
Ukrainian code developers, thathe was using and he'd been using
for a couple of years already.

(28:27):
So I figured if the smart guyfrom Microsoft had been using
this team for two years already,that's probably a pretty good
indication that he's vetted themand they've got some experience,
et cetera.
So then I introduced that teamto Robert.
And Robert has his background intechnology.
He's able to bring in some ofhis old K developers to due
diligence with these guys andfind out if they really know

(28:49):
what they're doing.
It is literally like piecingtogether a quilt and lightning
speed, right?
You're just constantly saying,this piece ties to this piece,
and how can I get this pieceover to that piece?
And you literally are justfiguring it out in real time all
the time.

Mike (29:05):
I would venture to say, just, just for people who are
listening from a high level, Ithink in the beginning you
probably put yourself out thereand was telling people like what
you're doing, what, what yourplans are, what your business
is.
then from there you started toget, know, the universe was
like, oh, this is what you wannado, this is what you're focused
on.
So we're gonna start bringing inthose people who can help you

(29:27):
out.
And then you are able torealize, and people were able to
reach out to you to say, oh,you're doing this well, I know
someone who can help you outwith this.
And you put yourself out there,so then the community was able
to come and provide you with,with some, resources, and from
there you were able to networkwith people.

Oh my God.
Yeah.
Again, the fundraising processis exhausting.
I've got a spreadsheet of over150 people that I've met with.
And I think my capitalizationtable, the number of people that
have actually invested in thecompany is probably less than
15, 12 people.
So I'd say, the, number of timesthat I've no, but let me

(30:08):
introduce you to somebody else.

Mike (30:10):
Mm-hmm.

That's how this all happens, right?
It's I.
You're never gonna get it unlessyou ask for it, but you're gonna
be hearing no much more thanyou're hearing.
Yes.
So it's just, is the WinstonChurchill quote?
Success is moving from failureto failure without loss of
enthusiasm.
what this process is like.
You

Mike (30:30):
Yeah,

are dusting yourself off 151 times
the time.

Mike (30:36):
exactly.

Yeah.

Mike (30:38):
And I see that, I'm sorry, one second kid.
I see that you're, you have astrong social media presence as
well, so that's another way thatyou're letting people know,
like, this is who I am, this iswhat I'm doing.
And I'm sure from that as well.
Like some people you've probablymet, some people, have some
connections, gotten some leads,in order to help you out with
your business.
So I say all of that because alot of people are trying to

(30:59):
start their business, but no oneknows.
No one knows.
No one knows about it.
And the easiest way in thefreeway to let everybody know
what you're doing is throughsocial media.
if you're not using social mediapeople.
Get on there, use it, let peopleknow what you're doing, and
you'll be surprised at thenumber of people who will, reach
out to you and offer advice andhelp.

Yeah, I, every time I do a talk, I end
the talk with telling peoplethat I'm very easy to find on
the internet.
I like to say that I am vaguelyprofessional on LinkedIn.
I'm mostly authentic onInstagram, and I am completely
unhinged on Facebook.
So buyer beware,

CJ (31:36):
I can attest to that.

right?
Whatever version of me you want,you could follow me on any of
those channels.

Ken (31:42):
So, us.
Why you started a tech company.
and then if you can transitioninto, because I, I was looking
at the website and you used somevery relevant terms, big data,
ai, and if you can talk abouthow those are not just impacting

(32:04):
your company, but impacting,the, the people that you serve.

Yeah.
So I, I started this techcompany because I found that
this was the way that I wasgonna be able to help the most
people, as a single individual.
So rather than building anotherclinic and only being able to
touch as many people as I, Icould, with the number of
employees that I might have, orthe number of slots I might have

(32:33):
with a technology like this, I'mbuilding a solution that can
scale across thousands ofpeople.
The software is a way that I cantranslate my 25 years of
practitioner experience intowhat I like to think of as
digital bumper rails for otherpractitioners, right?
I've built out how I think aboutbringing somebody into care and.

(32:57):
Developing a treatment plan anda treatment pathway for them so
that the user is basicallysitting inside of my brain.
So we've had a 500% increase inproviders like me in the last 10
years in my field, and over halfof the field has less than three
years of experience that'sstartling.
Can you imagine if half of theoncologists in the United States

(33:17):
had less than three years ofexperience?
And part of the problem.
Is also that I can get a hundredof these providers into a room
together and say, how are you?
And put one kid with autism infront of them and say, how are
you going to approach care forthis person?
And they will all havecompletely different approaches.
And most of the reason they doit that way is because that's

(33:39):
how they've always done it.
It's not necessarily based ondata, it's not necessarily based
on the most up-to-dateliterature.
It's just that's how they learnto do it.
And so that's how they continueto do it.
so the software is a way of,getting them digital bumper
rails so that they can reducethe amount of information that
they need to think about.
But it's still based on data.

(33:59):
And so what we're seeing now, Ilike to tell this story in 1999
when the rate of diagnosis forautism was one, 1000
individuals, 3% of Americans hadjust logged onto something
called the worldwide web.
Okay.
And five years later, in 2000,the rate of diagnosis with

(34:23):
historical data looking back wasthen one in every 150
individuals.
And also in 2000, 80% ofAmericans had now downloaded
music live, Limewire, Napster,right?
So look at the rate of adoptionof that technology in that
five-year period and how itchanged awareness and the rate

(34:43):
of diagnosis of autism.
We are at that similarinflection point right now in
technology, again with ai,right?
we basically operate in theworld will look completely
different in five years from nowbased on this new technology and
the rate of adoption of thattechnology and how it's
happening right now.
And so we're seeing all kinds ofnew innovation, not just in

(35:07):
healthcare, but in data andinformation in general, I like
to tell this story as well to,to of extrapolate this idea.
I met a founder in New York whohas developed a solution that is
able to, identify individualsthat will be diagnosed with
Parkinson's disorder six yearsahead of time on claims data

(35:30):
alone, right?
That's the power of big data

Mike (35:35):
That's crazy.

Amanda "Mandy" Ral (35:36):
intelligence is being able to munge
incredible amounts of data setsbe able to make predictions that
human brains can't do quickly,With that amount of information.
And so that's what I'm hoping toalso be able to do with this
solution, with this carenavigation module through

(35:57):
Noetic.
And bringing people, bringingall these kids, all these
patients into a dataset in avery structured fashion.
ultimately what I want tounderstand is who are all these
very different types of peoplewith autism?
I don't know how much you guysknow about this, but autism is a
spectrum and it can go anywherefrom profoundly affected
individuals that will need 24 7care for the rest of their

(36:20):
lives, that may, engage in allkinds of aggression or
self-injurious behavior, and maynot be able to communicate their
wants needs.
the way to the other end of thespectrum where you've got people
that used to be diagnosed withquote unquote Asperger's
Syndrome, who are now justlumped under the umbrella of
autism spectrum disorder.
And these are folks that havejobs, have spouses, they just

(36:40):
might get called into HR on aregular basis'cause they're
perceived as being rude.
And so what I'm really hoping tounderstand with a big data set
of individuals with autism, ADHD and these other
neurodivergent conditions, aretypes of individuals do well
with what types of supports andwhat types of environments with
what types of providers and whattypes of outcomes can we

(37:03):
reasonably expect to get withthose individuals, given those
variables, right?
that, that's the power of bigdata and artificial intelligence
and technology, is that we'regonna be able to better
understand personalizedmedicine.

Ken (37:16):
Is there a thought that this.
Level of data is going to lenditself to, research.
So will, there'll be like, will,you'll be sharing this data
with, researchers, withinsurance companies, you know,
with medical providers, to, youknow, I think assist in the,

(37:38):
early diagnosis, right?
Is that kind of the thought inyour head right now?
I.

Amanda "Mandy" Rals (37:43):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
One of the big topics withinapplied behavior analysis, is
this notion of intensity.
and I mentioned this earlier on,the early intensive.
A BA programs for young childrenwith, moderate to profound
autism has been predicated on 30to 40 hours a week of one-on-one

(38:04):
teaching therapy, with thesekids from ages two to six years
old.
Not every kid with autism, evenin ages two to six years old,
may need 30 or 40 hours a weekof therapy, right?
There are some kids that mightdo well with 10 hours a week of
therapy.
There are some kids that mightdo well with a consultative

(38:24):
model of therapy.
Sorry, I've got two kittens inthe background that are
absolutely demolishingeverything in this room right
now, including they just took mylight out.
So hold on one second son fact,the kitten's names are,
Schrodinger and Thorndyke.
Thorndyke was the behavioralpsychologist that did

(38:46):
experiments with cats.
And Schrodinger is Schrodinger'scat.
Is he in the boxing?
Not in the box as he et heralive son with my name.
So they're nicknames are Dingerand Dyke.
So just appreciate that whileyou're at it.
Okay.
What the hell was I talkingabout?
Somebody

Ken (39:01):
You're gonna utilize the, the big data for research and,
you know, utilization with,providers and insurance
companies.

Yeah.
Yeah.
So the intensity, this is whatwe were talking about.
So number of hours per week,that's a big question.
Insurance companies have lots ofquestions for provider groups
about how did you come up withthe number hours per week that
you're going to serve this kid?
There are agencies out therethat just blanketly say, every
two to 6-year-old, willautomatically get 40 hours a

(39:31):
week.
And that's not a clinicaldecision, that's an operational
decision.
And.
Insurance companies wanna knowwhat they're paying for and
rightfully right?
and so I always like to saythat, it is supposed to be, if
you think of a three-leggedstool, it's supposed to be in
the best interest of all threeparties, the payer, the
provider, and the patient.

(39:53):
have the best possible outcomesclinically for the shortest
amount of time in treatment, atthe best reimbursement rate,
right?
That's a concept calledvalue-based care, right?
Like value being the amount ofmoney that we're spending for
the outcomes that we shouldpredict.
And you can't get there unlessyou have a transparent process

(40:13):
about how you're arriving atyour clinical decisions, right?
And so I'm hoping that thesoftware is also a way to get
all three of those parties atthe table together to understand
that it's on all three parties,best interest to have those
outcomes in that fashion, right?

Mike (40:29):
So I have a question.
Going back to, how you werementioning like everyone has a
different background, so there'snot just two sides to every
story.
You also have to look layer asto like what's, influenced,
influencing their behavior.
Can you speak on how, if, if I'mstarting a business and I'm

(40:50):
managing people and a situationcomes up, how should I, what
should I do?
Should I take a step back andask certain questions like, how
do I use this type of approachto better manage my team not
just, you know, make hastedecisions?

Yeah.
Again, I, we all walk aroundwith bias, right?
And so it's important tounderstand that we are all
operating through our own livedexperience.
My data set is completelydifferent than your data set and
the next person.
And the next person and the nextperson, right?
So you do have to take a stepback and say, what are my

(41:31):
assumptions that I'm operatingfrom here?
And are they true?
Is that true?
And so yeah, thinking of peopleas intersectional human beings,
again, you are not just yourrace, you're not just your
gender, your sex, your religion,your socioeconomic background.
You are not, your educationlevel.
It's your intersectional, you'reall of those things.

(41:52):
It's not binary.
And so you've gotta find a wayhave a conversation with the
person so that you can matchyour data sets enough that you
would reasonably arrive at thesame conclusions together,
right?
I think it's just, it'sunpacking your assumptions and
your bias and saying, what isthe actual truth in this
situation here?
Feelings aren't facts,

Mike (42:13):
yeah, exactly.
And, and you could correct me ifI'm wrong, but I feel like a lot
of times it's more of a culturalthing that people are just not
used to.
I had a coworker, she's fromUkraine.
I.
And she is very, like with heraccent and everything, she is
very direct when she answers aquestion.
a lot of, my coworkers wouldjust be like, oh, she's so,

(42:35):
she's so mean, she's soaggressive, she's so whatever.
But I loved her.
I freaking loved her.
Like she would talk to some, shewould talk to the utility
provider on the phone and belike, and I'm not gonna try to
do her accent, but she'd belike, I need to have this
document by tomorrow at 2:00 PMCan you do that?
And of course the provider'slike, sure, sure, I'll try.

(42:56):
And I'm over here giggling'causeI, I know she's the nicest
person in the world, but just tohear how she delivers it from
her background, that's just howour families spoke to each
other.
That's how our friends speak toeach other.
They don't mean it in a mean waywhen, you know, she's like, up
your shirt, you're missing abutton.
She, in her mind she's justsaying like, oh, I don't know if

(43:16):
you noticed, but you're ashirt's unbuttoned.
But somebody else interpretingthat, it's like, who are you to
talk to me like that?
So I, I think just understandingthat, you know, not everyone's,
not everyone is binary if I'msaying it right, but there's
different levels and you justhave to like sometimes take a
step back and be like, what areyou really saying?
What are you really trying tosay and not jump to a

(43:37):
conclusion?

Yeah.
The folks on the spectrum, theyare extremely direct in a lot of
cases, right?
God bless'em.
They just, they, the filters weall operate under of trying not
to offend people and trying tonavigate a social situation.
Some of the folks in thespectrum don't have it.
And it's interesting.
It's just interesting.
It's they'll say something like,I love your haircut.
Did you do it yourself?
Just something like that.
Yeah.
It's like people would go, waita minute.

(44:00):
And, but they really meant it asa compliment, it's

Mike (44:02):
Right.

You gotta, yeah.
Different data set, differentlived experience, different
neurology.
All of our brains are a littlebit different, I like to remind
people too, it's like there isno such thing as normal.
There's only common and rare.

Mike (44:14):
Mm-hmm.

Rare is getting less rare because again,
with the age of, social mediaand internet and everybody's
sharing their stories all thetime, you're finding more and
more that people say, oh, I dothat too.
Oh, I think that too.
And so we're finding more andmore commonality and I think
this notion of.
What it is to be in a workplaceculture, quote unquote
professional.

(44:36):
I like to say that it's a Trojanhorse for all kinds of
gatekeeping and bigotry, right?
It's based off of whitesupremacist, patriarchal
systems, right?
The notion that your tattoos,your piercings, the way that you
talk, the way you dress might beunprofessional, is bullshit.
the professionalism is thebehavior of the professional.
So if the

Mike (44:55):
Yep.

in the room is doing something, then
it's probably fuckingprofessional.
Sorry about all my cussing bythe

CJ (45:00):
I love you.

Mike (45:01):
No, I agree

CJ (45:02):
love you.

Mike (45:06):
Yeah, I, I, I'm on board with that a hundred percent.

CJ (45:11):
So, I know we're, learn starting to come up on time here
shortly, but I wanted to getthis out there and I, I wanna
switch gears just a minute.
You know, considering you aredefinitely an entrepreneur in
the field and, and you are,beating to the beat of your own
drum and, and you're, youcreating the path for future,
entrepreneurs, because you wereone of the first in your field

(45:32):
to be certified and, and you'rekind of leading the path for
others, who were some of your,influencers and what role did,
your family play in influencingyou?

It's funny.
I think it's somewhere in myDDNA to be a entrepreneur.
So my was the fourth generationowner operator of Ralston's
Drugstore in West and WestVirginia, which started in 1856
before West Virginia was even astate.
Yeah.
And I grew up literally going tothe drugstore after school, and

(46:08):
he would give me a dollar and Iwould go next door to the Five
and Dime store and get aMountain Dew and a candy bar and
go sit in his office and play onhis computer, which was dos at
the time, right?
Like black screen, green text,Oregon Trail,

Mike (46:26):
Right

that's where I got

Mike (46:27):
run.

computer stuff.
Yeah.
my dad was the first pharmacy inWest Virginia to computerize,
his business.
He was also the first pharmacyto had a delivery vehicle.
It was called the medicinedropper.
I think I just, I didn't realizethe influence that probably had
on me, but, yeah, the idea thatyou work for yourself was just
ingrained in, in, in myoperating system, and I also say

(46:50):
this a lot.
I think because I.
Was different growing up, and amdifferent in the world.
It didn't necessarily alwaysfeel comfortable to go into our
organizations.
Somebody else was the bossbecause I didn't understand the
way people were arriving atdecisions or making decisions.
And so I think you'll find thatthere are a lot of queer and

(47:13):
neurodivergent founders becausethey want to go make a culture
that makes sense to them, right?
They're rather sitting atsomebody else's table.
They're gonna make their owntable, right?
So influencers, clinically,Vincent Carbon, my original
mentor was definitely my biggestinfluencer.
I used to go up to his clinicin, in Nyack, New York, just sit

(47:35):
there for days at a time andjust.
anything I possibly could, copyas much as I could about what he
was doing, then put my own spinon it too.
I think that's part of theentrepreneurial process as well,
is saying, Hey, I see a betterway to do this.
I don't have to reinvent thewheel, I just have to make the
wheel a little bit better.
And again, those are, there arejust processes about what your

(47:56):
intellectual process or propertycan bring to a better solution.
Yeah, of course I've got theSteve Jobs fantasy, right?
The, you just go out there andbuild it and try to figure it
out and everything turns outshiny and great.
But of course now everybodyknows too that Steve Jobs had
all kinds of issues, thatdidn't, weren't so apparent,

(48:18):
from the outside for a longtime.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's just a lot ofdifferent factors about how I
got here.

Mike (48:24):
Yeah, I hear that your, your mom was one of your major
influencers as well.
I'm a little birdie.

Oh, how chris?
What,

Mike (48:32):
Oh, is that,

What

Mike (48:33):
It says one of the topics, it's, it's on the sheet.

really

CJ (48:41):
Yeah, you had that listed.
That's kind what I was gettingat.

I say?
Shit, what did I say about it?

Mike (48:50):
Yeah, we had two things.
One of them was, about yournewest innovation.
Is it?
No noic, am I?

Noetic.

Mike (48:58):
sorry.
Noetic ai.
So we were gonna, CJ I think wasgonna ask about that, but the
other one where I think he washinting at, was that one of your
influences with your mother howshe inspired you.

CJ (49:09):
Well, no.
On the, on the, the form itsaid, you had mentioned ask
about my mom.

Oh boy.
I think I was being tongue incheek with one of the questions.

Mike (49:21):
Oh.

think I said your, I think I said your
mom, not my mom.
That's what it was.
I was like, what?
My mom didn't influence me otherthan, you know me constantly
trying to outdo the critic in myhead.
Yeah.
No,

Mike (49:36):
over here trying to like give hints, decipher the notes.
Like your influencer, who wasyour, your mom.

your mom.
I was your mom.
I was being a total smart ass.

Mike (49:48):
Got it.
Got it.
Well, let's go back to the otherone then.
Tell us about Noetic ai.

Yeah.
So NOIC is the product, ofnon-binary solutions.
So that is the software that wehave built.
And so it's got three majormodules right now.
The first one is that carenavigation module.
It's, clinical decision supportsystem that allows you to bring
all of your patients into yourcare in a very structured,
manner.
And then it writes, a report foryou based on how you answer all

(50:22):
the questions within that.
So it builds out a profile ofthe patient that then goes into
that patient data set.
That's the second module iscalled a gold development
module.
And what that is, again, is aninterview based process.
Me as the clinician user istyping as I'm asking the family
or the patient questions, andI'm tying, quality of life

(50:42):
outcomes to medical necessity.
So is to solve for somethingthat frequently happens within
our field right now, which is,families will come into a
provider's office and they'llsay, look, my 8-year-old son
still isn't toilet trained andhe only eats five things and we
can't go to church anymorebecause he runs out in the
parking lot.
then the provider says, okay,great, we'll come, we'll go do

(51:03):
this assessment and here's yourtreatment plan.
And lo and behold, theassessments that they do and the
treatment plan that they come upwith does not directly assess
those three things that thefamily just told you are
affecting their quality of life.
I.
And so the goal developmentmodule is designed to reverse
that situation such that youactually are making a treatment
plan that's gonna address thethings that actually would be a

(51:23):
socially valid, meaningfulquality of life outcome for the
families.
And then the third module is, anintensity forecast.
So an algorithm that I builtbased off of my experience and
treatment guidelines thatpredicts, we think that this is
about how many hours this personmight need in order to meet
those outcomes based oneverything you told us.
To say that, the noetic.aisoftware is like a clinical

(51:45):
Rubik's cube that I built forother people so that they can
get to those, decision makingskills faster and within
clinical guidelines.
Fact, again, first time somebodygets a Rubik's cube, and tries
to solve it, it takes them anaverage of four hours.
With time and practice andlearning algorithms, speed,
cubers can do it in less thanfive seconds, right?
And so that's the notion of thissoftware as an, as a Rubik's

(52:08):
cube, is that it helps the usersget there much faster than what
they might be able to do asnovel, clinicians.

CJ (52:15):
Now is this software, only available to clinicians or is
this available to the public?
Is this like And operating nowor your in testing phase?
Okay.

Yeah, currently it's available to
clinician users.
We are also starting a parentpilot, so I'm providing some
free, web-based consultation,and designed to use that care
navigation module to get somefeedback from parents directly.
But yeah, we're a pretty smallorganization still, so we're not
at scale for the masses justyet.

(52:47):
But, definitely follow along andkeep up with what we're doing.

CJ (52:51):
And I mean, this is, this is off the base of, of, the rest of
our talk with entrepreneurship.
But being that you are a leaderin the field, a parent that you
know is noticing issues with achild, what would you, suggest
be one of the, I guess one of afew of the first steps that they
take in getting the diagnosisand, and, you know, helping a
child.

Yeah, again, there's waiting lists

CJ (53:16):
Right.

To get diagnoses at this point.
And so you might start theconversation with your primary
care physician.
If the child is in school, youmight talk to them about doing
an assessment, an educationalassessment for a 5 0 4 plan.
That's not a medical diagnosis,but it might get some supports
in place, with your primary carephysician or a psychologist,

(53:37):
licensed clinical social worker.
They could potentially usesomething called an mcha, which,
is a assessment tool that might,help make an evaluation as the
likelihood that the person mightachieve a diagnosis of autism or
an A DDoS, a DOS assessment.
Same thing.

(53:57):
yeah, I think I.
Those are the starting points.
Depending on your geographiclocation, your ability to access
care is going to be quitedifferent.
People in Appalachia here andKentucky have very different,
waiting lists, access to careproblem than folks here in
Lexington, Louisville, and thelarger cities.
I, my heart goes out to familiesthat are trying to navigate all

(54:18):
of this because there's just notenough providers.

Mike (54:20):
Okay.
I've appreciated this talk andconversation.
I've learned a lot, I don't knowhow to easily transition to the
next section, but, I mean, I'msorry, Ken or C do you guys have
any more questions before we goonto the, there a little speed
round that we always do.

CJ (54:38):
Yeah.
The only question I have is, andI think you touched on it a
little bit already, can you giveour, our viewers and our
listeners, you know, again,information on how to, to get in
touch with you and how to, viewyour AI app?

Yeah.
Again, folks can follow me onthe internet.
I'm very easy to find.
There's amanda ralston.com.
There's non-binarysolutions.com, and the product
itself is noetic.ai.
So that's K-N-O-W-E-T iic.ai.
Yeah, find me on social media.
Very easy to find me there.

(55:15):
And yeah, the software'savailable for clinicians at this
time, but there will be apatient or parent pilot program
that we're gonna be opening upat some point in the near
future.

Mike (55:25):
Okay.
Well we've, we've come to thatpoint where, we do this at the
end of every show.
We have what we call a littlelightning round.
Don't think we have the soundeffects yet, but in season two
we're gonna have, we're gonnahave a little horn that goes

CJ (55:42):
Lord, people have been hearing about this sound effect
for, what, 12 episodes now?

Mike (55:50):
Well, one, one of these days we're gonna, we're gonna
have it, ready to go.
So,

an app that you can use on your phone
to do it.
Just FYI,

Mike (55:57):
is, we just haven't figured out how to like, tie it
into the, to the, the show yet,but

CJ (56:03):
Yeah.
We,

Mike (56:03):
it out until the,

CJ (56:04):
we may need your tech guy to give us some,

Mike (56:06):
What,

CJ (56:07):
heads up information.

Mike (56:11):
what'd you say?

CJ (56:12):
I said we may need her tech guy to give us some, some, some
pointers.

Mike (56:17):
yeah, we mean we need something.
That's not the only thing weneed help with, but, in any
case, CJ's gonna ask you, Ithink five questions or so.
I'm gonna start a timer.
You have one minute to answerall five questions and then,
yeah, we'll, we'll go into thelast thing before we end the
show.
All good?

All right.

Mike (56:37):
All

CJ (56:37):
All right.
And,

Mike (56:38):
start the timer after, after the first

CJ (56:40):
well before we begin, there is a bonus question also, and
you'll understand why when I getto it,

Okay.

CJ (56:47):
and I guess you'll start the clock after I ask the first
question.
All right.
First question, track orbasketball?

Amanda "Mandy" Rals (56:56):
Basketball,

CJ (56:58):
Chicago slash Detroit House or EDM

Chicago house.

CJ (57:07):
favorite UK basketball legend.

Oof.
I need Skywalker.

CJ (57:17):
And I know you do a lot of, of, speaking, do you prefer West
Coast or East Coast trips?
Which do you enjoy more being inthe boardroom or public
speaking?

Public speaking, no question.

CJ (57:36):
And the last question I have is UK or U of L.

UK.

CJ (57:43):
Good answer.

Mike (57:46):
Nice and great job.
And I'm gonna add in there likeafter I, and it's not a
question, I don't know why Isaid add in there.
After I looked at your, socialmedia, you are a little
fashionista.
Like she, I don't know if y'allknow this, but she, she's a
model up, up there showing offeverything

Yeah,

Mike (58:07):
great.

fun.
Yeah.
Speaking of uk, my, thephotographer that does all my
photo shoots, is a buddy ofmine.
His name is Chet White, and heis the director of photography
for the University of KentuckyAthletic Department.
So he gets to photograph

CJ (58:19):
Ah, that explains it.

stars and

Mike (58:22):
Hmm.

He gets to travel with all the, he does
amazing work.
And yeah, for the last couple ofyears he and I have gotten
together basically like once aquarter or once every four or
five months and done a differentphoto shoot.
And, it's, it, we have a verygood synergy.
Like I can pull lots ofdifferent faces of pretty
animated.
I've got lots of ideas about howI wanna look and what I wanna

(58:44):
portray.
I think one of the last shootswe did, I did every single one
of the emoji faces myself, andwe took all the shots that way.
And so now I've got like a fullset of stickers in my phone that
is literally

Mike (58:55):
Hilarious.

out all the emojis.

CJ (58:56):
Nice.

Yeah, it's a jungle in here.
Like I clearly, I'm a creativeoutput person, right?

CJ (59:03):
Yeah, I,

Mike (59:04):
I love it.

CJ (59:04):
I think a lot of your photos I've noticed you have like, you
know, a very standout blazer oryou play with colors in your
glasses.

yeah.
Yeah.
The, I, when I went to theAutism Investor Summit, in 2023,
when I got that award, like dayone, I walked into the
conference area and some guywalks up to me and goes, you are
the most recognizable personfrom LinkedIn in this room.
I was like, good.
It's working right.
I got a brand.

Mike (59:34):
Perfect.
Going back to the, being onsocial media, letting people
know what you do.

Or at least get curious, right?
I,

Mike (59:43):
Exactly.

Yeah.

Mike (59:45):
Nice.
All right, well the last thingwe're gonna do is, we're gonna
do Wakanda peace, pause.
It's a little thing I made up.
My head also, there's also weirdthings that go on in there, but,
what we're gonna do is that,we're just gonna do a little
pose at the end.
Hold it for a few seconds, andthen I'm just gonna use that to
clip out a picture, later downthe road at some point.
I have nine episodes worth and Istill haven't posted one, but

(01:00:08):
one of these days they're gonnaget up there.
But any, in any case, I'm gonnacount to three and we're just
gonna go like this, smile at thecamera and just hold it for a
few seconds.
Cool.
All right.
two, and three.
And good.
Cool.
Well, that's it.

(01:00:28):
Well, I appreciate you.
This has been great.
Very informative fun.

Ken (01:00:33):
Great job.

CJ (01:00:35):
Thank you for spending your Saturday morning with us.

Mike (01:00:40):
Yeah.

Amanda "Mandy" Ralston (01:00:41):
Hey, I've had worse.
I.

Mike (01:00:48):
I love it.

been super fun.
You guys are awesome and all ofyou have great voices by the
way, too,

Mike (01:00:54):
Yeah.
Well,

CJ (01:00:55):
Thanks.

Mike (01:00:55):
Thank you.

Ken (01:00:56):
Thank you.

Mike (01:00:57):
that.
Because CJ's always the onegetting on his

Ken (01:01:00):
Yeah,

Mike (01:01:01):
ever says like, Mike, you sound great, Ken.
You sound great.
They're always like, CJ has sucha great DJ voice.
You sound so good on themicrophone.
like, okay, okay, okay.

he does sound good.
But yeah, you

Ken (01:01:14):
it is true.

voices,

Ken (01:01:15):
it is

CJ (01:01:16):
Well look, you all be my agent and get me out there then

Mike (01:01:22):
Listen, I already told you how to get out there.
You, you

CJ (01:01:25):
You did.

Mike (01:01:25):
you start, you start posting online, doing some, some
vocal things.
Let people know what you'redoing and somebody will pick you
up.
You, you got the voice for it.

CJ (01:01:35):
Yep.

Mike (01:01:36):
have to show your face.
Just read something.

CJ (01:01:37):
I'm fine with that.

Mike (01:01:40):
Read the back of a cereal box and get a

CJ (01:01:42):
Look, as soon as Sesame Street calls, I'm there.

Mike (01:01:47):
Okay.
I mean, I wouldn't be mad atthat actually.
I'd go on Sesame Street.
I'm sure they pay real good.
I think Netflix just picked them

CJ (01:01:54):
They did

Mike (01:01:54):
be fine.

CJ (01:01:55):
see the Netflix or Hulu.
I.

Mike (01:01:58):
Just, I think it's Netflix.
It's Netflix,

CJ (01:02:02):
Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast.
If today's conversationresonated with you, don't forget
to subscribe, share, drop acomment, and leave a review.
We're building bridges, onestory, one mindset, one move at
a time.
Show our guest some love bychecking out their socials too.
Until next time, keep pushing,keep growing and keep walking in

(01:02:25):
your purpose.

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Mandy Ralston: Innovating Autism Care with Tech and Big Data | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mandy Ralston: Innovating Autism Care with Tech and Big Data | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast