Meet Sol Smith | Autism and ADHD Life Coach and Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sol Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sol, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Really, starting a business was never a thing I had wanted to do. I noticed through experience, research, and interactions with the autism community, that there is a massive hole when it comes to support for adult autistics. A lot of people realized that they are autistic and/or ADHD during the pandemic, when we spent weeks or months shut off from the eye of society, and coming to this understanding of ourselves is at once magical and also completely disruptive. Most autism experts basically end their expertise with diagnosis. After waiting months and possibly paying thousands of dollars, a professional tells you, “Yes, I agree, you are autistic,” and you’re just on your own again. I focused my study how adult autistics can better understand themselves and better flourish in their lives. A lot of it has to do with shedding the shame and the anxiety that has really built up on us over the years, and even treating those elements is more complicated for autistics than those who are neurotypical. So, my business, helping autistic adults thrive and helping companies increase their own supports of neurodivergents in the workplace, is making the world better. But it very much is like building a cathedral–I know I won’t see the end result of this work, but I’m happy to be laying the foundation.

What should our readers know about your business?
I have done some life coaching as a sort of side-gig for a number of years, mostly for former college students who would reach out and explain their challenges integrating into the workforce. As I started to hone my specialized knowledge towards neurodivergence, I knew I had to reach a larger audience. At the beginning of 2023, I decided I would quit a part-time job of mine so I could invest more time and energy towards life coaching. I started building up a following on TikTok, and it was very exciting and affirming, but by May, I still hadn’t added any clients to my list from the greater world.

It was the end of May when things were getting scary. June rent was coming up, and the mistake of quitting that adjunct job was starting to make itself known–we live in LA County, after all, and rent is absolute murder. It was the final weekend of the month, and I was officiating my sister’s wedding ceremony in Yosemite Park, when I felt my phone start buzzing in my back pocket. That morning, I had a TikTok video gain some real traction, where I explained why autistics need a different kind of support to reach their goals. Over the course of the short ceremony, I had two new clients sign up, and my caseload was nearly full by the end of that week.

Now, 10 months later, I keep a steady stream of clients from all over the world. One-on-one meetings fill most of my working days and a support group meets on Thursday afternoons. I spend extra time researching, staying up to date, and working on a book about living as an adult autistic. I’m happy to say that 2024 is going to be the year that I quit my full time job and transition to my business being the focus of my working life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My wife and I frequent The Pantages Theater whenever we possibly can. We started making theater a priority in our lives a few years ago, and we spend nearly all of our entertainment money that way.

I mean, when it comes down to it, we are tourists in our own city. If we had the whole day, we’d do sunrise at the Griffith Observatory, spend the day at The Getty, have dinner at Grand Central Market, and then catch a musical at the Pantages. Basically, exactly what someone with a decent travel book might end up doing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I can’t thank my wife and kids enough. They’ve put up with years of info-dumping, as I’ve learned more and more and taken up their cognitive loads with all the things that I want to share about what it means to be autistic. My wife is about as patient as someone can be, and she really helps me exist in the world that I am not socially in-tune with. My kids basically forced me to start info-dumping on TikTok, where I have found a very large audience, against my own predictions.

But I also have two others who really believed in me when I didn’t think that I could do all of this. Monica Garty Juice is a nurse practitioner who has worked in neurodivergent consulting, and she pushed me in every interaction to just get started with my venture. And Jessica Lu, a friend and a therapist, who helped me understand better what it means to work in any type of counseling, and who also believed in me in a way that I found downright inspirational.

And I can’t forget Amber Castro, a friend of my wife’s, who offered to help me with my website upon seeing my childish attempt. Her work is absolutely beautiful! What she has done for my website and by taking headshots for me can hardly be quantified–in this virtual world, these are the elements that represent a touchpoint to the public, and there is no way that anyone could have done a better job of making me look good.

Website: www.professorsol.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprofessorsol/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sol-smith-7955364

Image Credits
The two headshots are taken by Amber Castro, her website is https://www.thestudiooc.com/ The gal I’m kissing is my lovely wife The dog is Hank. There is a screen capture from an online course I run about self-identifying as autistic.