Transcription

• Speaker #0

  We've just found that people are like craving that simple simplicity of play and allowing kids the freedom to just be themselves within play.

• Speaker #1

  Welcome to Neurodivergent Spot, the podcast where we put a spotlight on behind the scenes elements of the neurodiversity world. The guests bring their own experience, insight, expertise and passion. I asked them four questions and they will have 60 seconds to answer. After they answer all the questions, the guest will choose which question to return to for further conversation. I'm your host, Sam Marion. My pronouns are he, him, and I'm a Multi-Neurodivergent Therapist, Speaker, and Creator. My work focuses on all things neurodiversity, but with particular interest in autism, ADHD, learning differences, and learning disabilities. Today's guest is Courtney Peebles. Courtney, please introduce yourself to the listeners.

• Speaker #0

  Hi, I'm Courtney Peebles. I am the owner and founder of Salva Toys. I am also autistic, ADHD, OCD, and some other fun things in there, but I am excited to be here.

• Speaker #1

  Quick disclaimer, information shared on this podcast should not be taken as therapy, healthcare, or legal advice. I'm excited you're here with us. I'm really grateful, and that's the first time I've heard your toy company pronounced. I think I've been saying it incorrectly. That's okay. I'm such a big fan. As we're recording, I'm wearing your hoodie. I have more things of yours around my office. So I'm a huge fan. So thank you for the work that you do. Let's jump in. All right. As a reminder, I'm going to ask you four questions, and you will have 60 seconds each to answer the question. After we go through all four of those, you get to choose one that we're going to return to for a little bit further conversation.

• Speaker #0

  Cool.

• Speaker #1

  All right, here we go. Question number one, what was your journey to understanding your own neurodivergence?

• Speaker #0

  So, um, my older brother, he, he's four years older than me. He got diagnosed, um, back in 2020, I want to say. And he, so he got diagnosed autistic. Um, and that was like a huge, uh, event in our family. And then from there, Um, we had questions about my son. My son was one and a half at the time. Um, and so he ended up getting his autism diagnosis and then it kind of was a ripple effect from there. Um, I got diagnosed, my mom got diagnosed. Um, my husband got diagnosed ADHD. Um, it was just kind of like, everyone was like, Oh wait, like we're realizing these things about ourselves. Um, and it really just all started from my brother. And we're glad that he like actually went through with the process because our lives have been changed in a good way.

• Speaker #1

  That's an awesome story. I love how often it starts with one family member, and then it just leads to more and more.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, definitely.

• Speaker #1

  And I also love, by the way, that your family was so open and embracing of all of this. So often, I just hear stories where one person is like, hey, more of us should do this. And then the family's like, no, we don't think so.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, my brother was definitely more passive in his way of like, hey, maybe you should like he was definitely more like, oh, you can come to it on your own terms, which I think was really good for all of us.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, that is pretty great. Let's keep going. Question number two. You have an Instagram post that says, quote, my entire life clicked when I was diagnosed and I am so glad I know what I do now. End quote. Can you explain this and what do you most want people to understand from this message?

• Speaker #0

  So I think that when you hear the word autism, I think a lot of scary stuff is thrown at people. But for me, when I say like my entire life clicked, like I guess I didn't really understand who I was or why I did certain things or why I was the way that I was. And then when I got diagnosed, I was like, all of this makes sense. And so now I'm able to actually like. allow myself to be who I am and allow myself to understand like, okay, maybe I don't do well in these situations and that's okay. Um, it's enabled me to be able to give more supports to myself. Um, it's allowed me to just accept that maybe my brain works differently than people. And rather than that being a crutch or anything like that, it's a good thing. And I've really embraced that with Solivo and I mean, it's led to really good things within Solivo.

• Speaker #1

  That's really exciting. The idea of live clicking, I can... completely uh relate to and then the ongoing click click click click click uh going through four more moments right yeah totally it's not just one yeah i know um all right question number three you have this toy company and you're uh a toy designer can you explain what does that mean to design toys with neurodivergent children in mind so you

• Speaker #0

  Okay. So we know that my, my kids are neurodivergent. Um, they're both very different and they both met their milestones at different ways, you know, timelines, all that. Um, but I found that with my older son, he was very interested in educational concepts, but a lot of the toys like were either like too busy or, you know, they were overstimulating. And so we just wanted literally simple toys that could allow him to, um, just like look at those educational concepts that he loved. But it's like, you know, even though I say like, we designed them with neurodivergent children in mind, it's for all kids and, you know, kids of all neurotypes love them. But we've just found that people are like craving that simple simplicity of play and allowing kids the freedom to just be themselves within play and just play and learn and just have fun while they're learning.

• Speaker #1

  I have a quick follow-up. before we keep going. Do you have a favorite toy that you've designed?

• Speaker #0

  You know, it's funny. That has actually been a conversation in our house this week because one of our toys has had a tough sales year. And I literally think of them like my children. I'm like, somebody needs to love on this toy. I was like, cause it's a good toy. I was like, but people aren't loving on it. So I really can't even say that I pick a favorite. I mean, emotional baggage just came out. That one is a huge, like just a really solid toy. I love them all for different reasons.

• Speaker #1

  My emotional baggage order has been placed, but hopefully by the time that this is airing, it will have arrived. I'm really excited about that one.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. You know, we, we originally weren't going to put pre-orders on, but we announced it in June and it took off. So we were like, okay, we're going to announce pre-orders early and just see what happens.

• Speaker #1

  That's awesome. I'm really excited there. Question number four, what are the greatest challenges you face as a neurodivergent business owner focused on products for the neurodivergent community?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, so, you know, I walk this really fine line of our toys are for everyone, but I also want the families that are neurodivergent to be like, these toys are amazing for you and your child. Like if your child has different sensory preferences, we try to cater to all of that. Now I know that our toys aren't going to be for everybody, but we do try to make sure that they are inclusive as possible. Um, you know, we still have a long way to go. There's still a lot of things that we want to do. We're limited by capital. Um, we are like completely bootstrapped. We've done everything ourselves with the help of some family members. Um, but you know, it's hard, like starting a business is hard. Um, and one of like the core parts of our business is we're going to be with our kids and we're going to be the primary caregivers of our kids. So, you know, sometimes that means working at night, mostly every night, but it's important to us. And that's why we've done what we've done.

• Speaker #1

  That's, there's a lot of beauty in that, in that answer to me. This is normally the time when I would ask you, is there a question that you would like to return to? And we kind of chatted before we started recording. You think Is this still the question you want to stay on for a little bit more conversation? Or is there a different one you'd like to go back to?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I think that this is a good question because I think it's very timely. So I think we can stick with this one.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. So again, the question is about greatest challenges as a Nerdivergent business owner, focusing on products for the Nerdivergent community. You started with your own sales. Self-care and your own family and your answer.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, so rewind all the way to the beginning. So my son, my younger son, he had some complications after he was born and it led to cerebral palsy. So basically his entire life has looked different. But we, me and my husband, Daniel, like we've always been adamant about being the primary caregivers for him. We don't want to just stick him with somebody. who may not be able to give him everything he needs um during the day so at any given time it's either me or daniel with him um there's been like maybe like a handful of times that like grandparents have watched him but ultimately it's it's a lot you know to manage um so we basically have made that our core values of that. We are a family owned company and we are Solibo. Um, and you know, that in the business world could be seen as a bad thing. Um, but we've found that people just want to like come along too, because they resonate with a lot of the stuff that we experience. Um, and a lot of the outlooks that we have on the world. Um, so people just end up coming and staying and being frequent customers.

• Speaker #1

  Do you find that ethos, that mindset, sort of all of it, that's so attractive to people that, what's the best way to say it? I mean, in today's world, we order things we want it to show up within 24 hours. The microphone that I'm recording it to right now, I chose it because it's the one that could arrive the same day when I ordered it. over a year ago, as opposed to one that would have taken it until the next day. Like that was my deal breaker, my tiebreaker. Um, cause I wanted it in six hours, not 24 hours or something like that. And that's not as accessible to a small company. Uh, but people, our mission aligned with you. Is that sort of what you find that people, they see it is you.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And that's the thing, you know, in the very beginning, I was like, I'm not going to show my face. I just want to do this. But people crave other people. Like they want to know that they're a part of something bigger. And, you know, we do sell on Amazon. So that was one of the things that we did in the beginning. We started selling on Amazon. We do have it set up to where we have Prime and people can get it fast. Now, not all of our products are on Amazon because it does take a significant amount of our time to put it on Amazon. And like some of the new 3D printed stuff we've been doing, it's, you know. It's easier for us to do it through a website rather than doing Amazon. And we've found that people who buy on our Amazon store end up coming to our, like our main store. And they end up finding our Instagram just from the stuff we put in the boxes. And they end up like loving the brand, even though they originally found it on Amazon, they'll end up buying from our website. And they're like, okay, with the shipping being longer.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I honestly don't know what I could have gotten quicker from Amazon because I found my way to your website and that's where I've ordered. Yeah. But what is it like for you then recognizing that people, they believe in you and what you do and what you are doing for their families?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, well, it's like I think of it less of them believing in me and me of like, I know that. I'm helping them. Like we have a customer that she has literally been with us from the very beginning. And like, I remember the names of the people who order from us. I remember the orders every time a new order comes through. I'm like, Hey, it's so-and-so. I'm like, they ordered something new. Like I genuinely care about the people that come through. And so that's why we're very strategic about how we grow because we don't want that to ever be changed. We want people to always feel like they're buying, but like, it's a different experience. Like this accessibility sale that we're doing, for example, like we had multiple people reach out to us in our messages after we sold off some stuff that was like old toys that were in our garage. And they were like, we haven't been able to afford your toys as the prices they are. And that like hits me to my core. I'm like, I don't want it to be that way, but I know right now, like the economy is just all over the place and it's just not. like sustainable for a lot of families. Like, I mean, we experienced it. I posted earlier this year that we had to drop like $3,000 on my son's medication. Um, like it's not sustainable for a lot of families, but I also know that like kids shouldn't have to suffer because of that. So the accessibility sale is the goal of being able to give kids like learning materials, even if the economy is going crazy. And it's like, you know, A lot of business entrepreneur people would probably disagree with me on this, but I subscribe to the theory that if you take care of your customers, they'll stay and we'll grow with them and grow. Like, even though the kids will grow, we'll grow with them.

• Speaker #1

  I'm with you in that mindset. I'm a therapist in private practice. Some people know that about me. I set my hours around family. Uh, my work schedule is that I. work during school hours. And I work with a lot of kids, which is really hard to be a therapist for kids when you only work during school. So I work with a lot of families, things like that, but it's my, my, that's my value is to show up for my own children. Uh, sort of first and foremost. So I can, I can relate to a lot of that, uh, for sure. And just how we, uh, how we prioritize. Um,

• Speaker #0

  so that's hard. I mean, we are very fortunate that we have built things the way that we have, that we can do this because Prior to Solibo, I mean, my husband was traveling for work a lot and our family was like just struggling. And it's like, I think back to when I was a kid and I spent most of my time with my neighbors. My parents were at work, even on the weekends, they might've been working, like they did what they needed to do to provide for us, but I had wished it would have been different. And, you know, I don't fault them by any means because, you know, it is what it is. But I just knew that, especially with the stuff going on with my kids, like medical wise, like I wanted to be there. And I didn't want I just didn't want them to be with anybody else because I knew that both me and Daniel could provide the quality of care that they need.

• Speaker #1

  Hats off to you. A lot of respect for what you are doing, what y'all are doing. I think that's that is wonderful. I want to start wrapping up here. But for people who've heard you sharing and they want to learn more about you or your company, the toys, your products, will you tell listeners how can they find you and learn more?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. So the main place that you'll find me specifically is on Instagram at Solobo Toys, S-O-L-O-B-O-T-O-Y-S. And on our website, we are sometimes on TikTok and sometimes on Facebook, but most of our community of people is on

• Speaker #1

  Instagram. Awesome. Courtney, thank you so much for being here sharing with me today. Personally, I'm always so grateful anytime somebody shares with me and with listeners. So thank you.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, thank you for having me.

• Speaker #1

  Thanks for listening to Neurodivergent Spot. Real quick before you go, I really do hope you'll check out Solibo Toys. Clearly, this is a company who's doing things really well. I use some of the products regularly in my office, and their Embrace All Emotions hoodie is my favorite. As Courtney said, these toys embrace the simplicity of play, and that's really a beautiful thing. If you're interested, there's a link in the show notes, and you can use SAM10 for 10% off your order. Also, if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you'll subscribe and share. Remember, if you're looking for a speaker or trainer, reach out. See how we can work together. You can find me on Instagram at NeuroDivergentSpot. From there, you can find all my other places online.