We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patty Laushman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Patty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In 2022, I was working as a solo sales development consultant, and I decided that I needed a career change. I considered becoming a mental health therapist specializing in autism because when my family needed this kind of help, we had trouble finding it. Then I discovered autism life coaching as a field and thought it would be an even better fit for my personality.

In July 2022, I flew out to Boston for a week of training with AANE because they had the most mature autism life coaching program and training I could find. It was helpful, but most importantly, I discovered that everything I’d learned parenting and homeschooling my son was perfect preparation for coaching autistic adults.

I started doing autism life coaching, but then quickly discovered that parents of autistic adults were craving the information I had in my head, so I started parent coaching as well. By February 2023, I had a waitlist that was growing, so I knew I needed to figure out how to coach parents in a group format because I could only work with so many people one-on-one. Group coaching was as terrifying as public speaking for me, but I was determined to help as many families as I could.

In July 2023, I partnered with my mentor, Jaclyn Hunt, and she brought her team of highly skilled and experienced coaches to my organization. Having a solution for all the families looking for one-on-one coaching enabled me to focus on creating my Parenting for Independence group coaching program which launched in August 2023.

After that I looked for ways to get the information I was teaching into even more hands, and that’s when I started writing my book, and quickly thereafter, Jaclyn developed a program that helps autistic adults build relationships and create deeper emotional connections called Intimate Relationship Pathways, which launched in October 2025.

My book was published in November 2025, and our next big project will be launching a video and audio podcast, which will make the free content we’re producing more accessible to more people, and I’m really excited about this.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a life coach to neurodivergent adults and a parent coach to their parents. I’m an expert on the transition to adulthood for autistic emerging adults. I work with clients who want to build more self-directed, fulfilling lives. I came into this field the same way many people find their calling, through lived experience. I spent years parenting and homeschooling my multi-exceptional son. This gives me a lot of street cred, knowing firsthand how complex the transition to adulthood can be for autistic individuals and their families.

When we needed support, it was nearly impossible to find service providers who understood autism and honored neurodivergent ways of being. Eventually I realized that I could help fill that gap.
My focus with Thrive Autism Coaching is helping neurodivergent adults and their parents get unstuck so they can move forward with more clarity, confidence, and self-determination. Today our services include private coaching for neurodivergent adults and parents, group programs for both autistic adults and parents, and a growing library of free educational content.

Central to my work is teaching the SBN™ parenting framework that I developed which stands for Support, Boundaries, and Nudges. It helps parents shift from nagging and crisis management to a steady, strategic approach to fostering greater self-sufficiency in their emerging adults.

The goal of all my organization’s work is giving people information that is actionable and tools they can actually use to improve their quality of life. Autistic adults come to us wanting support with finding and keeping jobs, daily living skills, executive functioning, communication, relationships, sensory needs, or building a life that feels sustainable and aligned with who they are. Parents come to us because they want their adult children to thrive, but they also want to strengthen the relationship and communicate without power struggles. The problems we help solve are practical and emotional: increasing skills and self-sufficiency while decreasing stress, overwhelm, and conflict in the home while deepening relationships in the process.

One thing that sets us apart is that everything we do is grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm. We support autistic adults as the amazing whole human beings they are. We help parents shift away from old deficit-based approaches and toward strength-based collaboration with their emerging adults. Because so much of the transition to adulthood is confusing and isolating for families, we put an enormous emphasis on community in my group programs for parents. Jaclyn’s program for autistic adults is the same, with a heavy emphasis on creating a supportive community.

I’ve also built a substantial library of free content via my website so everyone can access helpful information without a barrier, and we’ll be adding audio and video content next year.

In November, I published my book, “Parenting for Independence: Overcoming Failure to Launch in Autistic Emerging Adults,” which pulls together much of what I teach in my group program plus more. My goal was to make this information accessible to anyone who needs it, not just the families who can work with us directly.

What I’m most proud of is that families tell me our work changes the atmosphere in their homes and heals their relationships with their adult children. Parents feel more supported and confident and much less stressed. Autistic adults feel more respected and empowered. And the skills they build together continue long after coaching ends.

If there’s one thing I want potential clients to know, it’s that there is a proven path forward. With the right support and the right strategies, autistic adults can build meaningful, self-directed lives—and parents can feel more connected, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful about the future.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

In the beginning, I was the only person publishing findable content in my field. Over time, I’ve published tons of free content that is actionable for my client base, and not only does that demonstrate that I know what I’m talking about, my belief is that when they see how good my free content is, they become more curious about how much better my paid content and services are. And they’d be right—it’s awesome!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I started writing about topics of interest to my client base in blog format and eventually learned how to really optimize the blog posts for search engines. The blog posts started attracting clients interested in our services, and once they find the website, I offer them a registration form for a free weekly newsletter that is packed with useful free and low-cost resources. Then, when they are ready to buy, they’ve had a chance to get to know, like, and trust my organization. Probably 90 percent of our revenue is generated this way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thriveautismcoaching.com/teen-and-adult-autism-life-skills-coaching
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autistcoach/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattylaushman/