Michael Goldberger is a 2024 MICC graduate and current Community program member.
MICC participant Michael Goldberger joined a recent episode of “Today’s Autistic Moment,” hosted by Philip King-Lowe! Highlighting that October is National Disability Employment Month, Michael shared his employment journey as an autistic business owner.
Here are a few highlights from Michael’s interview!
Philip: What does this topic as an Autistic business owner mean for Autistic Adults to be multi-dimensional? Start with telling us about who you are and what you do.
Michael: …What I do is I am a surplus business owner. So, what we do is we basically, we resell things. We resell items that are new could be rarely new, mostly opened up items or used items.
Philip: Did you have a special interest in surplus stuff? I mean, are you a collector or, you know, have you tended to collect stuff or spend a lot of time looking at surplus items?
Michael: It was not my first interest. At first, I originally was going to be marketing. Again, it was not my first interest. But what really got me interested was all the different like items that you I never seen before, like, for example, I was selling, like, fridge parts there. And the part about it is that you never know what item you’ll be selling. It’s all a mystery until you open up the package. And that really gained my interest.
Philip: Can you talk a little bit about what were some of your greater challenges to starting a business like this?
…So, I was on my own at first. I had other people around the warehouse, you know, ask questions and whatever, because I’m based out of my dad’s best friend’s warehouse, I had people to help with questions, one guy in particular. But it wasn’t easy at first. It was really hard and I mean, the challenging part was messaging customers, was really challenging. You don’t know how they’re going to be like I; I over thought it a lot. You know, I, what I’ve learned over time is it starts with hello and thank you, and then thank you at the end, keep, keep it short and simple, just short and easy. That’s, that’s all I have to say on that is, it’s short and easy.
Philip: Were there some things that Minnesota Independence College & Community did for you that really helped you get engaged in this activity, and how helpful has that that community been to what you’re doing today?
Michael:…I was doing hospitality, so they helped me a lot with my skills and patience. But I built up myself with surplus business. I, you know, I did. I learned communication really well in here, in the surplus business, really well, like my communication skills really built when I started the surplus business and went into that field. I give MICC credit for helping with my people skills…
Philip: So basically, Minnesota Independence College & Community gave you the basics of how to do what you’re doing now. You just built upon those skills that that community helped you begin to use.
Philip: One of the most important parts of being an Autistic business owner is our interdependence, which includes all of our other Autistic communities. Can you talk about how interdependence has played an important role in building your Autistic business?
Michael: Yeah, you know, I always give let my friends MICC too, and other people know about in the I also do Special Olympics, so they I’ve told people in that community as well about my business. And I think a few people have gotten it some stuff from me, because they like, like you said, yes, we’ve sold some blankets and we haven’t got any fidgets yet. That would be a cool experience to get some fidgets and, you know, see how it goes with that.
Listen to the full episode here.