Giving Hope An Action Plan

In addition to running his four companies, Jay is proud to serve as the Senior Advisor for the Autism Can-Do Group, a Chicago-based organization. Jay's nephew was diagnosed with autism and in addition to doing what he could to help him, Jay was looking for other ways to leverage his entrepreneurial skills to help the autism community. Joining a non-profit board seemed like the natural route, but many were only interested in Jay's rolodex and check book - not his knowledge. Jay felt he could do more.

In 2011, Jay was reading Crain's Chicago Business and an article and video about David Geslak showcased his challenges with trying to build an exercise company - Exercise Connection - to help improve the lives of those with autism. Jay reached out to David to see if he could be of any help. David accepted. With Jay's bootstrapping knowledge, mentorship and tough love, Exercise Connection is now a globally recognized brand and David has built two other companies - ExerciseBuddy and Autism Workforce - that together, comprise the Autism Can-Do Group.

About the Autism Can-Do Group

David Geslak founded Exercise Connection in 2009 and was having success. In addition to helping many children and families locally he had spread his message in Egypt and Dubai, but he was struggling to scale and make an honest living. Jay recognized that David was only one person and to impact more lives, David would need to create additional revenue streams that would leverage his experience and expertise. David listened and began creating a Visual Exercise System - which was a gap in the market - and sold them to schools and professionals. He then found distributors to sell it.

In 2014, David created ExerciseBuddy (EB), an app and SaaS that has transformed exercise from a source of frustration and failure into an opportunity for success and confidence-building. This was unexpectedly embraced by universities because professors were looking for technology to prepare future physical education and special education teachers about teaching exercise. In the years that followed, EB was endorsed by 12 universities, was supported in five independent research studies and is now used by parents and professionals around the world. In 2018, EB won the Chicago Innovation Up-and-Comer Award, and David and Jay were invited to New York City to close the Nasdaq market.

To continue to spread the mission, in 2017 David established a partnership with the world's largest exercise science organization, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and created the fitness industry's first accredited Autism Exercise Specialist Certificate. This certificate prepares fitness professionals and autism professionals to successfully teach exercise to their children, students or clients. This partnership was a two year effort that Jay guided David on understanding, namely how to speak with C-Suite professionals and strategic decision-making. This certificate was ACSM's #2 most popular in 2019, is supported in research and has been adopted internationally.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for the autism community, while all the exercise efforts were happening, Jay wrote an article in The New York Times about David's experiences helping one of his exercise clients get a job. Jay found David's experience compelling and he understood the strengths those with autism could have in the workplace. The CEO of legendary Chicago suit manufacturer, Hart Schaffner Marx (HSM), took notice and called David after reading the article. He asked David to build an autism employment program at HSM and David accepted this challenge. Jay again helped David navigate HSM's C-Suite, managers and employees. The results? Seven individuals hired in four different departments, a cover story in the Chicago Tribune and two leading universities performing case-studies on the Autism Workforce model. Autism Workforce continues to partner with other companies to help them employ this loyal and dedicated workforce.

David and Jay aren't finished. There are still a lot more of those with autism and their families that need help. If you want to learn more or get involved, please get in touch.

Learn more about the Autism Can-Do Group here.