Content warning: This episode has some swearing, and talks about shame, internalised ableism and online trolls.

Have you ever done all the things an entrepreneur does without feeling allowed to call yourself one? Same, friend. Same.

This week I’m joined by the wonderful Giarne Ashby. She’s an AuDHD occupational therapist, creator, resource maker and co-founder of an online community for ND folks, and she’s coming to us from Taribelang Bunda Country in the Bundaberg region of Queensland. We start with homemade earrings and clip-on glasses frames (dopamine dressing, obviously). Then we go deep into what it really means to bring your AuDHD brain to business.

Giarne shares how sensing the world differently means we see the world differently, and why that’s exactly what makes ND people natural innovators. We talk about bamboo as the perfect picture of AuDHD: structure and flexibility, strong but bendy. Yes, there were panda puns. No, we’re not sorry.

We also get real about the hard bits. There’s the shame that shows up when an idea doesn’t land and turns into “I am bad” instead of “that didn’t work”. There are trolls. And there are the hundreds of half-finished Canva files we both have. Giarne reads Teddy Roosevelt’s “man in the arena” quote (thank you, Brené Brown) and shares her whiteboard list of the five people whose opinions she actually listens to when shame gets loud.

We finish with a rapid round of this or that, where Giarne breaks the rules beautifully, and a big invitation for anyone who quietly suspects they might be one of us. Spoiler: you probably are.

Takeaways

• Entrepreneurship is about creating, innovating and sharing the unique way you see the world. You don’t need a finished product to have an entrepreneurial spirit.
• AuDHD brains thrive with bamboo energy: enough structure to hold us and enough flexibility to bend.
• Your workplace’s “shoulds” (looking at you, 8:30am starts) can hide your real strengths, like pattern spotting, problem solving and seeing big picture and small detail at once.
• Separate who you are from what you create. A product flopping is not a verdict on your worth.
• Pick your arena people. Write down the handful of people whose feedback counts, and let the peanut gallery stay in the stands.
• Online neurokin friendships are real friendships, and they can be your biggest cheerleaders.
• Unfinished ideas aren’t failures. They’re a library you get to dip in and out of.
• There’s no failure, only feedback. Then celebrate the wins, even the “I opened my emails today” ones.
• Just start.

Find Giarne: @giarneashby on Instagram, Giarne Ashby on Facebook, and at www.giarneashby.com.

CONTENT NOTE: This episode talks about trauma, sexual violence (including statistics), consent, dissociation, grief and death, bullying, and family and domestic violence. Please check in with yourself before and while you listen, and pause whenever you need to. This is general information, not therapy.

Season 2 is here! And what better way to kick it off than going all in, AuDHD style, with the wonderful Jemma Mathers.

Jemma is an AuDHD, twice exceptional, queer accredited mental health social worker and EMDR consultant, and a proud mum of two oodles (semi-retired therapy dogs). She owns Bloom Wellbeing, a neuroaffirming trauma therapy practice, plus Wilde Consulting and the brand new Bloom & Co Virtual Assistance. She also has a deep love of wedge-tailedeagles, which I fully support.

We talk about what actually counts as trauma, why “big T” and “little T” are really about what society thinks we’re allowed to grieve, and how a change of office pen can genuinely tip a neurodivergent nervous system over the edge. Jemma gives one of the clearest explanations of dissociation and plural systems I’ve ever heard, and the difference between dissociation and neurodivergent shutdown.

Then we go to the big stuff: sexual violence, delayed processing, losing our words when we’re overwhelmed, and why so many autistic women carry shame that was never theirs to carry.

In this episode:

• Why trauma is as diverse as the humans whoexperience it
• The problem with “match your reaction to thesize of the problem”
• Dissociation as a clever, adaptive survivalstrategy
• PTSD vs complex PTSD, and the role ofattachment wounds
• The core beliefs we soak in from a world notbuilt for us, and whether they still help us now
• Adapting trauma therapy (including EMDR andparts work) for AuDHD folk
• Consent, delayed processing and loss of verbalcommunication
• A “Jemma special”: could our hyperconnectedbrains explain why dissociation is so common for us?
• If trauma therapy hasn’t worked for youbefore, please hear this: maybe it wasn’t the right therapist at the right time. Try again.

Stick around for our first-ever “this or that” rapid round. Polyvagal theory or Polly Pocket theory? You’ll have to listen.

Find Jemma

Professionals: ⁠@wilde.consulting⁠or ⁠www.wildeconsulting.com.au⁠

Everyone else: ⁠@bloom.well.being⁠

Support: 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 | Lifeline 13 11 14

Connect with Bri

⁠⁠Website⁠⁠

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠

⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠

AuDHD IRL

⁠⁠Podcast⁠⁠

⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠

⁠⁠Contact me⁠⁠

Workbooks & Resources

⁠⁠Recovering Good Girls Workbook⁠⁠

⁠⁠Play Their Way Workbook⁠

Go gently, friends. Long shower optional but encouraged.

CONTENT NOTE: This episode covers workplace discrimination, burnout, chronic illness, eating disorders, weight stigma and a brief mention of past trauma. There’s also some swearing. Look after yourself while you listen. This is general information, not legal or psychological advice.

We started this one with a dance party, and honestly that set the tone.

Annie Crowe is Autistic and ADHD and was diagnosed at 28, after a decade in corporate law and the public service. She founded Eating Disorders Neurodiversity Australia (EDNA), hosted her own podcast, and now works with organisations that are ready to go deeper than “intro to neurodiversity.” Most importantly, she’s the human to Moose, a standard poodle who made a guest appearance.

We get into the invisible expectations that make workplaces so hard for us, like Friday drinks where skipping makes you “not a team player.” Annie talks about return-to-work processes meant to protect people that end up doing harm, and about her own experience of one that went badly. She also explains why she believes almost none of these barriers are our fault, even though so many of us blame ourselves.

Then we tackle the big question: to disclose or not to disclose?

In this episode:

• Neuronormativity and the unwritten rules of work
• Why reasonable adjustments and return to work plans so often go wrong
• Annie’s number one tip: document everything (spoken like a true lawyer)
• Testing the waters by sharing your preferences before you disclose
• The “vulnerability tax” of disclosing at work
• Why it’s okay to leave a job when you can’t keep fighting it
• “Default to yes”: what good leadership looks like
• Neuroneutrality, and why “superpower” and “I’m so sorry” can both miss the mark
• Self-employment is a privilege, and why workplace reform matters

Stay to the end for Annie’s takeaway. It’s the one I wish every neurodivergent worker could hear.

Plus our “this or that” round, where Annie’s PDA flatly refuses to choose. Millions of tabs or one at a time? You already know.

Find Annie

Instagram: @_anniecrowe (where she’s most herself, plus Moose)

LinkedIn (the corporate side).

Connect with Bri

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

AuDHD IRL

Podcast

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Contact me

Workbooks & Resources

Recovering Good Girls Workbook

Play Their Way Workbook

Remember - It’s not you. You’re not alone.