Building a business that works with your brain

Welcome to the Differently Aligned podcast for Neurodivergent business owners. I'm Adina Levy. I'm an Autistic ADHDer, business coach, speech therapist, professional educator and multiple business owner. I support Neurodivergent business owners to create businesses that are sustainable, enjoyable, impactful, profitable and burnout free.

I provide safe spaces for you to share with like-minded community who get it, me included. Everyone is welcome here. Whatever your neurotype, gender, race, any other intersections and special, fantastic, unique things that make you you, you are welcome here. This podcast is recorded on the Aboriginal lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people.

I acknowledge the traditional owners, elders past and present, and I extend my respect to any First Nations people who are listening in. Hi friends. Today on the podcast I'm sharing a chat where I was interviewed on another podcast. I had a fabulous chat with Cheri Strecker from the OTs Figuring It Out podcast, and she was happy for me to share it here too.

And I think you'll really enjoy this chat. OTs Figuring It Out podcast is for occupational therapists who are figuring out practice, business and life, not for those who've already got it figured out. It's fabulous, so go and listen in. The link is in the show notes.

Cheri and I talked about building a business that works with your brain. I was sharing a bunch of the ideas that I love to teach and talk about, like shedding the shoulds, the sunk cost fallacy, my no meetings before 11:00 AM rule, and the data that helps me say no to my own ideas. So as you can see, these things that I shared will be applicable to anyone who is a Neurodivergent business owner in any line of business. Whether you're an OT in Allied Health or whatever you do in business, these will apply.

There's a lot of mindset stuff that will help you figure out how to do business in a way that might be better for your brain. Ooh. One thing I will share, in the podcast recording you'll hear me promise a freebie, which is called the AI Admin Audit, and it exists, but I've actually just renamed it. It is now called The Drowning in Admin Quiz.

I had some real soul searching about the word audit. And while I love alliteration, AI Admin Audit sounded great, but also not great, because audit sounds scary and boring. So I've renamed it to quiz. The Drowning in Admin Quiz gives you a much better idea what it's all about and how it's going to help you.

So it's going to help you not drown, basically. And in 10 minutes, chatting with this custom AI chatbot that I've created will help you figure out what to fix first in your business admin. So the link is in the show notes. Go and grab that and, yeah, let's get into it.

Welcome to OTs Figuring It Out, a podcast where two occupational therapists chat about the messy, meaningful and sometimes hilarious parts of life. As OTs we're learning, growing and definitely still figuring it out. Welcome back to OTs Figuring It Out. Today I have a very special guest, Adina.

She is an AuDHD business coach, speech therapist, educator, multi business human. She does everything. She runs Differently Aligned Business Coaching and Play. Learn.

Chat. And she supports Neurodivergent and disabled business owners to build businesses differently so that it supports their brain's needs and joy. Adina believes business can be fun, profitable and actually work for you. And if something's not working, there's a way through it and it's time to experiment.

So welcome, Adina. Thank you. Thanks, Cheri, for having me here. This is great fun because we've hung out and chatted business for many years.

We have. Yes. Yes. And I've even been on your podcast as well.

You sure have. Yeah. So, tables have turned. It's really cool to be the guest.

You just tell me what to do. Yeah. But yeah, I thought today would be a nice chance to chat about that business side of things, because you have such a wealth of knowledge and have helped me since I've started doing my own business. And yeah, the things that I've learned from you has been incredible, and I thought, why not share that with a few more people?

Yay. It is a special interest of mine, as you well know. So anyone listening is going to get the vibe of that before our time is up. And so originally you're like a speech pathologist, and that was very much where you started out in that space, and it's really changed in the last, you know, four, five, six years.

So what made you change to that, I guess, more business specific side of things? So, it's story time. Let me take you back. Oh my gosh, what even year was it?

Over 15 years ago. Totally lose track of the actual years. You know, I graduated as a speech therapist and I worked in disability organisations, had some incredible mentors and bosses and experiences. And I also experienced working in, not even big, one was a very small organisation that had all heart and no organisation.

And the next one was, I'd say, medium to large size org. And it grew and it grew and the admin took over the actual caring and helping work that I had signed up. All I kept doing in both of those experiences, not all. I know I did various things like my job, but I kept seeing these, like, not just opportunities to kind of organise the business better and just do things better, but just a burning need to, like, fix it.

It was really, really tough to work in systems that I couldn't change, because it wasn't my system, and find these roadblocks to actually helping people. And there was a very clear turning point. One specific day, I think it was like end of financial year at the bigger organisation. All of us frontline staff, so all of, like, therapists, speechies, OTs, psychologists, educators, and so on, we were suddenly told we had to cancel all of our client sessions that day, couldn't do any visits, no support.

We had to spend the day driving around Sydney, finding all of our families that we were supporting and getting a signature on a piece of paper. Because somebody had forgotten somewhere to do it in time and our funding depended on it. Wow. That pissed me right off, because we literally were told, "Don't help people, go and get signatures."

And I just, you know, it was a collision of things that led to that, but it was a key turning point that made me go, "I need to do this myself. I can see a way to do it better, which means I can structure the business myself. I can then help people." And that made it really, really clear to me.

Like, I see the systems. I have a very systems brain and I love systems. I see it, and inefficiencies and, like, broken systems kind of rile me up. Yes.

And I think you and I are very alike in that way. Like, I also love creating systems. And you do, I have a systems thinking brain as well. Mm-hmm.

I think that's why you helping me with my business has worked so well, because we think alike. I, yeah. I mean, I love it. I'll just say, like, anytime we come up with an idea, you go, "Oh, great."

And you've run along with it and you've done it like 10 steps better than I even could envisage. So that's very cool. Yeah. And I love that.

Yeah. And so everyone does such cool things. Because I've just finished doing my group coaching with you, the AI Lab, and even seeing some of the other people in the group, what they come up with was really inspiring. It was, that's where it met my hope for the group.

And this is why I love doing groups, because I have a ton of ideas, but I have only one brain and I love learning from each other. Again, not a sentence. I love learning from other folks and, you know, seeing what do you come up with, or what's important, or what's, you know, where's the block? And most of all, I get such a, this is very selfish, I get such a thrill when I watch, like, clients giving each other ideas and helping each other out and making that connection.

That's so cool. Yeah. It's, maybe that's the heart of it. I just want to fix all the systems in the world.

Oh, and you know, there are some that shall not be named that we know need fixing. Ooh. We're not going to do that one today. No, we're not going down that road.

Yeah. I mean, look, that really is the, the system that shall not be named is like the pinnacle of how disastrous it can be when every part of the system loses sight of what it's actually there to do. We all became therapists for a reason. And I think there's some commonalities.

I'm not going to assume that everybody has the same reasons that I do, but there's some commonalities, I think, at heart. Most therapists want to help people. Absolutely. We are very empathetic and value connection.

Yes. I mean, so for me, I'm kind of skipping around a bit, but in what that looks like in my world now, my businesses, I've got my two businesses. So Differently Aligned Business Coaching I'm doing, I see it as an extension of the therapy version of me. Like, I help somebody find out what is challenging for them, and I help them find a solution that's going to help them improve.

I don't, like, throw a bandaid and go, "There you go. Same for everybody. Try this." You know, it's a real therapeutic approach.

I think, I hope that that comes through for you. It feels like the same thinking. Then when I'm in speech therapist mode or in professional educator mode and in that world, and when I'm wearing that hat, my business is Play. Learn.

Chat. And so now I do professional development. I've sort of done that zoom out, supporting the folks who support the kids. Yeah.

And again, that feels like the same. I feel like I'm doing the same thing in a good way. Like, those ways of thinking about people and learning, motivation, it's all the same, just different subject matter. And that's really fun.

And then an ADHD brain likes that I get to have different subject matter across my days. Well, absolutely. That kind of, like, leads on to, like, what I was going to ask next was, like, how does your neurodivergence, your brain type, shape how you run your day-to-day businesses and your systems and your boundaries, and how do you honour your energies? Yeah.

Look, I'll say first off, it's been a very long journey to get to where I am now. And I have to say that because I don't want anyone to think that you can or should change everything overnight. And maybe if you're in deep, deep burnout and, like, things are absolutely falling apart, maybe change things overnight is the correct move. For most people, I think step-by-step shifts towards something that is more aligned for you is probably the way, and what that's looked like for me.

So if I go back to, let's say, eight. Gosh, like, eight years ago, we're talking pre COVID times. For me, this was pre being a mum. Oh yeah.

That is a long, long time. Yeah, so I've got two little ones, but, like, one of them is seven and one is nearly three, so they're not very little anymore. At that time, I had what I thought was the dream. And I say the dream, imagine capital letters.

Like, the dream as a speech therapist was to have my own team and to have my office and to have the, like, you know, the amazing organised resource cupboard and the neatly filed Google Drive that everyone shared. And just like, like I had it, and there were moments and parts of it that were incredible, but also that was actually not my dream. I thought it was, but it was not the right dream for me, that version of my business world. I actually feel like I fell into it.

I don't know if that feels familiar, like I know that is not your business structure, but I'm sure you've seen it and maybe seen others feel that. Not the pressure, but, like, the expectation that that's the pathway. Yes. Like, it's a bit like there's the only one progression of what that looks like, and that is you end up being a director at a clinic with employees.

It's almost like a should, like, oh, you should want that. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of, like, OTs in a hospital.

Mm-hmm. How they've got the grades and the different responsibilities. Yes. But, like, private practice version.

Yeah. Somewhere along the way that has become the expectation of what you should be progressing towards. Yeah. Which actually truly means that dream is about becoming an HR manager.

You can't do therapy and run a business. I've been there, done it. I've seen other people do it, and it just doesn't work. You don't have enough hours and capacity for the human being to do it all.

Yeah. Yeah. I do see there are some people who manage it well, and that works for them, almost always by dropping their caseload big time. And that's great if it really works for you.

If you're listening and that's you, cool. But yeah, it's very unrealistic to assume you can keep your caseload and build a team and build a business and build the ongoing caseload and so on and so on. And so what that looked like for me was this, like, step-by-step shedding of the shoulds, the, like, oh, I thought I wanted that. It's not working for me.

And none of it came easy. Some of it was very expensive mistakes and learning. Some of it were things I couldn't have known ahead of time. I don't think anyone saw a pandemic coming and the effects that that would have, but if I'm very honest, which I will be here, the pandemic helped to cause the collision of inputs that helped me really see what I had to change.

Yes, yes. That's a really, I'm not saying I'm grateful for it. It was, like, not good or fun or anything, but all of the things that happened around that time. So 2019, 2020, 2021, I had a kid.

So she was about eight months old when COVID hit. Yeah. Okay. So I had a baby and that was a very, now I kind of see it with a bit more perspective.

I'll just say it, she was a very hard baby. Great, awesome kid. Yes. Very hard baby.

But I didn't know that. I just thought, this is baby. So I had that, was trying to keep the team running, trying to keep it profitable. Oof.

That was tricky. Then pandemic hit, I'm trying to, like, make all these big decisions with very little information and a lot of urgency. And I very much put the team first and I completely screwed myself. You know, in some way I sort of stand by that, but at the same time, I don't think I should have put myself so far last.

Even my needs, but also my financial needs as well. Look, I don't know the situation with OTs and hiring and such these days, but at least, oh, it's hard. Okay. Yeah, it's very hard.

I feel like the landscape is probably shifting in ways right now with, I mean, don't want to call it out, but Thriving Kids coming up and et cetera. But, yeah, we don't want to, you know, go down that scary horror rabbit hole on this conversation. But at least back then it was, and it probably still is, like, really hard to find speechies. There were just not enough for the roles that were out there.

I had two of my four kind of main active speechies resigned within a couple of weeks of each other, and it turned out to be the blessing I needed, that catastrophic collision of events. Yes. That made me just go, "I'm not doing that anymore." Yeah.

It's what I needed. I really needed the, like, big smack in the face. Yeah. It was the world telling you it's time to change course.

Yeah. And it was, it was the best thing ever. Yeah. So, you know, the result was I decided, with 10 weeks notice, to wrap up the team side of the business.

Yep. And go, I say back, but back's not really the right way. Only back in that I'd done it previously, but back to just me, not backwards in a move, because it was a forwards move. Yes.

My business was more profitable and my mental health was improved. Yes. Did you have a sense of grief, giving up that clinic and having that team? Huge.

Yeah. Look, so in business there's a term, well, it's not only a business term, but comes up a lot, is the sunk cost fallacy. Oh, I haven't heard of that. Which is really cool.

So fallacies are like the, the sort of the lies we tell ourselves. These, like, biased kind of thinking. And psychologically there's sort of kind of really good reasons why they exist, often. Quite protective.

Yeah. The sunk cost fallacy is like the bias towards holding onto something because you've already put in so much time, effort, money, energy into something. And then we maybe hold onto it too long. I feel like that pairs with grief in a way.

Like, kind of shedding that or recognising that. Well, yes, I'd put so much of all of those things, time, money, effort, reputation, all of that into that business model. The sunk cost fallacy would have me just stay and keep doing that at whatever cost. Stepping away from that and making the decision, it was so hard.

And for me a lot of it was around disappointing people or the perceived disappointing of people because we were like such people pleasers. Yeah. As Neurodivergent people, but also as therapists. We want to help, we want to be someone that supports you in whatever way, and you feel like you're letting them down.

Like, when things happen, even like taking sick leave, like you feel like you're letting them down, even if you're taking sick leave. That's a great example, because that's going to be familiar to, like, probably to everyone listening, that moment where you think, "Oh, maybe I'm a little borderline. I could, like, take the day for myself, look after myself, or I could just push through, turn up and not disappoint anyone." And that is the perfect example, actually, because I think the biggest message that I want people to hear is very often, I'm not saying it's all of us, but like you put it out, a lot of therapists want to help.

We have our heart invested in other people. Yes. Also, a lot of women put ourselves last. Also a lot of Neurodivergent people put ourselves last.

There's this kind of exacerbation of, like, we often are more likely to put our own needs way behind those of others. And that is what I want people to just not do. Yeah, just, just don't do that. Like, recognise that what you need, and even if you don't exactly know what you need, but even allow yourself to explore that and believe that's valuable and valid, that what you need is important and is not the last thing to be considered.

So taking the sick day example, if you feel a bit sick and you're worried about disappointing a client, but you know that by pushing through, you're going to make yourself feel worse. Don't do it. Take the sick day. Yes.

Like, rest. Yeah. And, like, that took me quite a long time to be okay with, to do that to myself first. Yeah.

All the time. Yeah. And what I've seen with other colleagues who are also Neurodivergent and myself is, being late diagnosed, we have a lot more compassion for ourselves and allow ourselves to have time off. And I know one of my good friends who's also an OT, she will cancel clients for the week if she has too much reports or other things to do good on her.

Oh, she's amazing at that. She, you know who you are. She's amazing at that, recognising where her time should be spent Yes. And what she has the capacity for.

And that's, like, a really hard thing to do. Because I also think as therapists and running clinics, it's all about the face-to-face appointments. That's the expected part. Yes.

Yes. And it's like, we should just be doing therapy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And we forget the part about, is that what is going to be most helpful right now for the client and for you as well as the therapist. Absolutely. And that is the, that's the trap. It's, that's the trap.

And I'm going to say as well though, Cheri, you also have always modelled to me really great boundaries. Like, you regularly throughout the year schedule weeks off. Not because you're travelling somewhere, but actually because it's going to be a week off and you have. Yeah.

Like, I've emulated that from you, so thank you. Yes. Yeah. So I tend to take a week, or I do a short week, in the middle of the school term.

Mm-hmm. And then a week off during school holidays, because I'm quiet anyway during school holidays. So I just shift everyone to one week. It kind of works out nice that way.

But yeah, that's usually what I do, because, so I don't burn out, essentially. It's proactively doing something. And honestly, I think just talking about these examples is maybe what people need to hear. Like, I'm happy to share a few more of my examples of, like, what may not be as expected in terms of the boundaries and the rules and the structures.

Because what I'm hoping is coming through to people is, like, everything is an option. Like, whatever you think is the expected path or, you know, the expected number of sessions or, okay. I mean, yes, your business needs to be profitable. Okay, cool.

Got that. But do you have to work nine to five, or do you have to work five days a week, or do you have to work 50 or 48 weeks a year, or even 52 weeks a year? And, like, you can make that structure, especially if you're the business owner, you can make that structure for yourself. Yes.

So one of my, actually we've done it today. I'm like, I'm looking at the time, one of my, I'll say near non-negotiables is nothing in the calendar. Like, no meetings before 11:00 AM. Yep.

Mine's 10:00 AM. Nice, nice. So we started at 11. An exception, for example, is last week, I did a recording with somebody who's in America for my upcoming Neurodiversity Affirming [Un]Conference.

And they are in such a different time zone that they were doing an evening call and I wanted to offer them something earlier because I didn't want them to have to go too late into their night. Yeah. So I went for 10:00 AM. Okay, that would be, I'm looking at my calendar, that's, like, the rarest thing.

Like, almost nothing. Our group coaching did start at 10:30 and I'm like, oh, I'm glad. Nothing else now. Like, all my regular things, it's 11:00 AM.

Yeah. Because I actually broke my own rule there. Yeah. Especially because that was, like, fortnightly routine.

Yeah. Which I didn't mind, I didn't mind. But I did feel it and I went every, every week. I was like, why did I pick that?

And I don't know, because I know that my 11:00 AM thing works for me. I'm a very slow starter to the day and I go to bed late. Like, I don't sleep very well and, you know, I'm not saying everyone else needs to have a rule about 11:00 AM. Again, this is an example of you can find your own path.

And the experiments piece that you mentioned in my bio is, like, that's how I view everything, really. Just, just try it out for a term or a few weeks and then go, "Oh, how did that feel? Yeah, that worked for me. Cool.

I'm going to do that." Or Exactly. Last year I tried out doing block therapy. Yes.

Termly block therapy to see if that worked. Yes. And then you don't know till you try things, to see what's doable, what's not doable. Yeah.

You know, you just don't know till you try. Yeah. And if it doesn't work, you can always go back to whatever you were doing beforehand or try another way. Yes.

And not set in stone. It has to be done like this. Exactly. So I think sharing that idea, maybe that's the core of it, that experimental mindset of, like, keep a possibility in mind of, like, oh, this can look a different way.

I guess the other piece of it is then we think, okay, what do therapists do? Therapists see clients. Energetically I have a very limited social battery, social capacity. I learnt that too late about myself.

But if I people all day long, like, but back, back when I was having five hours of clients a day, six hours of clients a day, and then trying to, like, meet with the team and so on, on top of that, I was just an absolute potato by the end of the day, regularly. Like, couldn't even talk to my husband, just, like, completely zapped. And the more I've understood about myself, and it was only about four years ago that I finally was diagnosed and understood that I'm Autistic, ADHD, I'd thought it for about a year before that.

But I like external validation. So I needed my wonderful psychologist to say yes, yes. And bestow upon me the awesome titles of AuDHD. And that was a day of celebration for me.

And through that process I learned even more to understand myself, my capacity, my preferences, and just keep those experiments going in that direction of what else could this look like? You know, just to throw a few possibilities out there for someone who's going, I can't see clients all week anymore. What else can I do? Like, everything's a possibility.

Like, Cheri, you might want to share some of the things you do, like podcasting is one, you know. Yeah. I have, like, several and things that I do, but there is so much out there. You know, groups.

Groups can be a tricky one, because I can see how a lot of people want to support those who have NDIS funding. Mm. But, like, I run groups, but the last couple that I've ran have been private. I've, yeah.

because NDIS isn't viable for running groups and, you know, it does work. It is a possibility and it can work. You know, I sell a lot of resources. All the wonderful things I make for my clients, I sell them.

Mm-hmm. Um, and you are going to put the link in the show notes to your own shop, right? I will. Yeah, I will.

And you know, I have another business that I've spoken about a lot on the podcast, which is Charge Your Mind. Yeah. So we have a book that we sell. So there's lots of things that we do.

And I've always got great ideas of, like, where I want to go, but reminding myself I am doing a lot now. Yes. Be a bit too ambitious sometimes, but yes, I've always thought about, I'd love to be a contractor for schools or kinders to support educators in that space. Yeah.

There's just so much space for OTs to branch out into. It's just getting the courage to do it. Yeah. And the possibility, you know, get those thoughts in your brain and go, ah, okay, well yeah, I do like speaking to a group of people.

Great. So what form can that take? Is it me turning up and speaking to a group of educators in person, or is it online, or is it, you know, rambling on Instagram reels and developing an audience that way and then figuring out how to turn that into money later? And I want you to get paid for your labour, like everyone, but also building an audience, if that's the thing you want to do, can be a great pathway too.

So there's no one way, you know, make a product and then find who to buy it, who can buy it. Sure. Maybe, like, but actually finding an audience, finding your way of sharing with an audience and, like, communicating to an audience and gathering people who are keen to, like, connect and learn from you. But your way doesn't have to be whatever, like, Instagram gurus say is the way.

Yes. That can be great. Because then you can start to gather, like, what are people asking? What are people interested in?

What do they want more of? Rather than spending a ton of time creating, I'm just going to make something up, but, like, creating an ebook that you think would be helpful, but actually nobody really asked for it or is going to pay for it. And then you spend so much time doing that thing and then it actually doesn't sell. It might sell, but I guess what I'm saying is maybe have a balance between, like, build something cool that you really want to, but also try and connect with people to find out along the way and share what you're building and just kind of gather that external input.

Through my many experiments, I've had absolute stellar things that have just, like, sold really well and completely surprised me, and I've had things that totally flopped and then I've gone, "Interesting." That's the, yeah, that's the experimenting. Yeah. Of finding what works or what doesn't work.

Yeah. It's kind of fun. It is exhausting. I exhaust myself and I try to recommend that people don't do as many things as I do.

That's me at the moment. I regret some of my decisions at the moment, but we can try. I'm in it now. Well, like, here's a real life moment.

I mean, you know, you didn't sign up to, like, have this fixed by me, and I just want to plant the seed of, like, even me and my next few weeks are very, very busy. And I'm even thinking, oh, next week, is there anything, even one thing, even one small thing, I can free up. I'm even going to literally say this to you too, right now. Why don't we both look at our calendars and literally go next week?

Is there one thing I can say no to or say later to? That is a very good thing. I'm going to have a look now. Let me have a look.

My next week isn't as chaotic as this week. This week was a bit horrendous. You know what I'm doing? I'm going to put in a question mark.

This is, I'm like, oh, I shouldn't need it. I should be fine. Question mark to putting my daughter into afterschool care an extra day next week. So it's not actually saying no, it's actually getting myself a bit more space.

Yes, I'm going to do that. And I'm, it's so funny. I teach this stuff and I'm watching myself go, oh, but I should be fine to manage, why I've got that support. She loves afterschool care, by the way, which I'm very grateful for.

So what are you doing? What are you doing with your calendar? What anxiousness? I, I'm actually going to, two of my days next week, I'm going to have early finishes.

Yes. And for any particular thing, or to just rest and have Cheri time? To just rest, because like I said, this week has been something mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

has been absolutely something. And yeah, I need, and I've just come off being really sick the last couple of weeks, so I feel like I just need to go back to the things that bring me joy. Really? Yes.

So I haven't had time to do my painting and, you know, even just taking the dog for a walk, I haven't had time to do that. So that's what I'm going to do next week, is I'm going to have a couple of days where I finish early Yay. so that I can have an afternoon where I can do what I want to do. So what we have just done is permission, and I hope that folks listening are literally going to take out their calendar right now.

I mean, look, if anyone's listening and doesn't feel at all overwhelmed or daunted by the, like, future busyness, great. Good for you. But if anyone is like, oh yeah, wow, I feel a little bit busy or hectic or stressed with what's coming up, literally look at your week ahead right now. Like, pause and do that.

And what can you do? Is there a boundary you can put in place like Cheri did? Getting more help, like I'm going to do, or saying no to something. Go do that right now and please tell us what you did.

I want to know, because you might inspire, inspire us. I actually did do that this week. I had one of my new grads ask me to review some report. They gave me, "Okay, this one's top priority."

I was like, great. I said, the other ones I'm not going to get to this week. Yeah. Good on you.

I let them, I'm like, I'm not doing that this week. It will have to be probably next week when I know I've got availability. So, not saying it straight away. I'm very much one that's like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that today.

Just out of habit. I think it's just an automatic response. I need to be like, let me see my calendar. Yes.

And I'll let you know when I can have it done or sent to you or whatever. I bet some of it, I don't know about you. I know for me some of it comes from, probably quite ADHD driven, like my absolute inability to perceive time and how long things take. And that's just by me.

Like, I actively time track my activities in work and I review it and none of it makes any sense when I go, oh, I spent an hour and a half on that particular activity. I go, what? I thought it was 10 minutes. I'm very much the same.

I've been tracking everything as well, so I know where I've been spending a lot more of my time. So I guess I can better give estimates to people when they request things as well. Yeah. So that's, like, a very specific tip thing.

Time tracking, and there is a lot of, like, easy apps. You found one that you've used that's quite simple. I use Clockify and I really, really enjoy using it. Like, free, but does what I need it to do on the free version.

Yeah. But it works really well for me and that's awesome. Like, well, I do a thing where I over-engineer and, like, hyper customise everything to myself, which you well know, Cheri. Yeah.

So I built myself a very specific system using Notion and, like, databases, and AI helping me, like, check my data, and basically it's complicated and it's awesome for me, and it is my system where I track my time, not just against tasks but every task that is related to a project and the end result. It's been a long time coming. It's about at six months I've done this, like, very, I'd say fairly accurate analysis of my time. This comes back to the, like, oh, I do too many things, because every idea I have feels urgent, important and exciting.

Yes. I've now got some really clear data that says, I worked on this project for this many hours, and that project brought me, well, joy, not joy, et cetera, but also that project brought me this many dollars, and I have this, like, I can't argue with it because these are facts. Yes. I now have a breakdown of these particular activities, took a lot of time and brought me no money, and then I then go, oh, like, very, you know, low per hour if you really average it.

That has helped me go, ah, okay, do less or none of that. Okay. Okay. I'll say this is, like, the next evolution.

This is quite recent that I've finally done this kind of analysis. Yes. Very thorough analysis. Very, and I needed a lot of data over a long time because I find it so hard to say no to myself.

Like, don't do that idea. But I burn myself out, like I do, and it's almost like my own personal, like, Achilles heel is ADHD brain gets so strong, so late at night, and just, like, wants to run on this new idea. And I, like, physically and emotionally exhaust myself from that. So I've been working really hard to shift it.

And hopefully, again, people are seeing this is an example of a therapeutic approach to business. Like, okay, I can see what is my challenge. I need to find a way to understand it better. And almost, like, smoosh into my head immutably, like, these are the facts.

Don't argue with them. I think it will help. Let's ask me again in six months. So yeah, I don't have it all figured out.

I actually, your podcast, it's called OTs Figuring It Out, isn't it? Because, yeah. We are always figuring out life on the journey. Yeah.

It's not called OTs Who Already Got It Figured Out. No, no. We're literally life, work, all the messy in-betweens. Yeah.

This is, like, a space where we're sharing what we're doing, what's helped, what hasn't helped. Examples, you know, struggles that I'm sure lots of people can relate to. I love it. I love the name of it, for good reason.

And I think, I just hope people are taking from this, that those thoughts around, like, permission to think about things in a different way. You don't have to do it the way that everyone always has done it. Check that the goals you have are really your own. Yes.

Learn about yourself. Find, you know, your own version of what that needs to look like. And if you are the boss and it's your business, that's awesome, because you've got all the opportunity to create it your way. And if you work for somebody else, then, you know, still see wherever you can influence things and try and make things shift even a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. In the direction you need. Because I was very fortunate to be able to play around with that when I was an employee.

Yeah. And that's how I worked out what works for me going into my business, what I want that to look like. Yes. So, but I know every business has their own different processes, structure, and they all run differently.

Yeah. And I guess that's where, as business owners, thinking about your employees mm-hmm. What are you, I guess, open to exploring with your employees to make it successful for them? Particularly if they are Neurodivergent and there's no reason that a workplace can't be pretty flexible.

Not no reason, like, you know, there have to be some boundaries and structures in place. Of course, yes. The work's got to get done. The people got to be helped and, you know, the money's got to come in.

Cool. Okay. But it's still about that questioning process. Like, what else could it look like if a staff member is like me, a very slow waking up person?

Could they have a schedule of, like, 11 to seven if that's what they want? Like, yeah. Maybe some clients would love that. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Before we wrap up, is there one thing that you want people to really take away from what we've chatted about today? Maybe let me have a think.

The one thing, can I ever get it down to one thing? Have you seen my new squishy, by the way? I think I've been hiding it. It's a good one.

Came from Aldi. Oh, that looks nice. I think it might be a rip off of the needle ones that everyone's trying to, like, get the hands, the nice cubes. Yeah.

Although, I don't know, maybe it's not quite as firm. I'm not sure. But it's a good one. That's what's keeping me regulated, I think.

I want people to know that there's many versions of, you don't have to do it alone. I probably tried to do it alone for way too long and have slowed my progress at various stages because I tried to just figure it out myself and sort of felt I couldn't ask someone for help, or I couldn't share with a friend or a colleague. Or, I mean, now we've got AI and I'm a big AI fan in many ways, but with various caveats, limits and so on. Like, you know, yeah.

That's a whole other chat. What? I'm not going to say, they're thinking buddy. They're thinking buddy.

Yeah. Yeah. So one of the ways that I know you use it, and that I use it and talk about using it, is as a version of, like, an external way to bounce ideas around. And you don't have, well, first off, don't go and trust everything AI tells you to do.

Yes. I want to say that's common sense, but it's not necessarily. Like, always go in with scepticism. Yes, absolutely.

But one of the ways that I use it best there, and again, talking to humans is awesome, but I'm often up at 1:00 AM, like, trying to start a whole new business venture. So sometimes I need to chat to AI because my humans are asleep. Getting sort of personas into your AI, like, give it some training on particular personas that kind of fill the gaps of who you are not by nature, or how you don't think by nature. I call it, like, my business advisory board.

So kind of gathering a little, like, board, this is, like, air quotes board, of archetypes. You could even emulate them on real people. One of my versions of it, I've got, like, a Richard Branson. I've got, like, some really, like, quite different from each other and different from me thinkers.

Rather than letting AI just have its default AI personality, but actually kind of feed it this, "Hey, I want you to kind of talk to me in this persona and that persona, and how would this person approach this problem," and try to get those different perspectives. That can be one of the best ways of, yeah, using it. Yeah, that sounds very fun. Hmm.

But also get a business coach. Hi. Join a community. I have a Neurodivergent Business Collective, which is my ongoing community.

And I just love it. And the people are awesome. It's morphed over the time, like, it's a little bunch of experiments really. And I go with what's working for me, what's working for members.

It's one of my ways of balancing, like, I love to help people, but I can't do it 20 hours a week. Yeah, yeah. It's still being connected without having to use too many of your social spoons. Yeah.

Yeah. And I'll say, for example, this week we had, I think it was the biggest group coaching attendance yet, which was really cool. So I had, oh, nice, it was seven people came for the live session and I loved it because I could just, like, pour into them and then to the connections with each other and all of that. And then I went, okay, that was seven people helped in that hour and a half, and others watched the recording and so on.

So that's pretty fun. That's pretty fun. Yeah. Awesome.

Well, I will link everything into the show notes for Adina and for myself. And I'd love to hear from other people. What's one little thing you're going to experiment with in the next couple of weeks? What's one thing you're going to try differently?

Please, please tell Cheri, tell me. I've got a freebie for your folks if they're listening. I'm curious. That's exciting.

Please tell more. So I'm going to laugh at myself here. I pretty much 90% built this in January 2026. It is now July 31st.

And the very honest truth is this thing is ready for people to use, but I haven't created the form yet for someone to sign up to get it. Yeah. Been there. Yeah.

I'm putting myself in a corner, because I'm saying right here on the podcast, by the time Cheri has this out, she's going to have the link to share with you, which means, amazing, I'm just going to finish that project. So what it is, it's the, there's AuDHD brain in action. It's my AI Admin Audit. It's a chatbot that I have, like, programmed and tested and had a few people, like, beta test it.

And I've had really cool feedback. It's like a 10 minute assessment that it talks you through for when you're going, oh my gosh, my business, like, admin stuff is a mess. I don't even know where to start. And it will help you with the where to start, the, like, what should be your next focus, including a prompt to help you then take that further with AI.

So it's kind of a way of helping you just distil that overwhelm that so many business owners get. So rather than think I got to fix it all immediately, or it's so overwhelming, I'm not going to do any fixing. Yes. Will help you get to the, like, what's actually important right now.

Love that. Awesome. Well, that will be in the show notes. It sure will be.

It will be, Adina. You've got that form will be ready. Get started. The chatbot's awesome.

She's been there waiting to chat for, like, six months. Yeah, she's just waiting. Waiting. Oh, I laugh at myself.

But thank you so much for having me on. This has been, like, lovely. I always, always love having a chat with you, Cheri. Yes, yes.

No, thank you so much for being my very first guest. Yay. As well. And yeah, everyone will hear from me again with, I've got a new guest in another couple of weeks.

Yeah. So I can't remember who, but stay tuned for that. And yeah, don't forget to answer my question about, before, what you're going to be doing, experimenting with, in the comments. Brilliant.

Thank you. Bye. See you. I hope you enjoyed listening to that.

Now, Cheri and I set each other homework in that chat, and I want to hand that to you as well. I would love for you to do this right now. Open your week's calendar and find one thing to either say no to, move it later, or ask for more help with. Then please get in touch and tell me what you did.

And remember, if your admin is a fabulous, overwhelming, tangled mess, go and head to the link in the show notes to do my free Drowning in Admin Quiz. AKA used to be called the AI Admin Audit. Same quiz, better name. Link's in the show notes.

Go and check it out and stop drowning. Thank you so much to Cheri for having me on and for letting me share this on the podcast. And please do go and check out the OTs Figuring It Out podcast and Cheri's practice, WonderGlow OT. I'll catch you on the next episode.

Thank you so, so much for listening. Get in touch with me on Instagram. You'll find me there, Differently Aligned. Have a beautiful day.