Why you can't build your business alone

Welcome to the Differently Aligned podcast for neurodivergent business owners. I'm Adina Levy. I'm an Autistic AuDHDer, business coach, speech therapist, AI fiend, and I run Differently Aligned Business Coaching, and my other business, Play Learn Chat, where I wear my speech therapist and professional educator hat. I support neurodivergent business owners like you, whose businesses have grown into a fabulous, sometimes overwhelming, tangled mess that doesn't quite fit what you need.

I guide, teach, coach, and build alongside you, using AI, automations, systematising things to help you untangle your strategy, your business alignment, and your operations. I'm obsessed with helping you make your business finally work better for you. Everyone is welcome here, no matter your neurotype, your gender, your race, your size, your orientation, and all the other identities that make you you. This podcast is recorded on the Aboriginal lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people the traditional custodians of the lands on which I live, work, and play.

I acknowledge any First Nations people listening in. Last week I almost didn't exercise, and then somebody was watching me and telling me that I needed to because I'd said I would. And that person was one of the members of my Neurodivergent Business Collective. We were in a body double session.

If you don't know what that is, it's basically a period of time where you're with somebody, or like in inverted commas we do this in the collective, we do this online on Zoom, and you're kind of present with each other in a way while you make a commitment to do the thing that you need to do, whether it's boring work or big work or folding the washing or exercising. You make the commitment to the group. You then go off and you all do your own things and you meet back again and check in.

Now, in the first hour of the body doubling, I had said that my intention today was to go for a walk. In fact, it was a commitment, not an intention. I've been discovering very much that physical movement helps my mental health and my physical health, so that's cool. That's a nice thing to know.

And at that one-hour mark, we checked in and my members were working on all different things. Some were working on onboarding other people into their business. Some were working on client session Some were working on doing some research that they'd been meaning to do. All different things.

And at the one-hour point, my member said to me, "Did you go for your walk?" And I looked outside, having not gone for my walk, and it was bucketing down with rain. And I said no. No, I have not gone for my walk, and I don't feel like going for a walk, but I am gonna go on my Peloton bike that sits getting a little bit dusty in my garage."

I got it in COVID times when it wasn't very safe to go to a gym anymore, and I do love it. I honestly love it, but I don't use it enough. So here's me calling myself out. That accountability to you, podcast listeners.

Maybe I'll hop on soon and tell you that I'm using it very regularly. Wouldn't that be cool? So the fact that my member asked me had I gone for my walk caused me to make that commitment, and as soon as we went back into work mode, I went, got changed, went to the garage, hopped on my bike, and I did my 20 minutes ride, and I felt awesome. Oh my gosh, it's only 20 minutes, and it makes such an impact.

Body and brain happy. Good. I came back, finished the body double session. Everyone was, sitting there on Zoom doing their own thing, and then we met back it's incredible to me to feel the result myself of the sessions that I created, host, and run.

The whole point here of what I'm trying to share is that sense of knowing what you wanna do, knowing something that you wanna be doing or you should be doing, and feeling the difference between having the intention and actually getting that thing done. Having community around you, whether it's physically in your space or whether it's community who is checking in with you online, oh my gosh, it makes all the difference You can't do business alone. You can't do life alone. You don't need to, and you don't have to figure it all out yourself.

You don't have to motivate yourself. It is such a beautiful thing to have these moments of connection with people in the community, people who understand you, people who celebrate you for having a shower that day or remembering to eat lunch, people who get excited when you ticked a thing off your list. It's such a joy, and it is so, so, so immeasurably helpful. So what I wanted to share today was this idea understanding that you don't have to, and you really can't do business alone.

I know that many of you listening are either solo business owners in your own business with a whole one person being you, and some of you have small teams, and wherever you are in business, you're the boss, and that can feel lonely. Even if you are with a team, you're still there in a different role, and it can feel very lonely. You might find that you have recreated things that you just know have already been done 20,000 times before by other people. Maybe it's thinking through your new cancellation policy.

Maybe it's thinking about how create a clear structure for managing your wait list. Maybe it's thinking through the steps, the automated and the human steps, how somebody goes from being interested in your business to inquiring to becoming a client or a customer Maybe it's about putting those pieces into place, those automations, those AI tools, those connections that help your system that you dreamed up actually exist. You don't have to do it all yourself because that is so much.

This is coming from somebody who's pretty much done it all herself. I have a stubbornness where I like to create things from scratch, and every time I have pushed against that and gone to somebody else's way and then learned that or taken that or emulated that or used the template or had somebody guide me through that thing that they've already learned or created or understood themselves, every time I've done that, I've thanked myself profusely for that effort, that, pushing against my own natural tendency of I'll just do it myself.

I sound here like my two-and-eight-month kid who loves to do everything herself. Anyway, you don't have to do it all yourself, and while it can be really fun to learn and master new things if that's the way that your brain ticks, it's also incredibly exhausting. Learning to run a business, especially if you come from a non-business background, a clinical background, or a creative background. There are so many pieces to put together to build a business and to build a business that makes sense for you, to build a business that runs smoothly, to build one that is systematized, that uses AI in the ways that are most current but also most useful for you, for where your brain lives, for how you tick None of that is easy.

It is a many pronged octopus tentacle situation. And what I love to do personally is make that a lot easier for people. That is why I created the Neurodivergent Business Collective, and it's had a metamorphosis. It's had a few over the years.

It's been running for, I think, two and a half years almost, and the new iteration is something I am just so proud and excited for. It is the group coaching version of the Neurodivergent Business Collective. I am gonna spend more time with you, the members, . And we're all gonna spend more time together collectively, both in live coaching, in, like, teaching and training, which is also recorded, and in the coaching piece, the connection, the let's build it together, the asking questions in the moment about things that are very specific to your business and your systems and your processes, where I can be there helping you create and build right there with you.

I love doing coaching. I love group coaching. and what I'm now doing is bringing the group coaching into the Neurodivergent Business Collective in a much more intentional way. So each month, we're going to have a focus, and our focus right now in the next month is about building AI support for handling emails.

And now I just ran a webinar on Monday, and if you haven't already watched or listened, you can actually get it on the podcast feed. Well, it depends when you're listening. So look for it. It's a bonus episode.

It came out two days ago from when this one's coming out. It is only gonna be available to listen to until the 10th of June 2026. So if you can't find it, come to the next one. But there is a link in the show notes to my freebies page where you can go and find out what else have I got available if you're listening after the fact.

But I really want you to go and listen to the webinar From Inbox Chaos to Inbox Zero: The AI Method for Emails for Neurodivergent Business Owners. Now we're gonna keep going on that theme. That was the intro to how you can get AI supporting you in your inbox, and what I'm building with the members over the coming month is the pieces of that and actually getting that into action. So if you find that you have half-built things in your business you've got half an AI prompt that's gonna help you make your Instagram carousels, but you haven't quite finished it and it's not quite working for you.

Or you have a sense that AI should really be able to help you with your task and project management and, productivity areas of your business but you're just not really sure how to get that working for you Or you know that you should be following up with clients a little bit more frequently when they've shown an interest or they've had a little break from your service, but you haven't actually put that into place and you don't know what that would look like or you've been rebuilding your website for six months and you haven't got anywhere, and maybe you've actually paid someone a lot of money and haven't quite got great progress.

These are some of the things that are so challenging and so common for neurodivergent business owners. And you don't have to sit there and blame yourself or write it off and say, "I just can't do it. I can't get it done." There are ways for support, and the biggest way that I can support folks like you is through the Neurodivergent Business Collective with our group coaching, with our Slack chat, with our body double sessions, where I can encourage you to get on your bike if that's what you need, or I can cheer you on as you complete the slides outline for your next presentation Where you can ask the questions of, other business owners, including myself and the rest of the community.

Things that we've all done before, like, " I'm wondering about changing my payment policy to this. What do we all think?" Or, "How could I do it better?" Whatever you need help with in your business, there are ways that we can support you.

And I am so excited to welcome you into the Neurodivergent Business Collective. The doors for the premium level that includes the group coaching is open right now until the 10th of June, 2026. If you're listening at a different time, please do check the link in the show notes and you'll see what is available at that time. But if you are the kind of business owner who is thinking, "This hasn't been working.

I need help and guidance. I need, let's say, a little bit of hand-holding to get to that next level, to fix the business systems, the business processes, to put AI into action in my business in the way that actually makes sense to me, then I really encourage you to check out the Neurodivergent Business Collective because you don't need to do it alone, and the community's awesome, and we're there for you. Go check the link in the show notes and If you have questions about it, please let me know, and I can't wait to welcome you into the community Come and find me on Instagram.

I am @differently.aligned, and all the links you need are in the show notes. Thank you for being here, and thank you for looking after yourself and your brain and looking for your path to a more aligned business. Have a fabulous day.