In this solo episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast, host Angela Mondor (the "Geeky Girl") addresses neurodivergent entrepreneurs who feel forced to conform to neurotypical business models. She shares a personal story of following a rigid coaching program that didn’t suit her brain, leading to burnout, financial loss, and client attrition. From that experience she distills a framework for building a "brain‑friendly" business: first, audit the "shoulds" that drive misaligned actions; then anchor decisions in three core values—Alignment over hustle, Clarity over chaos, and Joy over obligation. She explains common neurodivergent pitfalls such as masking, hustle‑culture burnout, misalignment, hyper‑focus on the wrong projects, and shame about working differently. Practical steps include designing an ideal day, making small intentional adjustments, and outsourcing tasks that clash with personal rhythms. The episode concludes with a call to join her upcoming masterclass, "From Overwhelm to Aligned Action," which promises tools for creating an ideal day and a more aligned business. Listeners are invited to access show notes, join a Facebook community, and visit her website for further resources.
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Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're gonna be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor. I am also known as the Geeky Girl. Today, I wanna talk to you about how you can create a business that fits your brain, not the other way around. I know you've probably spent a lot of time already with your business and figuring it out. And if you are following the neurotypical way of getting a business going, you're probably extremely frustrated. So let's talk about creating that business that supports your neurodivergent brain instead of forcing yourself to fit that traditional mold. So many neurodivergent entrepreneurs unintentionally build businesses around what they think they should, here goes the air quotes again, be doing. And then that just leads to burnout, resentment, and a whole lot of overwhelm. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about what it means to build a business around your brain, and then why it matters, and how making some shifts towards joy and alignment and clarity is going to be really, really important moving forward for you, okay? So I have definitely found myself trying to do business the way I thought I quote unquote should do it. I had joined a business group and I had signed up to be in this group coaching program with this coach, and I didn't realize that their methodology was not stuff that was going to work for me. I couldn't clarify what was going on at first. I kept saying, this isn't working, and the answer kept being, well, if you don't do it my way, it's not going to work, and you have to do it my way. There's only one way to do it, was the answer. And it didn't feel right and I couldn't figure out why. It was like, well, these people are successful, she's able to make X amount of money, like it's working for this, so why is it not working for me? The answer was there's more than one way, but they only taught one way and I did not know enough to be able to say, how is this being taught or does this align, all of those things. So I ended up building a business that completely transformed what I was doing, first of all, It built something that I was very unhappy with, and it actually didn't work really well for me. Not only did I lose money, I lost time, I lost clients because of the switch of all the things that happened. So it was a great big nightmare for me to have to go through that. And it was because I trusted this person so Explicitly. They said, do it my way and you'll succeed. You have to do it my way. And I believed them. Now, here's what I know, okay? That now when I'm looking at getting support, I know what kind of support I'm looking for because I know what fits my brain. I know what kind of business is going to work really well for me. And so I need to find somebody to help me do that in my business. I need to find somebody who can give me direction that is going to work for my brain, not force me into some crazy box. that I'm uncomfortable with. Okay. So I've worked with clients before and I'm working with clients now to help them to find ways to build their businesses so that they love their businesses. And the number one thing we always talk about is there's more than one way to do it. I will, I can share with you the ways that I've done it. I can share the ways that other people have done it. I can share ways that I have seen Or that I've helped other people do it. But ultimately, you need to figure out what works best for you. And so that's my job, is to help you find out what works best for you and how can you get the resources you need to be able to make those things happen inside your business so that you can actually build a business that fits your brain, which is what this is all about. Okay? So as a neurodivergent human, there's a bunch of things that come up for us when it comes to trying to fit in or try to be part of this business world as we see it from the outside. Remember, everybody is showing you the Instagram view of what's going on. Nobody tells you about all the nightmares that happen underneath. Well, some people do, but generally speaking, everybody wants to show you the highlights, okay? So when we're looking at that, there's a lot of times when masking occurs for us or imitation. We're based on what others are doing, or maybe building businesses on what we think we should be doing, and that leads to us not feeling right. It just doesn't— it's like trying to stick a puzzle piece in the wrong hole. It just doesn't feel right for us, but we think we should— here we are, air quotes again— based on, oh, this other person's been doing it, much like my story earlier. Then there's burnout from hustle culture. I do not subscribe to hustle culture. I know that for some people that works really well for them. However, neurodivergent business owners typically can't hustle for long periods of time. we burn out and it's not cool. So instead of pushing through routines and offers and marketing strategies and things that don't align with your personal rhythms, it's important to figure out what does align with you. Now, it doesn't mean to say that I don't hustle in some parts of my business because I do. Certainly when we run our summit, I'm hustling. There's a lot going on. I'm putting out— there's a lot more work on the table on top of all the other things we normally do because the summit requires a lot of effort. So yes, we're hustling during that timeframe, but there's a beginning and an end. It's not forever. And I know that there's recovery time after that needs to be dealt with. So when you're thinking about that hustle culture and you're like, why am I burning out? Everybody else is doing it. Be careful because sometimes that hustle culture is actually laid with a huge team behind them. They are hustling, but they have a huge team to support them through that as well. So be very careful when you're looking at that hustle culture. So you can also be overwhelmed from misalignment. So if you think you have to do everything this way because this is the right way to do it, but you're still feeling stuck, maybe you're feeling exhausted or unmotivated, it's possible because the alignment isn't right. Maybe somebody says the only way to do this is for you to build an email list of 10,000 people and you need to email them 3 times a week and here's how you need to do this. Maybe Maybe you hate writing emails. That's gonna be a really sucky thing for you to do. There's more than one way to do it. There's another way you can— what is it that you need to do? What do you dig— need to dig out of that to learn a different way? Or how else can you learn it? Who else can you learn from? Okay. Hyperfocusing in the wrong direction, the squirreling. Sometimes you can go down these rabbit holes, right? If you pour a whole bunch of energy into something that isn't going to actually work and not taking time to really Review and revise. It's really important. If you feel like there's something that's going to work and you want to put some energy towards it, make sure that you have the ability to pull out and say, hey, how's it going? Okay? Decide which actions you want to take, decide which direction you want to go, and go ahead and take those directions. Go ahead and take those actions. Go ahead and make those moves. But also make sure that you have the ability to pull out of that hyperfocus and say, hey, how's it going? Is it working or is it not working? And how do I need to tweak it? Okay? Because you may go into something thinking it's really, really cool and then you get into it and you think, oh, this is not what I wanna do with my life. Example is I love speaking. I love public speaking. You literally, I could be in an arena and somebody pulls out in the last minute and somebody walks up and says, here's your 3 talking points, go. I'm in. I love it. I enjoy it. But I didn't realize until I got down a bit of a rabbit hole with it that that also meant that if I was going to do that, I required being on airplanes a lot and staying in hotels and not being home a bunch. Not my idea of a good time. I didn't realize that that was going to be the part that I didn't love. So I had to find other ways to do it. Here I am. I'm doing this instead. So just because you think something's really cool and there's a good directive doesn't mean to say that all of the pieces are going to align with you. So make sure that you have the ability to review. Okay? Now, there might also be some shame around working differently. So you might look at a friend or another business associate or somebody else's work and you think, hmm, something's not right with me because I'm not thriving in that conventional system. I can't do what they can do. Okay. Like, totally stop, reverse, rewind. There is nothing wrong with you, and you can choose to work differently than other people. Your success path might look a little different. It might be different in the way that you create your success, but you can be just as successful as anybody else as long as you're looking after yourself along the way. Really, really important. Okay, so I'm going to give you 3 things to think about. One, Audit your shoulds, okay? The air quote shoulds. What are you shoulding on? Look at your current business structure. What are you doing because somebody else said you have to do it? This is the only, this is the right way. Also think about making a list of your tasks and offers, the schedules, the habits. What's feeling heavy for you? What is misaligned? What do you need to change? And then ask yourself, what can I do differently? Or what would I do differently? How about this? What would I do differently if I trusted my own brain to lead the way? Massive. Okay? What would I do differently if I trusted my brain to lead the way? So I don't want you to go ahead and make a whole bunch of changes all at once. That is not the point of that exercise, but it definitely gives you some ideas on what can be changed. Okay? So anchor yourself in your core values. And when you're thinking about your core values, You can use these as guiding principles. Alignment over hustle. Does this align with what I'm trying to do or what I'm trying to become or what the business is trying to become over just trying to get a whole bunch of things done and burn out in hustle mode? Clarity over chaos. Instead of just trying to get a whole bunch of things done and you have a bunch of balls in the air and things are all running over the place, make sure you're really clear about what steps you're taking, what direction you're heading in, why you're doing the things you're doing. Being clear is that clarity that's really important. And then joy over obligation. Oh, there was one year my word of the year was joy. I literally found ways every day to bring more joy to my life, and it was so impactful for me to do that. But when you're filtering your things and you're looking at, oh, I have to, I have to, I have to, that's gonna put a lot of weight on you, okay? And that's not going to be anywhere in line with a business that fits your brain at all. So look for joy over obligation. I love doing this over I have to do this. Then you can filter decisions and strategies through those values that we talked about. And if it doesn't align, it doesn't belong. Or if it doesn't align, it needs to be outsourced. There's a few different ways that you can look at that as well. There's more than one way to look at those things. When you design your ideal day, then you can build from there. So think about how you want to feel. What does that flow of the day going to feel like for you? Start small, right? Restructure your calls or adjust your work hours or shift your offers. Start small. But you can do brain-friendly business things that start with an intentional change. That's what's important is being intentional in these changes and do them a little bit at a time. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You want to make sure that you build a business that looks the way that you want it to do. Don't build a business that looks like everybody else's. Because that's not going to fit for you. You get to create one. You get to— this is the point— you get to build a business that fits your brain, that fits the energy that you want it to have, and to bring you joy. You get to do that. And so I encourage you to do it. Take control. Allow your brain to guide you a little bit. It's much smarter than you're giving it credit for, let's be honest. Now, doors are now open for the masterclass, From Overwhelm to Aligned Action, and this is going to be the first step in finding your ideal day, and this is gonna help you to build your ideal business. So if you're interested, if you're thinking, ah, yes, I need some clarity, then I encourage you to grab your seat now. Instructions are gonna be in the call notes here on YouTube. It'll be down below in the description. But get in there and learn how you can actually build an amazing business for yourself in this masterclass. I'm gonna be giving away some really cool secrets and giving you some tips and tools to help you build an amazing business and being able to do it in such a way so that even the changes aren't gonna overwhelm you. I hope you have a fantastic week. I'll talk to you next week. Have a good one. Bye for now. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. And if you enjoyed this episode, Or you enjoy the podcast in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.
